SICINIUS

Help, ye citizens!

Enter a rabble of Plebeians, with the Aediles

MENENIUS

On both sides more respect.

SICINIUS

Here’s he

That would take from you all your power.

BRUTUS

Seize him, aediles.

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

Down with him, down with him!

SECOND SENATOR

Weapons, weapons, weapons!

They all bustle about Coriolanus

⌈CITIZENS and PATRICIANS⌉ ⌈in dispersed cries⌉

Tribunes! Patricians! Citizens! What ho!

Siciniusl Brutus! Coriolanusl Citizens!

⌈SOME CITIZENS and PATRICIANS⌉

Peace, peace, peace! Stay! Hold! Peace!

MENENIUS

What is about to be? I am out of breath.

Confusion’s near; I cannot speak. You tribunes

To th’ people, Coriolanus, patience!

Speak, good Sicinius.

SICINIUS

Hear me, people, peace.

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

Let’s hear our tribune! Peace! Speak, speak, speak!

SICINIUS

You are at point to lose your liberties.

Martius would have all from you—Martius

Whom late you have named for consul.

MENENIUS

Fie, fie, fie,

This is the way to kindle, not to quench.

⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR

To unbuild the city, and to lay all flat.

SICINIUS

What is the city but the people?

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

True,

The people are the city.

BRUTUS

By the consent of all

We were established the people’s magistrates.

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

You so remain.

MENENIUS

And so are like to do.

⌈CORIOLANUS⌉

That is the way to lay the city flat,

To bring the roof to the foundation,

And bury all which yet distinctly ranges

In heaps and piles of ruin.

SICINIUS

This deserves death.

BRUTUS

Or let us stand to our authority,

Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce,

Upon the part o’th’ people in whose power

We were elected theirs, Martius is worthy

Of present death.

SICINIUS

Therefore lay hold of him,

Bear him to th’ rock Tarpeian; and from thence

Into destruction cast him.

BRUTUS

Aediles, seize him.

ALL THE CITIZENS

Yield, Martius, yield.

MENENIUS

Hear me one word.

Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.

AEDILES Peace, peace!

MENENIUS (to the tribunes)

Be that you seem, truly your country’s friend,

And temp’rately proceed to what you would

Thus violently redress.

BRUTUS

Sir, those cold ways

That seem like prudent helps are very poisons

Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him,

And bear him to the rock.

Coriolanus draws his sword

CORIOLANUS

No, I’ll die here.

There’s some among you have beheld me fighting.

Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me.

MENENIUS

Down with that sword. Tribunes, withdraw a while.

BRUTUS

Lay hands upon him.

MENENIUS

Help Martius, help!

You that be noble, help him, young and old.

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉ Down with him, down with him!

In this mutiny the tribunes, the Aediles, and the people are beat in

MENENIUS (to Coriolanus)

Go get you to your house. Be gone, away!

All will be naught else.

SECOND SENATOR (to Coriolanus) Get you gone. ⌈CORIOLANUS⌉

Stand fast; we have as many friends as enemies.

MENENIUS

Shall it be put to that?

⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR The gods forbid!

(To Coriolanus) I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house.

Leave us to cure this cause.

MENENIUS For ’tis a sore upon us

You cannot tent yourself. Be gone, beseech you.

⌈COMINIUS⌉ Come, sir, along with us.

⌈CORIOLANUS⌉

I would they were barbarians, as they are,

Though in Rome littered; not Romans, as they are

not,

Though calved i‘th’ porch o’th’ Capitol.

⌈MENENIUS⌉ Be gone.

Put not your worthy rage into your tongue.

One time will owe another.

CORIOLANUS On fair ground

I could beat forty of them.

MENENIUS I could myself

Take up a brace o’th’ best of them, yea, the two

tribunes.

COMINIUS

But now ‘tis odds beyond arithmetic,

And manhood is called foolery when it stands

Against a falling fabric.

(To Coriolanus) Will you hence

Before the tag return, whose rage doth rend

Like interrupted waters, and o’erbear

What they are used to bear?

MENENIUS (to Coriolanus) Pray you be gone.

I’ll try whether my old wit be in request

With those that have but little. This must be patched

With cloth of any colour.

COMINIUS Nay, come away.

Exeunt Coriolanus and Cominius

A PATRICIAN This man has marred his fortune.

MENENIUS

His nature is too noble for the world.

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident

Or Jove for’s power to thunder. His heart’s his mouth.

What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent,

And, being angry, does forget that ever

He heard the name of death.

A noise within

Here’s goodly work.

A PATRICIAN

I would they were abed.

MENENIUS

I would they were in Tiber.

What the vengeance, could he not speak ’em fair?

Enter Brutus and Sicinius, with the rabble again

SICINIUS Where is this viper

That would depopulate the city and

Be every man himself?

MENENIUS

You worthy tribunes—

SICINIUS

He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock

With rigorous hands. He hath resisted law,

And therefore law shall scorn him further trial

Than the severity of the public power,

Which he so sets at naught.

FIRST CITIZEN

He shall well know

The noble tribunes are the people’s mouths,

And we their hands.

ALL ⌈THE CITIZENS⌉

He shall, sure on’t.

MENENIUS Sir, sir.

SICINIUS Peace!

MENENIUS

Do not cry havoc where you should but hunt

With modest warrant.

SICINIUS Sir, how comes’t that you

Have holp to make this rescue?

MENENIUS Hear me speak.

As I do know the consul’s worthiness,

So can I name his faults.

SICINIUS Consul? What consul?

MENENIUS The consul Coriolanus.