TPTT The Tragedy of Coriolanus: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. Rome. A street.
SCENE II. A room in CORIOLANUS'S house.
SCENE III. The same. The Forum.
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE II. A room in CORIOLANUS'S house.
Enter CORIOLANUS with Patricians
CORIOLANUS
      Let them puff all about mine ears, present me
      Death on the wheel or at wild horses' heels,
      Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
      That the precipitation might down stretch
5     Below the beam of sight, yet will I still
      Be thus to them.
A Patrician
      You do the nobler.
CORIOLANUS
      I muse my mother
      Does not approve me further, who was wont
10    To call them woollen vassals, things created
      To buy and sell with groats, to show bare heads
      In congregations, to yawn, be still and wonder,
      When one but of my ordinance stood up
      To speak of peace or war.

Enter VOLUMNIA

15    I talk of you:
      Why did you wish me milder? would you have me
      False to my nature? Rather say I play
      The man I am.
VOLUMNIA
      O, sir, sir, sir,
20    I would have had you put your power well on,
      Before you had worn it out.
CORIOLANUS
      Let go.
VOLUMNIA
      You might have been enough the man you are,
      With striving less to be so; lesser had been
25    The thwartings of your dispositions, if
      You had not show'd them how ye were disposed
      Ere they lack'd power to cross you.
CORIOLANUS
      Let them hang.
A Patrician
      Ay, and burn too.
Enter MENENIUS and Senators
MENENIUS
30    Come, come, you have been too rough, something
      too rough;
      You must return and mend it.
First Senator
      There's no remedy;
      Unless, by not so doing, our good city
35    Cleave in the midst, and perish.
VOLUMNIA
      Pray, be counsell'd:
      I have a heart as little apt as yours,
      But yet a brain that leads my use of anger
      To better vantage.
MENENIUS
40    Well said, noble woman?
      Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that
      The violent fit o' the time craves it as physic
      For the whole state, I would put mine armour on,
      Which I can scarcely bear.
CORIOLANUS
45    What must I do?
MENENIUS
      Return to the tribunes.
CORIOLANUS
      Well, what then? what then?
MENENIUS
      Repent what you have spoke.
CORIOLANUS
      For them! I cannot do it to the gods;
50    Must I then do't to them?
VOLUMNIA
      You are too absolute;
      Though therein you can never be too noble,
      But when extremities speak. I have heard you say,
      Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,
55    I' the war do grow together: grant that, and tell me,
      In peace what each of them by the other lose,
      That they combine not there.
CORIOLANUS
      Tush, tush!
MENENIUS
      A good demand.
VOLUMNIA
60    If it be honour in your wars to seem
      The same you are not, which, for your best ends,
      You adopt your policy, how is it less or worse,
      That it shall hold companionship in peace
      With honour, as in war, since that to both
65    It stands in like request?
CORIOLANUS
      Why force you this?
VOLUMNIA
      Because that now it lies you on to speak
      To the people; not by your own instruction,
      Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you,
70    But with such words that are but rooted in
      Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables
      Of no allowance to your bosom's truth.
      Now, this no more dishonours you at all
      Than to take in a town with gentle words,
75    Which else would put you to your fortune and
      The hazard of much blood.
      I would dissemble with my nature where
      My fortunes and my friends at stake required
      I should do so in honour: I am in this,
80    Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
      And you will rather show our general louts
      How you can frown than spend a fawn upon 'em,
      For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard
      Of what that want might ruin.
MENENIUS
85    Noble lady!
      Come, go with us; speak fair: you may salve so,
      Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
      Of what is past.
VOLUMNIA
      I prithee now, my son,
90    Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;
      And thus far having stretch'd it--here be with them--
      Thy knee bussing the stones--for in such business
      Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
      More learned than the ears--waving thy head,
95    Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
      Now humble as the ripest mulberry
      That will not hold the handling: or say to them,
      Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils
      Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess,
100   Were fit for thee to use as they to claim,
      In asking their good loves, but thou wilt frame
      Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
      As thou hast power and person.
MENENIUS
      This but done,
105   Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours;
      For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free
      As words to little purpose.
VOLUMNIA
      Prithee now,
      Go, and be ruled: although I know thou hadst rather
110   Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf
      Than flatter him in a bower. Here is Cominius.
Enter COMINIUS
COMINIUS
      I have been i' the market-place; and, sir,'tis fit
      You make strong party, or defend yourself
      By calmness or by absence: all's in anger.
MENENIUS
115   Only fair speech.
COMINIUS
      I think 'twill serve, if he
      Can thereto frame his spirit.
VOLUMNIA
      He must, and will
      Prithee now, say you will, and go about it.
CORIOLANUS
120   Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce?
      Must I with base tongue give my noble heart
      A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
      Yet, were there but this single plot to lose,
      This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it
125   And throw't against the wind. To the market-place!
      You have put me now to such a part which never
      I shall discharge to the life.
COMINIUS
      Come, come, we'll prompt you.
VOLUMNIA
      I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said
130   My praises made thee first a soldier, so,
      To have my praise for this, perform a part
      Thou hast not done before.
CORIOLANUS
      Well, I must do't:
      Away, my disposition, and possess me
135   Some harlot's spirit! my throat of war be turn'd,
      Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
      Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
      That babies lulls asleep! the smiles of knaves
      Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys' tears take up
140   The glasses of my sight! a beggar's tongue
      Make motion through my lips, and my arm'd knees,
      Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
      That hath received an alms! I will not do't,
      Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth
145   And by my body's action teach my mind
      A most inherent baseness.
VOLUMNIA
      At thy choice, then:
      To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour
      Than thou of them. Come all to ruin; let
150   Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear
      Thy dangerous stoutness, for I mock at death
      With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list
      Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me,
      But owe thy pride thyself.
CORIOLANUS
155   Pray, be content:
      Mother, I am going to the market-place;
      Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves,
      Cog their hearts from them, and come home beloved
      Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going:
160   Commend me to my wife. I'll return consul;
      Or never trust to what my tongue can do
      I' the way of flattery further.
VOLUMNIA
      Do your will.
Exit
COMINIUS
      Away! the tribunes do attend you: arm yourself
165   To answer mildly; for they are prepared
      With accusations, as I hear, more strong
      Than are upon you yet.
CORIOLANUS
      The word is 'mildly.' Pray you, let us go:
      Let them accuse me by invention, I
170   Will answer in mine honour.
MENENIUS
      Ay, but mildly.
CORIOLANUS
      Well, mildly be it then. Mildly!
Exeunt
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