The Tragedy of Coriolanus: ACT V
Introduction ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV ACT V SCENE I. Rome. A public place. SCENE II. Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome. Two Sentinels on guard. SCENE III. The tent of Coriolanus. SCENE IV. Rome. A public place. SCENE V. The same. A street near the gate. SCENE VI. Antium. A public place. About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: SCENE I. Rome. A public place. Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and others MENENIUS       No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said       Which was sometime his general; who loved him       In a most dear particular. He call'd me father:       But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him; 5     A mile before his tent fall down, and knee       The way into his mercy: nay, if he coy'd       To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home. COMINIUS       He would not seem to know me. MENENIUS       Do you hear? COMINIUS 10    Yet one time he did call me by my name:       I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops       That we have bled together. Coriolanus       He would not answer to: forbad all names;       He was a kind of nothing, titleless, 15    Till he had forged himself a name o' the fire       Of burning Rome. MENENIUS       Why, so: you have made good work!       A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,       To make coals cheap,--a noble memory! COMINIUS 20    I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon       When it was less expected: he replied,       It was a bare petition of a state       To one whom they had punish'd. MENENIUS       Very well: 25    Could he say less? COMINIUS       I offer'd to awaken his regard       For's private friends: his answer to me was,       He could not stay to pick them in a pile       Of noisome musty chaff: he said 'twas folly, 30    For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt,       And still to nose the offence. MENENIUS       For one poor grain or two!       I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child,       And this brave fellow too, we are the grains: 35    You are the musty chaff; and you are smelt       Above the moon: we must be burnt for you. SICINIUS       Nay, pray, be patient: if you refuse your aid       In this so never-needed help, yet do not       Upbraid's with our distress. But, sure, if you 40    Would be your country's pleader, your good tongue,       More than the instant army we can make,       Might stop our countryman. MENENIUS       No, I'll not meddle. SICINIUS       Pray you, go to him. MENENIUS 45    What should I do? BRUTUS       Only make trial what your love can do       For Rome, towards Marcius. MENENIUS       Well, and say that Marcius       Return me, as Cominius is return'd, 50    Unheard; what then?       But as a discontented friend, grief-shot       With his unkindness? say't be so? SICINIUS       Yet your good will       must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure 55    As you intended well. MENENIUS       I'll undertake 't:       I think he'll hear me. Yet, to bite his lip       And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.       He was not taken well; he had not dined: 60    The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then       We pout upon the morning, are unapt       To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff'd       These and these conveyances of our blood       With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls 65    Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I'll watch him       Till he be dieted to my request,       And then I'll set upon him. BRUTUS       You know the very road into his kindness,       And cannot lose your way. MENENIUS 70    Good faith, I'll prove him,       Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge       Of my success. Exit COMINIUS       He'll never hear him. SICINIUS       Not? COMINIUS 75    I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye       Red as 'twould burn Rome; and his injury       The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before him;       'Twas very faintly he said 'Rise;' dismiss'd me       Thus, with his speechless hand: what he would do, 80    He sent in writing after me; what he would not,       Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions:       So that all hope is vain.       Unless his noble mother, and his wife;       Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him 85    For mercy to his country. Therefore, let's hence,       And with our fair entreaties haste them on. Exeunt Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene