William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (499 page)

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Authors: William Shakespeare

Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare

BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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VIRGILIA
and
VALERIA Nay, ’tis true.
VOLUMNIA Look, here’s a letter from him. The state hath another, his wife another, and I think there’s one at home for you.
MENENIUS I will make my very house reel tonight. A letter for me?
VIRGILIA Yes, certain, there’s a letter for you; I saw’t.
MENENIUS A letter for me? It gives me an estate of seven years’ health, in which time I will make a lip at the physician. The most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he not wounded? He was wont to come home wounded.
VIRGILIA O, no, no, no!
VOLUMNIA O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for’t!
MENENIUS So do I, too, if it be not too much. Brings a victory in his pocket, the wounds become him.
VOLUMNIA On’s brows, Menenius. He comes the third time home with the oaken garland.
MENENIUS Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly? 124
VOLUMNIA Titus Lartius writes they fought together, but Aufidius got off.
MENENIUS And ’twas time for him too, I’ll warrant him that. An he had stayed by him, I would not have been so fidiussed for all the chests in Corioles and the gold that’s in them. Is the senate possessed of this?
VOLUMNIA Good ladies, let’s go. Yes, yes, yes. The senate has letters from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole name of the war. He hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly.
VALERIA In truth, there’s wondrous things spoke of him.
MENENIUS Wondrous, ay, I warrant you; and not without his true purchasing.
VIRGILIA The gods grant them true.
VOLUMNIA True? Pooh-whoo!
MENENIUS True? I’ll be sworn they are true. Where is he wounded? (
To the tribunes
) God save your good worships. Martius is coming home. He has more cause to be proud. (
To Volumnia
) Where is he wounded?
VOLUMNIA I‘th’ shoulder and i’th’ left arm. There will be large cicatrices to show the people when he shall stand for his place. He received in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i’th’ body.
MENENIUS One i‘th’ neck and two i’th’ thigh—there’s nine that I know.
VOLUMNIA He had before this last expedition twenty-five wounds upon him.
MENENIUS Now it’s twenty-seven. Every gash was an enemy’s grave.
A shout and flourish
 
Hark, the trumpets.
VOLUMNIA These are the ushers of Martius. Before him he carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears. Death, that dark spirit, in’s nervy arm doth lie, Which being advanced, declines; and then men die.
Trumpets sound a sennet. Enter
⌈
in state
⌉
Cominius the general and Lartius, between them Coriolanus, crowned with an oaken garland, with captains and soldiers and a Herald
 
HERALD
Know, Rome, that all alone Martius did fight
Within Corioles’ gates, where he hath won 160
With fame a name to ‘Martius Caius’; these
In honour follows ‘Coriolanus’.
Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!
A flourish sounds
 
ALL
Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!
CORIOLANUS
No more of this, it does offend my heart.
Pray now, no more.
COMINIUS Look, sir, your mother.
CORIOLANUS (
to Volumnia
) O,
You have, I know, petitioned all the gods
For my prosperity!
He kneels
 
VOLUMNIA
Nay, my good soldier, up,
My gentle Martius, worthy Caius,
⌈
He rises
⌉
 
And, by deed-achieving honour newly named—
What is it?—’Coriolanus’ must I call thee?
But O, thy wife!
CORIOLANUS (
to Virgilia)
My gracious silence, hail.
Wouldst thou have laughed had I come coffined
home,
That weep’st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear,
Such eyes the widows in Corioles wear,
And mothers that lack sons.
MENENIUS
Now the gods crown thee!
⌈CORIOLANUS⌉
to Valeria
)
And live you yet? O my sweet lady, pardon.
VOLUMNIA
I know not where to turn. O, welcome home!
And welcome, general, and you’re welcome all!
MENENIUS
A hundred thousand welcomes! I could weep
And I could laugh, I am light and heavy. Welcome!
A curse begnaw at very root on’s heart
That is not glad to see thee. You are three
That Rome should dote on. Yet, by the faith of men,
We have some old crab-trees here at home that will not
Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors!
We call a nettle but a nettle, and
The faults of fools but folly.
COMINIUS Ever right.
CORIOLANUS Menenius, ever, ever.
HERALD
Give way there, and go on.
CORIOLANUS ⌈
to Volumnia and Virgilia
⌉
Your hand, and yours.
Ere in our own house I do shade my head
The good patricians must be visited,
From whom I have received not only greetings,
But with them change of honours.
VOLUMNIA I have lived
To see inherited my very wishes,
And the buildings of my fancy. Only
There’s one thing wanting, which I doubt not but
Our Rome will cast upon thee.
CORIOLANUS Know, good mother,
I had rather be their servant in my way
Than sway with them in theirs.
COMINIUS On, to the Capitol.
A flourish of cornetts. Exeunt in state, as before, all but Brutus and Sicinius, who come forward
 
BRUTUS
All tongues speak of him, and the blearèd sights
Are spectacled to see him. Your prattling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry
While she chats him; the kitchen malkin pins
Her richest lockram ‘bout her reechy neck,
Clamb’ring the walls to eye him. Stalls, bulks, windows
Are smothered up, leads filled and ridges horsed
With variable complexions, all agreeing
In earnestness to see him. Seld-shown flamens
Do press among the popular throngs, and puff
To win a vulgar station. Our veiled dames
Commit the war of white and damask in
Their nicely guarded cheeks to th’ wanton spoil
Of Phoebus’ burning kisses. Such a pother
As if that whatsoever god who leads him
Were slily crept into his human powers
And gave him graceful posture.
SICINIUS On the sudden
I warrant him consul.
BRUTUS Then our office may
During his power go sleep.
SICINIUS
He cannot temp’rately transport his honours
From where he should begin and end, but will
Lose those he hath won.
BRUTUS In that there’s comfort.
SICINIUS Doubt not
The commoners, for whom we stand, but they
Upon their ancient malice will forget
With the least cause these his new honours, which
That he will give them make I as little question
As he is proud to do’t.
BRUTUS I heard him swear,
Were he to stand for consul, never would he
Appear i’th’ market-place nor on him put
The napless vesture of humility,
Nor, showing, as the manner is, his wounds
To th’ people, beg their stinking breaths.
SICINIUS ’Tis right.
BRUTUS
It was his word
. O, he would miss it rather
Than carry it, but by the suit of the gentry to him,
And the desire of the nobles.
SICINIUS I wish no better
Than have him hold that purpose, and to put it
In execution.
BRUTUS ’Tis most like he will.
SICINIUS
It shall be to him then, as our good wills,
A sure destruction.
BRUTUS So it must fall out
To him, or our authority’s for an end.
We must suggest the people in what hatred
He still hath held them; that to’s power he would
Have made them mules, silenced their pleaders,
And dispropertied their freedoms, holding them
In human action and capacity
Of no more soul nor fitness for the world
Than camels in their war, who have their provand
Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows
For sinking under them.
SICINIUS This, as you say, suggested
At some time when his soaring insolence
Shall touch the people—which time shall not want
If he be put upon’t, and that’s as easy
As to set dogs on sheep—will be his fire
To kindle their dry stubble, and their blaze
Shall darken him for ever.
Enter
a Messenger
 
BRUTUS What’s the matter?
MESSENGER
You are sent for to the Capitol. ’Tis thought
That Martius shall be consul. I have seen
The dumb men throng to see him, and the blind
To hear him speak. Matrons flung gloves,
Ladies and maids their scarves and handkerchiefs,
Upon him as he passed. The nobles bended
As to Jove’s statue, and the commons made
A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts.
I never saw the like.
BRUTUS Let’s to the Capitol,
And carry with us ears and eyes for th’ time,
But hearts for the event.
SICINIUS Have with you.
Exeunt
2.2
Enter two Officers, to lay cushions, as it were in the Capitol
 
FIRST OFFICER Come, come, they are almost here. How many stand for consulships?
SECOND OFFICER Three, they say, but ’tis thought of everyone Coriolanus will carry it.
FIRST OFFICER That’s a brave fellow, but he’s vengeance proud and loves not the common people.
SECOND OFFICER Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them; and there be many that they have loved they know not wherefore, so that if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground. Therefore for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition, and out of his noble carelessness lets them plainly see’t.
FIRST OFFICER If he did not care whether he had their love or no he waved indifferently ’twixt doing them neither good nor harm; but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him, and leaves nothing undone that may fully discover him their opposite. Now to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he dislikes, to flatter them for their love.
SECOND OFFICER He hath deserved worthily of his country, and his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, without any further deed to have them at all into their estimation and report. But he hath so planted his honours in their eyes and his actions in their hearts that for their tongues to be silent and not confess so much were a kind of ingrateful injury. To report otherwise were a malice that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it.
FIRST OFFICER No more of him. He’s a worthy man. Make way, they are coming.
A sennet. Enter the Patricians, and Sicinius and Brutus, the tribunes of the people, lictors before them; Coriolanus, Menenius, Cominius the consul.
⌈
The Patricians take their places and sit.
⌉
Sicinius and Brutus take their places by themselves. Coriolanus stands
 
MENENIUS
Having determined of the Volsces, and
To send for Titus Lartius, it remains
As the main point of this our after-meeting
To gratify his noble service that
Hath thus stood for his country. Therefore please
you,
Most reverend and grave elders, to desire
The present consul and last general
In our well-found successes to report
A little of that worthy work performed
By Martius Caius Coriolanus, whom
We met here both to thank and to remember
With honours like himself.
⌈
Coriolanus sits
⌉
 
FIRST SENATOR Speak, good Cominius.
Leave nothing out for length, and make us think
Rather our state’s defective for requital
Than we to stretch it out.
(
To the tribunes
) Masters o’th’ people,
We do request your kindest ears and, after,
Your loving motion toward the common body
To yield what passes here.

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