Harp on that still—but by our putting on;

And presently when you have drawn your number,

Repair to th’ Capitol.

⌈A CITIZEN⌉ We will so.

⌈ANOTHER CITIZEN⌉ Almost all

Repent in their election.

Exeunt Citizens

BRUTUS Let them go on.

This mutiny were better put in hazard

Than stay, past doubt, for greater.

If, as his nature is, he fall in rage

With their refusal, both observe and answer

The vantage of his anger.

SICINIUS To th’ Capitol, come.

We will be there before the stream o‘th’ people,

And this shall seem, as partly ’tis, their own,

Which we have goaded onward.

Exeunt

3.1 Cornetts. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, all the gentry; Cominius, Lartius, and other Senators

CORIOLANUS

Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?

LARTIUS

He had, my lord, and that it was which caused

Our swifter composition.

CORIOLANUS

So then the Volsces stand but as at first,

Ready when time shall prompt them to make raid

Upon’s again.

COMINIUS They are worn, lord consul, so

That we shall hardly in our ages see

Their banners wave again.

CORIOLANUS (to Lartius) Saw you Aufidius?

LARTIUS

On safeguard he came to me, and did curse

Against the Volsces for they had so vilely

Yielded the town. He is retired to Antium.

CORIOLANUS

Spoke he of me?

LARTIUS

He did, my lord.

CORIOLANUS

How? What?

LARTIUS

How often he had met you sword to sword;

That of all things upon the earth he hated

Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes

To hopeless restitution, so he might

Be called your vanquisher.

CORIOLANUS At Antium lives he?

LARTIUS At Antium.

CORIOLANUS

I wish I had a cause to seek him there,

To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home.

Enter Sicinius and Brutus

Behold, these are the tribunes of the people,

The tongues o’th’ common mouth. I do despise them,

For they do prank them in authority

Against all noble sufferance.

SICINIUS Pass no further.

CORIOLANUS Ha, what is that?

BRUTUS

It will be dangerous to go on. No further.

CORIOLANUS What makes this change?

MENENIUS The matter?

COMINIUS

Hath he not passed the noble and the common?

BRUTUS

Cominius, no.

CORIOLANUS Have I had children’s voices?

⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR

Tribunes, give way. He shall to th’ market-place.

BRUTUS

The people are incensed against him.

SICINIUS

Stop,

Or all will fall in broil.

CORIOLANUS Are these your herd?

Must these have voices, that can yield them now

And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your

offices?

You being their mouths, why rule you not their

teeth?

Have you not set them on?

MENENIUS

Be calm, be calm.

CORIOLANUS

It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot

To curb the will of the nobility.

Suffer’t, and live with such as cannot rule

Nor ever will be ruled.

BRUTUS

Call’t not a plot.

The people cry you mocked them, and of late

When corn was given them gratis, you repined,

Scandalled the suppliants for the people, called them

Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.

CORIOLANUS

Why, this was known before.

BRUTUS

Not to them all.

CORIOLANUS

Have you informed them sithence?

BRUTUS

How, I inform them?

⌈CORIOLANUS⌉

You are like to do such business.

BRUTUS Not unlike

Each way to better yours.

CORIOLANUS

Why then should I be consul? By yon clouds,

Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me

Your fellow tribune.

SICINIUS

You show too much of that

For which the people stir. If you will pass

To where you are bound, you must enquire your way,

Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit,

Or never be so noble as a consul,

Nor yoke with him for tribune.

MENENIUS

Let’s be calm.

COMINIUS

The people are abused, set on. This palt‘ring

Becomes not Rome, nor has Coriolanus

Deserved this so dishonoured rub, laid falsely

I’th’ plain way of his merit.

CORIOLANUS

Tell me of corn?

This was my speech, and I will speak’t again.

MENENIUS Not now, not now.

⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR Not in this heat, sir, now.

CORIOLANUS Now as I live,

I will. My nobler friends, I crave their pardons.

For the mutable rank-scented meinie,

Let them regard me, as I do not flatter,

And therein behold themselves. I say again,

In soothing them we nourish ’gainst our Senate

The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,

Which we ourselves have ploughed for, sowed, and

scattered

By mingling them with us, the honoured number

Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that

Which they have given to beggars.

MENENIUS

Well, no more.

⌈FIRST⌉ SENATOR

No more words, we beseech you.

CORIOLANUS How, no more?

As for my country I have shed my blood,

Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs

Coin words till their decay against those measles

Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought

The very way to catch them.

BRUTUS

You speak o’th’ people as if you were a god

To punish, not a man of their infirmity.

SICINIUS

’Twere well we let the people know’t.

MENENIUS

What, what, his choler?

CORIOLANUS

Choler? Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,