Coriolanus: Act 3, Scene 3 Translation

Enter Sicinius and Brutus.

BRUTUS
In this point charge him home, that he affects
Tyrannical power. If he evade us there,
Enforce him with his envy to the people,
And that the spoil got on the Antiates
Was ne’er distributed. 5

Enter an Aedile.

What, will he come?

AEDILE He’s coming.

BRUTUS How accompanied?

AEDILE
With old Menenius, and those senators
That always favored him. 10

SICINIUS Have you a catalogue
Of all the voices that we have procured,
Set down by th’ poll?

AEDILE I have. ’Tis ready.

SICINIUS
Have you collected them by tribes? 15

AEDILE I have.

SICINIUS
Assemble presently the people hither;
And when they hear me say “It shall be so
I’ th’ right and strength o’ th’ commons,” be it either
For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them 20
If I say “Fine,” cry “Fine,” if “Death,” cry “Death,”
Insisting on the old prerogative
And power i’ th’ truth o’ th’ cause.

AEDILE I shall inform them.

BRUTUS
And when such time they have begun to cry, 25
Let them not cease, but with a din confused
Enforce the present execution
Of what we chance to sentence.

AEDILE Very well.

SICINIUS
Make them be strong and ready for this hint 30
When we shall hap to give ’t them.

BRUTUS Go about it.

Aedile exits.

Put him to choler straight. He hath been used
Ever to conquer and to have his worth
Of contradiction. Being once chafed, he cannot 35
Be reined again to temperance; then he speaks
What’s in his heart, and that is there which looks
With us to break his neck.

Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, and Cominius, with
others (Senators).

SICINIUS Well, here he comes.

MENENIUS, aside to Coriolanus Calmly, I do beseech 40
you.

CORIOLANUS, aside to Menenius
Ay, as an hostler that for th’ poorest piece
Will bear the knave by th’ volume.—Th’ honored
gods
Keep Rome in safety and the chairs of justice 45
Supplied with worthy men! Plant love among ’s!
Throng our large temples with the shows of peace
And not our streets with war!

FIRST SENATOR Amen, amen.

MENENIUS A noble wish. 50

Enter the Aedile with the Plebeians.

SICINIUS Draw near, you people.

AEDILE
List to your tribunes. Audience! Peace, I say!

CORIOLANUS First, hear me speak.

BOTH TRIBUNES Well, say.—Peace, ho!

CORIOLANUS
Shall I be charged no further than this present? 55
Must all determine here?

SICINIUS I do demand
If you submit you to the people’s voices,
Allow their officers, and are content
To suffer lawful censure for such faults 60
As shall be proved upon you.

CORIOLANUS I am content.

MENENIUS
Lo, citizens, he says he is content.
The warlike service he has done, consider. Think
Upon the wounds his body bears, which show 65
Like graves i’ th’ holy churchyard.

CORIOLANUS Scratches with
briars,
Scars to move laughter only.

MENENIUS Consider further, 70
That when he speaks not like a citizen,
You find him like a soldier. Do not take
His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
But, as I say, such as become a soldier
Rather than envy you. 75

COMINIUS Well, well, no more.

CORIOLANUS What is the matter,
That, being passed for consul with full voice,
I am so dishonored that the very hour
You take it off again? 80

SICINIUS Answer to us.

CORIOLANUS Say then. ’Tis true, I ought so.

SICINIUS
We charge you that you have contrived to take
From Rome all seasoned office and to wind
Yourself into a power tyrannical, 85
For which you are a traitor to the people.

CORIOLANUS
How? Traitor?

MENENIUS Nay, temperately! Your promise.

CORIOLANUS
The fires i’ th’ lowest hell fold in the people!
Call me their traitor? Thou injurious tribune! 90
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
In thy hands clutched as many millions, in
Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say
“Thou liest” unto thee with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods. 95

SICINIUS Mark you this, people?

ALL PLEBEIANS To th’ rock, to th’ rock with him!

SICINIUS Peace!
We need not put new matter to his charge.
What you have seen him do and heard him speak, 100
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
Those whose great power must try him—even this,
So criminal and in such capital kind,
Deserves th’ extremest death. 105

BRUTUS But since he hath
Served well for Rome—

CORIOLANUS What do you prate of service?

BRUTUS I talk of that that know it.

CORIOLANUS You? 110

MENENIUS
Is this the promise that you made your mother?

COMINIUS Know, I pray you—

CORIOLANUS I’ll know no further.
Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger 115
But with a grain a day, I would not buy
Their mercy at the price of one fair word,
Nor check my courage for what they can give,
To have ’t with saying “Good morrow.”

SICINIUS For that he has, 120
As much as in him lies, from time to time
Envied against the people, seeking means
To pluck away their power, as now at last
Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers 125
That doth distribute it, in the name o’ th’ people
And in the power of us the Tribunes, we,
Even from this instant, banish him our city
In peril of precipitation
From off the rock Tarpeian, never more 130
To enter our Rome gates. I’ th’ people’s name,
I say it shall be so.

ALL PLEBEIANS
It shall be so, it shall be so! Let him away!
He’s banished, and it shall be so.

COMINIUS
Hear me, my masters and my common friends— 135

SICINIUS
He’s sentenced. No more hearing.

COMINIUS Let me speak.
I have been consul and can show for Rome
Her enemies’ marks upon me. I do love
My country’s good with a respect more tender, 140
More holy and profound, than mine own life,
My dear wife’s estimate, her womb’s increase,
And treasure of my loins. Then if I would
Speak that—

SICINIUS We know your drift. Speak what? 145

BRUTUS
There’s no more to be said, but he is banished
As enemy to the people and his country.
It shall be so.

ALL PLEBEIANS It shall be so, it shall be so!

CORIOLANUS
You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate 150
As reek o’ th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you!
And here remain with your uncertainty;
Let every feeble rumor shake your hearts; 155
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders, till at length
Your ignorance—which finds not till it feels,
Making but reservation of yourselves, 160
Still your own foes—deliver you
As most abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising
For you the city, thus I turn my back.
There is a world elsewhere. 165

Coriolanus, Cominius, with others (Senators) exit.

AEDILE
The people’s enemy is gone, is gone.

ALL PLEBEIANS
Our enemy is banished; he is gone. Hoo, hoo!
They all shout and throw up their caps.

SICINIUS
Go see him out at gates, and follow him,
As he hath followed you, with all despite.
Give him deserved vexation. Let a guard 170
Attend us through the city.

ALL PLEBEIANS
Come, come, let’s see him out at gates! Come!
The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come!

They exit.