Coriolanus
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Enraged by the withholding of food, the common people of the Roman Republic are rebelling against the elite. In this battle between plebeians and patricians, Caius Marcius has little patience for those he considers beneath him and his family.
After his military victory in the city of Corioli, Marcius is given the nickname Coriolanus and enters the world of politics, fiercely loyal to the state. But his continuing contempt for ordinary citizens proves to be his downfall—for after he attempts to end the democratic institution of the tribunals, he is banished.
As Coriolanus seethes in exile, his thirst for revenge will soon threaten the very republic he once served, in this classic play based on historical events in the ancient world.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is the world's greatest ever playwright. Born in 1564, he split his time between Stratford-upon-Avon and London, where he worked as a playwright, poet and actor. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two, leaving three children—Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. The rest is silence.
Read more from William Shakespeare
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: All 214 Plays, Sonnets, Poems & Apocryphal Plays (Including the Biography of the Author): Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, The Tempest, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, The Comedy of Errors… Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare's First Folio Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Romeo & Juliet & Vampires Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Shakespeare's Love Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShakespeare in Autumn (Seasons Edition -- Fall): Select Plays and the Complete Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet: Bilingual Edition (English – Spanish) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Coriolanus
Related ebooks
Coriolanus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tragedy of Coriolanus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam Shakespeare's Coriolanus - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoriolanus In Plain and Simple English (A Modern Translation and the Original Version) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Coriolanus: "Nature teaches beasts to know their friends" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoriolanus, with line numbers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoriolanus: A Tragedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coriolanus (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Laws of Candy Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little French Lawyer: A Comedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spanish Curate: A Comedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam Shakespeare’s "Coriolanus": A Retelling in Prose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeaumont & Fletcher's Works (2 of 10) - the Humourous Lieutenant Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSir Thomas More Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVolpone and Seven Other Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Alchemist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Dozen Ballads About White Slavery: "Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Independent Statesmen, and Liberal Landlord or a respectful tribute to T. W. Coke, M.P. for the County of Norfolk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe False One: A Tragedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Alchemist: "To speak and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Unfortunate Traveller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Modern Traveller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCymbeline (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography: The Life of William Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTimon of Athens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCymbeline: Including "The Life of William Shakespeare" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History of Johnny Quæ Genus, the Little Foundling of the Late Doctor Syntax: A Poem by the Author of the Three Tours Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bankrupt; Or, Advice to the Insolvent: A Poem, addressed to a friend, with other pieces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White Devil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWit Without Money; A Comedy: The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
The Sisters Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Macbeth (new classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Importance of Being Earnest: A Play Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream, with line numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Strange Loop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Count Of Monte Cristo (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tempest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is This Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Agatha Christie Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Woman Is No Man: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Coriolanus
332 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I listened to this book on audio in preparation to see the performance. I wanted to familiarize myself with it since I didn't get into Shakespeare much in high school or after. If I had known that his plays were also gruesome and bloody, I would have been enjoying Shakespeare a long time ago.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I couldn't have followed this story if my life depended on it. Something about a talented warrior who has mama manipulating him on one side and his cohorts betraying him on the other. Who knows? Who cares? Definitely the weakest of all the Bard's works I've read thus far.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coriolanus is worth the read, but there's also a reason why you may be unfamiliar with it. Compared to, say, Julius Caesar, it's nothing. But don't let the Bard set the bar too high on himself.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Personal code of honor admits no compromises; Shakespeare's strong argument against republican government
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I have actually seen this as a play as well as read it, and either way, its INSANELY boring.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5[Coriolanus] by [[William Shakespeare]].While not the best of Shakespeare's tragedies, [Coriolanus] just may be the timeliest. Yes, it's a play about a soldier whose pride and love for his overbearing mother ultimately bring him down. But the driving force behind the plot is a pair of manipulating politicians who know how to spin things to their advantage and lead the fickle multitude by their noses. While the people are more villains that victims, one can't help but notice that some things never change; here's one of them on their current government:Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for usyet: suffer us to famish, and their store-housescrammed with grain; make edicts for usury, tosupport usurers; repeal daily any wholesome actestablished against the rich, and provide morepiercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrainthe poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; andthere's all the love they bear us.All one has to do to see the truth in that is take a look at the PA governor's proposed budget . . . or the federal budget, for that matter. It's Robin Hood in reverse: give to the rich and take from the poor.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The citizens of a republic run their greatest soldier out of town because they can't stand him and he can't stand them. As it happens, they can't live without each other - literally. This may be the greatest political drama written. It is also one of the great mother and son stories.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In most tragedies, and Shakespearan ones in particular, the force of the tragedic ending is based on the reader's (or audience's) sympathy with the principal character. We may not like him or her, but we feel close enough to them to suffer their loss. We've lamented in the storm with Lear, and contemplated with Hamlet. We can never really get to this place with Caius Martius Coriolanus (I'll use Martius to refer to the character, to avoid confusion with the title of the play).Martius is a Roman general of great reknown, whose tragic flaw is his contempt for the people of Rome. Led on by members of the Roman senate, the people turn on Martius, and he is cast from the city. When his mother leads a contingent to him, to ask him to lay down the arms he has raised against Rome, Martius prepares himself for their visit:"My wife comes foremost; then the honored mold Wherein this trunk was framed, and in her handThe grandchild to her blood. But out, affection!All bond and privilege of nature, break!Let it virtuous to be obstinate" (V.3, 22-25).This is a moving passage, and a rich one. Does Martius think that it is obstinate to be virtuous, because the obstinancy protects a virtue (namely his pride)? Or does he recognize that he has long since left virtue behind, and is pleading to retain virtue? Yet even here, where Martius tries to cast aside affection for his family and break the bonds he has with them, it is difficult for the reader to sympathize with Martius in the way we would with characters in other tragedies. He has not given us rich soliloquies, or even reflected on his course of action. What's more, his course of action seems clearly in the wrong. His pride against the people is contemptous, and when he is cast aside, he ends up electing to burn Rome to the ground. The way in which pride drives him to these actions, the way it drives him to atttempt to reject his bonds, is entirely opaque. The play is not weaker for it though. It is different from many of the tragedies, but no less moving and no less thought provoking. While I may not have felt the same sense of desolation that one feels at the end of Lear, this play is rewarding for the complexity of the character interactions, and the depth of the sub-text.Consider, for example, the role of the citizens of Rome. The play opens with their lodging a complaint with Martius, that he has prevented them from receiving available grain. This charge is unrefuted, and Martius instead replies that the people do not deserve it, for they have not served in the wars. They ultimately turn on Martius, and it seems that there is something prescient about this decision. While Martius was not guilty of some of the charges laid against him, his willingness to turn against Rome on the simple matter of his pride suggests a mercenary element of his character that the people have trussed out.At the same time, the people are led by tribunes who goad and manipulate them. Martius' failure is his inability to win the crowd over in this way. This portrayal is much harsher on the citizens. In these passages, they come across as animals waiting to be herded. This is like the image we get of the Roman citizens in Julius Caesar, where the people's emotions are so easily manipulated by Brutus and then Antony. We see elements of that here, but the people are much more complex. After banishing Martius, one citizen recalls "For mine own part, / when I said `Banish him,' I said 'twas pity." One might read this as the citizens simply turning coat again, as Martius' returns with an army. Yet, I suspect there is more to it than that. The citizens may be manipulable, but they recognize this fact. The citizens in Caesar show little indication that they recognize how Antony moves them at his will.This relation between Martius and the people drives the play. As noted above, Martius' downfall is due to his unwillingness and inability to placate the people. In one particularly moving passage, Martius' claims:"...I will not do'tLest I surcrease to honor mine own truthAnd by my body's action teach my mindA most inherent baseness" (III.2, 119-122).Martius, along Aristotelian lines, sees acting viciously as a way of training vicious character, and as he sees placating the people as a vice, he cannot bring himself to do it (or ultimately to do it well). On one hand, if we side with Martius, we see a populace refusing to understand and exalt the triumphs of the soldier. It is Martius who has spilled blood for the city, and the citizens who have benefited from his wounds refuse to honor them. For Martius, the conflict is clear. Yet, it is clear that Shakespeare does not want us to simply settle into Martius' point of view. Indeed, since we understand him so poorly, it is very difficult to do so. What's more, after being thrown from the city, Martius' ultimately elects to burn Rome. Civilian control over the military here seems essential. While they may have been led around by the tribunes, the people have rightly removed a highly dangerous individual, whose loyalty to Rome seems to be rooted more in his own pride at being a soldier than love for the virtues of the city or its society.Shakespeare remains ambiguous between these interpretations, and the opacity of Martius' character lends itself to this ambiguity. Rather than getting sucked into his view of the matter (even if we recognize the other side), here we are unable to really understand anyone. Martius is inscrutable and the people are being led around. I found that this issue truly rewarded reflection, and it is the sort of issue that Coriolanus raises so well.This is not to mention a host of other interesting questions raised in the play, which for the sake of brevity, I will simply mention. The gender politics of Volumnia are fascinating. She has raised Martius by the ideals of honor, even so much as to value his honorable death greater than his living company. Or what is the nature of honor? Is it tied to virtue (or is itself a virtue), or can one have strictly self-interested honor? Should we say that Martius' lacks honor in the end, or that he has a self-interested honor? Woven together, as always, with Shakespeare's unparalled poetry, these rewarding and interesting questions make Coriolanus a truly powerful play.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In preparation for the movie coming out soon! Best line so far? Menicius (Coriolanus' friend) calling a citizen, who is critical of the arrogant Coriolanus, as the "great toe of the assembly." And not in a good way, either. Coriolanus then calls all mutinous citizens (those that disagree with C?) "scabs." Awesome!
...
Really enjoyed this play, and I believe it's the first Shakespeare I've read since college. Coriolanus has some of the best speeches with which he burns his foes, and these offset some of the longer, duller passages. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a timely play in that it captures something of the American political zeitgeist wherein popularity and playing to the crowd trumps ideals and personal integrity. One can't help hearing the voices of pundits on the left and right in the petty complaints of the tribunes Brutus and Sicinius.
Marcius (Coriolanus):
Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,
That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs? - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Tragedy usually centers on someone with a tragic flaw, but I'm not sure being an asshole counts as a tragic flaw. There's a reason this one wasn't covered in my Shakespeare courses. Give it a miss unless you insist on reading all of Shakespeare.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The secondary characters were the best part. I would have preferred spending more time with Menenius and Aufidius and having been spared some of Coriolanus's haughty declarations. I'm no scholar of Shakespeare's works, but it seemed to me that much of his poetry fell short in this play. Rarely did I stop to savor the language or to marvel at an elegant turn of phrase. I did appreciate some of the political themes, but even the best of these pale in comparison with Shakespeare's vast array of more poignant and personal observations.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Several years ago I read this play as part of a class at the University of Chicago. It was a revelation that entranced me with its drama. Even so, the warrior Coriolanus is perhaps the most opaque of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, rarely pausing to soliloquise or reveal the motives behind his prideful isolation from Roman society. Instead, the play demonstrates his character through his actions and his relationships. The relationship with his mother, Volumnia, is the most important of these. The tension of her love for him reaches heights that are only exceeded by those of Coriolanus fame as a warrior for Rome.This is not the Rome of the Caesars but that of the early days when the republic was in its formative stages. It was a city concerned with warring neighbors like the Volscians who are an ever-present enemy. While Caius Martius' success in battles with this enemy lead him to military honors and earn him the name Coriolanus, he does not have the temperamental qualities that would allow him use these accolades for political purposes. He is held back by his own nature and his situation leads to banishment by the crowds who once cheered him. His speech to them as he leaves Rome is memorable:"You common cry of curs! whose breath I hateAs reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prizeAs the dead carcasses of unburied menThat do corrupt my air, I banish you;And here remain with your uncertainty!Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,Fan you into despair! Have the power stillTo banish your defenders; till at length Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,Making not reservation of yourselves,Still your own foes, deliver you as mostAbated captives to some nationThat won you without blows! Despising, For you, the city, thus I turn my back:There is a world elsewhere."(Act III, Scene iii) It is, for me, the best of the lesser-known of his plays and stands tall by the side of the other two great Roman history plays, Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra. In particular, the psychological depth of the character of Coriolanus, his relationships with his mother and subject Romans, and the dramatic action make this play a delight to read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nobody says Coriolanus is their favorite Shakespeare play--not even the kind of people who have favorite Shakespeare plays. But after a second read, it's moving up my list. Martius (aka Coriolanus) is, for the most part, an intensely dislikeable character--but as the play goes on, you begin to see how he came to be the way he is, and while it doesn't excuse his faults, it certainly makes him a complex and intriguing character.There's just so much depth to this play. Martius' relationships with his mother, his wife, and his nemesis are all delightfully screwed up. It's difficult to pick a single "tragic flaw" for Martius because he has so many of them--pride, rigidity, wrath, unhealthy attachment to his mother... It's one of Shakespeare's last tragedies, and thus one of the most mature. Though there's a great deal of blood referenced in the text and the stage directions, there's no on-stage bloodbath as in Titus Andronicus: Martius is the only character to die in the play.It almost needs to be seen, either on stage or on screen, to be really appreciated. Just don't talk to me about the Donmar production unless you want me to spend an hour telling you about how perfect every last detail was.
Book preview
Coriolanus - William Shakespeare
Act I
SCENE I
Rome. A street.
Enter a company of mutinous Citizens,
with staves, clubs, and other weapons
First Citizen
Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.
All
Speak, speak.
First Citizen
You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?
All
Resolved, resolved.
First Citizen
First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the
people.
All
We know’t, we know’t.
First Citizen
Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price.
Is’t a verdict?
All
No more talking on’t; let it be done: away, away!
Second Citizen
One word, good citizens.
First Citizen
We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.
What authority surfeits on would relieve us: if they
would yield us but the superfluity, while it were
wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely;
but they think we are too dear: the leanness that
afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an
inventory to particularise their abundance; our
sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with
our pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know I
speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.
Second Citizen
Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?
All
Against him first: he’s a very dog to the commonalty.
Second Citizen
Consider you what services he has done for his country?
First Citizen
Very well; and could be content to give him good
report fort, but that he pays himself with being proud.
Second Citizen
Nay, but speak not maliciously.
First Citizen
I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did
it to that end: though soft-conscienced men can be
content to say it was for his country he did it to
please his mother and to be partly proud; which he
is, even till the altitude of his virtue.
Second Citizen
What he cannot help in his nature, you account a
vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.
First Citizen
If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations;
he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition.
Shouts within
What shouts are these? The other side o’ the city
is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol!
All
Come, come.
First Citizen
Soft! who comes here?
Enter M
ENENIUS
A
CRIPPA
Second Citizen
Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved
the people.
First Citizen
He’s one honest enough: would all the rest were so!
M
ENENIUS
What work’s, my countrymen, in hand? where go you
With bats and clubs? The matter? speak, I pray you.
First Citizen
Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have
had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do,
which now we’ll show ’em in deeds. They say poor
suitors have strong breaths: they shall know we
have strong arms too.
M
ENENIUS
Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,
Will you undo yourselves?
First Citizen
We cannot, sir, we are undone already.
M
ENENIUS
I tell you, friends, most charitable care
Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well
Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
Against the Roman state, whose course will on
The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
Of more strong link asunder than can ever
Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,
The gods, not the patricians, make it, and
Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
You are transported by calamity
Thither where more attends you, and you slander
The helms o’ the state, who care for you like fathers,
When you curse them as enemies.
First Citizen
Care for us! True, indeed! They ne’er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there’s all the love they bear us.
M
ENENIUS
Either you must
Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you
A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To stale ’t a little more.
First Citizen
Well, I’ll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to
fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an ’t please
you, deliver.
M
ENENIUS
There was a time when all the body’s members
Rebell’d against the belly, thus accused it:
That only like a gulf it did remain
I’ the midst o’ the body, idle and unactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answer’d—
First Citizen
Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
M
ENENIUS
Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,
Which ne’er came from the lungs, but even thus—
For, look you, I may make the belly smile
As well as speak—it tauntingly replied
To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt; even so most fitly
As you malign our senators for that
They are not such as you.
First Citizen
Your belly’s answer? What!
The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter.
With other muniments and petty helps
In this our fabric, if that they—
M
ENENIUS
What then?
’Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? what then?
First Citizen
Should by the cormorant belly be restrain’d,
Who is the sink o’ the body,—
M
ENENIUS
Well, what then?
First Citizen
The former agents, if they did complain,
What could the belly answer?
M
ENENIUS
I will tell you
If you’ll bestow a small—of what you have little—
Patience awhile, you’ll hear the belly’s answer.
First Citizen
Ye’re long about it.
M
ENENIUS
Note me this, good friend;
Your most grave belly was deliberate,
Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer’d:
‘True is it, my incorporate friends,’ quoth he,
‘That I receive the general food at first,
Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
Because I am the store-house and the shop
Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o’ the brain;
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live: and though that all at once,
You, my good friends,’—this says the belly, mark me,—
First Citizen
Ay, sir; well, well.
M
ENENIUS
‘Though all at once cannot
See what I do deliver out to each,
Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the flour of all,
And leave me but the bran.’ What say you to’t?
First Citizen
It was an answer: how apply you this?
M
ENENIUS
The senators of Rome are this good belly,
And you the mutinous members; for examine
Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly
Touching the weal o’ the common, you shall find
No public benefit which you receive
But it proceeds or comes from them to you
And no way from yourselves. What do you think,
You, the great toe of this assembly?
First Citizen
I the great toe! why the great toe?
M
ENENIUS
For that, being one o’ the lowest, basest, poorest,
Of this most wise rebellion, thou go’st foremost:
Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
Lead’st first to win some vantage.
But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs:
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
The one side must have bale.
Enter C
AIUS
M
ARCIUS
Hail, noble Marcius!
M
ARCIUS
Thanks. What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues,
That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs?
First Citizen
We have ever your good word.
M
ARCIUS
He that will give good words to thee will flatter
Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs,
That like nor peace nor war? the one affrights you,
The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,
Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,
Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is
To make him worthy whose offence subdues him
And curse that justice did it.
Who deserves greatness
Deserves your hate; and your affections are
A sick man’s appetite, who desires most that
Which would increase his evil. He that depends
Upon your favours swims with fins of lead
And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust Ye?
With every minute you do change a mind,
And call him noble that was