Wiliam Shakespeare, Coriolanus

 

William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Cambridge University Press, 2000

 

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 to the altitude of his virtue. (1.1.27-30)

 

Coriolanus: Thanks. What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues,

That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,

Make yourselves scabs? (1.1.46-8)

 

Coriolanus: …Who deserves greatness

Deserves your hate, …

With every minute you do change a mind

And call him noble that was now your hate,

Him vile that was your garland. … (1.1.159-66)

 

Cominius: Though I could wish

You were conducted to a gentle bath

And balms applied to you, yet dare I never

Deny your asking. … (1.6.62-5)

 

Cominius: …Therefore be it known,

As to us, to all the world, that Caius Martius

Wears this war’s garland, in token of the which

My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him

With all his trim belonging; and from this time,

For what he did before Corioles call him,

With th’applause and clamour of the host,

Martius Caius Coriolanus.

Bear th’addition nobly ever! (1.9.57-65)

 

Brutus: Come, sir, come. We know you well enough.

Menenius: You know neither me, yourselves, nor anything. … (2.1.54-5)

 

Menenius: …Yet you must be

saying Martius is proud, who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all

your predecessors since Deucalion, though peradventure some of

the best of’em were hereditary hangmen. … (2.1.72-5)

 

Menenius: …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. (2.1.96-9)

 

Sicinius: On the sudden,

I warrant him consul.

Brutus: Then our office may,

During his power, go sleep.

Sicinius: He cannot temperately 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 malic 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. (2.1.195-209)

 

Brutus: You speak o’th’people

As if you were a god to punish, not

A man of their infirmity. (3.1.81-3)

 

Sicinius: Therefore lay hold of him.

Bear him to th’rock Tarpeian, and from thence

Into destruction cast him. (3.1.214-6) [rock Tarpeian – a cliff on the Capitoline Hill over which people convicted of treason were thrown.]

 

A Patrician: This man has marred his fortune.

Menenius: His nature is too noble for the world.

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident

Or Jove for’s power to thunder. … (3.1.266-8)

 

Sicinius: Where is this viper

That would depopulate the city and

Be every man himself? (3.1.265-7)

 

Volumnia: Prithee now,

Go, and be ruled, although I know thou hadst rather

Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf

Than flatter him in a bower. (3.2.90-93)

 

Volumnia: …Do as thou list.

Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck’st it from me,

But owe thy pride thyself. (3.3.129-31)

 

Coriolanus: You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate

As reek ’o’th’rotten fens, whose love I prize

As the dead carcasses of unburied men

That do corrupt my air, I banish you. (3.3.128-31) [fens – marshes]

 

Coriolanus: … Nay, mother,

Where is your ancient courage? You were used

To say extremities was the trier of spirits;

That common chances common men could bear;

That when the sea was calm, all boats alike

Showed mastership in floating; … (4.1.2-7)

 

Brutus: Now we have shown our power,

Let us seem humbler after it is done

Than when it was a-doing. (4.2.2-4)

 

Coriolanus: …Now this extremity

Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope—

Mistake me not—to save my life, for if

I had feared death, of all the men i’th’world

I would have ‘voided thee, but in mere spite,

To be full quit of those my banishers,

Stand I before thee here. … (4.5.75-81)

 

Coriolanus: … But if so be

Thou dar’st not this, and that to prove more fortunes

Thou’rt tired, then, in a word, I also am

Longer to live most weary and present

My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice,

Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,

Since I have ever followed thee with hate,

Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast,

And cannot live but to thy shame, unless

It be to do thee service. (4.5.89-98)

 

Aufidius; … I think he’ll be to Rome

As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it

By sovereignty of nature. (4.7.33-5)

 

Menenius: …Go, you that banished him;

A mile before his tent fall down and knee

The way into his mercy. … (5.1.4-6)

 

Coriolanus: …I’ll never

Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand

As if a man were author of himself

And knew no other kin. (5.3.34-6)

 

Coriolanus: What’s this?

Your knees to me? To your corrected son?

[He raises her]

Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach

Filip the stars. Then let the mutinous winds

Strike the proud cedars ‘gainst the fiery sun,

Murdering impossibility, to make

What cannot be, slight workd.

Volumnia: Thou art my warrior;

I holp to frame thee. Do you know this lady?

Coriolanus: The noble sister of Publicola,

The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle

That’s curdied by the frost from purest snow

And hangs on Dian’s temple—dear Valeria! (5.3.56-67)

 

Menenius: …He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to

throne in. (5.4.19-20)