Stay! Whence are you?

Stand, and go back.

You guard like men; ’tis well. But by your leave,

I am an officer of state and come

To speak with Coriolanus.

From whence?

From Rome.

You may not pass; you must return. Our general

Will no more hear from thence.

You’ll see your Rome embraced with fire before

You’ll speak with Coriolanus.

Good my friends,

If you have heard your general talk of Rome

And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks

My name hath touched your ears. It is Menenius.

Be it so; go back. The virtue of your name

Is not here passable.

I tell thee, fellow,

Thy general is my lover. I have been

The book of his good acts, whence men have read

His fame unparalleled happily amplified;

For I have ever verified my friends—

Of whom he’s chief—with all the size that verity

Would without lapsing suffer. Nay, sometimes,

Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,

I have tumbled past the throw, and in his praise

Have almost stamped the leasing. Therefore, fellow,

I must have leave to pass.

Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf as you have

uttered words in your own, you should not pass here, no, though it were

as virtuous to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back.

Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always factionary on the

party of your general.

Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you have, I am one that,

telling true under him, must say you cannot pass. Therefore go back.

Has he dined, can’st thou tell? For I would not speak with him till

after dinner.

You are a Roman, are you?

I am, as thy general is.

Then you should hate Rome as he does. Can you, when you have pushed out

your gates the very defender of them, and, in a violent popular

ignorance given your enemy your shield, think to front his revenges

with the easy groans of old women, the virginal palms of your

daughters, or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as

you seem to be? Can you think to blow out the intended fire your city

is ready to flame in with such weak breath as this? No, you are

deceived. Therefore back to Rome and prepare for your execution. You

are condemned. Our general has sworn you out of reprieve and pardon.

Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would use me with

estimation.

Come, my captain knows you not.

I mean thy general.

My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go, lest I let forth your

half pint of blood. Back! That’s the utmost of your having. Back!

Nay, but fellow, fellow—

What’s the matter?

Now, you companion, I’ll say an errand for you. You shall know now that

I am in estimation; you shall perceive that a Jack guardant cannot

office me from my son Coriolanus. Guess but by my entertainment with

him if thou stand’st not i’ th’ state of hanging or of some death more

long in spectatorship and crueller in suffering; behold now presently,

and swoon for what’s to come upon thee. [_to Coriolanus_.] The glorious

gods sit in hourly synod about thy particular prosperity and love thee

no worse than thy old father Menenius does! O my son, my son! Thou art

preparing fire for us; look thee, here’s water to quench it. I was

hardly moved to come to thee; but being assured none but myself could

move thee, I have been blown out of your gates with sighs, and conjure

thee to pardon Rome and thy petitionary countrymen. The good gods

assuage thy wrath and turn the dregs of it upon this varlet here, this,

who, like a block, hath denied my access to thee.

Away!

How? Away?

Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs

Are servanted to others. Though I owe

My revenge properly, my remission lies

In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar,

Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison rather

Than pity note how much. Therefore begone.

Mine ears against your suits are stronger than

Your gates against my force. Yet, for I loved thee,

Take this along; I writ it for thy sake,

And would have sent it. Another word, Menenius,

I will not hear thee speak.—This man, Aufidius,

Was my beloved in Rome; yet thou behold’st.

You keep a constant temper.

Now, sir, is your name Menenius?

’Tis a spell, you see, of much power. You know the way home again.

Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your Greatness back?

What cause do you think I have to swoon?

I neither care for th’ world nor your general. For such things as you,

I can scarce think there’s any, you’re so slight. He that hath a will

to die by himself fears it not from another. Let your general do his

worst. For you, be that you are, long; and your misery increase with

your age! I say to you, as I was said to, away!

A noble fellow, I warrant him.

The worthy fellow is our general. He is the rock, the oak not to be

wind-shaken.