Coriolanus

Tullus Aufidius had assembled a new army?

He had, my lord, and that was why we needed to reach an agreement sooner than expected.

So then, the Volsces will be able to attack us again when the time is right.

They’re worn out, lord consul, so we won’t likely see their banners wave again in our lifetime.

Did you see Aufidius?

He came to me, under high security, and cursed the Volsces because they had failed so miserably by letting the town be captured. He has retreated to Antium.

Did he talk about me?

He did, my lord.

What did he say?

He spoke of how often you and he had met in battle. He said that of all things on earth, he hated you the most and that he would pawn his fortunes until he was hopelessly broke in order to defeat you.

He’s living in Antium?

In Antium.

I wish I had a reason to go there and show him how much I hate him, too. Welcome home.

Look, here are the tribunes. I hate them because their authority is an insult to the power of the nobility.

Go no further.

Ha! What did you say?

It will be dangerous for you to go any further.

What’s changed?

What’s the matter?

Hasn’t he been approved by the nobility and the common people?

No, Cominius.

Have they broken their promise like children?

Tribunes, let us through. He’s going to the marketplace.

The people are furious with him.

Stop, or a riot will break out.

Is this your herd? Why do these people have the right to vote, if they can vote one way and then immediately change their mind? What’s your job? If you control what they think and say, can’t you control what they do? Have you incited them against us?

Be calm, be calm.

It’s a deliberate plot to undercut the authority of the nobility. If we succumb to it, we’ll have to live alongside these uncontrollable people who themselves are incapable of governing.

Don’t call it a plot. The people say you mocked them, and recently when corn was given to them for free, you complained and slandered us, the representatives of the people, calling us opportunists, flatterers, and enemies to nobility.

You were already known as such.

Not all of them thought so.

Have you informed them since?

How would I inform them?

By the way you do business.

Possibly, but whatever I do, I do it better than you would do as consul.

Why then should I be consul? If I am as bad as you, make me your fellow tribune.

You cause too much disturbance among the people. If you want to get where you want to go, you must ask kindly to get there. You’re a long way off from doing that. And without doing so, you’ll never be noble enough to be consul or even be his equal as a tribune.

Let’s stay calm.

The people have been deceived and now incited. Trickery like this is not how Romans behave. Coriolanus shouldn’t be dishonored by these false accusations because his bravery makes him so clearly deserving.

Talk to me about corn! This was my speech, and I will speak it again—

Not now, not now.

Not when the people are so agitated, sir, not now.

As sure as I’m alive, I will speak now. My nobler friends, I beg your pardon. As for the two-faced, stinking masses, let them see themselves clearly because I will not flatter them. I say again, by flattering them, we encourage the seeds of rebellion, disobedience, treason against our Senate—seeds that we ourselves have plowed for, sowed, and scattered by mingling them with us, the honorable ones. The only virtue or power that we lack is that which we have given to these beggars.

That’s enough, no more.

No more words, we beg you.

What? No more? I have shed my blood for my country without fearing opposing forces, so my lungs will speak until the hated measles—that we caught by trying to help the people—cause us to become infected and die.

You speak of the people as if you were a god to punish them, not a mortal man just like them.

It would be a good idea for us to let the people know this.

Know what? About his anger?

Anger! If I were as calm as in midnight sleep, by Jove, this would still be my opinion!

It’s a poisonous opinion that shall remain where it is and not poison any further.

“Shall remain”? Do you hear this, Triton of the minnows? Do you hear his absolute “shall”?

It was inappropriate.

“Shall”! Oh, good but most unwise nobleman! You dignified but reckless senators, why have you permitted this many-headed monster to choose a representative whose arrogant “shall” is just the monster’s noisy horn and who has the nerve to say he’ll take advantage of your power and use your resources for his own purposes? If he’s in power, then it’s your mistake that has you bowing to him. If not, then wake up from your dangerous tolerance of him. If you’re good leaders, don’t be common fools. If you’re not, let them have seats with you in the Senate. If they were senators, that would make you into commoners. And if you had equal say, the interests of the common people would outweigh yours. The people chose as their representative someone who addresses his “shall,” his common man’s command of “shall” to the most dignified legislature since the Greeks. By Jove himself! It lowers the position of the consuls and my soul aches to know, when there are two authorities and neither is supreme, how quickly chaos will arise in the space between them and use one to overthrow the other.

Let’s go on to the marketplace.

Whoever gave the advice to give out corn from the storehouse for free, as they used to do in Greece—

That’s enough. No more talk of that.

Even though the people had more absolute power in Greece, I think whoever gave that advice invited disobedience and caused the ruin of the state.

Should the people give up someone who speaks for them?

I’ll give my reasons, which are worthier than their wishes. They know they didn’t earn the corn, as they certainly never did any service for it. Even when they were drafted to fight the war when the center of the state was threatened, they wouldn’t leave the city gates. This kind of service doesn’t deserve free corn. When they were in the war, their mutinies and revolts, which were the only times they showed any courage, didn’t speak well for them. Their frequent accusation that the Senate was hoarding corn had no basis, so it could never be the reason for our generous gift. Well, what then? How will this many-headed monster repay the Senate’s kindness? Let their actions express what their words should be: “We asked for it, we are the majority of the population, and out of fear they gave in to our demands.” In doing this we degrade the nature of our position and make the rabble think that our sympathy is fear. In time this will break open the locks of the Senate, and the scavengers will devour us.

Okay, that’s enough.

Enough overstatement.

No, there’s more! I swear there’s both divine and human confirmation of what I have to say. A divided government—in which one part rightfully despises the other and the other part makes insulting accusations without any reason, and in which people of class, title, and wisdom are reduced to deciding things just by voting yes or no—will be unable to focus on important matters and so instead will deal only with trivial concerns. When governing becomes so difficult, it makes sense that nothing will get done well. So I beg you, you who won’t be afraid to take action because you care more about preserving our government than you fear the consequences of doing so, you who prefer a noble life over a long one and are willing to use a dangerous medicine to help someone who would otherwise surely die, you must immediately remove the representatives of the common people. Don’t let the tribunes use their poisonous flattery. When they dishonor you, it’s an impediment to justice. It robs the state of your much-needed integrity and leaves the state without the power to do the good it would because evil forces are controlling it.

He has said enough.

He has spoken like a traitor and must be punished as a traitor.

You wretch. I feel overwhelming contempt for you! Why should the people have these stupid tribunes? By depending on you, they fail to obey the Senate’s higher authority. In a rebellion, actions that are wrong but unavoidable are sanctioned because of the circumstances under which they are chosen. But when times are better, it must be said that what is right must be done. So throw the tribunes’ power in the garbage.

That’s blatantly treason!

This man is consul? No.

Aediles, come here!

Seize him.

Go, call the people.

(to Coriolanus) In the people’s name I call you a traitorous rebel, an enemy to the people. Obey, I command you, and follow me to your interrogation. (SICINIUS tries to seize CORIOLANUS)

Get off me, old goat!

We stand behind him.

Old man, take your hands off him.

Get off me, you rotten thing! Or I’ll shake your bones out of your clothes.

Help, you citizens!

Both of you, show more respect.

Here’s the man who would take all your power away from you.

Seize him, aediles!

Down with him! Down with him!

Weapons, weapons, weapons!

Tribunes! Noblemen! Citizens! What’s happening! Sicinius! Brutus! Coriolanus! Citizens! Peace, peace, peace! Stay, wait, peace!

What’s going to happen? I’m out of breath. Chaos is near. I can’t speak. You tribunes, talk to the people! Coriolanus, be patient! Speak, good Sicinius.

Hear me, people. Be calm!

Let’s hear our tribune. Please speak, speak, speak.

You’re about to lose your freedom. Martius will take everything from you. Martius, who you have just selected for consul.

No, no, no! That’s the way to incite them further, not calm them down.

To destroy the city and tear all the buildings down.

What is the city if not the people?

True, the people make the city.

By everyone’s agreement, we were selected to speak for the people.

You still do.

And most likely, you’re about to speak.

That’s the way to destroy the city, to bring the roof to the foundation and bury it all, and yet the heaps and piles of ruin have a distinct hierarchy.

This deserves death.

Either let us exercise our authority, or let us lose it. On behalf of the people who we were elected to represent, we declare that Martius deserves to die immediately.

So grab him, take him to the Tarpeian rock, and throw him off the edge.

Aediles, seize him!

Surrender, Martius, surrender!

Let me say one thing. Please, tribunes, let me say just one thing.

Peace, peace!

(to Brutus) Act as you should if you’re a true servant of your country. Proceed moderately, not with the violent solution you have in mind.

Sir, those moderate ways that seem prudent are actually poisonous when the problem is serious. Grab him and take him to the rock.

No, I’ll die here.

There’s some among you who have seen me fight. Come, try for yourselves to do what you’ve seen me do in battle.

Put that sword down! Tribunes, go away for a while.

Grab him.

Help Martius, help him, you who are noble. Help him, whether you’re young or old!

Down with him, down with him!

(to Coriolanus) Go home, be gone, go away! All will be lost otherwise.

(to Coriolanus) Get out of here.

Stay where you are. We have as many allies as enemies.

Will it come to that?

(to Coriolanus) The gods forbid! I beg you, noble friend, go home. Leave us to handle this situation.

It’s dangerous for all of us now, and you can’t fix it yourself. Go now, I beg you.

Please, sir, come with us.

I wish they were barbarians—which they are, even though they were born in Rome—and not Romans—which they aren’t even though they born on the steps of the capitol—

Go away. You’re understandably angry, but stop speaking your anger. There will be time for that in the future.

I could easily beat a large number of them.

I myself could fight a pair of the best of them—indeed, the two tribunes! But now the odds are beyond calculation, and courage becomes foolishness when it stands beneath a falling building. (to Coriolanus) Will you go now, before the mob returns? Their rage is like dammed up water that will overflow its banks.

(to Coriolanus) Please, go now. I’ll try to reason with them, even though they’re unreasonable. We must try every possible solution to fix this problem.

Let’s go.

He has ruined himself.

His nature is too noble for the world. He wouldn’t flatter Neptune for his trident or Jove for his power to make thunder. He speaks his mind, and whatever he feels, he must express. And when he gets angry, he forgets that he can also be killed.

That was fast!

I wish they’d gotten away!

I wish they were in Tiber! What the hell! Couldn’t he talk them out of it?

Where is this traitor that would drive the people from the city and considers himself to be every man?

You worthy tribunes—

He’ll be thrown without mercy from the Tarpeian rock. He has resisted justice, so justice will deny him any trial other than the strength of public opinion, which to him is worthless.

He’ll soon know that the noble tribunes speak for the people, and we, in turn, put their wishes into action.

He will, I’m sure of it.

Sir, sir—

Peace!

Don’t call for his murder. Seek a lesser punishment instead.

Sir, didn’t you help him escape?

Listen to me. Because I know this consul’s strengths, I can also tell you his weaknesses—

Consul! What consul?

The consul Coriolanus.

He’s not consul!

No, no, no, no, no.

Good people, if the you and the tribunes will permit me to be heard, I want to say a word or two that will cost you nothing other than the time it takes to listen.

Speak quickly then, for we’ve agreed to do away with this monstrous traitor. To banish him would still leave us in danger, and to keep him here would mean our certain death, so he must die tonight.

The good gods forbid that our renowned Rome, whose gratitude toward her deserving children is Jove’s law, should behave like an unnatural mother and eat her own child!

He’s a disease that must be cut out.

No, he’s just a limb that has a disease. It would be fatal to cut off the limb but easy to cure the disease. What has he done to Rome that’s worth killing him for? He’s killed our enemies and lost more ounces of his own blood than his body still has. He shed it for his country. For his country to take from him the blood he has left would bring eternal shame to all of us who permit it.

That’s totally wrong.

That’s missing the point. When he served his country, it rewarded him.

When a foot becomes infected with gangrene, is it no longer respected for the service it had done previously?

We’ll hear no more. Go take him from his house, before his contagious infection spreads any further.

One word more, one word. When this fast-moving rage realizes the consequences of acting quickly without thinking, it will be too late to slow it down. Let the legal system solve this dispute, otherwise factions will form, as there are those who support him, and Rome will be destroyed by Romans.

If that were true—

What are you talking about? Haven’t we experienced his obedience? Haven’t our aediles been struck by him? Haven’t our own efforts been resisted? Come.

Consider that he’s been brought up in wars since he was old enough to draw a sword. He doesn’t know how to use refined language. He can’t tell the difference between meal and bran. Let me go to him and try to convince him to answer your questions peacefully in court. Legal judgment may still cost him his life.

Noble tribunes, this is the humane way. The other course of action will prove too bloody, and we have no idea what we’re getting ourselves into.

Noble Menenius, you may act on behalf of the people. Good people, lay your weapons down.

Don’t go home.

Meet us in the marketplace. We’ll wait for you there. If you don’t bring Martius, we’ll continue with our original plans.

I’ll bring him to you. (to the Senators) Come with me. We must bring him, or something worse will happen.

Yes, let’s go to him.