Coriolanus

Book 0: The Pelican Shakespeare

by William Shakespeare

Genres: Classics

Synopsis

BBC Radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Shakespeare to be heard.

Coriolanus tells of a proud Roman general who captured the town Corioli but subsequently falls from favour with the Roman people. He allies himself with the Volscians and leads an attack on Rome, but allegiances are won and lost before the final tragic end.

Revitalised, original, and comprehensive, this is Shakespeare for the new millennium.

Release date: April 10, 2018

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Print pages: 192

Sample

The Tragedy of Coriolanus

¥    I.1 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 Martius 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?

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all No more talking on't! Let it be done! Away, away!

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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 particularize 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.

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second citizen Would you proceed especially against Caius Martius?

all Against him first. He's a very dog to the commonalty.

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second citizen Consider you what services he has done for his country?

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first citizen Very well, and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

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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 to the altitude of his virtue.

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second citizen What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.

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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' th' city is risen.

Why stay we prating here? To th' Capitol!

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all Come, come!

first citizen Soft, who comes here?

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Enter Menenius Agrippa.

second citizen Worthy Menenius Agrippa, one that hath always loved the people.

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first citizen He's one honest enough! Would all the rest were so!

menenius  

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 th' 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.

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menenius  

Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbors,

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Will you undo yourselves?

first citizen  We cannot, sir, we are undone already.

menenius  

I tell you, friends, most charitable care

Have the patricians of you. For your wants,

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Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well

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Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them

Against the Roman state, whose course will on

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The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs

Of more strong link asunder than can ever

Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,

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The gods, not the patricians, make it, and

Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,

You are transported by calamity

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Thither where more attends you, and you slander

The helms o' th' state, who care for you like fathers,

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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 storehouses 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.

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menenius  

Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,

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Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you

A pretty tale. It may be you have heard it,

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But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture

To stale't a little more.

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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.

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menenius  

There was a time when all the body's members

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Rebelled against the belly, thus accused it:

That only like a gulf it did remain

I' th' midst o' th' body, idle and unactive,

Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

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Like labor with the rest, where th' other instruments

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Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,

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And mutually participate, did minister

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Unto the appetite and affection common

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Of the whole body. The belly answered-

first citizen  Well, sir, what answer made the belly?

menenius  

Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,

Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus-

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For, look you, I may make the belly smile

As well as speak-it tauntingly replied

To th' discontented members, the mutinous parts

That envied his receipt; even so most fitly

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As you malign our senators, for that

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They are not such as you.

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first citizen       Your belly's answer? What?

The kingly crownd head, the vigilant eye,

The counselor heart, the arm our soldier,

Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,

With other muniments and petty helps

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In this our fabric, if that they-

menenius      What then?

'Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? what then?

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first citizen  

Should by the cormorant belly be restrained,

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Who is the sink o' th' body-

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menenius      Well, what then?

first citizen  

The former agents, if they did complain,

What could the belly answer?

menenius      I will tell you,

If you'll bestow a small-of what you have little-

Patience awhile, you'st hear the belly's answer.

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first citizen  

You're long about it.

menenius      Note me this, good friend;

Your most grave belly was deliberate,

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Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered:

"True is it, my incorporate friends," quoth he,

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"That I receive the general food at first,

Which you do live upon; and fit it is,

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Because I am the storehouse and the shop

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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 th' seat o' th' brain;

And, through the cranks and offices of man,

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The strongest nerves and small inferior veins

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From me receive that natural competency

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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.

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menenius      "Though all at once cannot

See what I do deliver out to each,

Yet I can make my audit up that all

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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?

menenius  

The senators of Rome are this good belly,

And you the mutinous members. For examine

Their counsels and their cares, disgest things rightly

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Touching the weal o' th' common, you shall find

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No public benefit which you receive

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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?

menenius  

For that, being one o' th' lowest, basest, poorest

Of this most wise rebellion, thou goest foremost.

Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,

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Lead'st first to win some vantage.

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But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs:

Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;

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The one side must have bale.

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Enter Caius Martius.     Hail, noble Martius!

martius  

Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,

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That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,

Make yourselves scabs?

first citizen      We have ever your good word.

martius  

He that will give good words to thee will flatter

Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs,

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That like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you,

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The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,

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Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;

Where foxes, geese. You are no surer, no,

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Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,

Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is

To make him worthy whose offense subdues him

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And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness

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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 favors swims with fins of lead

And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye?

With every minute you do change a mind,

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And call him noble that was now your hate,

Him vile that was your garland. What's the matter,

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That in these several places of the city

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You cry against the noble Senate, who,

Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else

Would feed on one another? What's their seeking?

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menenius  

For corn at their own rates, whereof they say

The city is well stored.

martius      Hang 'em! They say?

They'll sit by th' fire and presume to know

What's done i' th' Capitol, who's like to rise,

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Who thrives and who declines; side factions and give out

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Conjectural marriages, making parties strong

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And feebling such as stand not in their liking

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Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's grain enough?

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Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,

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And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry

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With thousands of these quartered slaves as high

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As I could pick my lance.

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menenius  

Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded;

For though abundantly they lack discretion,

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Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you,

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What says the other troop?

martius      They are dissolved. Hang 'em!

They said they were anhungry, sighed forth proverbs-

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That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat,

That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not

Corn for the rich men only. With these shreds

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They vented their complainings, which being answered

And a petition granted them, a strange one,

To break the heart of generosity,

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And make bold power look pale, they threw their caps

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As they would hang them on the horns o' th' moon,

Shouting their emulation.

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menenius      What is granted them?

martius  

Five tribunes to defend their vulgar wisdoms,

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Of their own choice. One's Junius Brutus,

Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'Sdeath!

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The rabble should have first unroofed the city

Ere so prevailed with me; it will in time

Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes

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For insurrection's arguing.

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menenius      This is strange.

martius  

Go, get you home, you fragments!

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Enter a Messenger hastily.

messenger  

Where's Caius Martius?

martius      Here. What's the matter?

messenger  

The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.

martius  

I am glad on't. Then we shall ha' means to vent

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Our musty superfluity. See, our best elders.

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Enter Sicinius Velutus, Junius Brutus, Cominius, Titus Lartius, with other Senators.

first senator  

Martius, 'tis true that you have lately told us:

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The Volsces are in arms.

martius      They have a leader,

Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to't.

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I sin in envying his nobility,

And were I any thing but what I am,

I would wish me only he.

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cominius      You have fought together?

martius  

Were half to half the world by th' ears and he

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Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make

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Only my wars with him. He is a lion

That I am proud to hunt.

first senator      Then, worthy Martius,

Attend upon Cominius to these wars.

cominius  

It is your former promise.

martius      Sir, it is,

And I am constant. Titus Lartius, thou

Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' face.

What, art thou stiff? Stand'st out?

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titus      No, Caius Martius,

I'll lean upon one crutch and fight with t' other,

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Ere stay behind this business.

menenius      O, true-bred!

first senator  

Your company to th' Capitol, where I know

Our greatest friends attend us.

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titus [To Cominius]    Lead you on.

[To Martius]

Follow Cominius. We must follow you.

Right worthy you priority.

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cominius      Noble Martius!

first senator  [To the Citizens]

Hence to your homes, be gone!

martius      Nay, let them follow.

The Volsces have much corn. Take these rats thither

To gnaw their garners. Worshipful mutineers,

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Your valor puts well forth. Pray follow.

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Exeunt. Citizens steal away. Manent Sicinius and Brutus.

sicinius  

Was ever man so proud as is this Martius?

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brutus  

He has no equal.

sicinius  

When we were chosen tribunes for the people-

brutus  

Marked you his lip and eyes?

sicinius      Nay, but his taunts.

brutus  

Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods.

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sicinius  

Bemock the modest moon.

brutus  

The present wars devour him! He is grown

Too proud to be so valiant.

sicinius      Such a nature,

Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow

Which he treads on at noon. But I do wonder

His insolence can brook to be commanded

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Under Cominius.

brutus      Fame, at the which he aims,

In whom already he's well graced, cannot

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Better be held nor more attained than by

A place below the first; for what miscarries

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Shall be the general's fault, though he perform

To th' utmost of a man, and giddy censure

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Will then cry out of Martius, "O, if he

Had borne the business!"

sicinius      Besides, if things go well,

Opinion, that so sticks on Martius, shall

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Of his demerits rob Cominius.

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brutus      Come.

Half all Cominius' honors are to Martius,

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Though Martius earned them not; and all his faults

To Martius shall be honors, though indeed

In aught he merit not.

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sicinius      Let's hence and hear

How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion,

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More than his singularity, he goes

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Upon this present action.

brutus      Let's along.Exeunt.

*

¥    I.2 Enter Tullus Aufidius, with Senators of Corioles.

first senator  

So, your opinion is, Aufidius,

That they of Rome are entered in our counsels

2

And know how we proceed.