[Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS,]
[p]and others]
- Menenius Agrippa. No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said
Which was sometime his general; who loved him
3280 In a most dear particular. He call'd me father:
But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him;
A mile before his tent fall down, and knee
The way into his mercy: nay, if he coy'd
To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home.
3285
- Cominius. Yet one time he did call me by my name:
I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops
That we have bled together. Coriolanus
3290 He would not answer to: forbad all names;
He was a kind of nothing, titleless,
Till he had forged himself a name o' the fire
Of burning Rome.
- Menenius Agrippa. Why, so: you have made good work!
3295
A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,
To make coals cheap,—a noble memory!
- Cominius. I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon
When it was less expected: he replied,
It was a bare petition of a state
3300 To one whom they had punish'd.
- Cominius. I offer'd to awaken his regard
For's private friends: his answer to me was,
3305 He could not stay to pick them in a pile
Of noisome musty chaff: he said 'twas folly,
For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt,
And still to nose the offence.
- Menenius Agrippa. For one poor grain or two!
3310
I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child,
And this brave fellow too, we are the grains:
You are the musty chaff; and you are smelt
Above the moon: we must be burnt for you.
- Sicinius Velutus. Nay, pray, be patient: if you refuse your aid
3315
In this so never-needed help, yet do not
Upbraid's with our distress. But, sure, if you
Would be your country's pleader, your good tongue,
More than the instant army we can make,
Might stop our countryman.
3320
- Junius Brutus. Only make trial what your love can do
For Rome, towards CORIOLANUS.
3325
- Menenius Agrippa. Well, and say that CORIOLANUS
Return me, as Cominius is return'd,
Unheard; what then?
But as a discontented friend, grief-shot
With his unkindness? say't be so?
3330
- Sicinius Velutus. Yet your good will
must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure
As you intended well.
- Menenius Agrippa. I'll undertake 't:
I think he'll hear me. Yet, to bite his lip
3335 And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.
He was not taken well; he had not dined:
The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then
We pout upon the morning, are unapt
To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff'd
3340 These and these conveyances of our blood
With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls
Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I'll watch him
Till he be dieted to my request,
And then I'll set upon him.
3345
- Junius Brutus. You know the very road into his kindness,
And cannot lose your way.
- Menenius Agrippa. Good faith, I'll prove him,
Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge
Of my success.
3350
[Exit]
- Cominius. I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye
Red as 'twould burn Rome; and his injury
3355 The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before him;
'Twas very faintly he said 'Rise;' dismiss'd me
Thus, with his speechless hand: what he would do,
He sent in writing after me; what he would not,
Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions:
3360 So that all hope is vain.
Unless his noble mother, and his wife;
Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him
For mercy to his country. Therefore, let's hence,
And with our fair entreaties haste them on.
3365
[Exeunt]
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