Act V, Scene 1

Rome. A public place.

[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. He would not seem to know me.

• Menenius Agrippa. Do you hear?

• 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.

• Menenius Agrippa. Very well:
  Could he say less?

• 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

• Menenius Agrippa. No, I'll not meddle.

• Sicinius Velutus. Pray you, go to him.

• Menenius Agrippa. What should I do?

• 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. He'll never hear him.

• Sicinius Velutus. Not?

• 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]