Tinct · Library · Coriolanus
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Coriolanus

by William Shakespeare

The Roman general Caius Marcius, renamed Coriolanus for sacking the Volscian capital, returns to Rome a hero — and refuses to flatter the plebeians for the consulship. Banished, he joins his old enemy to march on Rome. The most political of the tragedies and the most ruthlessly proud hero in the canon.

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Chapters
  1. Chapter 1Act 1, Scene 1 — Rome. A street
  2. Chapter 2Act 1, Scene 2 — Corioles. The Senate House
  3. Chapter 3Act 1, Scene 3 — Rome. An apartment in Martius’ house
  4. Chapter 4Act 1, Scene 4 — Before Corioles
  5. Chapter 5Act 1, Scene 5 — Within Corioles. A street
  6. Chapter 6Act 1, Scene 6 — Near the camp of Cominius
  7. Chapter 7Act 1, Scene 7 — The gates of Corioles
  8. Chapter 8Act 1, Scene 8 — A field of battle between the Roman and the Volscian camps
  9. Chapter 9Act 1, Scene 9 — The Roman camp
  10. Chapter 10Act 1, Scene 10 — The camp of the Volsces
  11. Chapter 11Act 2, Scene 1 — Rome. A public place
  12. Chapter 12Act 2, Scene 2 — Rome. The Capitol
  13. Chapter 13Act 2, Scene 3 — Rome. The Forum
  14. Chapter 14Act 3, Scene 1 — Rome. A street
  15. Chapter 15Act 3, Scene 2 — Rome. A room in Coriolanus’s house
  16. Chapter 16Act 3, Scene 3 — Rome. The Forum
  17. Chapter 17Act 4, Scene 1 — Rome. Before a gate of the city
  18. Chapter 18Act 4, Scene 2 — Rome. A street near the gate
  19. Chapter 19Act 4, Scene 3 — A highway between Rome and Antium
  20. Chapter 20Act 4, Scene 4 — Antium. Before Aufidius’s house
  21. Chapter 21Act 4, Scene 5 — Antium. A hall in Aufidius’s house
  22. Chapter 22Act 4, Scene 6 — Rome. A public place
  23. Chapter 23Act 4, Scene 7 — A camp at a short distance from Rome
  24. Chapter 24Act 5, Scene 1 — Rome. A public place
  25. Chapter 25Act 5, Scene 2 — An Advanced post of the Volscian camp before Rome
  26. Chapter 26Act 5, Scene 3 — The tent of Coriolanus
  27. Chapter 27Act 5, Scene 4 — Rome. A public place
  28. Chapter 28Act 5, Scene 5 — Rome. A street near the gate
  29. Chapter 29Act 5, Scene 6 — Antium. A public place

Act 1, Scene 1 — Rome. A street

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?

ALL. No more talking on’t; let it be done. Away, away!

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.

SECOND CITIZEN. Would you proceed especially against Caius Martius?

FIRST CITIZEN. Against him first. He’s a very dog to the commonalty.

SECOND CITIZEN. Consider you what services he has done for his country?

FIRST CITIZEN. Very well, and could be content to give him good report for’t, but that he pays himself with being proud.

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.

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

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!

ALL. Come, come!

Enter Menenius Agrippa.

FIRST CITIZEN. Soft, who comes here?

SECOND CITIZEN. Worthy Menenius Agrippa, one that hath always loved the people.

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.

MENENIUS. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, 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, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them Against the Roman state, whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder than can ever Appear in your impediment. For the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it, and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you, and you slander The helms o’ th’ state, who care for you like fathers, 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...