Act 2, Scene 1

Rome. A public place

[Enter MENENIUS, SICINIUS, and BRUTUS.]
Menenius Agrippa
815 The augurer tells me we shall have news tonight.
Junius Brutus
816 Good or bad?
Menenius Agrippa
817 Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not
818 Marcius.
Sicinius Velutus
819 Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.
Menenius Agrippa
820 Pray you, who does the wolf love?
Sicinius Velutus
821 The lamb.
Menenius Agrippa
822 Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians would the noble
823 Marcius.
Junius Brutus
824 He's a lamb indeed, that baas like a bear.
Menenius Agrippa
825 He's a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two are old men:
826 tell me one thing that I shall ask you.
Both Tribunes
827 Well, sir.
Menenius Agrippa
828 In what enormity is Marcius poor in, that you two have not
829 in abundance?
Junius Brutus
830 He's poor in no one fault, but stored with all.
Sicinius Velutus
831 Especially in pride.
Junius Brutus
832 And topping all others in boasting.
Menenius Agrippa
833 This is strange now: do you two know how you are censured here in
834 the city, I mean of us o' the right-hand file? Do you?
Both Tribunes
835 Why, how are we censured?
Menenius Agrippa
836 Because you talk of pride now,—will you not be angry?
Both Tribunes
837 Well, well, sir, well.
Menenius Agrippa
838 Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of occasion
839 will rob you of a great deal of patience: give your dispositions
840 the reins, and be angry at your pleasures; at the least, if you
841 take it as a pleasure to you in being so. You blame Marcius for
842 being proud?
Junius Brutus
843 We do it not alone, sir.
Menenius Agrippa
844 I know you can do very little alone; for your helps are many, or
845 else your actions would grow wondrous single: your abilities are
846 too infant-like for doing much alone. You talk of pride: O that
847 you could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks, and make
848 but an interior survey of your good selves! O that you could!
Both Tribunes
849 What then, sir?
Menenius Agrippa
850 Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud,
851 violent, testy magistrates,—alias fools,—as any in Rome.
Sicinius Velutus
852 Menenius, you are known well enough too.
Menenius Agrippa
853 I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup
854 of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't; said to
855 be something imperfect in favouring the first complaint, hasty
856 and tinder-like upon too trivial motion; one that converses more
857 with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the
858 morning. What I think I utter, and spend my malice in my breath.
859 Meeting two such wealsmen as you are,—I cannot call you
860 Lycurguses,—if the drink you give me touch my palate adversely,
861 I make a crooked face at it. I cannot say your worships have
862 delivered the matter well when I find the ass in compound with
863 the major part of your syllables; and though I must be content to
864 bear with those that say you are reverend grave men, yet they lie
865 deadly that tell you have good faces. If you see this in the map
866 of my microcosm, follows it that I am known well enough too? What
867 harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character,
868 if I be known well enough too?
Junius Brutus
869 Come, sir, come, we know you well enough.
Menenius Agrippa
870 You know neither me, yourselves, nor anything. You are ambitious
871 for poor knaves' caps and legs; you wear out a good wholesome
872 forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a
873 fosset-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence
874 to a second day of audience.—When you are hearing a matter
875 between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the
876 colic, you make faces like mummers, set up the bloody flag
877 against all patience, and, in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss
878 the controversy bleeding, the more entangled by your hearing: all
879 the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties
880 knaves. You are a pair of strange ones.
Junius Brutus
881 Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber
882 for the table than a necessary bencher in the Capitol.
Menenius Agrippa
883 Our very priests must become mockers if they shall encounter such
884 ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak best unto the
885 purpose, it is not worth the wagging of your beards; and your
886 beards deserve not so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher's
887 cushion or to be entombed in an ass's pack-saddle. Yet you must
888 be saying, Marcius is proud; who, in a cheap estimation, is worth
889 all your predecessors since Deucalion; though peradventure some
890 of the best of 'em were hereditary hangmen. God-den to your
891 worships: more of your conversation would infect my brain, being
892 the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians: I will be bold to take my
893 leave of you.
[BRUTUS and SICINIUS retire.]
[Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, VALERIA, &c.]
Menenius Agrippa
894 How now, my as fair as noble ladies,—and the moon, were she
895 earthly, no nobler,—whither do you follow your eyes so fast?
Volumnia
896 Honourable Menenius, my boy Marcius approaches; for the love of
897 Juno, let's go.
Menenius Agrippa
898 Ha! Marcius coming home!
Volumnia
899 Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous approbation.
Menenius Agrippa
900 Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee.—Hoo! Marcius coming
901 home!
Menenius Agrippa
902 VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA.
903 Nay, 'tis true.
Volumnia
904 Look, here's a letter from him: the state hath another,
905 his wife another; and I think there's one at home for you.
Menenius Agrippa
906 I will make my very house reel to-night.—A letter for me?
Virgilia
907 Yes, certain, there's a letter for you; I saw it.
Menenius Agrippa
908 A letter for me! It gives me an estate of seven years'
909 health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician: the
910 most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic, and, to
911 this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he
912 not wounded? he was wont to come home wounded.
Virgilia
913 O, no, no, no.
Volumnia
914 O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for't.
Menenius Agrippa
915 So do I too, if it be not too much.—Brings a victory in
916 his pocket?—The wounds become him.
Volumnia
917 On's brows: Menenius, he comes the third time home with the oaken
918 garland.
Menenius Agrippa
919 Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly?
Volumnia
920 Titus Lartius writes,—they fought together, but Aufidius
921 got off.
Menenius Agrippa
922 And 'twas time for him too, I'll warrant him that: an he
923 had stayed by him, I would not have been so fidiused for all the
924 chests in Corioli and the gold that's in them. Is the Senate
925 possessed of this?
Volumnia
926 Good ladies, let's go.—Yes, yes, yes; the Senate has letters
927 from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole name of the
928 war: he hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly.
Valeria
929 In troth, there's wondrous things spoke of him.
Menenius Agrippa
930 Wondrous! ay, I warrant you, and not without his true purchasing.
Virgilia
931 The gods grant them true!
Volumnia
932 True! pow, wow.
Menenius Agrippa
933 True! I'll be sworn they are true. Where is he wounded?—
[To the TRIBUNES, who come forward.]
Menenius Agrippa
934 God save your good worships! Marcius
935 is coming home; he has more cause to be proud.—Where is he
936 wounded?
Volumnia
937 I' the shoulder and i' the left arm; there will be large
938 cicatrices to show the people when he shall stand for his place.
939 He received in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i' the body.
Menenius Agrippa
940 One i' the neck and two i' the thigh,—there's nine that I
941 know.
Volumnia
942 He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five wounds upon him.
Menenius Agrippa
943 Now it's twenty-seven: every gash was an enemy's grave.
[A shout and flourish.]
Menenius Agrippa
944 Hark! the trumpets.
Volumnia
945 These are the ushers of Marcius: before him
946 He carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears;
947 Death, that dark spirit, in's nervy arm doth lie;
948 Which, being advanc'd, declines, and then men die.
[A sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter COMINIUS and TITUS LARTIUS; between them, CORIOLANUS, crowned with an oaken garland; with CAPTAINS and Soldiers and a HERALD.]
Herald
949 Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did fight
950 Within Corioli gates: where he hath won,
951 With fame, a name to Caius Marcius; these
952 In honour follows Coriolanus:—
953 Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!
[Flourish.]
All
954 Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
955 No more of this, it does offend my heart;
956 Pray now, no more.
Cominius
957 Look, sir, your mother!
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
958 O,
959 You have, I know, petition'd all the gods
960 For my prosperity!
[Kneels.]
Volumnia
961 Nay, my good soldier, up;
962 My gentle Marcius, worthy Caius, and
963 By deed-achieving honour newly nam'd,—
964 What is it?—Coriolanus must I call thee?
965 But, O, thy wife!
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
966 My gracious silence, hail!
967 Wouldst thou have laugh'd had I come coffin'd home,
968 That weep'st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear,
969 Such eyes the widows in Corioli wear,
970 And mothers that lack sons.
Menenius Agrippa
971 Now the gods crown thee!
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
972 And live you yet?
[To VALERIA]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
973 —O my sweet lady, pardon.
Volumnia
974 I know not where to turn.—O, welcome home;—and welcome,
975 general;—and you are welcome all.
Menenius Agrippa
976 A hundred thousand welcomes.—I could weep
977 And I could laugh; I am light and heavy.—Welcome:
978 A curse begin at very root on's heart
979 That is not glad to see thee!—You are three
980 That Rome should dote on: yet, by the faith of men,
981 We have some old crab trees here at home that will not
982 Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors.
983 We call a nettle but a nettle; and
984 The faults of fools but folly.
Cominius
985 Ever right.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
986 Menenius ever, ever.
Herald
987 Give way there, and go on!
[To his wife and mother.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
988 Your hand, and yours:
989 Ere in our own house I do shade my head,
990 The good patricians must be visited;
991 From whom I have receiv'd not only greetings,
992 But with them change of honours.
Volumnia
993 I have lived
994 To see inherited my very wishes,
995 And the buildings of my fancy; only
996 There's one thing wanting, which I doubt not but
997 Our Rome will cast upon thee.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
998 Know, good mother,
999 I had rather be their servant in my way
1000 Than sway with them in theirs.
Cominius
1001 On, to the Capitol.
[Flourish. Cornets. Exeunt in state, as before. The tribunes remain.]
Junius Brutus
1002 All tongues speak of him and the bleared sights
1003 Are spectacled to see him: your prattling nurse
1004 Into a rapture lets her baby cry
1005 While she chats him: the kitchen malkin pins
1006 Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck,
1007 Clamb'ring the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks, windows,
1008 Are smother'd up, leads fill'd and ridges hors'd
1009 With variable complexions; all agreeing
1010 In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens
1011 Do press among the popular throngs, and puff
1012 To win a vulgar station: our veil'd dames
1013 Commit the war of white and damask, in
1014 Their nicely gawded cheeks, to the wanton spoil
1015 Of Phoebus' burning kisses; such a pother,
1016 As if that whatsoever god who leads him
1017 Were slily crept into his human powers,
1018 And gave him graceful posture.
Sicinius Velutus
1019 On the sudden
1020 I warrant him consul.
Junius Brutus
1021 Then our office may
1022 During his power go sleep.
Sicinius Velutus
1023 He cannot temp'rately transport his honours
1024 From where he should begin and end; but will
1025 Lose those he hath won.
Junius Brutus
1026 In that there's comfort.
Sicinius Velutus
1027 Doubt not the commoners, for whom we stand,
1028 But they, upon their ancient malice will forget,
1029 With the least cause these his new honours; which
1030 That he will give them make as little question
1031 As he is proud to do't.
Junius Brutus
1032 I heard him swear,
1033 Were he to stand for consul, never would he
1034 Appear i' the market-place, nor on him put
1035 The napless vesture of humility;
1036 Nor, showing, as the manner is, his wounds
1037 To the people, beg their stinking breaths.
Sicinius Velutus
1038 'Tis right.
Junius Brutus
1039 It was his word: O, he would miss it rather
1040 Than carry it but by the suit of the gentry to him,
1041 And the desire of the nobles.
Sicinius Velutus
1042 I wish no better
1043 Than have him hold that purpose, and to put it
1044 In execution.
Junius Brutus
1045 'Tis most like he will.
Sicinius Velutus
1046 It shall be to him then, as our good wills,
1047 A sure destruction.
Junius Brutus
1048 So it must fall out
1049 To him or our authorities. For an end,
1050 We must suggest the people in what hatred
1051 He still hath held them; that to's power he would
1052 Have made them mules, silenc'd their pleaders, and
1053 Dispropertied their freedoms; holding them,
1054 In human action and capacity,
1055 Of no more soul nor fitness for the world
1056 Than camels in their war; who have their provand
1057 Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows
1058 For sinking under them.
Sicinius Velutus
1059 This, as you say, suggested
1060 At some time when his soaring insolence
1061 Shall touch the people,—which time shall not want,
1062 If it be put upon't; and that's as easy
1063 As to set dogs on sheep,—will be his fire
1064 To kindle their dry stubble; and their blaze
1065 Shall darken him for ever.
[Enter A MESSENGER.]
Junius Brutus
1066 What's the matter?
Messenger
1067 You are sent for to the Capitol. 'Tis thought
1068 That Marcius shall be consul:
1069 I have seen the dumb men throng to see him, and
1070 The blind to hear him speak: matrons flung gloves,
1071 Ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchers,
1072 Upon him as he pass'd; the nobles bended
1073 As to Jove's statue; and the commons made
1074 A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts:
1075 I never saw the like.
Junius Brutus
1076 Let's to the Capitol;
1077 And carry with us ears and eyes for the time,
1078 But hearts for the event.
Sicinius Velutus
1079 Have with you.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 815historical topical
“The augurer tells me we shall have news”
An augurer (or augur) was a Roman state priest who read omens — especially the flight and behavior of birds — to determine whether the gods favored a proposed action. Public business could be halted if the augurs gave an unfavorable reading.
TLN 834historical topical
“of us o' the right-hand file”
'The right-hand file' means the patricians, the noble class — Menenius places himself and his social equals in this category as opposed to the tribunes and the common people. 'File' is a military term for a column of soldiers; the right of the line was the position of honor in a Roman army.
TLN 847rhetorical device
“turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey”
Menenius uses a grotesque impossible-image to say the tribunes should examine their own faults before accusing Coriolanus of pride. If they could twist their eyes to look at the backs of their own heads, they would see what hypocrites they are — a comic physical image for self-examination.
TLN 853archaic vocab
“a humorous patrician”
'Humorous' here means full of mood-swings or whims, unpredictably temperamental — not funny. In Elizabethan medicine the four 'humors' (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile) governed personality; an excess of any one made a person erratic. Menenius cheerfully concedes that he is known for his changeable temper.
TLN 854archaic vocab
“not a drop of allaying Tiber in't”
'Allaying' means diluting or weakening. It was common in Shakespeare's time to water down wine; Menenius jokes that he drinks his wine undiluted — strong and unadulterated — unlike the tepid, compromising posture he ascribes to the tribunes. The Tiber is the river running through Rome.
TLN 856archaic vocab
“converses more with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the morning”
Menenius says he is more a man of the late night than the early morning — he keeps late hours. 'Buttock of the night' (the end, the rear) and 'forehead of the morning' (the face, the very beginning) are comic anatomical metaphors for the far end of night versus the start of day.
TLN 859classical allusion
“I cannot call you Lycurguses”
Lycurgus was the legendary lawgiver of ancient Sparta, credited with creating its austere military constitution. Calling someone a 'Lycurgus' means praising them as a great legislator. Menenius sarcastically denies that the tribunes deserve any such title.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 867archaic vocab
“your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character”
'Bisson' means blind or purblind; 'conspectuities' is a mock-learned word for eyes or sight (from Latin 'conspicere,' to see). Menenius mockingly asks what those purblind eyes of theirs can make out from the self-portrait he has just given — can those dim-sighted men really see him clearly?
TLN 870archaic vocab
“ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs”
'Caps and legs' means the doffed cap and the bent-knee bow — the gestures of deference that the common people make to those in authority. Menenius accuses the tribunes of craving the grovelling respect of the poorest folk, which is the only kind of status they can get. It is an insult: the tribunes seek submission from 'knaves' (low servants), not from men of rank.
TLN 872historical topical
“orange-wife and a fosset-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence”
Menenius mocks the tribunes' actual work as magistrates: they spend the morning judging petty disputes — an orange-seller (a woman who sells oranges, the cheapest fruit) against a faucet-seller (a vendor of tap-fittings and spigots). 'Rejourn' means adjourn. These are the most trivial civil suits imaginable, making the tribunes look like glorified small-claims judges.
TLN 876historical topical
“set up the bloody flag against all patience”
A red or 'bloody' flag (a 'vexillum') was the ancient Roman signal for war — when the red flag was raised above the general's tent, the army prepared to fight. Menenius uses it as a comic image: the tribunes, seized by stomach cramps during a hearing, raise their own private 'flag of war' against patience and roar for a chamber-pot.
TLN 882historical topical
“a necessary bencher in the Capitol”
A 'bencher' is a member of a governing body who literally sits on a bench — here, a senator sitting in the Roman Senate house on the Capitoline Hill (the Capitol). Brutus concedes Menenius is a better dinner-table wit than a useful senator, but 'bencher' simultaneously means a low-ranking official, which demotes Menenius.
TLN 888classical allusion
“worth all your predecessors since Deucalion”
Deucalion was the Greek Noah — the survivor of the great flood who repopulated the world. Saying someone has been the greatest man 'since Deucalion' means since the very beginning of human time. Menenius claims Coriolanus is worth more than all of the tribunes' ancestors stretching back to the dawn of civilization.
TLN 896classical allusion
“for the love of Juno, let's go”
Volumnia swears by Juno, queen of the gods — the natural oath for a Roman woman, since Juno was the patron goddess of women and marriage. 'For the love of Juno' is the equivalent of a strong exclamation ('for God's sake'), giving the scene a Roman cultural texture.
classical Juno, queen of the gods
TLN 900historical topical
“Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee”
In joy Menenius snatches off his cap and throws it in the air — a Roman gesture of celebration — while shouting thanks to Jupiter, the king of the gods, for the good news of Coriolanus's return. Tossing one's cap was a conventional sign of jubilation in both Roman and Elizabethan culture.
classical Jupiter, king of the gods
TLN 910historical topical
“prescription in Galen is but empiricutic, and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench”
Galen was the great Greek physician of the 2nd century CE, whose medical writings were still the foundation of European medicine in Shakespeare's day. 'Empiricutic' (a comic nonce-word) mocks 'empirical' medicine — quack remedies based on mere trial without theory. Menenius says the best medicine Galen ever prescribed is worthless compared to the health he gets from good news about Coriolanus — even a horse-drench (a strong purgative for horses) would do more good.
TLN 917historical topical
“he comes the third time home with the oaken garland”
The 'oaken garland' (corona civica, the civic crown) was one of Rome's highest military awards — a wreath of oak leaves given to a soldier who had saved the life of a fellow Roman citizen in battle. It was worn with pride at public ceremonies; Volumnia notes this is the third time Coriolanus has earned it.
historical The Volscians, Corioli, and Antium
TLN 939historical topical
“in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i' the body”
Volumnia mentions an earlier battle against Tarquin — the last king of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, who tried to retake the city after his expulsion in 509 BCE. Defending the newborn Republic against a king trying to reclaim his throne was the most patriotic cause imaginable. Coriolanus was wounded seven times in that battle.
historical Tarquin and the First Brutus
TLN 949historical topical
“Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did fight Within Corioli gates”
The Herald's proclamation formally bestows the name 'Coriolanus' on Caius Marcius in front of the Roman people, linking the surname to his single-handed entry into Corioli. This is the moment of naming: from here forward the play calls him Coriolanus. Roman honorific surnames (cognomina) were often derived from a military victory.
historical The Volscians, Corioli, and Antium
TLN 966rhetorical device
“My gracious silence, hail”
Coriolanus greets his weeping wife Virgilia as 'My gracious silence' — a term of endearment that also perfectly describes her character. Where Volumnia speaks boldly and argues loudly, Virgilia is almost always quiet; her silence is not weakness but a profound, eloquent restraint. It is one of the play's most famous and tender lines.
TLN 1005archaic vocab
“kitchen malkin pins her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck”
'Malkin' is a slovenly kitchen-maid or scullery girl (the name is a diminutive of Matilda, associated with low-class women). 'Lockram' is a coarse cheap linen fabric. 'Reechy' means smoky, dirty, or greasy. Brutus is painting a picture of the lowest household servant — so excited to see Coriolanus that she drapes her best (but still very rough) cloth around her smoke-stained neck.
TLN 1010historical topical
“seld-shown flamens do press among the popular throngs”
A flamen (plural flamines) was a Roman priest assigned to the cult of a specific god — usually kept to temple duties and subject to strict rules that prevented them from mixing freely in public. 'Seld-shown' means rarely seen. Brutus says even these reclusive priests are jostling into the crowd to see Coriolanus — so great is the spectacle.
TLN 1013classical allusion
“Commit the war of white and damask, in their nicely gawded cheeks, to the wanton spoil of Phoebus' burning kisses”
Brutus describes upper-class women ('our veil'd dames') who normally keep their complexions covered lifting their veils to watch Coriolanus and exposing their fair skin ('white and damask' cheeks — pink and white) to the scorching sun (Phoebus). 'Phoebus' is the sun-god Apollo in his solar aspect. Their elegant complexions, carefully maintained, are ruined by the sun they do not care to avoid.
TLN 1035historical topical
“The napless vesture of humility”
The 'gown (vesture) of humility' was the plain white toga a consul-candidate was required to wear when canvassing the Roman people for their votes. 'Napless' means worn smooth, without any nap (the raised surface of cloth) — threadbare. Brutus reports that Coriolanus has sworn he would never put on this deliberately humble garment to beg the citizens' suffrages.
historical The Consulship and the Gown of Humility
TLN 1072classical allusion
“the nobles bended as to Jove's statue”
The Messenger says the nobles bowed to Coriolanus as if before a statue of Jove (Jupiter), king of the gods. The cult statue of Jupiter in his great temple on the Capitoline Hill was the most sacred image in Rome — a seated figure of supreme majesty. Bowing to it was the deepest act of Roman religious reverence. Applying this to a living man is a striking, almost dangerous, comparison.
classical Jupiter, king of the gods