Act 3, Scene 1

Rome. A street

[Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, Senators, and Patricians.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1527 Tullus Aufidius, then, had made new head?
Titus Lartius
1528 He had, my lord; and that it was which caus'd
1529 Our swifter composition.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1530 So then the Volsces stand but as at first;
1531 Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road
1532 Upon's again.
Cominius
1533 They are worn, lord consul, so
1534 That we shall hardly in our ages see
1535 Their banners wave again.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1536 Saw you Aufidius?
Titus Lartius
1537 On safeguard he came to me; and did curse
1538 Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely
1539 Yielded the town; he is retir'd to Antium.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1540 Spoke he of me?
Titus Lartius
1541 He did, my lord.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1542 How? What?
Titus Lartius
1543 How often he had met you, sword to sword;
1544 That of all things upon the earth he hated
1545 Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes
1546 To hopeless restitution, so he might
1547 Be call'd your vanquisher.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1548 At Antium lives he?
Titus Lartius
1549 At Antium.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1550 I wish I had a cause to seek him there,
1551 To oppose his hatred fully.—Welcome home.
[To Laertes.]
[Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1552 Behold! these are the tribunes of the people;
1553 The tongues o' the common mouth. I do despise them,
1554 For they do prank them in authority,
1555 Against all noble sufferance.
Sicinius Velutus
1556 Pass no further.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1557 Ha! what is that?
Junius Brutus
1558 It will be dangerous to go on: no further.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1559 What makes this change?
Menenius Agrippa
1560 The matter?
Cominius
1561 Hath he not pass'd the noble and the commons?
Junius Brutus
1562 Cominius, no.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1563 Have I had children's voices?
First Senator
1564 Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place.
Junius Brutus
1565 The people are incens'd against him.
Sicinius Velutus
1566 Stop,
1567 Or all will fall in broil.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1568 Are these your herd?—
1569 Must these have voices, that can yield them now,
1570 And straight disclaim their tongues?—What are your offices?
1571 You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?
1572 Have you not set them on?
Menenius Agrippa
1573 Be calm, be calm.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1574 It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot,
1575 To curb the will of the nobility:
1576 Suffer't, and live with such as cannot rule,
1577 Nor ever will be rul'd.
Junius Brutus
1578 Call't not a plot:
1579 The people cry you mock'd them; and of late,
1580 When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd;
1581 Scandal'd the suppliants for the people,—call'd them
1582 Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1583 Why, this was known before.
Junius Brutus
1584 Not to them all.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1585 Have you inform'd them sithence?
Junius Brutus
1586 How! I inform them!
Cominius
1587 You are like to do such business.
Junius Brutus
1588 Not unlike,
1589 Each way, to better yours.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1590 Why, then, should I be consul? By yond clouds,
1591 Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me
1592 Your fellow tribune.
Sicinius Velutus
1593 You show too much of that
1594 For which the people stir: if you will pass
1595 To where you are bound, you must inquire your way,
1596 Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit;
1597 Or never be so noble as a consul,
1598 Nor yoke with him for tribune.
Menenius Agrippa
1599 Let's be calm.
Cominius
1600 The people are abus'd; set on. This palt'ring
1601 Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus
1602 Deserv'd this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely
1603 I' the plain way of his merit.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1604 Tell me of corn!
1605 This was my speech, and I will speak't again,—
Menenius Agrippa
1606 Not now, not now.
First Senator
1607 Not in this heat, sir, now.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1608 Now, as I live, I will.—My nobler friends,
1609 I crave their pardons:
1610 For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them
1611 Regard me as I do not flatter, and
1612 Therein behold themselves: I say again,
1613 In soothing them we nourish 'gainst our senate
1614 The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,
1615 Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd,
1616 By mingling them with us, the honour'd number,
1617 Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that
1618 Which they have given to beggars.
Menenius Agrippa
1619 Well, no more.
First Senator
1620 No more words, we beseech you.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1621 How! no more!
1622 As for my country I have shed my blood,
1623 Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
1624 Coin words till their decay against those measles
1625 Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought
1626 The very way to catch them.
Junius Brutus
1627 You speak o' the people
1628 As if you were a god, to punish, not
1629 A man of their infirmity.
Sicinius Velutus
1630 'Twere well
1631 We let the people know't.
Menenius Agrippa
1632 What, what? his choler?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1633 Choler!
1634 Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,
1635 By Jove, 'twould be my mind!
Sicinius Velutus
1636 It is a mind
1637 That shall remain a poison where it is,
1638 Not poison any further.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1639 Shall remain!—
1640 Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you
1641 His absolute 'shall'?
Cominius
1642 'Twas from the canon.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1643 'Shall'!
1644 O good, but most unwise patricians! why,
1645 You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
1646 Given Hydra leave to choose an officer,
1647 That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but
1648 The horn and noise o' the monster, wants not spirit
1649 To say he'll turn your current in a ditch,
1650 And make your channel his? If he have power,
1651 Then vail your ignorance: if none, awake
1652 Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd,
1653 Be not as common fools; if you are not,
1654 Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
1655 If they be senators: and they are no less
1656 When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste
1657 Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate;
1658 And such a one as he, who puts his 'shall,'
1659 His popular 'shall,' against a graver bench
1660 Than ever frown'd in Greece. By Jove himself,
1661 It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches
1662 To know, when two authorities are up,
1663 Neither supreme, how soon confusion
1664 May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take
1665 The one by the other.
Cominius
1666 Well, on to the market-place.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1667 Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth
1668 The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas us'd
1669 Sometime in Greece,—
Menenius Agrippa
1670 Well, well, no more of that.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1671 Though there the people had more absolute power,—
1672 I say they nourish'd disobedience, fed
1673 The ruin of the state.
Junius Brutus
1674 Why shall the people give
1675 One that speaks thus their voice?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1676 I'll give my reasons,
1677 More worthier than their voices. They know the corn
1678 Was not our recompense, resting well assur'd
1679 They ne'er did service for't; being press'd to the war,
1680 Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,
1681 They would not thread the gates,—this kind of service
1682 Did not deserve corn gratis: being i' the war,
1683 Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd
1684 Most valour, spoke not for them. The accusation
1685 Which they have often made against the senate,
1686 All cause unborn, could never be the motive
1687 Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?
1688 How shall this bisson multitude digest
1689 The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express
1690 What's like to be their words:—'We did request it;
1691 We are the greater poll, and in true fear
1692 They gave us our demands:'— Thus we debase
1693 The nature of our seats, and make the rabble
1694 Call our cares fears; which will in time
1695 Break ope the locks o' the senate and bring in
1696 The crows to peck the eagles.—
Menenius Agrippa
1697 Come, enough.
Junius Brutus
1698 Enough, with over-measure.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1699 No, take more:
1700 What may be sworn by, both divine and human,
1701 Seal what I end withal!—This double worship,—
1702 Where one part does disdain with cause, the other
1703 Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom,
1704 Cannot conclude but by the yea and no
1705 Of general ignorance—it must omit
1706 Real necessities, and give way the while
1707 To unstable slightness: purpose so barr'd, it follows,
1708 Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you,—
1709 You that will be less fearful than discreet;
1710 That love the fundamental part of state
1711 More than you doubt the change on't; that prefer
1712 A noble life before a long, and wish
1713 To jump a body with a dangerous physic
1714 That's sure of death without it,—at once pluck out
1715 The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick
1716 The sweet which is their poison: your dishonour
1717 Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the state
1718 Of that integrity which should become't;
1719 Not having the power to do the good it would,
1720 For the ill which doth control't.
Junius Brutus
1721 Has said enough.
Sicinius Velutus
1722 Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer
1723 As traitors do.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1724 Thou wretch, despite o'erwhelm thee!—
1725 What should the people do with these bald tribunes?
1726 On whom depending, their obedience fails
1727 To the greater bench: in a rebellion,
1728 When what's not meet, but what must be, was law,
1729 Then were they chosen; in a better hour
1730 Let what is meet be said it must be meet,
1731 And throw their power i' the dust.
Junius Brutus
1732 Manifest treason!
Sicinius Velutus
1733 This a consul? no.
Junius Brutus
1734 The aediles, ho!—Let him be apprehended.
Sicinius Velutus
1735 Go call the people
[Exit BRUTUS.]
Sicinius Velutus
1736 ; in whose name myself
1737 Attach thee as a traitorous innovator,
1738 A foe to the public weal. Obey, I charge thee,
1739 And follow to thine answer.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1740 Hence, old goat!
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1741 SENATORS and PATRICIANS.
1742 We'll surety him.
Cominius
1743 Aged sir, hands off.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1744 Hence, rotten thing! or I shall shake thy bones
1745 Out of thy garments.
Sicinius Velutus
1746 Help, ye citizens!
[Re-enter Brutus, with the AEDILES and a rabble of Citizens.]
Menenius Agrippa
1747 On both sides more respect.
Sicinius Velutus
1748 Here's he that would take from you all your power.
Junius Brutus
1749 Seize him, aediles.
Citizens
1750 Down with him! down with him!
Second Senator
1751 Weapons, weapons, weapons!
[They all bustle about CORIOLANUS.]
Second Senator
1752 Tribunes! patricians! citizens!—What, ho!—
1753 Sicinius, Brutus, Coriolanus, Citizens!
Citizens
1754 Peace, peace, peace; stay, hold, peace!
Menenius Agrippa
1755 What is about to be?—I am out of breath;
1756 Confusion's near: I cannot speak.—You tribunes
1757 To the people,—Coriolanus, patience:—
1758 Speak, good Sicinius.
Sicinius Velutus
1759 Hear me, people: peace!
Citizens
1760 Let's hear our tribune: peace!—
1761 Speak, speak, speak.
Sicinius Velutus
1762 You are at point to lose your liberties;
1763 Marcius would have all from you; Marcius,
1764 Whom late you have nam'd for consul.
Menenius Agrippa
1765 Fie, fie, fie!
1766 This is the way to kindle, not to quench.
First Senator
1767 To unbuild the city, and to lay all flat.
Sicinius Velutus
1768 What is the city but the people?
1769 CITIZENS.
1770 True,
1771 The people are the city.
Junius Brutus
1772 By the consent of all, we were establish'd
1773 The people's magistrates.
Citizens
1774 You so remain.
Menenius Agrippa
1775 And so are like to do.
Cominius
1776 That is the way to lay the city flat;
1777 To bring the roof to the foundation,
1778 And bury all which yet distinctly ranges,
1779 In heaps and piles of ruin.
Sicinius Velutus
1780 This deserves death.
Junius Brutus
1781 Or let us stand to our authority,
1782 Or let us lose it.—We do here pronounce,
1783 Upon the part o' the people, in whose power
1784 We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy
1785 Of present death.
Sicinius Velutus
1786 Therefore lay hold of him;
1787 Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence
1788 Into destruction cast him.
Junius Brutus
1789 Aediles, seize him!
Citizens
1790 Yield, Marcius, yield!
Menenius Agrippa
1791 Hear me one word;
1792 Beseech you, tribunes, hear me but a word.
Aedile
1793 Peace, peace!
Menenius Agrippa
1794 Be that you seem, truly your country's friends,
1795 And temperately proceed to what you would
1796 Thus violently redress.
Junius Brutus
1797 Sir, those cold ways,
1798 That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous
1799 Where the disease is violent.—Lay hands upon him
1800 And bear him to the rock.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1801 No; I'll die here.
[Draws his sword.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1802 There's some among you have beheld me fighting;
1803 Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me.
Menenius Agrippa
1804 Down with that sword!—Tribunes, withdraw awhile.
Junius Brutus
1805 Lay hands upon him.
Menenius Agrippa
1806 Help Marcius, help,
1807 You that be noble; help him, young and old!
Citizens
1808 Down with him, down with him!
[In this mutiny the TRIBUNES, the AEDILES, and the people are beat in.]
Menenius Agrippa
1809 Go, get you to your house; be gone, away!
1810 All will be nought else.
Second Senator
1811 Get you gone.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1812 Stand fast;
1813 We have as many friends as enemies.
Menenius Agrippa
1814 Shall it be put to that?
First Senator
1815 The gods forbid:
1816 I pr'ythee, noble friend, home to thy house;
1817 Leave us to cure this cause.
Menenius Agrippa
1818 For 'tis a sore upon us
1819 You cannot tent yourself; be gone, beseech you.
Cominius
1820 Come, sir, along with us.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1821 I would they were barbarians,—as they are,
1822 Though in Rome litter'd,—not Romans,—as they are not,
1823 Though calv'd i' the porch o' the Capitol.
Menenius Agrippa
1824 Be gone;
1825 Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
1826 One time will owe another.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1827 On fair ground
1828 I could beat forty of them.
Menenius Agrippa
1829 I could myself
1830 Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the two tribunes.
Cominius
1831 But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic;
1832 And manhood is call'd foolery when it stands
1833 Against a falling fabric.—Will you hence,
1834 Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
1835 Like interrupted waters, and o'erbear
1836 What they are used to bear.
Menenius Agrippa
1837 Pray you be gone:
1838 I'll try whether my old wit be in request
1839 With those that have but little: this must be patch'd
1840 With cloth of any colour.
Cominius
1841 Nay, come away.
[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and others.]
First Patrician
1842 This man has marr'd his fortune.
Menenius Agrippa
1843 His nature is too noble for the world:
1844 He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
1845 Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth:
1846 What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;
1847 And, being angry, does forget that ever
1848 He heard the name of death.
[A noise within.]
Menenius Agrippa
1849 Here's goodly work!
Second Patrician
1850 I would they were a-bed!
Menenius Agrippa
1851 I would they were in Tiber!
1852 What the vengeance, could he not speak 'em fair?
[Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the rabble.]
Sicinius Velutus
1853 Where is this viper
1854 That would depopulate the city and
1855 Be every man himself?
Menenius Agrippa
1856 You worthy tribunes,—
Sicinius Velutus
1857 He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock
1858 With rigorous hands: he hath resisted law,
1859 And therefore law shall scorn him further trial
1860 Than the severity of the public power,
1861 Which he so sets at nought.
First Citizen
1862 He shall well know
1863 The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,
1864 And we their hands.
Citizens
1865 He shall, sure on't.
Menenius Agrippa
1866 Sir, sir,—
Sicinius Velutus
1867 Peace!
Menenius Agrippa
1868 Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt
1869 With modest warrant.
Sicinius Velutus
1870 Sir, how comes't that you
1871 Have holp to make this rescue?
Menenius Agrippa
1872 Hear me speak:—
1873 As I do know the consul's worthiness,
1874 So can I name his faults,—
Sicinius Velutus
1875 Consul!—what consul?
Menenius Agrippa
1876 The consul Coriolanus.
Junius Brutus
1877 He consul!
Citizens
1878 No, no, no, no, no.
Menenius Agrippa
1879 If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people,
1880 I may be heard, I would crave a word or two;
1881 The which shall turn you to no further harm
1882 Than so much loss of time.
Sicinius Velutus
1883 Speak briefly, then;
1884 For we are peremptory to dispatch
1885 This viperous traitor: to eject him hence
1886 Were but one danger; and to keep him here
1887 Our certain death: therefore it is decreed
1888 He dies to-night.
Menenius Agrippa
1889 Now the good gods forbid
1890 That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
1891 Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
1892 In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
1893 Should now eat up her own!
Sicinius Velutus
1894 He's a disease that must be cut away.
Menenius Agrippa
1895 O, he's a limb that has but a disease;
1896 Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.
1897 What has he done to Rome that's worthy death?
1898 Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost,—
1899 Which I dare vouch is more than that he hath
1900 By many an ounce,—he dropt it for his country;
1901 And what is left, to lose it by his country
1902 Were to us all, that do't and suffer it
1903 A brand to the end o' the world.
Sicinius Velutus
1904 This is clean kam.
Junius Brutus
1905 Merely awry: when he did love his country,
1906 It honour'd him.
Menenius Agrippa
1907 The service of the foot,
1908 Being once gangren'd, is not then respected
1909 For what before it was.
Junius Brutus
1910 We'll hear no more.—
1911 Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence;
1912 Lest his infection, being of catching nature,
1913 Spread further.
Menenius Agrippa
1914 One word more, one word.
1915 This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find
1916 The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will, too late,
1917 Tie leaden pounds to's heels. Proceed by process;
1918 Lest parties,—as he is belov'd,—break out,
1919 And sack great Rome with Romans.
Junius Brutus
1920 If it were so,—
Sicinius Velutus
1921 What do ye talk?
1922 Have we not had a taste of his obedience?
1923 Our aediles smote? ourselves resisted?—come,—
Menenius Agrippa
1924 Consider this:—he has been bred i' the wars
1925 Since 'a could draw a sword, and is ill school'd
1926 In bolted language; meal and bran together
1927 He throws without distinction. Give me leave,
1928 I'll go to him and undertake to bring him
1929 Where he shall answer, by a lawful form,
1930 In peace, to his utmost peril.
First Senator
1931 Noble tribunes,
1932 It is the humane way: the other course
1933 Will prove too bloody; and the end of it
1934 Unknown to the beginning.
Sicinius Velutus
1935 Noble Menenius,
1936 Be you then as the people's officer.—
1937 Masters, lay down your weapons.
Junius Brutus
1938 Go not home.
Sicinius Velutus
1939 Meet on the market-place.—We'll attend you there:
1940 Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed
1941 In our first way.
Menenius Agrippa
1942 I'll bring him to you.—
[To the SENATORS.]
Menenius Agrippa
1943 Let me desire your company: he must come,
1944 Or what is worst will follow.
First Senator
1945 Pray you let's to him.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1527archaic vocab
“had made new head”
'Made new head' means raised a new force or mustered fresh troops. Coriolanus is asking whether Aufidius has rebuilt his army after the defeat at Corioli.
TLN 1529archaic vocab
“swifter composition”
'Composition' here means a peace agreement or truce. Lartius is explaining that Aufidius's regrouping forced the Romans into a quicker settlement of terms than they might otherwise have made.
TLN 1531archaic vocab
“to make road Upon's again”
'Make road upon' means to make a raid or incursion against. Coriolanus predicts that the Volscians, once recovered, will plunder Roman territory again.
TLN 1537archaic vocab
“On safeguard he came to me”
'On safeguard' means under a pledge of safe conduct — a guarantee of protection that allowed an enemy officer to travel under a flag of truce and return unharmed. Aufidius came to Lartius at Corioli as a diplomatic visitor, not as a prisoner.
TLN 1554archaic vocab
“prank them in authority, Against all noble sufferance”
To 'prank' oneself is to dress up or show off ostentatiously. 'Noble sufferance' means what the nobility can patiently bear. Coriolanus is saying that the tribunes deck themselves out in their official authority in a way that goes beyond what any self-respecting patrician should tolerate.
TLN 1563historical topical
“Have I had children's voices”
'Voices' is the Roman word for votes or electoral approval. Coriolanus has just been through the ritual of begging each citizen individually for his 'voice' — his vote for the consulship. He now asks whether he received the votes of mere children, implying the citizens have no right to rescind what they already granted.
historical The Consulship and the Gown of Humility
TLN 1574historical topical
“It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility”
Coriolanus accuses the tribunes of engineering a deliberate conspiracy to strip power from the Senate and the patrician class. From the very beginning of the play the tribunes have in fact been scheming to provoke Coriolanus into exactly this kind of public outburst, which they will then use against him.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 1580historical topical
“corn was given them gratis, you repin'd”
'Gratis' means freely, without charge. 'Repin'd' means complained or grumbled. Brutus is reminding Coriolanus that he publicly objected when the Senate distributed free grain to the hungry people — which is documented in Act 3 as having been Coriolanus's stated opinion. This grain distribution and his opposition to it are the chief grievance the people hold against him.
TLN 1585archaic vocab
“Have you inform'd them sithence”
'Sithence' is an archaic word meaning 'since then.' Coriolanus is asking sarcastically whether Brutus has told the people — since the alleged speech — that Coriolanus had said those things.
TLN 1610rhetorical device
“mutable, rank-scented many”
Coriolanus heaps two insults into one compound: 'mutable' means fickle, changeable, unreliable; 'rank-scented' means foul-smelling. The image of the common crowd as a stinking, swaying mass recurs throughout the play and tracks Coriolanus's deep revulsion at physical closeness with the poor. 'Many' is a noun meaning 'the multitude.'
TLN 1614rhetorical device
“cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd”
A cockle is a weed that grows among grain and chokes it. The extended agricultural metaphor casts the Senate as the farmer and the tribunes' power as the weed: by granting the people a political voice, the patricians have literally sown their own destruction. The triple listing — 'plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd' — hammers the point home.
TLN 1624archaic vocab
“Coin words till their decay against those measles Which we disdain should tetter us”
'Coin words' means to keep minting, keep spending his breath in speech. 'Measles' here means carriers of a contagious disease — the people as a pestilence. 'Tetter' means to infect with a skin disease (a tetter is an eruptive skin condition). Coriolanus will keep speaking against the people as long as his lungs last, since he refuses to be contaminated by association with them.
TLN 1635cultural context
“By Jove, 'twould be my mind”
Coriolanus swears by Jove (Jupiter), king of the Roman gods. This is the normal Roman oath in the play, not a Christian one; the play is set centuries before Christianity. The oath signals that even perfect calm would not change his view of the tribunes.
TLN 1640classical allusion
“Triton of the minnows”
Triton was the son of Neptune (god of the sea) and himself a sea-god: a great, powerful figure who blew a conch-shell horn to calm or stir the waves. To call Sicinius a 'Triton of the minnows' is to mock him as a trumpeting sea-god presiding over mere small fish — a grand title among contemptible people. The insult measures the gap between the tribune's pretensions and his real standing in Coriolanus's eyes.
TLN 1642archaic vocab
“'Twas from the canon”
'From the canon' means outside the established rule, contrary to established law or custom. Cominius is saying that Sicinius's use of the imperious word 'shall' is irregular — it oversteps the tribunes' constitutional authority to dictate to the consuls.
TLN 1646classical allusion
“Given Hydra leave to choose an officer”
The Hydra was a many-headed water-serpent of Greek myth: cut off one head and two grew back. Coriolanus uses it as an image for the Roman mob — a monster with many mouths (voters), impossible to suppress. Giving the Hydra leave to 'choose an officer' means allowing this uncontrollable beast to elect magistrates (the tribunes) with power over the Senate.
TLN 1651archaic vocab
“vail your ignorance: if none, awake Your dangerous lenity”
'Vail' means to lower, to submit, or to doff respectfully (as one lowers a flag in surrender). 'Lenity' means excessive gentleness or leniency. Coriolanus is telling the senators: if the tribunes truly have power, bow your heads and submit to it; if they do not, then wake up and stop being dangerously soft with them.
TLN 1654historical topical
“let them have cushions by you”
Cushions were the seats of senators in the Roman Curia. To say 'let them have cushions by you' is to say: give them seats as senators — acknowledge them as your equals in government. Coriolanus's argument is that by sharing power with the people's tribunes, the patrician senators have effectively ceased to be a separate, superior order.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 1662historical topical
“when two authorities are up, Neither supreme, how soon confusion May enter 'twixt the gap of both”
Coriolanus states the central political argument of the scene: a state cannot have two supreme powers (Senate and tribunes) without confusion — disorder will enter through the gap between them and destroy both. This is a classic argument against a mixed or divided constitution, heard from Roman aristocrats who resented the tribunate from its founding.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 1680rhetorical device
“navel of the state was touch'd”
The navel is the body's centre; the state imagined as a body means its vital core. Coriolanus is saying that even when the very centre of Rome was under attack — its survival at stake — the people refused to march through the city gates and fight. The image of the state as a body links back to Menenius's belly-and-members fable from Act 1.
historical The Fable of the Belly and the Members
TLN 1688archaic vocab
“bisson multitude digest The senate's courtesy”
'Bisson' means blind or purblind — unable to see clearly. The 'bisson multitude' is the people seen as politically blind, unable to understand statesmanship. 'Digest' is literal and ironic: the crowd has already swallowed ('digested') the Senate's generosity of free corn, yet cannot process or appreciate it.
TLN 1691archaic vocab
“We are the greater poll”
'Poll' means head, and by extension the count of heads (the modern sense of 'polling' comes from this). 'The greater poll' means the majority — the larger number of votes. Coriolanus is mimicking the people's reasoning: they demanded the corn because they are the majority, and the Senate complied out of fear, not generosity.
TLN 1695rhetorical device
“bring in The crows to peck the eagles”
The eagle was Rome's sacred bird and the emblem of its legions; the crow, by contrast, was a scavenger and a byword for worthless boldness. To let crows peck eagles is to let the low override the high, the corrupt devour the noble. The image encapsulates Coriolanus's class politics in a single animal metaphor.
historical The great chain of being (order and degree)
TLN 1701historical topical
“This double worship,— Where one part does disdain with cause, the other Insult without all reason”
'Worship' here means authority or governing power — the honoured office of those who rule. 'Double worship' is two competing powers (Senate and tribunes) each claiming supremacy. Coriolanus defines the political crisis: the patricians look down on the plebeians with justified contempt, while the plebeians override the nobles without rational grounds. The argument is that no mixed sovereignty can function.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 1713archaic vocab
“jump a body with a dangerous physic”
'Jump' means to risk or hazard. 'Physic' means medicine or a medicinal treatment. The metaphor is surgical: Coriolanus urges the senators to risk a dangerous cure on the body politic (Rome), since without it the state is certain to die. He is advocating the forcible removal of the tribunes' power as a painful but necessary operation.
TLN 1714rhetorical device
“pluck out The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick The sweet which is their poison”
Coriolanus uses a grotesque body-image: the people have a single enormous collective 'tongue' (the tribunes) through which they speak and vote — plucking it out means abolishing the tribunate. 'Let them not lick the sweet which is their poison' means: stop giving them political concessions (the sweetness of power) that only encourage more dangerous demands.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 1722historical topical
“spoken like a traitor, and shall answer As traitors do”
Sicinius formally charges Coriolanus with treason against the Roman people, the gravest charge a tribune could bring. In Roman law a man accused by the tribunes could be tried before an assembly of the people; the penalty for treason could be death — specifically, being thrown from the Tarpeian rock. The scene is on the edge of legal execution.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 1727historical topical
“in a rebellion, When what's not meet, but what must be, was law, Then were they chosen”
Coriolanus argues that the tribunate was created during a crisis — the secession of the plebs, a rebellion — when emergency forced the Senate's hand. 'What must be' was law because the state had no choice. Now that the emergency is over, he argues, the tribunes' power should be revoked. This is historically accurate: the tribunate was conceded under duress in 494 BCE when the plebeians walked out of Rome.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 1734historical topical
“The aediles, ho!—Let him be apprehended”
The aediles were Roman officials who served under the tribunes as a kind of police or enforcement officers; they could physically arrest citizens at a tribune's command. Brutus is calling for the officers who will seize Coriolanus and drag him to the Tarpeian rock.
TLN 1737archaic vocab
“Attach thee as a traitorous innovator, A foe to the public weal”
'Attach' here is a legal term: to seize or arrest. 'Innovator' means one who brings in unwanted novelty or change — in the political vocabulary of the period, an innovator was a dangerous subverter of established order, not a creative person. 'Public weal' means the common good or commonwealth. Sicinius is formally placing Coriolanus under arrest.
TLN 1787historical topical
“Bear him to the rock Tarpeian, and from thence Into destruction cast him”
The Tarpeian rock was the southern cliff of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, from which condemned criminals — especially traitors — were thrown to their death. It was a specific mode of Roman public execution. Sicinius is demanding the most dramatic form of death available to the tribunes: mob justice on the spot, with Coriolanus hurled from Rome's own sacred hill.
TLN 1822rhetorical device
“Though in Rome litter'd,—not Romans,—as they are not, Though calv'd i' the porch o' the Capitol”
Coriolanus applies animal birth-language to the Roman crowd: 'litter'd' means born as an animal litters young, and 'calv'd' means born as a cow calves. To be born in Rome makes you a Roman in name only, as far as Coriolanus is concerned; being born in the porch of the Capitol — the most sacred spot in Rome — would not give such people the soul of real Romans. The insults are deliberate: he denies the people their very humanity and civic identity.
TLN 1826archaic vocab
“One time will owe another”
Menenius means that one occasion of restraint will be repaid by a better opportunity later — 'time will buy time,' or this moment of holding back will earn a better moment for acting. It is a pragmatic counsel of patience from Rome's most diplomatic patrician.
TLN 1833archaic vocab
“Against a falling fabric.—Will you hence, Before the tag return”
'Fabric' here means a building or structure — the 'falling fabric' is the collapsing edifice of the crowd about to rush back. 'Tag' (or 'tag-rag') means the rabble, the riff-raff. Cominius is urging Coriolanus to leave before the mob, which has temporarily scattered, regroups and returns.
TLN 1839rhetorical device
“This must be patch'd With cloth of any colour”
Menenius, the play's consummate politician, says the crisis must be patched up with whatever comes to hand — any argument, any face-saving story will do, regardless of consistency. The image of patchwork (mismatched cloth) suits his approach throughout: he is a pragmatist willing to compromise where Coriolanus cannot bend.
TLN 1844classical allusion
“He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for's power to thunder”
Neptune (god of the sea) carries a three-pronged trident, the symbol of his power over the waters; Jove (Jupiter) commands the thunderbolt. Menenius says Coriolanus's honesty is absolute: he would not say one flattering word even to gain the trident of Neptune or the thunderbolt of Jove — he would not lie to possess the power of the gods themselves. The hyperbole measures Coriolanus's integrity and his catastrophic inability to compromise.
TLN 1868archaic vocab
“Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt With modest warrant”
'Cry havoc' was a military signal meaning 'no quarter' — permission for soldiers to pillage and slaughter without restraint. 'Modest warrant' means a limited, lawful commission or authority. Menenius tells the tribunes: do not unleash wholesale destruction when a measured, legal process would serve. The contrast is between mob execution and due process.
TLN 1870archaic vocab
“How comes't that you Have holp to make this rescue”
'Holp' is the archaic past tense of 'help.' Sicinius accuses Menenius of having helped Coriolanus escape arrest — a legally dangerous charge: helping a man evade the tribunes' authority was itself a violation of their sacrosanct power.
TLN 1892rhetorical device
“like an unnatural dam Should now eat up her own”
A 'dam' is a mother animal (a mother bear, wolf, etc.). An 'unnatural dam' is a mother who eats her own young — the most monstrous possible perversion of maternal instinct. Menenius is arguing that Rome, by executing Coriolanus, would devour her best child, the man who has given her his blood in her wars. The image anticipates the mother-son tragedy that is the play's emotional core.
TLN 1904archaic vocab
“This is clean kam”
'Clean kam' means entirely crooked or perverse — completely beside the point. 'Kam' (or 'cam') is a dialect word meaning crooked, bent, or wrong. Sicinius dismisses Menenius's argument — that killing Rome's best soldier would be a 'brand to the end of the world' — as entirely beside the issue.
TLN 1907rhetorical device
“The service of the foot, Being once gangren'd, is not then respected For what before it was”
Menenius continues his body-politic argument: a gangrenous foot is not valued for the service it gave before it rotted. Brutus turns Menenius's own imagery back at him — Coriolanus is now the diseased limb that must be cut off for the body's survival. The exchange shows both sides using the same medical-political metaphor to opposite ends.
historical The Fable of the Belly and the Members
TLN 1915rhetorical device
“This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will, too late, Tie leaden pounds to's heels”
Menenius warns that swift, unthinking rage — like a tiger's charge — discovers its own harm too late and then tries to slow itself with 'leaden pounds' (heavy weights on the feet, like shackles). The image is of a process that cannot be reversed: once the execution is carried out, regret is useless. The metaphor argues powerfully for due process over mob justice.
TLN 1917historical topical
“Proceed by process”
Menenius urges the tribunes to follow Roman legal procedure — formal charge, trial, hearing — rather than immediate mob execution. 'Process' is a legal term for the steps of a prosecution. His argument succeeds: the tribunes agree to a formal trial at the market-place, which moves the action to 3.3.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 1925archaic vocab
“ill school'd In bolted language; meal and bran together He throws without distinction”
'Bolted' language is speech that has been sifted (a bolt is a fine sieve that separates flour from bran). To speak bolted language is to sift your words carefully for polite company. Menenius is excusing Coriolanus: he is a soldier, trained since childhood in war, not in the art of civil speech — he 'throws meal and bran together,' fine words and coarse ones, without discrimination.