Act 3, Scene 2

Rome. A room in CORIOLANUS'S house.

[Enter CORIOLANUS and Patricians.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1946 Let them pull all about mine ears; present me
1947 Death on the wheel, or at wild horses' heels;
1948 Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
1949 That the precipitation might down stretch
1950 Below the beam of sight; yet will I still
1951 Be thus to them.
First Patrician
1952 You do the nobler.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1953 I muse my mother
1954 Does not approve me further, who was wont
1955 To call them woollen vassals, things created
1956 To buy and sell with groats; to show bare heads
1957 In congregations, to yawn, be still, and wonder,
1958 When one but of my ordinance stood up
1959 To speak of peace or war.
[Enter VOLUMNIA.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1960 I talk of you:
[To Volumnia.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1961 Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me
1962 False to my nature? Rather say, I play
1963 The man I am.
Volumnia
1964 O, sir, sir, sir,
1965 I would have had you put your power well on
1966 Before you had worn it out.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1967 Let go.
Volumnia
1968 You might have been enough the man you are
1969 With striving less to be so: lesser had been
1970 The thwartings of your dispositions, if
1971 You had not show'd them how ye were dispos'd,
1972 Ere they lack'd power to cross you.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1973 Let them hang.
Volumnia
1974 Ay, and burn too.
[Enter MENENIUS with the SENATORS.]
Menenius Agrippa
1975 Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough;
1976 You must return and mend it.
First Senator
1977 There's no remedy;
1978 Unless, by not so doing, our good city
1979 Cleave in the midst, and perish.
Volumnia
1980 Pray be counsell'd;
1981 I have a heart as little apt as yours,
1982 But yet a brain that leads my use of anger
1983 To better vantage.
Menenius Agrippa
1984 Well said, noble woman!
1985 Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that
1986 The violent fit o' the time craves it as physic
1987 For the whole state, I would put mine armour on,
1988 Which I can scarcely bear.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1989 What must I do?
Menenius Agrippa
1990 Return to the tribunes.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1991 Well, what then? what then?
Menenius Agrippa
1992 Repent what you have spoke.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
1993 For them?—I cannot do it to the gods;
1994 Must I then do't to them?
Volumnia
1995 You are too absolute;
1996 Though therein you can never be too noble
1997 But when extremities speak. I have heard you say
1998 Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,
1999 I' the war do grow together: grant that, and tell me
2000 In peace what each of them by th' other lose
2001 That they combine not there.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2002 Tush, tush!
Menenius Agrippa
2003 A good demand.
Volumnia
2004 If it be honour in your wars to seem
2005 The same you are not,—which for your best ends
2006 You adopt your policy,—how is it less or worse
2007 That it shall hold companionship in peace
2008 With honour as in war; since that to both
2009 It stands in like request?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2010 Why force you this?
Volumnia
2011 Because that now it lies you on to speak
2012 To the people; not by your own instruction,
2013 Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you,
2014 But with such words that are but rooted in
2015 Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables
2016 Of no allowance, to your bosom's truth.
2017 Now, this no more dishonours you at all
2018 Than to take in a town with gentle words,
2019 Which else would put you to your fortune and
2020 The hazard of much blood.
2021 I would dissemble with my nature where
2022 My fortunes and my friends at stake requir'd
2023 I should do so in honour: I am in this
2024 Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
2025 And you will rather show our general louts
2026 How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon 'em
2027 For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard
2028 Of what that want might ruin.
Menenius Agrippa
2029 Noble lady!—
2030 Come, go with us; speak fair: you may salve so,
2031 Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
2032 Of what is past.
Volumnia
2033 I pr'ythee now, my son,
2034 Go to them with this bonnet in thy hand;
2035 And thus far having stretch'd it,—here be with them,—
2036 Thy knee bussing the stones,—for in such busines
2037 Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
2038 More learned than the ears,—waving thy head,
2039 Which often, thus correcting thy stout heart,
2040 Now humble as the ripest mulberry
2041 That will not hold the handling: or say to them
2042 Thou art their soldier, and, being bred in broils,
2043 Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess,
2044 Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,
2045 In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame
2046 Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
2047 As thou hast power and person.
Menenius Agrippa
2048 This but done
2049 Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours:
2050 For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free
2051 As words to little purpose.
Volumnia
2052 Pr'ythee now,
2053 Go, and be rul'd; although I know thou had'st rather
2054 Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf
2055 Than flatter him in a bower.
[Enter COMINIUS.]
Volumnia
2056 Here is Cominius.
Cominius
2057 I have been i' the market-place; and, sir, 'tis fit
2058 You make strong party, or defend yourself
2059 By calmness or by absence: all's in anger.
Menenius Agrippa
2060 Only fair speech.
Cominius
2061 I think 'twill serve, if he
2062 Can thereto frame his spirit.
Volumnia
2063 He must, and will.—
2064 Pr'ythee now, say you will, and go about it.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2065 Must I go show them my unbarb'd sconce? must I
2066 With my base tongue, give to my noble heart
2067 A lie, that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
2068 Yet, were there but this single plot to lose,
2069 This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it,
2070 And throw't against the wind.—To the market-place:—
2071 You have put me now to such a part which never
2072 I shall discharge to the life.
Cominius
2073 Come, come, we'll prompt you.
Volumnia
2074 I pr'ythee now, sweet son,—as thou hast said
2075 My praises made thee first a soldier, so,
2076 To have my praise for this, perform a part
2077 Thou hast not done before.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2078 Well, I must do't:
2079 Away, my disposition, and possess me
2080 Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd,
2081 Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
2082 Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
2083 That babies lulls asleep! the smiles of knaves
2084 Tent in my cheeks; and school-boys' tears take up
2085 The glasses of my sight! a beggar's tongue
2086 Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd knees,
2087 Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
2088 That hath receiv'd an alms!—I will not do't;
2089 Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
2090 And by my body's action teach my mind
2091 A most inherent baseness.
Volumnia
2092 At thy choice, then:
2093 To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour
2094 Than thou of them. Come all to ruin: let
2095 Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear
2096 Thy dangerous stoutness; for I mock at death
2097 With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list.
2098 Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me;
2099 But owe thy pride thyself.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2100 Pray, be content:
2101 Mother, I am going to the market-place;
2102 Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves,
2103 Cog their hearts from them, and come home belov'd
2104 Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going.
2105 Commend me to my wife. I'll return consul;
2106 Or never trust to what my tongue can do
2107 I' the way of flattery further.
Volumnia
2108 Do your will.
[Exit.]
Cominius
2109 Away! The tribunes do attend you: arm yourself
2110 To answer mildly; for they are prepar'd
2111 With accusations, as I hear, more strong
2112 Than are upon you yet.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2113 The word is, mildly.—Pray you let us go:
2114 Let them accuse me by invention, I
2115 Will answer in mine honour.
Menenius Agrippa
2116 Ay, but mildly.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2117 Well, mildly be it then; mildly.
[Exeunt.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 1947historical topical
“Death on the wheel, or at wild horses' heels”
Being broken on the wheel — the victim's limbs smashed with an iron bar and the body laced through the spokes — and being dragged apart by four horses were two of the most brutal forms of public execution in antiquity and in early modern Europe. Coriolanus lists them to declare he would endure the worst possible deaths rather than change his manner toward the plebeians.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 1948historical topical
“pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock, That the precipitation might down stretch Below the beam of sight”
The Tarpeian Rock was the cliff on Rome's Capitoline Hill from which convicted traitors were hurled to their deaths. Coriolanus imagines piling ten hills on top of it to make the fall too deep even to see the bottom — a hyperbole that measures his contempt for threat: no punishment, however magnified, will make him capitulate.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 1953archaic vocab
“I muse my mother”
'Muse' here means 'wonder' or 'find it strange' — not creative inspiration. Coriolanus is saying he is puzzled that his mother, who used to share his contempt for the common people, does not now side with him.
TLN 1955archaic vocab
“woollen vassals, things created To buy and sell with groats”
'Woollen vassals' means people who wear coarse wool — the cheapest cloth, associated with the labouring poor, as opposed to silk or fine linen worn by patricians. 'Groats' were fourpenny coins of very low value. Coriolanus recalls Volumnia once calling the commoners slaves born only to haggle over pennies — confirming that his contempt for the plebeians was learned from her.
TLN 1965rhetorical device
“put your power well on Before you had worn it out”
Volumnia argues using a clothing metaphor: you should have used your power properly before you wore it thin. Like a garment stretched past its limits, Coriolanus's authority has been wasted by overuse before it was firmly established. The image foreshadows the gown-of-humility scene already behind them and the political fabric that is now tearing.
historical The Consulship and the Gown of Humility
TLN 1986archaic vocab
“violent fit o' the time craves it as physic For the whole state”
'Physic' means medicine or medical treatment. Menenius says the violent crisis of this moment demands Coriolanus's compliance as a cure — even if Menenius himself would never ordinarily ask Coriolanus to stoop to the crowd. The metaphor of the state as a sick body needing medicine echoes the belly-and-members fable from Act 1.
historical The Fable of the Belly and the Members
TLN 1995archaic vocab
“You are too absolute”
'Absolute' here means unbending, governed entirely by one fixed principle with no room for circumstances. Volumnia is not calling him morally perfect; she is saying his insistence on always behaving the same way regardless of situation is itself a political weakness.
TLN 1998rhetorical device
“Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends, I' the war do grow together”
Volumnia argues that in war, noble courage and strategic cunning work hand in hand — so why, she asks, should they be enemies in peace? The argument is designed to force Coriolanus to admit his own precedent: if he accepts tactical deception in battle (feints, ambushes, false retreats), he cannot logically object to tactical flattery in politics.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 2014rhetorical device
“words that are but rooted in Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables Of no allowance, to your bosom's truth”
Volumnia tells Coriolanus to speak words that live only in his mouth — words that are 'bastards,' illegitimate children of his heart, not his genuine thoughts. 'Of no allowance to your bosom's truth' means words that his conscience does not authorize. The metaphor of illegitimate speech reframes lying as a lesser, forgivable sin, distinct from his 'real' self — an argument designed to allow him to flatter without feeling that he has compromised his identity.
TLN 2037rhetorical device
“Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than the ears”
Volumnia invokes the classical principle that physical gesture communicates more persuasively to an uneducated crowd than spoken argument. She is drawing on the rhetoric tradition: Cicero and Quintilian both ranked 'actio' (bodily delivery) as one of the five parts of oratory and sometimes called it the most powerful. The irony is that she is coaching Rome's greatest soldier in stagecraft — the one art he despises.
historical The Consulship and the Gown of Humility
TLN 2040rhetorical device
“humble as the ripest mulberry That will not hold the handling”
A ripe mulberry is so soft it collapses at a touch — bruising and staining fingers without resistance. Volumnia tells Coriolanus his manner must be that yielding: not firm like an unripe berry but utterly soft, so that the people feel they can handle him without effort. The image is sensory and domestic, and therefore gently contemptuous — Volumnia is asking the warrior to behave like over-ripe fruit.
TLN 2065archaic vocab
“show them my unbarb'd sconce”
'Unbarb'd' means without armour — literally without the protective barb or covering. 'Sconce' is slang for head. Coriolanus is bitterly asking whether he must show the plebeians his bare, unprotected, unhelmeted head — a gesture of submission and vulnerability that he finds as degrading as appearing naked before an enemy.
TLN 2079rhetorical device
“possess me Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd, Which quired with my drum, into a pipe Small as an eunuch”
In a sustained self-curse, Coriolanus prays to be stripped of his own identity and replaced with degrading substitutes: a prostitute's dissembling soul, a war-voice shrunk to a eunuch's falsetto, a soldier's eyes flooded with schoolboys' tears, and knees trained only for the stirrup now bent like a beggar's. The speech is built as a series of grotesque transformations — a rhetorical figure called enumeratio — measuring the distance between what he is and what he is being asked to become.
TLN 2102archaic vocab
“I'll mountebank their loves, Cog their hearts from them”
'Mountebank' as a verb means to swindle or trick, from the Italian mountebank (a quack who climbed onto a bench to hawk fake remedies at markets). 'Cog' means to cheat or wheedle — to pick their hearts out of them by fraud, the way a card-cheat cogs a die. Coriolanus now commits to the performance his mother urged, but frames it entirely as con-artistry, which signals he has not changed but only added a mask.