Act 4, Scene 6

Rome. A public place.

[Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.]
Sicinius Velutus
2720 We hear not of him, neither need we fear him;
2721 His remedies are tame i' the present peace
2722 And quietness of the people, which before
2723 Were in wild hurry. Here do make his friends
2724 Blush that the world goes well; who rather had,
2725 Though they themselves did suffer by't, behold
2726 Dissentious numbers pestering streets than see
2727 Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going
2728 About their functions friendly.
Junius Brutus
2729 We stood to't in good time.—Is this Menenius?
Sicinius Velutus
2730 'Tis he, 'tis he. O, he is grown most kind
2731 Of late.
[Enter MENENIUS]
Junius Brutus
2732 Hail, sir!
Menenius Agrippa
2733 Hail to you both!
Sicinius Velutus
2734 Your Coriolanus is not much miss'd
2735 But with his friends: the commonwealth doth stand;
2736 And so would do, were he more angry at it.
Menenius Agrippa
2737 All's well, and might have been much better if
2738 He could have temporiz'd.
Sicinius Velutus
2739 Where is he, hear you?
Menenius Agrippa
2740 Nay, I hear nothing: his mother and his wife
2741 Hear nothing from him.
[Enter three or four Citizens.]
Menenius Agrippa
2742 CITIZENS. The gods preserve you both!
Sicinius Velutus
2743 God-den, our neighbours.
Junius Brutus
2744 God-den to you all, God-den to you all.
First Citizen
2745 Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our knees,
2746 Are bound to pray for you both.
Sicinius Velutus
2747 Live and thrive!
Junius Brutus
2748 Farewell, kind neighbours: we wish'd Coriolanus
2749 Had lov'd you as we did.
Citizens
2750 Now the gods keep you!
Both Tribunes
2751 Farewell, farewell.
[Exeunt Citizens.]
Sicinius Velutus
2752 This is a happier and more comely time
2753 Than when these fellows ran about the streets
2754 Crying confusion.
Junius Brutus
2755 Caius Marcius was
2756 A worthy officer i' the war; but insolent,
2757 O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking,
2758 Self-loving,—
Sicinius Velutus
2759 And affecting one sole throne,
2760 Without assistance.
Menenius Agrippa
2761 I think not so.
Sicinius Velutus
2762 We should by this, to all our lamentation,
2763 If he had gone forth consul, found it so.
Junius Brutus
2764 The gods have well prevented it, and Rome
2765 Sits safe and still without him.
[Enter an AEDILE.]
Aedile
2766 Worthy tribunes,
2767 There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,
2768 Reports,—the Volsces with several powers
2769 Are enter'd in the Roman territories,
2770 And with the deepest malice of the war
2771 Destroy what lies before 'em.
Menenius Agrippa
2772 'Tis Aufidius,
2773 Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment,
2774 Thrusts forth his horns again into the world;
2775 Which were inshell'd when Marcius stood for Rome,
2776 And durst not once peep out.
Sicinius Velutus
2777 Come, what talk you of Marcius?
Junius Brutus
2778 Go see this rumourer whipp'd.—It cannot be
2779 The Volsces dare break with us.
Menenius Agrippa
2780 Cannot be!
2781 We have record that very well it can;
2782 And three examples of the like hath been
2783 Within my age. But reason with the fellow,
2784 Before you punish him, where he heard this;
2785 Lest you shall chance to whip your information
2786 And beat the messenger who bids beware
2787 Of what is to be dreaded.
Sicinius Velutus
2788 Tell not me:
2789 I know this cannot be.
Junius Brutus
2790 Not possible.
[Enter A MESSENGER.]
Messenger
2791 The nobles in great earnestness are going
2792 All to the senate-house: some news is come
2793 That turns their countenances.
Sicinius Velutus
2794 'Tis this slave,—
2795 Go whip him fore the people's eyes:—his raising;
2796 Nothing but his report.
Messenger
2797 Yes, worthy sir,
2798 The slave's report is seconded, and more,
2799 More fearful, is deliver'd.
Sicinius Velutus
2800 What more fearful?
Messenger
2801 It is spoke freely out of many mouths,—
2802 How probable I do not know,—that Marcius,
2803 Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome,
2804 And vows revenge as spacious as between
2805 The young'st and oldest thing.
Sicinius Velutus
2806 This is most likely!
Junius Brutus
2807 Rais'd only, that the weaker sort may wish
2808 Good Marcius home again.
Sicinius Velutus
2809 The very trick on 't.
Menenius Agrippa
2810 This is unlikely:
2811 He and Aufidius can no more atone
2812 Than violentest contrariety.
[Enter a second MESSENGER.]
Second Messenger
2813 You are sent for to the senate:
2814 A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius
2815 Associated with Aufidius, rages
2816 Upon our territories; and have already
2817 O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire and took
2818 What lay before them.
[Enter COMINIUS.]
Cominius
2819 O, you have made good work!
Menenius Agrippa
2820 What news? what news?
Cominius
2821 You have holp to ravish your own daughters, and
2822 To melt the city leads upon your pates;
2823 To see your wives dishonour'd to your noses,—
Menenius Agrippa
2824 What's the news? what's the news?
Cominius
2825 Your temples burned in their cement; and
2826 Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd
2827 Into an auger's bore.
Menenius Agrippa
2828 Pray now, your news?—
2829 You have made fair work, I fear me.—Pray, your news.
2830 If Marcius should be join'd wi' the Volscians,—
Cominius
2831 If!
2832 He is their god: he leads them like a thing
2833 Made by some other deity than nature,
2834 That shapes man better; and they follow him,
2835 Against us brats, with no less confidence
2836 Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,
2837 Or butchers killing flies.
Menenius Agrippa
2838 You have made good work,
2839 You and your apron men; you that stood so much
2840 Upon the voice of occupation and
2841 The breath of garlic-eaters!
Cominius
2842 He'll shake
2843 Your Rome about your ears.
Menenius Agrippa
2844 As Hercules
2845 Did shake down mellow fruit.—You have made fair work!
Junius Brutus
2846 But is this true, sir?
Cominius
2847 Ay; and you'll look pale
2848 Before you find it other. All the regions
2849 Do smilingly revolt; and who resists
2850 Are mock'd for valiant ignorance,
2851 And perish constant fools. Who is't can blame him?
2852 Your enemies and his find something in him.
Menenius Agrippa
2853 We are all undone unless
2854 The noble man have mercy.
Cominius
2855 Who shall ask it?
2856 The tribunes cannot do't for shame; the people
2857 Deserve such pity of him as the wolf
2858 Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they
2859 Should say 'Be good to Rome,' they charg'd him even
2860 As those should do that had deserv'd his hate,
2861 And therein show'd like enemies.
Menenius Agrippa
2862 'Tis true:
2863 If he were putting to my house the brand
2864 That should consume it, I have not the face
2865 To say 'Beseech you, cease.'—You have made fair hands,
2866 You and your crafts! You have crafted fair!
Cominius
2867 You have brought
2868 A trembling upon Rome, such as was never
2869 So incapable of help.
Both Tribunes
2870 Say not, we brought it.
Menenius Agrippa
2871 How! Was it we? we lov'd him, but, like beasts,
2872 And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters,
2873 Who did hoot him out o' the city.
Cominius
2874 But I fear
2875 They'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,
2876 The second name of men, obeys his points
2877 As if he were his officer:—desperation
2878 Is all the policy, strength, and defence,
2879 That Rome can make against them.
[Enter a troop of citizens.]
Menenius Agrippa
2880 Here comes the clusters.—
2881 And is Aufidius with him?—You are they
2882 That made the air unwholesome, when you cast
2883 Your stinking greasy caps in hooting at
2884 Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;
2885 And not a hair upon a soldier's head
2886 Which will not prove a whip: as many coxcombs
2887 As you threw caps up will he tumble down,
2888 And pay you for your voices. 'Tis no matter;
2889 If he could burn us all into one coal
2890 We have deserv'd it.
Citizens
2891 Faith, we hear fearful news.
First Citizen
2892 For mine own part,
2893 When I said banish him, I said 'twas pity.
Second Citizen
2894 And so did I.
Third Citizen
2895 And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us. That
2896 we did, we did for the best; and though we willingly consented to
2897 his banishment, yet it was against our will.
Cominius
2898 You are goodly things, you voices!
Menenius Agrippa
2899 You have made
2900 Good work, you and your cry!—Shall's to the Capitol?
Cominius
2901 O, ay; what else?
[Exeunt COMINIUS and MENENIUS.]
Sicinius Velutus
2902 Go, masters, get you home; be not dismay'd;
2903 These are a side that would be glad to have
2904 This true which they so seem to fear. Go home,
2905 And show no sign of fear.
First Citizen
2906 The gods be good to us!—Come, masters, let's home. I
2907 ever said we were i' the wrong when we banished him.
Second Citizen
2908 So did we all. But come, let's home.
[Exeunt Citizens.]
Junius Brutus
2909 I do not like this news.
Sicinius Velutus
2910 Nor I.
Junius Brutus
2911 Let's to the Capitol:—would half my wealth
2912 Would buy this for a lie!
Sicinius Velutus
2913 Pray let's go.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 2721archaic vocab
“His remedies are tame i' the present peace”
'Remedies are tame' means the political cures that Coriolanus once demanded — silencing the tribunes, crushing popular dissent — are now quiet and unnecessary, because the city is at peace. Sicinius is gloating that the crisis Coriolanus was the cause of has simply dissolved without him.
TLN 2723rhetorical device
“make his friends Blush that the world goes well”
Sicinius argues that Coriolanus's patrician supporters are embarrassed precisely because Rome is flourishing without him: they wanted disorder to prove he was necessary. The logic is darkly ironic — his allies need the city to fail in order to justify themselves.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 2737archaic vocab
“might have been much better if He could have temporiz'd”
'Temporized' means kept time with the moment — been flexible, complied with circumstances, adapted to what the situation demanded. Menenius's quiet regret is that Coriolanus could not make himself bend even slightly to please the people during the consulship ceremony.
TLN 2743archaic vocab
“God-den, our neighbours”
'God-den' is a contraction of 'God give you good even [evening]' — a standard afternoon greeting equivalent to 'good afternoon' or 'good day.' The tribunes use it here to signal easy, familiar warmth toward the citizens whose votes keep them in power.
TLN 2756historical topical
“worthy officer i' the war; but insolent, O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking, Self-loving,— And affecting one sole throne”
This is the tribunes' formal verdict on Coriolanus: a skilled soldier but a man destroyed by pride, ambition, and narcissism — and the charge of 'affecting one sole throne' is the most dangerous, because wanting kingship was the great Roman crime. The speech is also self-serving propaganda: the tribunes engineered his banishment and now write the official account of it.
historical The Roman Republic and the Name 'King'historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 2766historical topical
“Worthy tribunes, There is a slave, whom we have put in prison”
An Aedile was a Roman magistrate who served beneath the tribunes, responsible for public order, markets, and buildings. When the tribunes immediately order the slave who brought bad news to be whipped, they are exercising magistrates' power over an enslaved person — legal routine in Rome that reads as brutal political overreaction here.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 2774rhetorical device
“Thrusts forth his horns again into the world; Which were inshell'd when Marcius stood for Rome”
Menenius compares Aufidius to a snail or tortoise that retreated into its shell while Coriolanus defended Rome, and now ventures out again. 'Inshell'd' is a coinage meaning 'withdrawn into a shell.' The animal metaphor makes the Volscian leader look cowardly and opportunistic — he was dormant only because Coriolanus kept him in check.
TLN 2785rhetorical device
“chance to whip your information And beat the messenger who bids beware”
Menenius warns the tribunes not to punish a messenger whose report turns out to be true — the classic blunder of 'shooting the messenger.' 'Whip your information' means punish the news itself. The warning is pointed: Menenius has been saying this is probable, while the tribunes keep dismissing it as rumor.
TLN 2804rhetorical device
“vows revenge as spacious as between The young'st and oldest thing”
The Messenger says Coriolanus has sworn revenge as wide as existence itself — spanning everything from the youngest thing alive to the oldest. 'Spacious' here means vast in scope; the phrase measures an absolute, all-encompassing vengeance, nothing and no one exempted.
TLN 2811archaic vocab
“He and Aufidius can no more atone Than violentest contrariety”
'Atone' here means 'be reconciled' or 'agree' (literally 'be at one'), not 'make amends.' Menenius thinks it impossible that Coriolanus and Aufidius — sworn enemies who have fought each other for years — could ever truly ally. The dramatic irony is sharp: they already have.
TLN 2821archaic vocab
“You have holp to ravish your own daughters, and To melt the city leads upon your pates”
'Holp' is the archaic past tense of 'helped' — Cominius is telling the tribunes that they have helped bring about the sack of the city. 'Melt the city leads upon your pates' means the lead roof-sheets of Rome's buildings would be melted by fire and pour down on their heads — an image of total destruction by siege and flame.
TLN 2826archaic vocab
“Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd Into an auger's bore”
'Franchises' are the legal rights and privileges the common people had won — above all the right of tribunes and the right to vote. Cominius says these will be 'confined into an auger's bore,' compressed to nothing: an auger is a carpenter's hand-drill, and its bore (hole) is one of the smallest things imaginable. The political freedoms the tribunes fought for will vanish to a pinhole.
historical The Tribunes of the People
TLN 2832historical topical
“He is their god: he leads them like a thing Made by some other deity than nature”
Cominius says Coriolanus is not merely a great general to the Volscians — they worship him as a god, a being made by a superhuman maker rather than by ordinary nature. This echoes a theme throughout the play: Coriolanus has always been spoken of in terms that exceed humanity. The Volscian adoration mirrors the extreme language the Roman patricians used before they turned on him.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 2839archaic vocab
“you and your apron men; you that stood so much Upon the voice of occupation”
'Apron men' is a contemptuous term for manual laborers — craftsmen and tradesmen who wore leather work-aprons. 'Voice of occupation' means the votes of working men. Menenius is throwing the tribunes' great political achievement back at them as an insult: the workers' votes that got the tribunes their power have now brought Rome to the edge of destruction.
historical The Consulship and the Gown of Humility
TLN 2875historical topical
“Tullus Aufidius, The second name of men, obeys his points”
Cominius calls Aufidius 'the second name of men' — meaning the second greatest warrior alive. The phrasing implies that Coriolanus is the first. Now even this second-greatest general obeys Coriolanus's orders 'as if he were his officer,' a complete reversal of their former equal-rival status.
historical The Volscians, Corioli, and Antium
TLN 2883historical topical
“your stinking greasy caps in hooting at Coriolanus' exile”
Workmen's wool or leather caps ('greasy' from labor) were thrown up into the air as a popular gesture of celebration and approval — the Elizabethan equivalent of throwing a hat. When the crowd hooted and threw their caps at Coriolanus's banishment, they were cheering his expulsion. Menenius now turns this jubilant memory against them: every cap tossed is, he implies, a blow they invited on their own heads.
TLN 2885wordplay
“not a hair upon a soldier's head Which will not prove a whip: as many coxcombs As you threw caps up will he tumble down”
Menenius piles up punishments: every soldier's hair will be a whip-stroke, and every 'coxcomb' (the jester's cap with its cock's-comb top, a symbol of a fool) that they threw up in celebration will be tumbled down on them. 'Coxcomb' also means 'head' colloquially — so 'as many coxcombs as you threw caps' plays on caps-the-objects and coxcombs-the-heads, predicting that as many heads as there were caps thrown will be knocked down.
TLN 2896rhetorical device
“we did, we did for the best; and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will”
The Third Citizen's self-contradiction — 'we willingly consented... yet it was against our will' — is darkly comic and points to one of the play's central themes: the citizens voted to banish Coriolanus but now deny responsibility for the consequence. The paradox is not stupidity but political cowardice: they did what they did, but refuse to own it.