| ACT IVSCENE I | Rome. Before a gate of the city. | |
| | Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS,COMINIUS, with the young Nobility of Rome | |
| CORIOLANUS | Come, leave your tears: a brief farewell: the beast | |
| | With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother, | |
| | Where is your ancient courage? you were used | |
| | To say extremity was the trier of spirits; | 5 |
| | That common chances common men could bear; | |
| | That when the sea was calm all boats alike | |
| | Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows, | |
| | When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves | |
| | A noble cunning: you were used to load me | 10 |
| | With precepts that would make invincible | |
| | The heart that conn'd them. | |
| VIRGILIA | O heavens! O heavens! | |
| CORIOLANUS | Nay! prithee, woman,-- | |
| VOLUMNIA | Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, | 15 |
| | And occupations perish! | |
| CORIOLANUS | What, what, what! | |
| | I shall be loved when I am lack'd. Nay, mother. | |
| | Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say, | |
| | If you had been the wife of Hercules, | 20 |
| | Six of his labours you'ld have done, and saved | |
| | Your husband so much sweat. Cominius, | |
| | Droop not; adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother: | |
| | I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius, | |
| | Thy tears are salter than a younger man's, | 25 |
| | And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime general, | |
| | I have seen thee stem, and thou hast oft beheld | |
| | Heart-hardening spectacles; tell these sad women | |
| | 'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes, | |
| | As 'tis to laugh at 'em. My mother, you wot well | 30 |
| | My hazards still have been your solace: and | |
| | Believe't not lightly--though I go alone, | |
| | Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen | |
| | Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen--your son | |
| | Will or exceed the common or be caught | 35 |
| | With cautelous baits and practise. | |
| VOLUMNIA | My first son. | |
| | Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius | |
| | With thee awhile: determine on some course, | |
| | More than a wild exposture to each chance | 40 |
| | That starts i' the way before thee. | |
| CORIOLANUS | O the gods! | |
| COMINIUS | I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee | |
| | Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us | |
| | And we of thee: so if the time thrust forth | 45 |
| | A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send | |
| | O'er the vast world to seek a single man, | |
| | And lose advantage, which doth ever cool | |
| | I' the absence of the needer. | |
| CORIOLANUS | Fare ye well: | 50 |
| | Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full | |
| | Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one | |
| | That's yet unbruised: bring me but out at gate. | |
| | Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and | |
| | My friends of noble touch, when I am forth, | 55 |
| | Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come. | |
| | While I remain above the ground, you shall | |
| | Hear from me still, and never of me aught | |
| | But what is like me formerly. | |
| MENENIUS | That's worthily | 60 |
| | As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep. | |
| | If I could shake off but one seven years | |
| | From these old arms and legs, by the good gods, | |
| | I'ld with thee every foot. | |
| CORIOLANUS | Give me thy hand: Come. | 65 |
| | Exeunt | |
