Coriolanus

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: HarperPerennial Classics
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781443443272
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro shakespeariano

Raised to the heights of power in recognition of his bravery against the Volscian army, Caius Marcius Coriolanus, finds himself betrayed by Brutus and Sicinius. Exiled from Rome and seeking vengeance, Coriolanus allies himself with the Aufidius, a general in the Volscian army. But, as Coriolanus discovers with tragic consequences, treachery begets treachery.

Known as "The Bard of Avon, " William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest English-language writer known. Enormously popular during his life, Shakespeare's works continue to resonate more than three centuries after his death, as has his influence on theatre and literature. Shakespeare's innovative use of character, language, and experimentation with romance as tragedy served as a foundation for later playwrights and dramatists, and some of his most famous lines of dialogue have become part of everyday speech.

HarperPerennialClassics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

ACT ONE

SCENE I. Rome. A street.

Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons.

1 CITIZEN Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.

ALL Speak, speak.

1 CITIZEN You are all resolv’d rather to die than to famish?

[5]

ALL Resolv’d, resolv’d.

1 CITIZEN First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people.

ALL We know’t, we know’t.

1 CITIZEN Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at

[10]

our own price. Is’t a verdict?

ALL No more talking on’t; let it be done. Away, away!

2 CITIZEN One word, good citizens.

1 CITIZEN We are accounted poor citizens, the

[15]

patricians good. What authority surfeits on would relieve us; if they would yield us but the superfluity while it were wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear. The leanness that afflicts us, the

[20]

object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes ere we become rakes; for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.

[25]

2 CITIZEN Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

1 CITIZEN Against him first; he’s a very dog to the commonalty.

2 CITIZEN Consider you what services he has done for his country?

[32]

1 CITIZEN Very well, and could be content to give him good report for’t but that he pays himself with being proud.

2 CITIZEN Nay, but speak not maliciously.

1 CITIZEN I say unto you, what he hath done famously he did it to that end; though soft-conscienc’d men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother and to be partly proud, which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

[41]

2 CITIZEN What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.

[46]

1 CITIZEN If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within] What shouts are these? The other side o’ th’ city is risen. Why stay we prating here? To th’ Capitol!

ALL Come, come.

1 CITIZEN Soft! who comes here?

Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA.

[50]

2 CITIZEN Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always lov’d the people.

1 CITIZEN He’s one honest enough; would all the rest were so!

MENENIUS What work’s, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you

With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.

[55]

1 CITIZEN Our business is not unknown to th’ Senate; they have had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we’ll show ’em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know we have strong arms too.

[60]

MENENIUS Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,

Will you undo yourselves?

1 CITIZEN We cannot, sir; we are undone already.

MENENIUS I tell you, friends, most charitable care

Have the patricians of you. For your wants,

[65]

Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well

Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them

Against the Roman state; whose course will on

The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs

Of more strong link asunder than can ever

[70]

Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,

The gods, not the patricians, make it, and

Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,

You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you; and you slander

[75]

The helms o’ th’ state, who care for you like fathers,

When you curse them as enemies.

[80]

1 CITIZEN Care for us! True, indeed! They ne’er car’d for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses cramm’d with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there’s all the love they bear us.

[85]

MENENIUS Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,

Or be accus’d of folly. I shall tell you

A pretty tale. It may be you have heard it;

But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture

[90]

To stale’t a little more.

1 CITIZEN Well, I’ll hear it, sir; yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale. But, an’t please you, deliver.

MENENIUS There was a time when all the body’s members

[95]

Rebell’d against the belly; thus accus’d it:

That only like a gulf it did remain

I’ th’ midst o’ th’ body, idle and unactive,

Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

Like labour with the rest; where th’ other instruments

[100]

Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,

And, mutually participate, did minister

Unto the appetite and affection common

Of the whole body. The belly answer’d –

1 CITIZEN Well, sir, what answer made the belly?

[105]

MENENIUS Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,

Which ne’er came from the lungs, but even thus–

For look you, I may make the belly smile

As well as speak – it tauntingly replied

[110]

To th’ discontented members, the mutinous parts

That envied his receipt; even so most fitly

As you malign our senators for that

They are not such as you.

1 CITIZEN Your belly’s answer – What?

The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye,

The counsellor hea...