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Coriolanus: Act IV, Scene 1

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Coriolanus
Act IV, Scene 1

Scene 1

Rome. Before a gate of the city.

  1. Enter Coriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius, Cominius,
  2. with the young Nobility of Rome.

Coriolanus

1 - 11
  1. Come leave your tears: a brief farewell. The beast
  2. With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,
  3. Where is your ancient courage? You were us’d
  4. To say extremities was the trier of spirits,
  5. That common chances common men could bear,
  6. That when the sea was calm all boats alike
  7. Show’d mastership in floating; fortune’s blows
  8. When most struck home, being gentle wounded craves
  9. A noble cunning. You were us’d to load me
  10. With precepts that would make invincible
  11. The heart that conn’d them.

Virgilia

12
  1. O heavens! O heavens!

Coriolanus

13
  1.                       Nay, I prithee, woman—

Volumnia

14 - 15
  1. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,
  2. And occupations perish!

Coriolanus

16 - 35
  1.                         What, what, what!
  2. I shall be lov’d when I am lack’d. Nay, mother,
  3. Resume that spirit when you were wont to say,
  4. If you had been the wife of Hercules,
  5. Six of his labors you’ld have done, and sav’d
  6. Your husband so much sweat. Cominius,
  7. Droop not, adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother,
  8. I’ll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius,
  9. Thy tears are salter than a younger man’s,
  10. And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime general,
  11. I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
  12. Heart-hard’ning spectacles; tell these sad women
  13. ’Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,
  14. As ’tis to laugh at ’em. My mother, you wot well
  15. My hazards still have been your solace, and
  16. Believe’t not lightly—though I go alone,
  17. Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen
  18. Makes fear’d and talk’d of more than seen—your son
  19. Will or exceed the common or be caught
  20. With cautelous baits and practice.

Byam Shaw, 1901

Volumnia

36 - 40
  1.                                    My first son,
  2. Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
  3. With thee a while. Determine on some course
  4. More than a wild exposture to each chance
  5. That starts i’ th’ way before thee.

Coriolanus

41
  1.                                     O the gods!

Cominius

42 - 48
  1. I’ll follow thee a month, devise with thee
  2. Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us
  3. And we of thee; so if the time thrust forth
  4. A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
  5. O’er the vast world to seek a single man,
  6. And lose advantage, which doth ever cool
  7. I’ th’ absence of the needer.

Come leave your tears: a brief farewell.

Alexandre Bida, 19th century

Coriolanus

49 - 58
  1.                               Fare ye well!
  2. Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too full
  3. Of the wars’ surfeits to go rove with one
  4. That’s yet unbruis’d. Bring me but out at gate.
  5. Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
  6. My friends of noble touch; when I am forth,
  7. Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you come.
  8. While I remain above the ground, you shall
  9. Hear from me still, and never of me aught
  10. But what is like me formerly.

Menenius

59 - 63
  1.                               That’s worthily
  2. As any ear can hear. Come, let’s not weep.
  3. If I could shake off but one seven years
  4. From these old arms and legs, by the good gods
  5. I’ld with thee every foot.

Coriolanus

64 - 65
  1.                            Give me thy hand.
  2. Come.
  1. Exeunt.
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