text
stringlengths 0
63
|
---|
As for my country I have shed my blood,
|
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
|
Coin words till their decay against those measles,
|
Which we disdain should tatter us, yet sought
|
The very way to catch them.
|
BRUTUS:
|
You speak o' the people,
|
As if you were a god to punish, not
|
A man of their infirmity.
|
SICINIUS:
|
'Twere well
|
We let the people know't.
|
MENENIUS:
|
What, what? his choler?
|
CORIOLANUS:
|
Choler!
|
Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,
|
By Jove, 'twould be my mind!
|
SICINIUS:
|
It is a mind
|
That shall remain a poison where it is,
|
Not poison any further.
|
CORIOLANUS:
|
Shall remain!
|
Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you
|
His absolute 'shall'?
|
COMINIUS:
|
'Twas from the canon.
|
CORIOLANUS:
|
'Shall'!
|
O good but most unwise patricians! why,
|
You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
|
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
|
That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but
|
The horn and noise o' the monster's, wants not spirit
|
To say he'll turn your current in a ditch,
|
And make your channel his? If he have power
|
Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake
|
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd,
|
Be not as common fools; if you are not,
|
Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
|
If they be senators: and they are no less,
|
When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste
|
Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate,
|
And such a one as he, who puts his 'shall,'
|
His popular 'shall' against a graver bench
|
Than ever frown in Greece. By Jove himself!
|
It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches
|
To know, when two authorities are up,
|
Neither supreme, how soon confusion
|
May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take
|
The one by the other.
|
COMINIUS:
|
Well, on to the market-place.
|
CORIOLANUS:
|
Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth
|
The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas used
|
Sometime in Greece,--
|
MENENIUS:
|
Well, well, no more of that.
|
CORIOLANUS:
|
Though there the people had more absolute power,
|
I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed
|
The ruin of the state.
|
BRUTUS:
|
Why, shall the people give
|
One that speaks thus their voice?
|
CORIOLANUS:
|
I'll give my reasons,
|
More worthier than their voices. They know the corn
|
Was not our recompense, resting well assured
|
That ne'er did service for't: being press'd to the war,
|
Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,
|
They would not thread the gates. This kind of service
|
Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i' the war
|
Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd
|
Most valour, spoke not for them: the accusation
|
Which they have often made against the senate,
|
All cause unborn, could never be the motive
|
Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?
|
How shall this bisson multitude digest
|
The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express
|
What's like to be their words: 'we did request it;
|
We are the greater poll, and in true fear
|
They gave us our demands.' Thus we debase
|
The nature of our seats and make the rabble
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.