The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated) (810 page)

[Exeunt Citizens.]

BRUTUS.

I do not like this news.

I do not like this news.

SICINIUS.

Me neither.

Nor I.

BRUTUS.

Let’s go to the Capitol. I wish I could give half my wealth

Let's to the Capitol:--would half my wealth

to make this not true.

Would buy this for a lie!

SICINIUS.

Let’s go.

Pray let's go.  

[Exeunt.]

[Enter AUFIDIUS and his LIEUTENANT.]

AUFIDIUS.

Do they still flock to Coriolanus?

Do they still fly to the Roman?

LIEUTENANT.

I don’t know how he does it, but

I do not know what witchcraft's in him, but

your soldiers love him so much they use his name to say grace before meals,

Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,

they talk about him while they eat, and they thank him like a god at the end.

Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;

You are overshadowed by him in this war,

And you are darken'd in this action, sir,

even from the perspective of your own men.

Even by your own.

AUFIDIUS.

I can’t help that now,

I cannot help it now,

except by using methods that ruin our

Unless by using means, I lame the foot

other plans. He carries himself with more pride,

Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier,

even towards me, than I thought he would

Even to my person, than I thought he would

when I first gave him a hug. But

When first I did embrace him: yet his nature

that’s just his nature, and I must forgive him

In that's no changeling; and I must excuse

for what he can’t change.

What cannot be amended.

LIEUTENANT.

But I wish,

Yet I wish, sir,--

as far as you are concerned, that you had not

I mean, for your particular,--you had not

partnered with him, but had either

Join'd in commission with him; but either

done this action by yourself, or else

Had borne the action of yourself, or else  

had left him to do it alone.

To him had left it solely.

AUFIDIUS.

I know what you mean. And I’m sure,

I understand thee well; and be thou sure,

when he has to answer for his conduct, he won’t know

When he shall come to his account, he knows not

what I can allege against him. Though it seems

What I can urge against him. Although it seems,

(and he thinks so, and it looks like from the

And so he thinks, and is no less apparent

outside), that he carries out his actions fairly,

To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,

and takes good care of the Volscians,

And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,

and fights like a dragon, and wins as soon

Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon

as he starts to fight, but he has neglected to do

As draw his sword: yet he hath left undone

the thing that will get him killed, and risk my life,

That which shall break his neck or hazard mine

whenever we are put on trial.

Whene'er we come to our account.

LIEUTENANT.

Please, sir, do think we’ll capture Rome?

Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Rome?

AUFIDIUS.

Everyone surrenders to him before he even lays siege.

All places yield to him ere he sits down;

And the Roman noblemen love him,

And the nobility of Rome are his;

and so do the senators and aristocrats.

The senators and patricians love him too:

The tribunes, who hate him, can’t fight, and their people

The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people

will want to take back their votes

Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty

to banish him. I think he’ll capture Rome

To expel him thence. I think he'll be to Rome

like a fish-hawk captures fish: by its

As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it

nature. First he served them well,

By sovereignty of nature. First he was  

but he could not be even-tempered

A noble servant to them; but he could not

when they gave him honors (I don’t know if that was because of pride,

Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride,

which as a consequence of success always taints

Which out of daily fortune ever taints

fortunate men; or a lack of judgment,

The happy man; whether defect of judgment,

in failing to manage the opportunities

To fail in the disposing of those chances

he got; or if it’s just his nature

Which he was lord of; or whether nature,

to have only one personality, not changing

Not to be other than one thing, not moving

from a soldier to a politician, but trying to rule in peacetime

From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace

with the same sever military style

Even with the same austerity and garb

he used when issuing orders in a battle), but for some reason

As he controll'd the war; but one of these,--

(and he has traces of all of those reasons—maybe not all of them,

As he hath spices of them all, not all,

I don’t want to let him off the hook), he was feared,

For I dare so far free him,--made him fear'd,

hated and then banished. But he has the ability

So hated, and so banish'd: but he has a merit

to silence any mention of his faults. So his virtues

To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues

depend on the timeframe we consider them in,

Lie in the interpretation of the time:

and power, which is itself a good thing,

And power, unto itself most commendable,

has no platform but a speaker’s podium

Hath not a tomb so evident as a cheer

to praise itself and its accomplishments.

To extol what it hath done.

A strong man

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;

can be beaten by a stronger man

Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail.

Come, let’s go. Marcius, when you’ve captured Rome,  

Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,

you will be in a bad position, and shortly thereafter I will capture you.

Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine.

[Exeunt.]

[Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS and BRUTUS, and others.]

MENENIUS.

No, I won’t go. You heard what Cominius said,

No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said

and he was once his commanding officer, he loved him

Which was sometime his general; who lov'd him

in a special way. Coriolanus loved me like a father,

In a most dear particular. He call'd me father:

but what of it? You go. You banished him.

But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him;

Crawl the last mile to his tent on your knees,

A mile before his tent fall down, and knee

like a penitent begging for mercy. No, if condescended unwillingly

The way into his mercy: nay, if he coy'd

to hear Cominius speak, I’ll stay home.

To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home.

COMINIUS.

He pretended no to know me.

He would not seem to know me.

MENENIUS.

You hear that?

Do you hear?

COMINIUS.

But once he called me by name.

Yet one time he did call me by my name:

I urged him to remember our friendship, and the blood

I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops

we’ve lost fighting together. He wouldn’t

That we have bled together. Coriolanus

answer to the name Coriolanus. He wouldn’t let me use any name,

He would not answer to: forbad all names;

he was like a nameless nothing,

He was a kind of nothing, titleless,

until he could win a new name out of the fire

Till he had forg'd himself a name i' the fire

of burning Rome.

Of burning Rome.  

MENENIUS.

Well, then, you did good work!

Why, so!--you have made good work!

You pair of tribunes that have destroyed Rome,

A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,

in order to turn it into a heap of charcoal, a splendid memorial to what it once was.