Act 5. Scene II

SCENE II. Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome.
Two Sentinels on guard.

Enter to them, MENENIUS

First Senator
Stay: whence are you?

Second Senator
Stand, and go back.

MENENIUS
You guard like men; 'tis well: but, by your leave,
I am an officer of state, and come
To speak with Coriolanus.

First Senator
From whence?

MENENIUS
From Rome.

First Senator
You may not pass, you must return: our general
Will no more hear from thence.

Second Senator
You'll see your Rome embraced with fire before
You'll speak with Coriolanus.

MENENIUS
Good my friends,
If you have heard your general talk of Rome,
And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks,
My name hath touch'd your ears it is Menenius.

First Senator
Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name
Is not here passable.

MENENIUS
I tell thee, fellow,
The general is my lover: I have been
The book of his good acts, whence men have read
His name unparallel'd, haply amplified;
For I have ever verified my friends,
Of whom he's chief, with all the size that verity
Would without lapsing suffer: nay, sometimes,
Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,
I have tumbled past the throw; and in his praise
Have almost stamp'd the leasing: therefore, fellow,
I must have leave to pass.

First Senator
Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his
behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you
should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous
to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back.

MENENIUS
Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius,
always factionary on the party of your general.

Second Senator
Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you
have, I am one that, telling true under him, must
say, you cannot pass. Therefore, go back.

MENENIUS
Has he dined, canst thou tell? for I would not
speak with him till after dinner.

First Senator
You are a Roman, are you?

MENENIUS
I am, as thy general is.

First Senator
Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you,
when you have pushed out your gates the very
defender of them, and, in a violent popular
ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to
front his revenges with the easy groans of old
women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with
the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as
you seem to be? Can you think to blow out the
intended fire your city is ready to flame in, with
such weak breath as this? No, you are deceived;
therefore, back to Rome, and prepare for your
execution: you are condemned, our general has sworn
you out of