William Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Coriolanus

ACT V. 2. SCENE II. An Advanced post of the Volscian camp before Rome. The

Guards at their station.

[Enter to them MENENIUS.]

FIRST GUARD.
Stay: whence are you?

SECOND GUARD.
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 GUARD.
From whence?

MENENIUS.
From Rome.

FIRST GUARD.
You may not pass; you must return: our general
Will no more hear from thence.

SECOND GUARD.
You'll see your Rome embrac'd 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 GUARD.
Be it so; go back: the virtue of your name
Is not here passable.

MENENIUS.
I tell thee, fellow,
Thy general is my lover: I have been
The book of his good acts, whence men have read
His fame 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 GUARD.
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.
Pr'ythee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always
factionary on the party of your general.