Coriolanus Act Two – “Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.”

Coriolanus Act Two – “Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.”

In many ways, the events of Act Two Coriolanus can be seen as relevant to many modern political events. This act shows how political power brokers can use the traits of individuals in politics against them when it comes to getting popular support. The way events like the closing of the government of the United States or the see-sawing of the position of Prime Minister from Rudd to Gillard and back to Rudd and then Rudd's loss of public support at an election, make modern political events a very interesting backdrop to reading 'Coriolanus' in 2013. Who knows? Personally, I think a version of Coriolanus with an actress using traits of a female figure like the previous Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (or even Britain's Margaret Thatcher) would reinvigorate interest in a play that is more about power than it is about war. 

In the opening of Act Two of ‘Coriolanus’, we move back to Rome, where Brutus. Sicinius and Menenius wait for news from the battlefield. Brutus and Sicinius criticize Caius Martius (who we now know has been dubbed Coriolanus) as being rich in faults especially in pride but Menenius points out that they criticize Cauis Martius for the same faults as they themselves have:

“Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of

occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience:

give your dispositions the reins, and be angry at

your pleasures; at the least if you take it as a

pleasure to you in being so. You blame Marcius for

being proud… You talk of pride: O that you

could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks,

and make but an interior survey of your good selves!

O that you could… Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias fools, as

any in Rome.”

Sicinius turns to accuse Memenius with his own faults but Memenius knows his own reputation for liking a drink and gossip too well:

“I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that

loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying

Tiber in't; said to be something imperfect in

favouring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like

upon too trivial motion; one that converses more

with the buttock of the night than with the forehead

of the morning: what I think I utter, and spend my

malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as

you are--I cannot call you Lycurguses--if the drink

you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a

crooked face at it. I can't say your worships have

delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in

compound with the major part of your syllables: and

though I must be content to bear with those that say

you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that

tell you you have good faces. If you see this in

the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known

well enough too? what barm can your bisson

conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be

known well enough too?”

Then the women arrive. Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria bring news from letters of Caius Martius’s victory, the injuries he sustained and his imminent arrival back home. Cauis Martius has also had his victories and the whole war credited to him by being called Coriolanus. Volumnia, Caius Martius’s mother, seems pleased that he has sustained wounds that he can show the people of Rome. Menenius is pleased that Caius Martius is alive and that Rome has been victorious.

Caius Martius, now known as Coriolanus, enters Rome to the sound of trumpets and greets his mother and his wife. Surrounded by Cominius, Titus Lartius and Menenius, Coriolanus moves off to meet the Senate in the Capital.

Brutus and Sicinius are left and they seem upset that Coriolanus’s victories may make him a consul and they think that if given power, Coriolanus might disband their own offices. They find some solace in the thought that they think that Coriolanus is too proud to do what he would have to do and go out into the streets and the marketplace to get the support and votes of the common people since Coriolanus distains the masses. Brutus suggests that he and Sicinius must remind the common people of the distain Coriolanus regards them with.

“So it must fall out

To him or our authorities. For an end,

We must suggest the people in what hatred

He still hath held them; that to's power he would

Have made them mules, silenced their pleaders and

Dispropertied their freedoms, holding them,

In human action and capacity,

Of no more soul nor fitness for the world

Than camels in the war, who have their provand

Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows

For sinking under them.”

A messenger arrives to tell the Tribunes Brutus and Sicinius that they are summoned to go to the Capitol.

At the Capitol, two officers are putting out cushions for the Senate. They discuss the likelihood that Coriolanus will become consul. One states that although Coriolanus is brave “… he’s vengeance proud, and loves not the common people.” The other officer points out that:

“Faith, there had been many great men that have

flattered the people, who ne'er loved them; and there

be many that they have loved, they know not

wherefore: so that, if they love they know not why,

they hate upon no better a ground: therefore, for

Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate

him manifests the true knowledge he has in their

disposition; and out of his noble carelessness lets

them plainly see't…

He hath deserved worthily of his country: and his

ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who,

having been supple and courteous to the people,

bonneted, without any further deed to have them at

an into their estimation and report: but he hath so

planted his honours in their eyes, and his actions

in their hearts, that for their tongues to be

silent, and not confess so much, were a kind of

ingrateful injury; to report otherwise, were a

malice, that, giving itself the lie, would pluck

reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it.”

The Senators and Coriolanus enter the chamber and Cominius reports “a little of the worthy work” of Coriolanus's bravery and feats against the Volscians. Coriolanus is a bit embarrassed and says that he would “rather have my wounds to heal again than hear say how I got them.” Coriolanus eventually leaves the Senate chamber. Cominius relates the battle and the deeds of Coriolanus:

“I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus

Should not be utter'd feebly. It is held

That valour is the chiefest virtue, and

Most dignifies the haver: if it be,

The man I speak of cannot in the world

Be singly counterpoised. At sixteen years,

When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought

Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator,

Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight,

When with his Amazonian chin he drove

The bristled lips before him: be bestrid

An o'er-press'd Roman and i' the consul's view

Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met,

And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats,

When he might act the woman in the scene,

He proved best man i' the field, and for his meed

Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age

Man-enter'd thus, he waxed like a sea,

And in the brunt of seventeen battles since

He lurch'd all swords of the garland. For this last,

Before and in Corioli, let me say,

I cannot speak him home: he stopp'd the fliers;

And by his rare example made the coward

Turn terror into sport: as weeds before

A vessel under sail, so men obey'd

And fell below his stem: his sword, death's stamp,

Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot

He was a thing of blood, whose every motion

Was timed with dying cries: alone he enter'd

The mortal gate of the city, which he painted

With shunless destiny; aidless came off,

And with a sudden reinforcement struck

Corioli like a planet: now all's his:

When, by and by, the din of war gan pierce

His ready sense; then straight his doubled spirit

Re-quicken'd what in flesh was fatigate,

And to the battle came he; where he did

Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if

'Twere a perpetual spoil: and till we call'd

Both field and city ours, he never stood

To ease his breast with panting.”

The Senators ask for Coriolanus to re-enter the chamber and say that they want to make him a consul of Rome. Coriolanus is told to put on a toga, go to the marketplace, describe his deeds and show his scars to the public so that he can gain their support and votes. But Coriolanus asks not to have to go through what he sees as a demeaning custom:

“I do beseech you,

Let me o'erleap that custom, for I cannot

Put on the gown, stand naked and entreat them,

For my wounds' sake, to give their suffrage: please you

That I may pass this doing…

It is apart

That I shall blush in acting, and might well

Be taken from the people…

To brag unto them, thus I did, and thus;

Show them the unaching scars which I should hide,

As if I had received them for the hire

Of their breath only!”

Coriolanus is made to relent and Coriolanus and most of the Senators leave. Brutus and Sicinius talk about Coriolanus’s reluctance and decide that they can use the to build more popular resentment for Coriolanus by telling the common people of Coriolanus’s reluctance to stand before them.

We cross to the marketplace, where common citizens discuss whether they should accept or deny making Coriolanus a consul. One citizen talks about the obligations that they are under for their choice of support.

“We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a

power that we have no power to do; for if he show us

his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our

tongues into those wounds and speak for them; so, if

he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him

our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is

monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful,

were to make a monster of the multitude: of the

which we being members, should bring ourselves to be

monstrous members.”

Coriolanus then enters with Menenius who offeres him encouragement before he leaves Coriolanus alone with the crowd. Coriolanus does not perform well with the public. The citizens approach him in small groups and some question that he has not loved the common people well. When requested, Coriolanus refuses to show the public his wounds but points out that he has acted in battle as their voice and should thus be made consul:

“Your voices: for your voices I have fought;

Watch'd for your voices; for Your voices bear

Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six

I have seen and heard of; for your voices have

Done many things, some less, some more your voices:

Indeed I would be consul.”

Coriolanus hears that he has managed to win the support of enough citizens and even Brutus and Sicinius resign themselves to the fact that Coriolanus seems to have gathered enough support. Coriolanus and Menenius exit so that Coriolanus can change out of his garments and go back to the Capitol to be invested as a consul.

After Coriolanus leaves, Brutus and Sicinius question why the plebeians chose Coriolanus and they say because he had their voices. Then some citizens start to note that Coriolanus seemed arrogant, flouted them, scorned them and even seemed to mock them. It is remarked that he refused to publicly. Brutus and Sicinius decide to point out Coriolanus’s faults, stir trouble and convince the plebeians to take away their approval of Coriolanus. Brutus is particularily clever in his oratory:

“Could you not have told him

As you were lesson'd, when he had no power,

But was a petty servant to the state,

He was your enemy, ever spake against

Your liberties and the charters that you bear

I' the body of the weal; and now, arriving

A place of potency and sway o' the state,

If he should still malignantly remain

Fast foe to the plebeii, your voices might

Be curses to yourselves? You should have said

That as his worthy deeds did claim no less

Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature

Would think upon you for your voices and

Translate his malice towards you into love,

Standing your friendly lord…

Did you perceive

He did solicit you in free contempt

When he did need your loves, and do you think

That his contempt shall not be bruising to you,

When he hath power to crush? Why, had your bodies

No heart among you? or had you tongues to cry

Against the rectorship of judgment?

… Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends,

They have chose a consul that will from them take

Their liberties; make them of no more voice

Than dogs that are as often beat for barking

As therefore kept to do so….

Lay a fault on us, your tribunes; that we laboured,

No impediment between, but that you must

Cast your election on him…

Ay, spare us not. Say we read lectures to you.

How youngly he began to serve his country,

How long continued, and what stock he springs of,

The noble house o' the Marcians, from whence came

That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's son,

Who, after great Hostilius, here was king;

Of the same house Publius and Quintus were,

That our beat water brought by conduits hither;

And [Censorinus,] nobly named so,

Twice being [by the people chosen] censor,

Was his great ancestor…

Say, you ne'er had done't--

Harp on that still--but by our putting on;

And presently, when you have drawn your number,

Repair to the Capitol.”

The plebeians are convinced to now withdraw their support and Brutus and Sicinius tell them to go to round up hundreds of friends to deny Coriolanus consul. They offer the crowd the excuse that they probably only voted for Coriolanus in the first place because they felt the tribunes forced them to. When left alone, Brutus and Sicinius revel in the way that the people and events have turned against Coriolanus. They decide to arrive at the Capitol before the citizens so that their part in this uprising is not discovered:

“To the Capitol, come:

We will be there before the stream o' the people;

And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own,

Which we have goaded onward.”