QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Coriolanus ACT/SCENE: 5.3 SPEAKER: Coriolanus CONTEXT: VOLUMNIA
Even he, your wife, this lady, and myself,
Are suitors to you.
CORIOLANUS
I beseech you, peace:
Or, if you’ld ask, remember this before:
The thing I have forsworn to grant may never
Be held by you denials. Do not bid me
Dismiss my soldiers, or capitulate
Again with Rome’s mechanics: tell me not
Wherein I seem unnatural: desire not
To ally my rages and revenges with
Your colder reasons.
VOLUMNIA
O, no more, no more!
You have said you will not grant us any thing;
For we have nothing else to ask, but that
Which you deny already: yet we will ask;
That, if you fail in our request, the blame
May hang upon your hardness: therefore hear us.
CORIOLANUS
Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark; for we’ll
Hear nought from Rome in private. Your request? DUTCH: Vraag mij niet,
Dit heer te ontbinden of nog eens met Rome’s
Handwerkers te onderhand’len; zeg mij niet,
Dat ik mij onnatuurlijk toon; beproef niet
Met uwe koele gronden mijne woede
En wraak te leen’gen. MORE: Forsworn=Denied
Held=Regarded as
Mechanics=Labourers
Compleat:
To forswear one’s self=Eenen valschen eed doen, meyneedig zyn
To forswear a thing=Zweeren dat iets zo niet is
Forsworn=Meyneedig
Mechanick=Handwerkman Topics: mercy, reason, justification, revenge