Abridged Coriolanus/#1/Frustration/Act 1, Scene 1.1
In downtown Rome, in about 500 BC, a large group of
plebeians is upset with the Roman Senate, complaining that it is not providing
them with enough corn. The plebeians are
the common people. The First Citizen
says “We are accounted poor citizens the patricians good. The patricians
represent the aristocracy, the ruling class.”
He says “The leanness that afflicts is an inventory of abundance for
them; our sufferance is a gain to them. I speak this in hunger for bread, not
in thirst for revenge.” Another citizen
says “Would you proceed against Caius Martius?”
All in the group say “Against him first.
He’s a very dog to the commonalty.”
The First Citizen says “What he hath done famously, he hath done to
achieve fame. He hath done it to please
his mother, and to be proud, which he is.”
Martius is a military hero and a senator. Menenius is a senator and a father-figure to
Martius. Menenius enters. A Second
Citizen shouts “Worthy Menenius, one that hath always loved the people.” Menenius says “I tell you friends, for your
wants, you may as well strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
against the Roman state, whose course will go on the way it takes. The helms of
the state care for you like fathers.”
The First Citizen cries “Care for us?
They ne’er cared for us yet; suffer us to famish.” Menenius goes on, saying “You shall find no
public benefit which you receive but it comes from the Senate to you.” Caius Martius enters, and abruptly says
“What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues.”