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| Character | Menenius | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Male | |
| Age Range(s) | Adult (36-50) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | Angry, Scolding, Descriptive, Mocking | |
| Type | Comic | |
| Period | Renaissance | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | Menenius acknowledges his shortcomings | |
| Location | ACT II, Scene 1 | |
Summary
The play is set in the city of Rome and is based on the legendary Roman general Gaius Martius Coriolanus. In the first scene of the play Caius Martius and several Roman rulers have to deal with a riot of the common people that are protesting because of a shortage of grain. A war soon breaks out between Rome and a neighboring tribe, the Volscians, led by Tullus Aufidius. After a hard battle, Gaius Martius manages to conquer the Volscian's city or Corioles and, having fought with valor, is given the nickname "Coriolanus" because of that.
In the first scene of ACT II we find two tribunes, Brutus and Sicinius, criticizing Gaius Martius because his disregard for the common people. When Gaius Martius' friend, Menenius, defends him, they start criticizing him for his shortcomings as a polititian. In this monologue Menenius acknowledges his shortcomings and at the same time mocks the two tribunes.
In the first scene of ACT II we find two tribunes, Brutus and Sicinius, criticizing Gaius Martius because his disregard for the common people. When Gaius Martius' friend, Menenius, defends him, they start criticizing him for his shortcomings as a polititian. In this monologue Menenius acknowledges his shortcomings and at the same time mocks the two tribunes.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| MENENIUS 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? [BRUTUS Come, sir, come, we know you well enough.] MENENIUS You know neither me, yourselves nor any thing. You are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs: you wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange wife and a fosset-seller; and then rejourn the controversy of three pence to a second day of audience. When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers; set up the bloody flag against all patience; and, in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss the controversy bleeding the more entangled by your hearing: all the peace you make in their cause is, calling both the parties knaves. You are a pair of strange ones. [BRUTUS Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table than a necessary bencher in the Capitol.] MENENIUS Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the wagging of your beards; and your beards deserve not so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher's cushion, or to be entombed in an ass's pack- saddle. Yet you must be saying, Marcius is proud; who in a cheap estimation, is worth predecessors since Deucalion, though peradventure some of the best of 'em were hereditary hangmen. God-den to your worships: more of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians: I will be bold to take my leave of you. |
