(III. i. 329.)
This confirms the testimony given him by the First Citizen in the opening scene: “He’s one honest enough” (i. i. 54); and the Second Citizen describes him as
Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.
(I. i. 52.)
He has indeed a sympathy with them, that shows itself in the russet and kersey of his speech. The haughty Coriolanus despises the household words of the common folk, and cites them only to ridicule them, but Menenius’ phrases of their own accord run to the homespun and proverbial. He addresses the obtrusive citizen: “You, the great toe of this assembly” (i. i. 159). The dissension at Rome is a rent that “must be patch’d with cloth of any colour” (iii. i. 252). Coriolanus’ rough words he excuses on the ground that he is
ill school’d
In bolted language: meal and bran together
He throws without distinction.
(III. i. 321.)
He figures the relentlessness of the returned exile as “yon coign o’ the Capitol, yon corner-stone” (v. iv. 1), and is at no loss for illustrations of the change that has come over the outcast: