Original: I tell you, friends, most charitable care
Modern: I’m telling you, my friends, the nobles truly care about you with great kindness

Original: Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
Modern: The wealthy ruling class feels for you. As for your needs,

Original: Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well
Modern: your pain during this famine, you might as well

Original: Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
Modern: try to hit heaven with your clubs as raise them

Original: Against the Roman state, whose course will on
Modern: against the Roman government, which will continue on

Original: The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
Modern: its chosen path, breaking through ten thousand barriers

Original: Of more strong link asunder than can ever
Modern: made of stronger chains than could ever

Original: Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,
Modern: show up in anything you could do to stop it. As for the famine,

Original: The gods, not the patricians, make it, and
Modern: the gods cause it, not the nobles, and

Original: Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
Modern: you should kneel and pray to them, not fight. Unfortunately,

Original: You are transported by calamity
Modern: you’ve been carried away by disaster

Original: Thither where more attends you, and you slander
Modern: to a place where more trouble waits for you, and you insult

Original: The helms o’ the state, who care for you like fathers,
Modern: the leaders of the state, who care for you like fathers do,

Original: When you curse them as enemies.
Modern: when you curse them as if they were your enemies.

Original: Either you must
Modern: You have to either

Original: Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
Modern: admit that you’re incredibly spiteful,

Original: Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you
Modern: or be called foolish. I’m going to tell you

Original: A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;
Modern: a clever story: you may have heard it before;

Original: But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
Modern: but since it fits what I’m trying to say, I’ll risk

Original: To stale ‘t a little more.
Modern: making it seem old by telling it again.

Original: There was a time when all the body’s members
Modern: Once upon a time, all the parts of the body

Original: Rebell’d against the belly, thus accused it:
Modern: rebelled against the stomach, and accused it of this:

Original: That only like a gulf it did remain
Modern: that it just sat there like a deep pit

Original: I’ the midst o’ the body, idle and unactive,
Modern: in the middle of the body, lazy and doing nothing,

Original: Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Modern: always storing away the food, never doing

Original: Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments
Modern: the same kind of work as the rest, while the other body parts

Original: Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
Modern: could see and hear, think, teach, walk, feel,

Original: And, mutually participate, did minister
Modern: and, working together, did serve

Original: Unto the appetite and affection common
Modern: the hunger and desires shared

Original: Of the whole body. The belly answer’d—
Modern: by the whole body. The stomach answered—

Original: Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,
Modern: Sir, I’ll tell you what it said. With a sort of smile,

Original: Which ne’er came from the lungs, but even thus—
Modern: that never came from breathing, but like this—

Original: For, look you, I may make the belly smile
Modern: because, you see, I can make the stomach smile

Original: As well as speak—it tauntingly replied
Modern: as well as talk—it mockingly replied

Original: To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
Modern: to the unhappy body parts, the rebellious pieces

Original: That envied his receipt; even so most fitly
Modern: that were jealous of what it received; just as perfectly

Original: As you malign our senators for that
Modern: as you speak badly of our senators because

Original: They are not such as you.
Modern: they are not the same as you.

In Act I, scene i of Coriolanus, a group of Roman citizens armed with staves, clubs, and other weapons gather in the streets, expressing their anger and hunger due to grain shortages. They are particularly incensed at Caius Marcius (later Coriolanus), whom they blame for their suffering and view as their chief enemy among the patricians. The citizens debate whether to kill him, with some arguing he has served Rome well in war, while others maintain he fights only for pride and personal glory rather than for his country.

Menenius Agrippa, an elderly patrician, encounters the mob and attempts to calm them with reason and humor. He tells them the famous fable of the belly and the members, comparing the patricians to the belly that distributes nourishment to the other parts of the body (the plebeians), arguing that the senators serve Rome’s best interests. Caius Marcius then arrives and immediately berates the citizens with contempt, calling them unreliable and cowardly. A messenger brings news that the Volscians, led by Aufidius, are in arms against Rome. The scene concludes with word that the Senate has granted the people tribunes to represent their interests, news which Marcius receives with disgust before departing with other nobles to address the military threat.

Coriolanus tells the tragic story of a Roman military hero whose pride and contempt for the common people ultimately leads to his downfall. The play opens with Roman citizens rioting over grain shortages, angry at the patrician class’s indifference to their suffering. Caius Marcius, a fierce Roman general, successfully leads the siege against the Volscian city of Corioles, earning the honorary name “Coriolanus.” Despite his military prowess, he openly despises the plebeians (common citizens) and reluctantly agrees to seek the consulship only at his mother Volumnia’s urging.

When Coriolanus runs for consul, he must follow tradition by displaying his war wounds to the citizens and asking for their votes. Though initially successful, the tribunes Brutus and Sicinius manipulate the fickle crowd against him, exploiting his arrogant nature and aristocratic disdain. When Coriolanus explodes in rage against the people’s ingratitude and the democratic process itself, he is banished from Rome. His famous response - “I banish you!” - reveals his wounded pride and inability to bend to political necessity.

In exile, Coriolanus seeks out his former enemy Aufidius, leader of the Volscians, and offers to help destroy Rome in revenge. Together they march on the city with devastating success. As Rome faces imminent destruction, various delegations plead with Coriolanus to spare the city, but he remains unmoved until his mother Volumnia, wife Virgilia, and young son appear before him. In the play’s climactic scene, Volumnia’s emotional appeal finally breaks through his resolve, and he agrees to make peace - knowing this decision will likely cost him his life. True to expectation, Aufidius and his conspirators kill Coriolanus for his “betrayal,” viewing his mercy toward Rome as weakness and treachery to their cause.