Original: You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
Modern: You pack of mongrel dogs! I hate the very air you breathe

Original: As reek o’ the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
Modern: It stinks like rotting swampland, and I value your affection

Original: As the dead carcasses of unburied men
Modern: About as much as I’d value rotting corpses

Original: That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
Modern: That poison the air around me—I’m banishing you instead!

Original: And here remain with your uncertainty!
Modern: So stay here with all your doubts and fears!

Original: Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Modern: Let every weak rumor make you tremble with fear!

Original: Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Modern: Your enemies, just by nodding their feathered helmets,

Original: Fan you into despair! Have the power still
Modern: Will drive you to complete hopelessness! Keep having the power

Original: To banish your defenders; till at length
Modern: To exile those who would protect you, until finally

Original: Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
Modern: Your stupidity—which only learns through painful experience—

Original: Making not reservation of yourselves,
Modern: Never holding anything back for your own protection,

Original: Still your own foes, deliver you as most
Modern: Always being your own worst enemies, hands you over as thoroughly

Original: Abated captives to some nation
Modern: Defeated prisoners to some foreign country

Original: That won you without blows! Despising,
Modern: That conquered you without even fighting! In disgust

Original: For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
Modern: At you and this city, I’m turning my back on you:

Original: There is a world elsewhere.
Modern: There’s a whole world out there beyond this place.

In Act III, Scene 3 of Coriolanus, the tribunes Sicinius and Brutus prepare for Coriolanus’s arrival by instructing the Aediles and citizens on how to respond during the proceedings. They strategically position themselves to ensure that when Coriolanus speaks, the crowd will react with anger and accusations of treason. When Coriolanus arrives with Menenius and other senators, the tribunes immediately accuse him of being a traitor to the people of Rome. Despite Menenius’s attempts to calm the situation and Coriolanus’s own efforts to respond to the charges, the tribunes refuse to allow him to speak and repeatedly interrupt him.

The confrontation escalates quickly as the tribunes declare that Coriolanus shall never again enter Rome’s gates, effectively banishing him from the city. The citizens support this decision, calling for his immediate exile. Coriolanus, enraged by this treatment, responds with a fierce speech in which he rejects Rome and its people, declaring that he banishes them instead. He proclaims that he will find enemies elsewhere who will prove more worthy than the Roman citizens he now scorns. The scene concludes with Coriolanus departing in anger, leaving behind his mother Volumnia, his wife Virgilia, and his friends, while the tribunes and citizens celebrate their victory in removing him from Rome.

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.