| ACT IV SCENE V. The same. A hall in Aufidius's house. |
| [Music within. Enter a Servingman] |
| First Servingman | Wine, wine, wine! What service |
| is here! I think our fellows are asleep. |
| [Exit] |
| [Enter a second Servingman] |
| Second Servingman | Where's Cotus? my master calls |
| for him. Cotus! |
| [Exit] |
| [Enter CORIOLANUS] |
| CORIOLANUS | A goodly house: the feast smells well; but I | 5 |
| Appear not like a guest. |
| [Re-enter the first Servingman] |
| First Servingman | What would you have, friend? whence are you? |
| Here's no place for you: pray, go to the door. |
| [Exit] |
| CORIOLANUS | I have deserved no better entertainment, |
| In being Coriolanus. | 10 |
| [Re-enter second Servingman] |
| Second Servingman | Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his |
| head; that he gives entrance to such companions? |
| Pray, get you out. |
| CORIOLANUS | Away! |
| Second Servingman | Away! get you away. | 15 |
| CORIOLANUS | Now thou'rt troublesome. |
| Second Servingman | Are you so brave? I'll have you talked with anon. |
| [Enter a third Servingman. The first meets him] |
| Third Servingman | What fellow's this? |
| First Servingman | A strange one as ever I looked on: I cannot get him |
| out of the house: prithee, call my master to him. | 20 |
| [Retires] |
| Third Servingman | What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid |
| the house. |
| CORIOLANUS | Let me but stand; I will not hurt your hearth. |
| Third Servingman | What are you? |
| CORIOLANUS | A gentleman. | 25 |
| Third Servingman | A marvellous poor one. |
| CORIOLANUS | True, so I am. |
| Third Servingman | Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other |
| station; here's no place for you; pray you, avoid: come. |
| CORIOLANUS | Follow your function, go, and batten on cold bits. | 30 |
| [Pushes him away] |
| Third Servingman | What, you will not? Prithee, tell my master what a |
| strange guest he has here. |
| Second Servingman | And I shall. |
| [Exit] |
| Third Servingman | Where dwellest thou? |
| CORIOLANUS | Under the canopy. | 35 |
| Third Servingman | Under the canopy! |
| CORIOLANUS | Ay. |
| Third Servingman | Where's that? |
| CORIOLANUS | I' the city of kites and crows. |
| Third Servingman | I' the city of kites and crows! What an ass it is! | 40 |
| Then thou dwellest with daws too? |
| CORIOLANUS | No, I serve not thy master. |
| Third Servingman | How, sir! do you meddle with my master? |
| CORIOLANUS | Ay; 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy |
| mistress. Thou pratest, and pratest; serve with thy | 45 |
| trencher, hence! |
| [Beats him away. Exit third Servingman] |
| [Enter AUFIDIUS with the second Servingman] |
| AUFIDIUS | Where is this fellow? |
| Second Servingman | Here, sir: I'ld have beaten him like a dog, but for |
| disturbing the lords within. |
| [Retires] |
| AUFIDIUS | Whence comest thou? what wouldst thou? thy name? | 50 |
| Why speak'st not? speak, man: what's thy name? |
| CORIOLANUS | If, Tullus, |
[Unmuffling] |
| Not yet thou knowest me, and, seeing me, dost not |
| Think me for the man I am, necessity |
| Commands me name myself. | 55 |
| AUFIDIUS | What is thy name? |
| CORIOLANUS | A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears, |
| And harsh in sound to thine. |
| AUFIDIUS | Say, what's thy name? |
| Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face | 60 |
| Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn. |
| Thou show'st a noble vessel: what's thy name? |
| CORIOLANUS | Prepare thy brow to frown: know'st |
| thou me yet? |
| AUFIDIUS | I know thee not: thy name? | 65 |
| CORIOLANUS | My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done |
| To thee particularly and to all the Volsces |
| Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may |
| My surname, Coriolanus: the painful service, |
| The extreme dangers and the drops of blood | 70 |
| Shed for my thankless country are requited |
| But with that surname; a good memory, |
| And witness of the malice and displeasure |
| Which thou shouldst bear me: only that name remains; |
| The cruelty and envy of the people, | 75 |
| Permitted by our dastard nobles, who |
| Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest; |
| And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be |
| Whoop'd out of Rome. Now this extremity |
| Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope-- | 80 |
| Mistake me not--to save my life, for if |
| I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world |
| I would have 'voided thee, but in mere spite, |
| To be full quit of those my banishers, |
| Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast | 85 |
| A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge |
| Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims |
| Of shame seen through thy country, speed |
| thee straight, |
| And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it | 90 |
| That my revengeful services may prove |
| As benefits to thee, for I will fight |
| Against my canker'd country with the spleen |
| Of all the under fiends. But if so be |
| Thou darest not this and that to prove more fortunes | 95 |
| Thou'rt tired, then, in a word, I also am |
| Longer to live most weary, and present |
| My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice; |
| Which not to cut would show thee but a fool, |
| Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate, | 100 |
| Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast, |
| And cannot live but to thy shame, unless |
| It be to do thee service. |
| AUFIDIUS | O Marcius, Marcius! |
| Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart | 105 |
| A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter |
| Should from yond cloud speak divine things, |
| And say 'Tis true,' I'ld not believe them more |
| Than thee, all noble Marcius. Let me twine |
| Mine arms about that body, where against | 110 |
| My grained ash an hundred times hath broke |
| And scarr'd the moon with splinters: here I clip |
| The anvil of my sword, and do contest |
| As hotly and as nobly with thy love |
| As ever in ambitious strength I did | 115 |
| Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, |
| I loved the maid I married; never man |
| Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here, |
| Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart |
| Than when I first my wedded mistress saw | 120 |
| Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee, |
| We have a power on foot; and I had purpose |
| Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn, |
| Or lose mine arm fort: thou hast beat me out |
| Twelve several times, and I have nightly since | 125 |
| Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me; |
| We have been down together in my sleep, |
| Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat, |
| And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius, |
| Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that | 130 |
| Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all |
| From twelve to seventy, and pouring war |
| Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome, |
| Like a bold flood o'er-bear. O, come, go in, |
| And take our friendly senators by the hands; | 135 |
| Who now are here, taking their leaves of me, |
| Who am prepared against your territories, |
| Though not for Rome itself. |
| CORIOLANUS | You bless me, gods! |
| AUFIDIUS | Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have | 140 |
| The leading of thine own revenges, take |
| The one half of my commission; and set down-- |
| As best thou art experienced, since thou know'st |
| Thy country's strength and weakness,--thine own ways; |
| Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, | 145 |
| Or rudely visit them in parts remote, |
| To fright them, ere destroy. But come in: |
| Let me commend thee first to those that shall |
| Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes! |
| And more a friend than e'er an enemy; | 150 |
| Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: most welcome! |
| [
Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. The two
Servingmen come forward
] |
| First Servingman | Here's a strange alteration! |
| Second Servingman | By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with |
| a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a |
| false report of him. | 155 |
| First Servingman | What an arm he has! he turned me about with his |
| finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top. |
| Second Servingman | Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in |
| him: he had, sir, a kind of face, methought,--I |
| cannot tell how to term it. | 160 |
| First Servingman | He had so; looking as it were--would I were hanged, |
| but I thought there was more in him than I could think. |
| Second Servingman | So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest |
| man i' the world. |
| First Servingman | I think he is: but a greater soldier than he you wot on. | 165 |
| Second Servingman | Who, my master? |
| First Servingman | Nay, it's no matter for that. |
| Second Servingman | Worth six on him. |
| First Servingman | Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the |
| greater soldier. | 170 |
| Second Servingman | Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: |
| for the defence of a town, our general is excellent. |
| First Servingman | Ay, and for an assault too. |
| [Re-enter third Servingman] |
| Third Servingman | O slaves, I can tell you news,-- news, you rascals! |
| Second Servingman | What, what, what? let's partake. | 175 |
| Third Servingman | I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as |
| lieve be a condemned man. |
| Second Servingman | Wherefore? wherefore? |
| Third Servingman | Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general, |
| Caius Marcius. | 180 |
| First Servingman | Why do you say 'thwack our general '? |
| Third Servingman | I do not say 'thwack our general;' but he was always |
| good enough for him. |
| Second Servingman | Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too |
| hard for him; I have heard him say so himself. | 185 |
| First Servingman | He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth |
| on't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched |
| him like a carbon ado. |
| Second Servingman | An he had been cannibally given, he might have |
| broiled and eaten him too. | 190 |
| First Servingman | But, more of thy news? |
| Third Servingman | Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son |
| and heir to Mars; set at upper end o' the table; no |
| question asked him by any of the senators, but they |
| stand bald before him: our general himself makes a | 195 |
| mistress of him: sanctifies himself with's hand and |
| turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But |
| the bottom of the news is that our general is cut i' |
| the middle and but one half of what he was |
| yesterday; for the other has half, by the entreaty | 200 |
| and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, |
| and sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears: he |
| will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled. |
| Second Servingman | And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine. |
| Third Servingman | Do't! he will do't; for, look you, sir, he has as | 205 |
| many friends as enemies; which friends, sir, as it |
| were, durst not, look you, sir, show themselves, as |
| we term it, his friends whilst he's in directitude. |
| First Servingman | Directitude! what's that? |
| Third Servingman | But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, | 210 |
| and the man in blood, they will out of their |
| burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with |
| him. |
| First Servingman | But when goes this forward? |
| Third Servingman | To-morrow; to-day; presently; you shall have the | 215 |
| drum struck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, a |
| parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they |
| wipe their lips. |
| Second Servingman | Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. |
| This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase | 220 |
| tailors, and breed ballad-makers. |
| First Servingman | Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as |
| day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and |
| full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; |
| mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more | 225 |
| bastard children than war's a destroyer of men. |
| Second Servingman | 'Tis so: and as war, in some sort, may be said to |
| be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a |
| great maker of cuckolds. |
| First Servingman | Ay, and it makes men hate one another. | 230 |
| Third Servingman | Reason; because they then less need one another. |
| The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap |
| as Volscians. They are rising, they are rising. |
| All | In, in, in, in! |
| [Exeunt] |
Shakespeare's Sources for Coriolanus