| ACT IV SCENE VII. A camp, at a small distance from Rome. |
| [Enter AUFIDIUS and his Lieutenant] |
| AUFIDIUS | Do they still fly to the Roman? |
| Lieutenant | I do not know what witchcraft's in him, but |
| Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat, |
| Their talk at table, and their thanks at end; |
| And you are darken'd in this action, sir, | 5 |
| Even by your own. |
| AUFIDIUS | I cannot help it now, |
| Unless, by using means, I lame the foot |
| Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier, |
| Even to my person, than I thought he would | 10 |
| When first I did embrace him: yet his nature |
| In that's no changeling; and I must excuse |
| What cannot be amended. |
| Lieutenant | Yet I wish, sir,-- |
| I mean for your particular,--you had not | 15 |
| Join'd in commission with him; but either |
| Had borne the action of yourself, or else |
| To him had left it solely. |
| AUFIDIUS | I understand thee well; and be thou sure, |
| when he shall come to his account, he knows not | 20 |
| What I can urge against him. Although it seems, |
| And so he thinks, and is no less apparent |
| To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly. |
| And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state, |
| Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon | 25 |
| As draw his sword; yet he hath left undone |
| That which shall break his neck or hazard mine, |
| Whene'er we come to our account. |
| Lieutenant | Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Rome? |
| AUFIDIUS | All places yield to him ere he sits down; | 30 |
| And the nobility of Rome are his: |
| The senators and patricians love him too: |
| The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people |
| Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty |
| To expel him thence. I think he'll be to Rome | 35 |
| As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it |
| By sovereignty of nature. First he was |
| A noble servant to them; but he could not |
| Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride, |
| Which out of daily fortune ever taints | 40 |
| The happy man; whether defect of judgment, |
| To fail in the disposing of those chances |
| Which he was lord of; or whether nature, |
| Not to be other than one thing, not moving |
| From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace | 45 |
| Even with the same austerity and garb |
| As he controll'd the war; but one of these-- |
| As he hath spices of them all, not all, |
| For I dare so far free him--made him fear'd, |
| So hated, and so banish'd: but he has a merit, | 50 |
| To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues |
| Lie in the interpretation of the time: |
| And power, unto itself most commendable, |
| Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair |
| To extol what it hath done. | 55 |
| One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; |
| Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail. |
| Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, |
| Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine. |
| [Exeunt] |
Shakespeare's Sources for Coriolanus