The Tragedy of Coriolanus: ACT IV , SCENE V. The same. A hall in Aufidius's house.

The Tragedy of Coriolanus: ACT IV


	Introduction

	ACT I

	ACT II

	ACT III

	ACT IV

		SCENE I. Rome. Before a gate of the city.

		SCENE II. The same. A street near the gate.

		SCENE III. A highway between Rome and Antium.

		SCENE IV. Antium. Before Aufidius's house.

		SCENE V. The same. A hall in Aufidius's house.

		SCENE VI. Rome. A public place.

		SCENE VII. A camp, at a small distance from Rome.

	ACT V

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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

5 A goodly house: the feast smells well; but I
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,
10 In being Coriolanus.

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

15 Away! get you away.

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
20 out of the house: prithee, call my master to him.

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

25 A gentleman.

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

30 Follow your function, go, and batten on cold bits.

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

35 Under the canopy.

Third Servingman

Under the canopy!

CORIOLANUS

Ay.

Third Servingman

Where's that?

CORIOLANUS

I' the city of kites and crows.

Third Servingman

40 I' the city of kites and crows! What an ass it is!
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
45    mistress. Thou pratest, and pratest; serve with thy
      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

50 Whence comest thou? what wouldst thou? thy name?
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
55    Commands me name myself.

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?
60    Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face
      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

65 I know thee not: thy name?

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,
70    The extreme dangers and the drops of blood
      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;
75    The cruelty and envy of the people,
      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
80    Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope--
      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,
85    Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
      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,
90    And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it
      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
95    Thou darest not this and that to prove more fortunes
      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,
100   Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
      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!
105   Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart
      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
110   Mine arms about that body, where against
      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
115   As ever in ambitious strength I did
      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
120   Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
      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
125   Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
      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,
130   Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that
      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,
135   And take our friendly senators by the hands;
      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

140   Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have
      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;
145   Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
      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!
150   And more a friend than e'er an enemy;
      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
155   false report of him.

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
160   cannot tell how to term it.

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

165 I think he is: but a greater soldier than he you wot on.

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
170 greater soldier.

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!

First Servingman
Second Servingman

175 What, what, what? let's partake.

Third Servingman

I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as
lieve be a condemned man.

First Servingman
Second Servingman

Wherefore? wherefore?

Third Servingman

Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,
180 Caius Marcius.

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
185 hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

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
190 broiled and eaten him too.

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
195   stand bald before him: our general himself makes a
      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
200   yesterday; for the other has half, by the entreaty
      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

205   Do't! he will do't; for, look you, sir, he has as
      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

210   But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again,
      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

215   To-morrow; to-day; presently; you shall have the
      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.
220   This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase
      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;
225   mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more
      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

230 Ay, and it makes men hate one another.

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

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