Act 4 — Scene V. The same. A hall in Aufidius's house.[3491]
Reading edition
Scene V. The same. A hall in Aufidius's house.[3491]
Music within. Enter a Servingman.
First Serv. Wine, wine, wine!—What service is here! I think our fellows are asleep. [Exit.[3492]
Enter another Servingman.
Sec. Serv. Where's Cotus? my master calls for him.[3493] Cotus! [Exit.
Enter Coriolanus.
Cor. A goodly house: the feast smells well; but I[3494][3495] 5 Appear not like a guest.[3494][3496]
Re-enter the first Servingman.[3497]
First Serv. What would you have, friend? whence are you? Here's no place for you: pray, go to the door. [Exit.[3498] Cor. I have deserved no better entertainment,[3499] In being Coriolanus.[3499] 10
Re-enter second Servingman.[3500]
Sec. Serv. Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance to such companions? Pray, get you out. Cor. Away! Sec. Serv. 'Away!' get you away. 15 Cor. Now thou'rt troublesome.[3501] Sec. Serv. Are you so brave? I'll have you talked with anon.[3502]
Enter a third Servingman. The first meets him.[3503]
Third Serv. What fellow's this? First Serv. A strange one as ever I looked on: I cannot[3504] 20 get him out o' the house: prithee, call my master to him.
[Retires.[3505]
Third Serv. What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house. Cor. Let me but stand; I will not hurt your hearth. Third Serv. What are you? 25 Cor. A gentleman. Third Serv. A marvellous poor one. Cor. True, so I am. Third Serv. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here's no place for you; pray you, avoid: 30 come.[3506] Cor. Follow your function, go, and batten on cold bits.[3507]
[Pushes him away from him.
Third Serv. What, you will not? Prithee, tell my[3508] master what a strange guest he has here. Sec. Serv. And I shall. [Exit.[3509] 35 Third Serv. Where dwell'st thou?[3510] Cor. Under the canopy. Third Serv. Under the canopy! Cor. Ay. Third Serv. Where's that? 40 Cor. I' the city of kites and crows. Third Serv. I' the city of kites and crows! What an[3511] ass it is! Then thou dwell'st with daws too?[3510] Cor. No, I serve not thy master. Third Serv. How, sir! do you meddle with my master? 45 Cor. Ay; 'tis an honester service than to meddle with[3512] thy mistress:[3512] Thou pratest, and pratest; serve with thy trencher, hence! [Beats him away. Exit third Servingman.
Enter Aufidius with the second Servingman.[3513]
Auf. Where is this fellow? Sec. Serv. Here, sir: I'ld have beaten him like a dog, 50 but for disturbing the lords within. [Retires.[3514] Auf. Whence comest thou? what wouldst thou? thy name?[3515] Why speak'st not? speak, man: what's thy name?[3516] Cor. [Unmuffling] If, Tullus,[3517][3518] Not yet thou knowest me, and, seeing me, dost not[3518] Think me for the man I am, necessity[3518][3519] 55 Commands me name myself.[3518][3520] Auf. What is thy name? Cor. A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears,[3521] And harsh in sound to thine. Auf. Say, what's thy name? Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face Bears a command in 't; though thy tackle's torn,[3522] 60 Thou show'st a noble vessel: what's thy name? Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown:—know'st thou me yet? Auf. I know thee not:—thy name?[3523] Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done[3524] To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces, 65 Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may My surname, Coriolanus: the painful service, The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood Shed for my thankless country, are requited[3525] But with that surname; a good memory,[3526] 70 And witness of the malice and displeasure Which thou shouldst bear me: only that name remains:[3527] The cruelty and envy of the people,[3528] Permitted by our dastard nobles, who Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest; 75 And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be Whoop'd out of Rome. Now, this extremity[3529] 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 80 I would have 'voided thee; but in mere spite,[3530] To be full quit of those my banishers, Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge[3531] Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims[3532] 85 Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight,[3532] 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 90 Of all the under fiends. But if so be Thou darest not this and that to prove more fortunes Thou'rt tired, then, in a word, I also am[3533] Longer to live most weary, and present My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice; 95 Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,[3534] 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. Auf. O Marcius, Marcius![3535] 100 Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart[3536] A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter[3537] Should from yond cloud speak divine things,[3538] And say 'Tis true,' I'ld not believe them more[3539] Than thee, all noble Marcius. Let me twine[3540] 105 Mine arms about that body, where against[3541] My grained ash an hundred times hath broke, And scarr'd the moon with splinters: here I clip[3542] The anvil of my sword, and do contest As hotly and as nobly with thy love 110 As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,[3543] I loved the maid I married; never man[3543] Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here, Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart 115 Than when I first my wedded mistress saw Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee,[3544] We have a power on foot; and I had purpose Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn, Or lose mine arm for't: thou hast beat me out[3545] 120 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, 125 Had we no quarrel else to Rome but that[3546] 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-beat. O, come, go in,[3547] 130 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. Cor. You bless me, gods! Auf. Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have 135 The leading of thine own revenges, take The one half of my commission, and set down—[3548] 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, 140 Or rudely visit them in parts remote, To fright them, ere destroy. But come in:[3549] Let me commend thee first to those that shall[3550] Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes! And more a friend than e'er an enemy; 145 Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: most welcome!
[Exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius. The two Servingmen come forward.[3551]
First Serv. Here's a strange alteration![3552] Sec. Serv. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken[3553] him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes[3554] made a false report of him. 150 First Serv. What an arm he has! he turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top. Sec. Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: he had, sir, a kind of face, methought,—I[3555] cannot tell how to term it. 155 First Serv. He had so; looking as it were—Would I[3556] were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think. Sec. Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest man i' the world. 160 First Serv. I think he is: but a greater soldier than he, you wot one.[3557] Sec. Serv. Who? my master?[3558] First Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that. Sec. Serv. Worth six on him. 165 First Serv. Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the greater soldier. Sec. Serv. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: for the defence of a town, our general is excellent. First Serv. Ay, and for an assault too. 170
Re-enter third Servingman.[3559]
Third Serv. O slaves, I can tell you news; news, you[3560] rascals! First and Sec. Serv. What, what, what? let's partake.[3561] Third Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemned man.[3562] 175 First and Sec. Serv. Wherefore? wherefore?[3561] Third Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Marcius. First Serv. Why do you say, thwack our general? Third Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; but he 180 was always good enough for him. Sec. Serv. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself. First Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth on 't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched[3563] 185 him like a carbonado.[3564] Sec. Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might[3565] have broiled and eaten him too.[3566] First Serv. But, more of thy news?[3567] Third Serv. Why, he is so made on here within as if 190 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 mistress of him; sanctifies himself with 's hand, and turns[3568] up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But the bottom of 195 the news is, our general is cut i' the middle, and but one half of what he was 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[3569] mow all down before him, and leave his passage poll'd.[3570] 200 Sec. Serv. And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine. Third Serv. 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 205 it, his friends whilst he's in directitude.[3571][3572] First Serv. Directitude! what's that?[3572] Third Serv. 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.[3573] 210 First Serv. But when goes this forward? Third Serv. 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. 215 Sec. Serv. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase[3574] tailors and breed ballad-makers. First Serv. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and[3575] 220 full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy, mull'd,[3576] deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children[3577] than war's a destroyer of men.[3578] Sec. Serv. 'Tis so: and as war, in some sort, may be[3579] said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a 225 great maker of cuckolds. First Serv. Ay, and it makes men hate one another. Third Serv. 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. 230 First and Sec. Serv. In, in, in, in! [Exeunt.[3580]