Coriolanus

Coriolanus

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!	5
	Exit
	Enter CORIOLANUS
CORIOLANUS	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!	15
Second Servingman	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?	25
CORIOLANUS	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.	30
CORIOLANUS	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?	35
CORIOLANUS	Under the canopy.
Third Servingman	Under the canopy!
CORIOLANUS	Ay.
Third Servingman	Where's that?
CORIOLANUS	I' the city of kites and crows.	40
Third Servingman	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.	50
	Retires
AUFIDIUS	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?	65
AUFIDIUS	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!	140
AUFIDIUS	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 twoServingmen 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.	165
First Servingman	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!	175
First Servingman	\|
	\| What, what, what? let's partake.
Second Servingman	\|
Third Servingman	I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as
	lieve be a condemned man.	180
First Servingman	\|
	\| Wherefore? wherefore?
Second Servingman	\|
Third Servingman	Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,
	Caius Marcius.	185
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.	190
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.	195
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	200
	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	205
	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	210
	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,	215
	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	220
	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	225
	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	230
	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.	235
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