Printable version of this page

The Tragedy of Coriolanus: Act 4 Scene 5

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

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.

[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.

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.

[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.

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.

[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.

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!

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

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?

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.

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

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?

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

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,

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--

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

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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;

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

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,

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;

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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;

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

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]