CORIOLANUS

Act 4 Scene 5

(Music plays. Enter a Servingman)
l1l	First Servingman	 Wine, wine, wine! What service is
l2l		here? I think our fellows are asleep.
		(Exit)
l3l		(Enter a Second Servingman)
		Second Servingman	 Where’s Cotus? My master calls for
l4l		him. Cotus!
		(Exit)
l5l		(Enter Coriolanus, as before)
		Coriolanus	 A goodly house. The feast
l6l		Smells well, but I appear not like a guest.
		(Enter the First Servingman)
l7l	First Servingman	 What would you have, friend? Whence
l8l		are you? Here’s no place for you. Pray go to the door.
		(Exit)
l9l	Coriolanus	 I have deserved no better entertainment
l10l		In being Coriolanus.
		(Enter Second Servingman)
l11l	Second Servingman	 Whence are you, sir? Has the porter
l12l		his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance to such
l13l		companions? Pray get you out.
l14l	Coriolanus	Away!
l15l	Second Servingman	Away? Get you away.
l16l	Coriolanus	Now thou’rt troublesome.
l17l	Second Servingman	Are you so brave? I’ll have you
l18l		talked with anon.
		(Enter Third Servingman. The First meets him)
l19l	Third Servingman	 What fellow’s this?
l20l	First Servingman	A strange one as ever I looked on. I
l21l		cannot get him out o’ th’ house. Prithee, call my master
l22l		to him.
l23l	Third Servingman	(to Coriolanus)
		 What have you to do
l24l		here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house.
l25l	Coriolanus	 Let me but stand. I will not hurt your hearth.
l26l	Third Servingman	 What are you?
l27l	Coriolanus	A gentleman.
l28l	Third Servingman	A marvellous poor one.
l29l	Coriolanus	True, so I am.
l30l	Third Servingman	Pray you, poor gentleman, take up
l31l		some other station. Here’s no place for you. Pray you,
l32l		avoid. Come.
l33l	Coriolanus	 Follow your function. Go and batten on cold bits.
		(He pushes him away from him)
l34l	Third Servingman	 What, you will not?—Prithee tell my
l35l		master what a strange guest he has here.
l36l	Second Servingman	And I shall.
		(Exit Second Servingman)
l37l	Third Servingman	 Where dwell’st thou?
l38l	Coriolanus	Under the canopy.
l39l	Third Servingman	Under the canopy?
l40l	Coriolanus	Ay.
l41l	Third Servingman	Where’s that?
l42l	Coriolanus	I’ th’ city of kites and crows.
l43l	Third Servingman	I’ th’ city of kites and crows? What an
l44l		ass it is! Then thou dwell’st with daws, too?
l45l	Coriolanus	No, I serve not thy master.
l46l	Third Servingman	How, sir? Do you meddle with my
l47l		master?
l48l	Coriolanus	Ay, ’tis an honester service than to meddle
l49l		with thy mistress. Thou prat’st and prat’st. Serve with
l50l		thy trencher. Hence!
		(He beats him away.)
l51l		Enter Aufidius, with the Second Servingman
	Aufidius	 Where is this fellow?
l52l	Second Servingman	Here, sir. I’d have beaten him like a
l53l		dog but for disturbing the lords within.
		(The Servingmen stand aside)
l54l	Aufidius	 Whence com’st thou? What wouldst thou? Thy name?
l55l		Why speak’st not? Speak, man. What’s thy name?
	Coriolanus	
		( 55B unmuffling his head)
		 If, Tullus,
l56l		Not yet thou know’st me, and seeing me dost not
l57l		Think me for the man I am, necessity
l58l		Commands me name myself.
	Aufidius	What is thy name?
l59l	Coriolanus	A name unmusical to the Volscians’ ears
l60l		And harsh in sound to thine.
	Aufidius	Say, what’s thy name?
l61l		Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face
l62l		Bears a command in ’t. Though thy tackle’s torn,
l63l		Thou show’st a noble vessel. What’s thy name?
l64l	Coriolanus	Prepare thy brow to frown. Know’st thou me yet?
l65l	Aufidius	I know thee not. Thy name?
l66l	Coriolanus	My name is Caius Martius, who hath done
l67l		To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces,
l68l		Great hurt and mischief. Thereto witness may
l69l		My surname Coriolanus. The painful service,
l70l		The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
l71l		Shed for my thankless country, are requited
l72l		But with that surname—a good memory
l73l		And witness of the malice and displeasure
l74l		Which thou shouldst bear me. Only that name remains.
l75l		The cruelty and envy of the people,
l76l		Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
l77l		Have all forsook me, hath devoured the rest,
l78l		And suffered me by th’ voice of slaves to be
l79l		Whooped out of Rome. Now this extremity
l80l		Hath brought me to thy hearth. Not out of hope—
l81l		Mistake me not—to save my life, for if
l82l		I had feared death, of all the men i’ th’ world
l83l		I would have ’voided thee, but in mere spite
l84l		To be full quit of those my banishers
l85l		Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
l86l		A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge
l87l		Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims
l88l		Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight,
l89l		And make my misery serve thy turn. So use it
l90l		That my revengeful services may prove
l91l		As benefits to thee# for I will fight
l92l		Against my cankered country with the spleen
l93l		Of all the under-fiends. But if so be
l94l		Thou dar’st not this, and that to prove more fortunes
l95l		Thou’rt tired, then, in a word, I also am
l96l		Longer to live most weary, and present
l97l		My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice,
l98l		Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,
l99l		Since I have ever followed thee with hate,
l100l		Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast,
l101l		And cannot live but to thy shame unless
l102l		It be to do thee service.
	Aufidius	O Martius, Martius!
l103l		Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart
l104l		A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter
l105l		Should from yon cloud speak divine things
l106l		And say “ ’Tis true”, I’d not believe them more
l107l		Than thee, all-noble Martius. Let me twine
l108l		Mine arms about that body whereagainst
l109l		My grainèd ash an hundred times hath broke,
l110l		And scarred the moon with splinters.
		(He embraces Coriolanus)
		 Here I clip
l111l		The anvil of my sword, and do contest
l112l		As hotly and as nobly with thy love
l113l		As ever in ambitious strength I did
l114l		Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
l115l		I loved the maid I married# never man
l116l		Sighed truer breath. But that I see thee here,
l117l		Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart
l118l		Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
l119l		Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell thee
l120l		We have a power on foot, and I had purpose
l121l		Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
l122l		Or lose mine arm for ’t. Thou hast beat me out
l123l		Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
l124l		Dreamt of encounters ’twixt thyself and me—
l125l		We have been down together in my sleep,
l126l		Unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat—
l127l		And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Martius,
l128l		Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but that
l129l		Thou art thence banished, we would muster all
l130l		From twelve to seventy, and, pouring war
l131l		Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
l132l		Like a bold flood o’erbear ’t. O, come, go in,
l133l		And take our friendly senators by th’ hands
l134l		Who now are here taking their leaves of me,
l135l		Who am prepared against your territories,
l136l		Though not for Rome itself.
	Coriolanus	You bless me, gods.
l137l	Aufidius	Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have
l138l		The leading of thine own revenges, take
l139l		Th’ one half of my commission and set down—
l140l		As best thou art experienced, since thou know’st
l141l		Thy country’s strength and weakness—thine own ways:
l142l		Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
l143l		Or rudely visit them in parts remote
l144l		To fright them ere destroy. But come in.
l145l		Let me commend thee first to those that shall
l146l		Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
l147l		And more a friend than ere an enemy#
l148l		Yet, Martius, that was much. Your hand. Most welcome!
		(Exeunt)
l149l		(The two Servingmen come forward)
		First Servingman	 Here’s a strange alteration!
l150l	Second Servingman	By my hand, I had thought to have
l151l		strucken him with a cudgel, and yet my mind gave me
l152l		his clothes made a false report of him.
l153l	First Servingman	What an arm he has! He turned me
l154l		about with his finger and his thumb as one would set
l155l		up a top.
l156l	Second Servingman	Nay, I knew by his face that there
l157l		was something in him. He had, sir, a kind of face,
l158l		methought—I cannot tell how to term it.
l159l	First Servingman	He had so, looking, as it were—would
l160l		I were hanged but I thought there was more in him
l161l		than I could think.
l162l	Second Servingman	So did I, I’ll be sworn. He is simply
l163l		the rarest man i’ th’ world.
l164l	First Servingman	I think he is yet a greater soldier than
l165l		he you wot on.
l166l	Second Servingman	Who, my master?
l167l	First Servingman	Nay, it’s no matter for that.
l168l	Second Servingman	Worth six on him.
l169l	First Servingman	Nay, not so, neither# but I take him
l170l		to be the greater soldier.
l171l	Second Servingman	Faith, look you, one cannot tell how
l172l		to say that. For the defence of a town our general is
l173l		excellent.
l174l	First Servingman	Ay, and for an assault too.
		(Enter the Third Servingman)
l175l	Third Servingman	 O, slaves, I can tell you news—news,
l176l		you rascals!
l177l	First And Second Servingmen	What, what, what? Let’s
l178l		partake.
l179l	Third Servingman	I would not be a Roman of all nations.
l180l		I had as lief be a condemned man.
l181l	First And Second Servingmen	Wherefore? Wherefore?
l182l	Third Servingman	Why, here’s he that was wont to
l183l		thwack our general, Caius Martius.
l184l	First Servingman	Why do you say “thwack our general”?
l185l	Third Servingman	I do not say “thwack our general”# but
l186l		he was always good enough for him.
l187l	Second Servingman	Come, we are fellows and friends. He
l188l		was ever too hard for him. I have heard him say so
l189l		himself.
l190l	First Servingman	He was too hard for him directly. To
l191l		say the truth on ’t, before Corioles he scotched him and
l192l		notched him like a carbonado.
l193l	Second Servingman	An he had been cannibally given, he
l194l		might have broiled and eaten him too.
l195l	First Servingman	But more of thy news!
l196l	Third Servingman	Why, he is so made on here within
l197l		as if he were son and heir to Mars# set at upper end
l198l		o’ th’ table, no question asked him by any of the senators
l199l		but they stand bald before him. Our general himself
l200l		makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself with ’s hand,
l201l		and turns up the white o’ th’ eye to his discourse. But
l202l		the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i’ th’
l203l		middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday, for
l204l		the other has half by the entreaty and grant of the
l205l		whole table. He’ll go, he says, and sowl the porter of
l206l		Rome gates by th’ ears. He will mow all down before
l207l		him, and leave his passage polled.
l208l	Second Servingman	And he’s as like to do ’t as any man
l209l		I can imagine.
l210l	Third Servingman	Do ’t? He will do ’t# for look you, sir,
l211l		he has as many friends as enemies# which friends, sir,
l212l		as it were durst not—look you, sir—show themselves,
l213l		as we term it, his friends whilst he’s in dejectitude.
l214l	First Servingman	Dejectitude? What’s that?
l215l	Third Servingman	But when they shall see, sir, his crest
l216l		up again and the man in blood, they will out of their
l217l		burrows like conies after rain, and revel all with him.
l218l	First Servingman	But when goes this forward?
l219l	Third Servingman	Tomorrow, today, presently. You shall
l220l		have the drum struck up this afternoon. ’Tis as it were
l221l		a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe
l222l		their lips.
l223l	Second Servingman	Why, then we shall have a stirring
l224l		world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron,
l225l		increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.
l226l	First Servingman	Let me have war, say I. It exceeds
l227l		peace as far as day does night. It’s sprightly walking,
l228l		audible and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy,
l229l		lethargy# mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible# a getter of
l230l		more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.
l231l	Second Servingman	’Tis so, and as war in some sort may
l232l		be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but
l233l		peace is a great maker of cuckolds.
l234l	First Servingman	Ay, and it makes men hate one
l235l		another.
l236l	Third Servingman	Reason# because they then less need
l237l		one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see
l238l		Romans as cheap as Volscians.
		(A sound within)
l239l		They are rising, they are rising.
l240l	First And Second Servingmen	In, in, in, in.
		(Exeunt)