Coriolanus — Act 4, Scene 5 · Shakespeare for Bharat

First Servingman

Wine, wine, wine! What serviceis here! I think our fellows are asleep.

Second Servingman

Where's Cotus? my master callsfor him. Cotus!

CORIOLANUS

A goodly house: the feast smells well; but IAppear not like a guest.

First Servingman

What would you have, friend? whence are you?Here's no place for you: pray, go to the door.

CORIOLANUS

I have deserved no better entertainment,In being Coriolanus.

Second Servingman

Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in hishead; 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.

Third Servingman

What fellow's this?

First Servingman

A strange one as ever I looked on: I cannot get himout of the house: prithee, call my master to him.

Third Servingman

What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoidthe 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 otherstation; here's no place for you; pray you, avoid: come.

CORIOLANUS

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

Third Servingman

What, you will not? Prithee, tell my master what astrange guest he has here.

Second Servingman

And I shall.

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 thymistress. Thou pratest, and pratest; serve with thytrencher, hence!

AUFIDIUS

Where is this fellow?

Second Servingman

Here, sir: I'ld have beaten him like a dog, but fordisturbing the lords within.

AUFIDIUS

Whence comest thou? what wouldst thou? thy name?Why speak'st not? speak, man: what's thy name?

CORIOLANUS

If, Tullus,

CORIOLANUS

Not yet thou knowest me, and, seeing me, dost notThink me for the man I am, necessityCommands 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 faceBears 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'stthou me yet?

AUFIDIUS

I know thee not: thy name?

CORIOLANUS

My name is Caius Marcius, who hath doneTo thee particularly and to all the VolscesGreat hurt and mischief; thereto witness mayMy surname, Coriolanus: the painful service,The extreme dangers and the drops of bloodShed for my thankless country are requitedBut with that surname; a good memory,And witness of the malice and displeasureWhich thou shouldst bear me: only that name remains;The cruelty and envy of the people,Permitted by our dastard nobles, whoHave all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest;And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to beWhoop'd out of Rome. Now this extremityHath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope--Mistake me not--to save my life, for ifI had fear'd death, of all the men i' the worldI would have 'voided thee, but in mere spite,To be full quit of those my banishers,Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hastA heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revengeThine own particular wrongs and stop those maimsOf shame seen through thy country, speedthee straight,And make my misery serve thy turn: so use itThat my revengeful services may proveAs benefits to thee, for I will fightAgainst my canker'd country with the spleenOf all the under fiends. But if so beThou darest not this and that to prove more fortunesThou'rt tired, then, in a word, I also amLonger to live most weary, and presentMy 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, unlessIt be to do thee service.

AUFIDIUS

O Marcius, Marcius!Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heartA root of ancient envy. If JupiterShould from yond cloud speak divine things,And say 'Tis true,' I'ld not believe them moreThan thee, all noble Marcius. Let me twineMine arms about that body, where againstMy grained ash an hundred times hath brokeAnd scarr'd the moon with splinters: here I clipThe anvil of my sword, and do contestAs hotly and as nobly with thy loveAs ever in ambitious strength I didContend against thy valour. Know thou first,I loved the maid I married; never manSigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heartThan when I first my wedded mistress sawBestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee,We have a power on foot; and I had purposeOnce more to hew thy target from thy brawn,Or lose mine arm fort: thou hast beat me outTwelve several times, and I have nightly sinceDreamt 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 thatThou art thence banish'd, we would muster allFrom twelve to seventy, and pouring warInto 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 haveThe leading of thine own revenges, takeThe one half of my commission; and set down--As best thou art experienced, since thou know'stThy 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 shallSay 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!

First Servingman

Here's a strange alteration!

Second Servingman

By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him witha cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made afalse report of him.

First Servingman

What an arm he has! he turned me about with hisfinger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

Second Servingman

Nay, I knew by his face that there was something inhim: he had, sir, a kind of face, methought,--Icannot 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 rarestman 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 thegreater 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.

Third Servingman

O slaves, I can tell you news,-- news, you rascals!

Second Servingman

What, what, what? let's partake.

Third Servingman

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

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 alwaysgood enough for him.

Second Servingman

Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever toohard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

First Servingman

He was too hard for him directly, to say the trothon't: before Corioli he scotched him and notchedhim like a carbon ado.

Second Servingman

An he had been cannibally given, he might havebroiled 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 sonand heir to Mars; set at upper end o' the table; noquestion asked him by any of the senators, but theystand bald before him: our general himself makes amistress of him: sanctifies himself with's hand andturns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. Butthe bottom of the news is that our general is cut i'the middle and but one half of what he wasyesterday; for the other has half, by the entreatyand grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says,and sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears: hewill 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 asmany friends as enemies; which friends, sir, as itwere, durst not, look you, sir, show themselves, aswe 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 theirburrows, like conies after rain, and revel all withhim.

First Servingman

But when goes this forward?

Third Servingman

To-morrow; to-day; presently; you shall have thedrum struck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, aparcel of their feast, and to be executed ere theywipe their lips.

Second Servingman

Why, then we shall have a stirring world again.This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increasetailors, and breed ballad-makers.

First Servingman

Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far asday does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, andfull of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy;mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of morebastard children than war's a destroyer of men.

Second Servingman

'Tis so: and as war, in some sort, may be said tobe a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is agreat 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 cheapas Volscians. They are rising, they are rising.

All

In, in, in, in!