The Tragedy Of Coriolanus

1 Music plays. Enter a Servingman.
2 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
3 Wine, wine, wine! What service is here? I think our fellows are asleep.
4 [_Exit._]
5 Enter another Servingman.
6 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
7 Where’s Cotus? My master calls for him. Cotus!
8 [_Exit._]
9 Enter Coriolanus.
10 CORIOLANUS.
11 A goodly house. The feast smells well, but I
12 Appear not like a guest.
13 Enter the First Servingman.
14 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
15 What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here’s no place for you.
16 Pray go to the door.
17 [_Exit._]
18 CORIOLANUS.
19 I have deserved no better entertainment
20 In being Coriolanus.
21 Enter Second Servingman.
22 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
23 Whence are you, sir?—Has the porter his eyes in his head, that he gives
24 entrance to such companions?—Pray, get you out.
25 CORIOLANUS.
26 Away!
27 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
28 Away? Get you away.
29 CORIOLANUS.
30 Now th’ art troublesome.
31 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
32 Are you so brave? I’ll have you talked with anon.
33 Enter Third Servingman; the First, entering, meets him.
34 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
35 What fellow’s this?
36 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
37 A strange one as ever I looked on. I cannot get him out o’ th’ house.
38 Prithee call my master to him.
39 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
40 What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house.
41 CORIOLANUS.
42 Let me but stand. I will not hurt your hearth.
43 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
44 What are you?
45 CORIOLANUS.
46 A gentleman.
47 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
48 A marv’llous poor one.
49 CORIOLANUS.
50 True, so I am.
51 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
52 Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station. Here’s no place
53 for you. Pray you, avoid. Come.
54 CORIOLANUS.
55 Follow your function, go, and batten on cold bits.
56 [_Pushes him away from him_.]
57 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
58 What, you will not?—Prithee, tell my master what a strange guest he has
59 here.
60 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
61 And I shall.
62 [_Exit._]
63 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
64 Where dwell’st thou?
65 CORIOLANUS.
66 Under the canopy.
67 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
68 Under the canopy?
69 CORIOLANUS.
70 Ay.
71 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
72 Where’s that?
73 CORIOLANUS.
74 I’ th’ city of kites and crows.
75 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
76 I’ th’ city of kites and crows? What an ass it is! Then thou dwell’st
77 with daws too?
78 CORIOLANUS.
79 No, I serve not thy master.
80 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
81 How, sir? Do you meddle with my master?
82 CORIOLANUS.
83 Ay, ’tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress. Thou
84 prat’st and prat’st. Serve with thy trencher, hence!
85 [_Beats him away_.]
86 [_Exit Third Servingman._]
87 Enter Aufidius with the Second Servingman.
88 AUFIDIUS.
89 Where is this fellow?
90 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
91 Here, sir. I’d have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords
92 within.
93 AUFIDIUS.
94 Whence com’st thou? What wouldst thou?
95 Thy name? Why speak’st not? Speak, man. What’s thy name?
96 CORIOLANUS.
97 [_Removing his muffler_.] If, Tullus,
98 Not yet thou know’st me, and, seeing me, dost not
99 Think me for the man I am, necessity
100 Commands me name myself.
101 AUFIDIUS.
102 What is thy name?
103 CORIOLANUS.
104 A name unmusical to the Volscians’ ears
105 And harsh in sound to thine.
106 AUFIDIUS.
107 Say, what’s thy name?
108 Thou has a grim appearance, and thy face
109 Bears a command in’t. Though thy tackle’s torn,
110 Thou show’st a noble vessel. What’s thy name?
111 CORIOLANUS.
112 Prepare thy brow to frown. Know’st thou me yet?
113 AUFIDIUS.
114 I know thee not. Thy name?
115 CORIOLANUS.
116 My name is Caius Martius, who hath done
117 To thee particularly and to all the Volsces
118 Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may
119 My surname Coriolanus. The painful service,
120 The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
121 Shed for my thankless country are requited
122 But with that surname, a good memory
123 And witness of the malice and displeasure
124 Which thou shouldst bear me. Only that name remains.
125 The cruelty and envy of the people,
126 Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
127 Have all forsook me, hath devoured the rest,
128 And suffered me by th’ voice of slaves to be
129 Whooped out of Rome. Now this extremity
130 Hath brought me to thy hearth, not out of hope—
131 Mistake me not—to save my life; for if
132 I had feared death, of all the men i’ th’ world
133 I would have ’voided thee, but in mere spite,
134 To be full quit of those my banishers,
135 Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
136 A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge
137 Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims
138 Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight
139 And make my misery serve thy turn. So use it
140 That my revengeful services may prove
141 As benefits to thee, for I will fight
142 Against my cankered country with the spleen
143 Of all the under fiends. But if so be
144 Thou dar’st not this, and that to prove more fortunes
145 Thou ’rt tired, then, in a word, I also am
146 Longer to live most weary, and present
147 My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice,
148 Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,
149 Since I have ever followed thee with hate,
150 Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast,
151 And cannot live but to thy shame, unless
152 It be to do thee service.
153 AUFIDIUS.
154 O Martius, Martius,
155 Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart
156 A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter
157 Should from yond cloud speak divine things
158 And say ’tis true, I’d not believe them more
159 Than thee, all-noble Martius. Let me twine
160 Mine arms about that body, whereagainst
161 My grained ash an hundred times hath broke
162 And scarred the moon with splinters. Here I clip
163 The anvil of my sword and do contest
164 As hotly and as nobly with thy love
165 As ever in ambitious strength I did
166 Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
167 I loved the maid I married; never man
168 Sighed truer breath. But that I see thee here,
169 Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart
170 Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
171 Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell thee
172 We have a power on foot, and I had purpose
173 Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn
174 Or lose mine arm for’t. Thou hast beat me out
175 Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
176 Dreamt of encounters ’twixt thyself and me;
177 We have been down together in my sleep,
178 Unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat,
179 And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Martius,
180 Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but that
181 Thou art thence banished, we would muster all
182 From twelve to seventy and, pouring war
183 Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
184 Like a bold flood o’erbear ’t. O, come, go in,
185 And take our friendly senators by th’ hands,
186 Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
187 Who am prepared against your territories,
188 Though not for Rome itself.
189 CORIOLANUS.
190 You bless me, gods!
191 AUFIDIUS.
192 Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have
193 The leading of thine own revenges, take
194 Th’ one half of my commission and set down—
195 As best thou art experienced, since thou know’st
196 Thy country’s strength and weakness—thine own ways,
197 Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
198 Or rudely visit them in parts remote
199 To fright them ere destroy. But come in.
200 Let me commend thee first to those that shall
201 Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
202 And more a friend than e’er an enemy—
203 Yet, Martius, that was much. Your hand. Most welcome!
204 [_Exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius._]
205 Two of the Servingmen come forward.
206 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
207 Here’s a strange alteration!
208 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
209 By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel, and yet
210 my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.
211 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
212 What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb as
213 one would set up a top.
214 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
215 Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him. He had, sir, a
216 kind of face, methought—I cannot tell how to term it.
217 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
218 He had so, looking as it were—Would I were hanged, but I thought there
219 was more in him than I could think.
220 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
221 So did I, I’ll be sworn. He is simply the rarest man i’ th’ world.
222 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
223 I think he is. But a greater soldier than he you wot one.
224 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
225 Who, my master?
226 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
227 Nay, it’s no matter for that.
228 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
229 Worth six on him.
230 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
231 Nay, not so neither. But I take him to be the greater soldier.
232 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
233 Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that. For the defence of a
234 town our general is excellent.
235 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
236 Ay, and for an assault too.
237 Enter the Third Servingman.
238 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
239 O slaves, I can tell you news, news, you rascals!
240 FIRST and SECOND SERVINGMAN.
241 What, what, what? Let’s partake.
242 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
243 I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a condemned
244 man.
245 FIRST and SECOND SERVINGMAN.
246 Wherefore? Wherefore?
247 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
248 Why, here’s he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Martius.
249 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
250 Why do you say, “thwack our general”?
251 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
252 I do not say “thwack our general,” but he was always good enough for
253 him.
254 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
255 Come, we are fellows and friends. He was ever too hard for him; I have
256 heard him say so himself.
257 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
258 He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth on’t, before
259 Corioles; he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.
260 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
261 An he had been cannibally given, he might have boiled and eaten him
262 too.
263 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
264 But, more of thy news?
265 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
266 Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars;
267 set at upper end o’ th’ table; no question asked him by any of the
268 senators but they stand bald before him. Our general himself makes a
269 mistress of him, sanctifies himself with’s hand, and turns up the white
270 o’ th’ eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general
271 is cut i’ th’ middle and but one half of what he was yesterday, for the
272 other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He’ll go,
273 he says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by th’ ears. He will mow all
274 down before him and leave his passage polled.
275 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
276 And he’s as like to do’t as any man I can imagine.
277 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
278 Do’t? He will do’t! For look you, sir, he has as many friends as
279 enemies, which friends, sir, as it were, durst not, look you, sir, show
280 themselves, as we term it, his friends whilest he’s in directitude.
281 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
282 Directitude? What’s that?
283 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
284 But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood,
285 they will out of their burrows like coneys after rain, and revel all
286 with him.
287 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
288 But when goes this forward?
289 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
290 Tomorrow, today, presently. You shall have the drum struck up this
291 afternoon. ’Tis as it were parcel of their feast, and to be executed
292 ere they wipe their lips.
293 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
294 Why then, we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing
295 but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.
296 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
297 Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It’s
298 sprightly walking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy,
299 lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard
300 children than war’s a destroyer of men.
301 SECOND SERVINGMAN.
302 ’Tis so, and as war in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher, so it
303 cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.
304 FIRST SERVINGMAN.
305 Ay, and it makes men hate one another.
306 THIRD SERVINGMAN.
307 Reason: because they then less need one another. The wars for my money!
308 I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. They are rising; they are
309 rising.
310 ALL.
311 In, in, in, in!
312 [_Exeunt._]