SCENE V. The same. A hall in Aufidius's house. The Tragedy of Coriolanus  Shakespeare homepage  |  Coriolanus  | Act 4, Scene 5 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  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  Shakespeare homepage  |  Coriolanus  | Act 4, Scene 5 

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