Cor. Follow your function, go, and batten on cold bits. [Pushes him away from him. Prithee, tell my master what [Exit. Third Serv. I' the city of kites and crows! What an ass it is! Then thou dwell'st with daws too? Cor. No, I serve not thy master. Third Serv. How, sir! do you meddle with my master? Auf. Where is this fellow? Sec. Serv. Here, sir: I 'ld have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within. [Retires. Not yet thou knowest me, and, seeing me, dost not Auf. Cor. A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears, Auf. If, Tullus, What is thy name? Say, what's thy name? Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face Bears a command in 't; though thy tackle 's torn, Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done Which thou shouldst bear me: only that name remains : Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest; I had fear'd death, of all the men i̇' the world Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast Thine own particular wrongs, and stop those maims 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 Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast, And cannot live but to thy shame, unless It be to do thee service. Auf. 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 As ever in ambitious strength I did Know thou first, I loved the maid I married; never man Than when I first my wedded mistress saw Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in, Cor. You bless me, gods! The one half of my commission, and set down- Or rudely visit them in parts remote, To fright them, ere destroy. But come in: Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes ! most welcome. [Exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius. The two Servingmen come forward. First Serv. Here's a strange alteration! Sec. Serv. 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 Serv. What an arm he has! he turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top. Sec. Serv. 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 Serv. He had so; looking as it were→→→ Would I were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think. Sec. Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest man i' the world. First Serv. I think he is: but a greater soldier than he, you Sec. Serv. Who? my master? First Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that. Sec. Serv. Worth six on him. [wot one. [greater soldier. First Serv. Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the Re-enter third Servingman. Third Serv. O slaves, I can tell you news; news, you rascals! First and Sec. Serv. What, what, what? let's partake. Third Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemned man. First and Sec. Serv. Wherefore? wherefore? Third Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Marcius. First Serv. Why do you say, thwack our general ? Third Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him. Sec. Serv. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself. First Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth on't before Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado. Sec. Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too. First Serv. But, more of thy news? Third Serv. 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 baid 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, 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 poll'd. Sec. Serv. And he's as like to do 't as any man I can imagine. Third Serv. 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 Serv. Directitude! what's that? Third Serv. 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 Serv. But when goes this forward? Third Serv. 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. Sec. Serv. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers. First Serv. 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, mull'd, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer of men. Sec. Serv. '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 Serv. Ay, and it makes men hate one another. Third Serv. Reason; because they then less need one another. SCENE VI Rome. A public place. Enter the two Tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus. Bru. We stood to 't in good time. Enter Menenius. Is this Menenius? Sic. 'Tis he, 'tis he: O, he is grown most kind Of late. Hail, sir! Men. Hail to you both! Sic. Your Coriolanus is not much miss'd, [Exeunt. But with his friends: the commonwealth doth stand; |