Third Serv. I' the city of kites and crows! What an ass it is! Then thou dwellest with daws too?

Cor. No; I serve not thy master.

Third Serv. How, sir! Do you meddle with my master?

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Cor. Ay; 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress.

Thou prat'st, and prat'st: serve with thy trencher.
Hence!
Beats him away.

Enter AUFIDIUS and the First Servingman.
Auf. Where is this fellow?

First Serv. Here, sir: I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within. Auf. Whence comest thou? what would'st thou? thy name?

Why speak'st not? speak, man: what's thy name?

Cor. Unmuffling. If. Tullus,

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Not yet thou know'st me, and, seeing me, dost

not

but I

Appear not like a guest.

Re-enter the First Servingman.

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

Exit.

Cor. I have deserv'd no better entertainment, In being Coriolanus.

Re-enter Second Servingman.

11

Second Serv. Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance to such companions? Pray, get you out.

Commands me name myself.

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

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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 will 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 dar'st not this, and that to prove more fortunes

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A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter
Should from yond cloud speak divine things,
And say "Tis true,' I'd 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

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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 lov'd 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 for 't. 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, 131

Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd 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 prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.
You bless me, gods!

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Cor.
Auf. 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 experienc'd, since thou know'st
Thy country's strength and weakness, thine

own ways;

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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. First Serv. Here's a strange alteration! Second 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.

Second 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.

Second Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn. He is simply the rarest man i' the world.

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First Serv. I think he is; but a greater soldier than he you wot on.

Second Serv. Who? my master?

First Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that.
Second Serv. Worth six on him.

First Serv. Nay, not so neither; but I take him

to be the greater soldier.

Second Serv. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: for the defence of a town our general is excellent.

First Serv. Ay, and for an assault too.

Re-enter Third Servingman.

181

Third Serv. I do not say thwack our general'; but he was always good enough for him. Second 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 truth on 't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.

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Second 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 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, 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. will mow down all before him, and leave his passage polled.

He

Second Serv. And he's as like to do 't as any man I can imagine.

220

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.

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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.

Second 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; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer of men.

Second 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.

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Citizens. The gods preserve you both!

Sic.
Good den, our neighbours. 20
Bru. Good den to you all, good den to you all.
First Cit. Ourselves, our wives, and children,
on our knees,

Are bound to pray for you both.

Sic.
Live, and thrive!
Bru. Farewell, kind neighbours: we wish'd
Coriolanus

Had lov'd you as we did.
Citizens.
Now the gods keep you!
Sic., Bru. Farewell, farewell.

Exeunt Citizens. Sic. This is a happier and more comely time Than when these fellows ran about the streets Crying confusion.

Bru.

Caius Marcius was

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A worthy officer i' the war; but insolent,
O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking,
Self-loving,-
And affecting one sole throne,

Sic.

Without assistance.
Men.
I think not so.
Sic. We should by this, to all our lamentation,
If he had gone forth consul, found it so.
Bru. The gods have well prevented it, and Rome
Sits safe and still without him.

Enter an Edile.

Men.

'Tis Aufidius,

Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment, Thrusts forth his horns again into the world:

40