Vol. A most royal one: the centurions, and their charges, distinctly billeted, already in the entertainment', and to be on foot at an hour's warning. Rom. I am joyful to hear of their readiness, 5 and am the man, I think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company. Vol. You take my part from me, sir; I have the most cause to be glad of yours. Rom. Well, let us go together. SCENE Antium. 10 [Exeunt. IV. Before Aufidius's House. Enter Coriolanus, in mean apparel, disguis'd and 15 with anon. muffied. Cor. A goodly city is this Antium: City, 'Tis I that made thy widows; many an heir Of these fair edifices for my wars Have I heard groan, and drop: then know me not; Lest that thywives with spits, and boys with stones, Enter a Citizen. In puny battle slay me.-Save you, sir. Cit. And you. Cor. Direct ine, if it be your will, At his house this night. Cor. Which is his house, 'beseech you? Cor. Thank you, sir; farewell. [Exit Citizen. O, world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, [sleep Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart, SCENE V. A Hall in Aufidius's House, Music plays. Enter a Serving-man. Enter a third Servant. The first meets him. 3 Serv. What fellow's this? 1 Serv. A strange one as ever I look'd on: I cannot get him out o' the house: Pr'ythee, call 20my master to him. 25 3 Serv. What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house. [hearth. Cor. Let me but stand; I will not hurt your 3 Serv. What are you? Cor. A gentleman. 3 Serv. A marvellous poor one. Cor. True, so I am. 3 Serv. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station: here's no place for you; 30 pray you, avoid: come. 35 40 45 [Exit. 50 1 Serv. Wine, wine, wine! What service is here! I think our fellows are asleep. Enter another Sercing-man. [Exit. 2 Ser. Where's Cotus? my master calls for 55 him. Cotus! Enter Coriolanus. [Exit. Cor. Follow your function, go, And batten on cold bits, [Pushes him away, 3 Sert. What, will you not? Pr'ythee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here. 2 Serv. And I shall, 3 Serv. Where dwell'st thou? Cor. Under the canopy. 3 Serv. Under the canopy? Cor. Ay. 3 Serv. Where's that? Cor. I' the city of kites and crows. [Exit. 3 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. [ter? 3 Serv. How,sir! Do you meddle with my masCor. Ay; 'tis an honester service, than to meddle with thy mistress: hence! Thou prat'st, and prat'st; serve with thy trencher, [Beats him away. Enter Aufidius, with the second Serving-man." Auf. Where is this fellow? 2 Sert, Here, sir; I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within. Auf. Whence comest thou? what wouldest thou? Thy name? Why speak'st not? Speak, man; What's thy name? Cor. If, Tullus, Not yet thou know'st me, and seeing me, dost not Think me for the man I am, necessity 60 Commands me name myself. That is, though not actually encamped, yet already in pay.-To entertain an army is to take them into pay. Companion was formerly used in the same sense as we now use the word fellow. Auf Auf. What is thy name? Cor. A name unmusical to the Volces' ears, And harsh in sound to thine. 5 Auf. Say, what's thy name? Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may [tunes And make my misery serve thy turn; so use it, Auf. O Marcius, Marcius, [heart Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here, We have a power on foot; and I had purpose 15 Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that 25 30 Cor. You bless me, gods! [have Auf, Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt ways: Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, To fright them, ere destroy. But come in: 140 1 Serv. Here's a strange alteration! 2 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. 1 Serv. What an arm he has! He turn'd me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would 45 set up a top. [say, 50 Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my Mine arms about that body, where against 2 Serp. 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. 1 Serv. He had so; looking, as it were,Would I were hang'd, but I thought there was more in him than I could think. 2 Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: He is simply the rarest man i' the world. 1 Serv. I think he is: but a greater soldier My grained ash an hundred times hath broke, 55 than he, you wot one. And scarr'd the moon with splinters! Here I clip As hotly and as nobly with thy love, As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, 2 Serv. Who? my master? 1 Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that. 2 Serv. Worth six of him, 1 Serv. Nay, not so neither: but I take him to 60 be the greater soldier. 2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how i. e. disgraceful diminutions of to Memory for memorial. 2 i. e. resentment or revenge. territory. to say that for the defence of a town, our gene- peace, as far as day does night; it's sprightly, ral is excellent. 1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too. Enter a third Servant. waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull'd', deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children, 3 Serv. O, slaves, I can tell you news; news, 5 than war's a destroyer of men. you rascals. Both. What, what, what? let's partake. 3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations, I had as lieve be a condemn'd man. Both. Wherefore? wherefore? 3 Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general; Caius Marcius. 1 Serv. Why do you say, thwack our general? 3 Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him. 2 Serv. Come, we are fellows, and friends: he was ever too hard for hin; I have heard him say so himself. 2 Serv. 'Tis so; and as war, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher; so it cannot be denied, jbut peace is a great maker of cuckolds. 1 Serv. Ay, and it makes men hate one ano 10ther. 15 1. Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on 't: before Corioli, he scotch'd 20 him and notch'd him like a carbonado. 2 Sero. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broil'd and eaten him too. I Serv. But, more of thy news? 3 Serv. Why, he is so made on here within, as 25 if he were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o' the table: no question ask'd him by any of the senators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctines himself with's hand',and turns up the white o' the 30 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 intreaty and grant of the whole table. He will go, he says, and sowle the porter of 35 Rome gates by the ears: He will mow down all before him, and leave his passage poll'd 3. 2 Serv. And he's as like to do 't, as any man I can imagine. 3 Serv. Do't? he will do't: For, look you, sir, 40 he has as many friends as enemies; which friends, sir, (as it were) durst not (look you, sir,) shew themselves (as we term it) his friends, whilst he's in directitude. 1 Serv. Directitude! What's that? 3 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. 1 Serv. But when goes this forward? 3 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. 45 150 2 Sero. Why, then we shall have a stirring 55 world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers. 1 Serv. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds 4 [Exeunt Citizens. Alluding, improperly, to the act of crossing upon any strange event. * That is, drag him down by the ears into the dirt.-The word is derived from sow, i. e. to take hold of a person by the ears, as a dog seizes one of these animals. 'That is, bared, cleared. * i. e. full of rumour, full of materials for discourse. ? i. e. soften'd and dispirited, as wine is when burnt and sweeten'd. i. e. ineffectual in times of peace like these. Mes. It is spoke freely out of many mouths, (How probable, I do not know) that Marcius, Men. What's the news? what's the news? Men. Pray now, the news?- Com, It! 30 He is their god; he leads them like a thing 40 Men. You have made good work, You, and your apron-men; you that stood so much Bru. But is this true, sir?. Com. Ay; and you'll look pale The breath of garlick-eaters'! Com. He'll shake your Rome about your ears. Men. As Hercules did shake down mellow You have made fair work! [fruit. 45 Before you find it other. All the regions Are mock'd for valiant ignorance, [him? And perish constant fools. Who is't can blame 50 Men. We are all undone, unless The noble man have mercy. Com. Who shall ask it? The tribunes cannot do 't for shame; the people Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome; 55 Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they And vows revenge as spacious, as between Should say, Begood to Rome, they charg'd him even That is, without assessors; without any other suffrage. 2 i. e. talk. 3 Dr. Johnson reniarks, that to atone, in the active sense, is to reconcile, and is so used by our author. To atone here is, in the neutral sense, to come to reconciliation. To atone is to unite. * Occupation is here used for mechanicks, men occupied in daily business. "To smell of garlick was once such a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara. It appears also, that garlick was once much used in England, and afterwards as much out of fashion. Hence, perhaps, the cant denomination Pil-garlick for a deserted fellow, a person left to suffer without friends to assist him. 6 Alluding to the apples of the Hesperides. To reFolt smilingly, is to revolt with signs of pleasure, or with marks of contempt. As 7 As those should do that had deserv'd his hate, And therein shew'd like enemies. Men. 'Tis true: If he were putting to my house the brand A trembling upon Rome, such as was never Tri. Say not, we brought it. [like beasts, Men. How! Was it we? We lov'd him; but, And cowardly nobles, gave way to your clusters, Who did hoot him out o' the city. Com. But, I fear, They'll roar him in again'. Tullus Aufidius, Enter a Troop of Citizens. Men. Here come the clusters.And is Aufidius with him?-You are they That made the air unwholesome, when you cast Your stinking, greasy caps, in hooting at Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming; And not a hair upon a soldier's head, Which will not prove a whip; as many coxcombs, you threw caps up, will he tumble down, pay you for your voices. "Tis no matter; If he could burn us all into one coal, As And We have deserv'd it. Omnes. 'Faith, we hear fearful news. When I said, banish him, I said, 'twas pity. 2 Cit. And so did I. [Capitol? Lieut. Yet I wish, sir, 15(I mean, for your particular) you had not Auf. I understand thee well; and be thou sure, 20 When he shall come to his account, he knows not What I can urge against him. Although it seems, And so he thinks, and is no less apparent To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly, And shews good husbandry for the Voician state; 25 Fights dragon-like, and does atchieve as soon As draw his sword: yet he hath left undone That, which shall break his neck, or hazard mine, Whene'er we come to our account. [Rome? Lieut. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down; And the nobility of Rome are his : 30 The senators, and patricians, love him too: The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty 2 35 To expel him thence. I think, he'll be to Rome 3 Cit. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us: That we did, we did for the best; and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will. Com. You are goodly things, you voices! Men. You have made you Good work, you and your cry!—-Shall us to the Com. O, ay; what else? [Exe. Com. and Men. Sic. Go, masters, get you home, be not dismay'd; 45 These are a side, that would be glad to have This true, which they so seem to fear. Go home, And shew no sign of fear. 1 Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, masters, peace Even with the same austerity and garb As he controll'd the war: but, one of these, (As he hath spices of them all, not all, let's home. I ever said, we were i' the wrong, 50 For I dare so far free him) made him fear'd, when we banish'd him. So hated, and so banish'd: but he has a merit, One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; fail. 60 Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine. [Exeunt. i. e. As they hooted at his departure, they will roar at his return; as he went out with scoffs, he will come back with lamentations. 2 Á kind of eagle. The sense is, The virtue which delights to commend itself, will find the surest tomb in that chair wherein it holds forth its own commendations, ACT 4 ^ į e. What is already right, and received as such, becomes less clear when supported by supernuinerary proofs. |