Coriolanus
Act IV, Scene 3
A highway between Rome and Antium.
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Enter Nicanor and Adrian, meeting.
Nicanor
1 - 2
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I know you well, sir, and you know me. Your name, I think,
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is Adrian.
Adrian
3
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It is so, sir. Truly, I have forgot you.
Nicanor
4 - 5
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I am a Roman, and my services are, as you are, against ’em.
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Know you me yet?
Adrian
8 - 11
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You had more beard when I last saw you, but your favor is
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well appear’d by your tongue. What’s the news in Rome? I
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have a note from the Volscian state to find you out there.
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You have well sav’d me a day’s journey.
Nicanor
12 - 13
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There hath been in Rome strange insurrections; the people
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against the senators, patricians, and nobles.
Adrian
14 - 16
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Hath been! Is it ended then? Our state thinks not so; they
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are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon
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them in the heat of their division.
Nicanor
17 - 22
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The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make
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it flame again; for the nobles receive so to heart the
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banishment of that worthy Coriolanus, that they are in a
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ripe aptness to take all power from the people, and to pluck
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from them their tribunes forever. This lies glowing, I can
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tell you, and is almost mature for the violent breaking out.
Adrian
23
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Coriolanus banish’d?
Nicanor
24
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Banish’d, sir.
Adrian
25
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You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor.
Nicanor
26 - 30
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The day serves well for them now. I have heard it said, the
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fittest time to corrupt a man’s wife is when she’s fall’n
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out with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear
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well in these wars, his great opposer Coriolanus being now
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in no request of his country.
Adrian
31 - 33
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He cannot choose. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to
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encounter you. You have ended my business, and I will
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merrily accompany you home.
Nicanor
34 - 36
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I shall, between this and supper, tell you most strange
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things from Rome, all tending to the good of their
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adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you?
Adrian
37 - 39
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A most royal one: the centurions and their charges,
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distinctly billeted, already in th’ entertainment, and to be
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on foot at an hour’s warning.
Nicanor
40 - 42
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I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I
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think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir,
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heartily well met, and most glad of your company.
Adrian
43 - 44
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You take my part from me, sir, I have the most cause to be
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glad of yours.
Nicanor
45
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Well, let us go together.
