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Coriolanus: Act IV, Scene 5

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Coriolanus
Act IV, Scene 5

Antium. A hall in Aufidius’ house.

Coriolanus

Aufidius: I know thee not. Thy name?
Coriolanus: My name is Caius Martius

Coriolanus

1901

  1. Music plays.
  1. Enter a Servingman.

First Servingman

1 - 2
  1. Wine, wine, wine! What service is here?
  2. I think our fellows are asleep.
  1. Exit.
  1. Enter another Servingman.

Second Servingman

3 - 4
  1. Where’s Cotus? My master calls for him.
  2. Cotus!
  1. Exit.
  1. Enter Coriolanus.

Coriolanus

5 - 6
  1. A goodly house! The feast smells well, but I
  2. Appear not like a guest.
  1. Enter the First Servingman.

First Servingman

7 - 8
  1. What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here’s no place
  2. for you; pray go to the door.
  1. Exit.

Coriolanus

9 - 10
  1. I have deserv’d no better entertainment
  2. In being Coriolanus.
  1. Enter Second Servant.

Second Servingman

11 - 12
  1. Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head,
  2. that he gives entrance to such companions? Pray get you out.

Coriolanus

13
  1. Away!

Second Servingman

14
  1. Away? Get you away.

Coriolanus

15
  1. Now th’ art troublesome.

Second Servingman

16
  1. Are you so brave? I’ll have you talk’d with anon.
  1. Enter Third Servingman; the First, entering, meets him.

Third Servingman

17
  1. What fellow’s this?

First Servingman

18 - 19
  1. A strange one as ever I look’d on. I cannot get him out o’
  2. th’ house. Prithee call my master to him.

Third Servingman

20
  1. What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you avoid the house.

Coriolanus

21
  1. Let me but stand, I will not hurt your hearth.

Third Servingman

22
  1. What are you?

Coriolanus

23
  1. A gentleman.

Third Servingman

24
  1. A marv’lous poor one.

Coriolanus

25
  1. True, so I am.

Third Servingman

26 - 27
  1. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here’s
  2. no place for you. Pray you avoid. Come.

Coriolanus

28
  1. Follow your function, go, and batten on cold bits.
  1. Pushes him away from him.

Third Servingman

29 - 30
  1. What, you will not? Prithee tell my master what a strange
  2. guest he has here.

Second Servingman

31
  1. And I shall.
  1. Exit Second Servingman.

Third Servingman

32
  1. Where dwell’st thou?

Coriolanus

33
  1. Under the canopy.

Third Servingman

34
  1. Under the canopy?

Coriolanus

35
  1. Ay.

Third Servingman

36
  1. Where’s that?

Coriolanus

37
  1. I’ th’ city of kites and crows.

Third Servingman

38 - 39
  1. I’ th’ city of kites and crows? What an ass it is! Then thou
  2. dwell’st with daws too?

Coriolanus

40
  1. No, I serve not thy master.

Third Servingman

41
  1. How, sir? Do you meddle with my master?

Coriolanus

42 - 44
  1. Ay, ’tis an honester service than to meddle with thy
  2. mistress. Thou prat’st, and prat’st; serve with thy
  3. trencher. Hence!
  1. Beats him away.
  1. Exit Third Servingman.
  1. Enter Aufidius with the Second Servingman.

Aufidius

45
  1. Where is this fellow?

Second Servingman

46 - 47
  1. Here, sir. I’d have beaten him like a dog, but for
  2. disturbing the lords within.
  1. First and Second Servingmen stand aside.

Aufidius

48 - 49
  1. Whence com’st thou? What wouldst thou? Thy name?
  2. Why speak’st not? Speak, man: what’s thy name?

Coriolanus

50 - 53
  1. Unmuffling.
  2.                                                If, Tullus,
  3. Not yet thou know’st me, and, seeing me, dost not
  4. Think me for the man I am, necessity
  5. Commands me name myself.

Aufidius

54
  1.                          What is thy name?

Coriolanus

55 - 56
  1. A name unmusical to the Volscians’ ears,
  2. And harsh in sound to thine.

Aufidius

57 - 60
  1.                              Say, what’s thy name?
  2. Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face
  3. Bears a command in’t; though thy tackle’s torn,
  4. Thou show’st a noble vessel. What’s thy name?

Coriolanus

61
  1. Prepare thy brow to frown. Know’st thou me yet?

Aufidius

62
  1. I know thee not. Thy name?

Coriolanus

63 - 99
  1. My name is Caius Martius, who hath done
  2. To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces,
  3. Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may
  4. My surname, Coriolanus. The painful service,
  5. The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
  6. Shed for my thankless country are requited
  7. But with that surname—a good memory
  8. And witness of the malice and displeasure
  9. Which thou shouldst bear me. Only that name remains;
  10. The cruelty and envy of the people,
  11. Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
  12. Have all forsook me, hath devour’d the rest,
  13. And suffer’d me by th’ voice of slaves to be
  14. Hoop’d out of Rome. Now this extremity
  15. Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope
  16. (Mistake me not) to save my life, for if
  17. I had fear’d death, of all the men i’ th’ world
  18. I would have ’voided thee; but in mere spite,
  19. To be full quit of those my banishers,
  20. Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
  21. A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge
  22. Thine own particular wrongs, and stop those maims
  23. Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight
  24. And make my misery serve thy turn. So use it
  25. That my revengeful services may prove
  26. As benefits to thee; for I will fight
  27. Against my cank’red country with the spleen
  28. Of all the under fiends. But if so be
  29. Thou dar’st not this, and that to prove more fortunes
  30. Th’ art tir’d, then, in a word, I also am
  31. Longer to live most weary, and present
  32. My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice;
  33. Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,
  34. Since I have ever followed thee with hate,
  35. Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast,
  36. And cannot live but to thy shame, unless
  37. It be to do thee service.

Byam Shaw, 1901

Aufidius

100 - 134
  1.                           O Martius, Martius!
  2. Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart
  3. A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter
  4. Should from yond cloud speak divine things,
  5. And say “’Tis true,” I’d not believe them more
  6. Than thee, all-noble Martius. Let me twine
  7. Mine arms about that body, where against
  8. My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,
  9. And scarr’d the moon with splinters. Here I clip
  10. The anvil of my sword, and do contest
  11. As hotly and as nobly with thy love
  12. As ever in ambitious strength I did
  13. Contend against thy valor. Know thou first,
  14. I lov’d the maid I married; never man
  15. Sigh’d truer breath; but that I see thee here,
  16. Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart
  17. Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
  18. Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell thee,
  19. We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
  20. Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
  21. Or lose mine arm for’t. Thou hast beat me out
  22. Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
  23. Dreamt of encounters ’twixt thyself and me;
  24. We have been down together in my sleep,
  25. Unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat,
  26. And wak’d half dead with nothing. Worthy Martius,
  27. Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but that
  28. Thou art thence banish’d, we would muster all
  29. From twelve to seventy, and pouring war
  30. Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
  31. Like a bold flood o’er-beat. O, come, go in,
  32. And take our friendly senators by th’ hands,
  33. Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
  34. Who am prepar’d against your territories,
  35. Though not for Rome itself.

Coriolanus

135
  1.                             You bless me, gods!

Aufidius

136 - 147
  1. Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have
  2. The leading of thine own revenges, take
  3. Th’ one half of my commission, and set down—
  4. As best thou art experienc’d, since thou know’st
  5. Thy country’s strength and weakness—thine own ways:
  6. Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
  7. Or rudely visit them in parts remote,
  8. To fright them, ere destroy. But come in,
  9. Let me commend thee first to those that shall
  10. Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
  11. And more a friend than e’er an enemy;
  12. Yet, Martius, that was much. Your hand; most welcome!
  1. Exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius. The First and Second
  2. Servingmen come forward.

First Servingman

148
  1. Here’s a strange alteration!

Second Servingman

149 - 151
  1. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a
  2. cudgel, and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false
  3. report of him.

First Servingman

152 - 153
  1. What an arm he has! He turn’d me about with his finger and
  2. his thumb as one would set up a top.

Second Servingman

154 - 156
  1. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him. He
  2. had, sir, a kind of face, me-thought—I cannot tell how to
  3. term it.

First Servingman

157 - 158
  1. He had so, looking as it were—Would I were hang’d but I
  2. thought there was more in him than I could think.

Second Servingman

159 - 160
  1. So did I, I’ll be sworn. He is simply the rarest man i’ th’
  2. world.

First Servingman

161
  1. I think he is; but a greater soldier than he, you wot one.

Second Servingman

162
  1. Who, my master?

First Servingman

163
  1. Nay, it’s no matter for that.

Second Servingman

164
  1. Worth six on him.

First Servingman

165 - 166
  1. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the greater
  2. soldier.

I know thee not. Thy name?

John Masey Wright, circa 1900

Second Servingman

167 - 168
  1. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that. For the
  2. defense of a town, our general is excellent.

First Servingman

169
  1. Ay, and for an assault too.
  1. Enter the Third Servingman.

Third Servingman

170
  1. O slaves, I can tell you news—news, you rascals!

Both First and Second Servingmen

171
  1. What, what, what? Let’s partake.

Third Servingman

172 - 173
  1. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a
  2. condemn’d man.

Both First and Second Servingmen

174
  1. Wherefore? Wherefore?

Third Servingman

175 - 176
  1. Why, here’s he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius
  2. Martius.

First Servingman

177
  1. Why do you say “thwack our general”?

Third Servingman

178 - 179
  1. I do not say “thwack our general,” but he was always good
  2. enough for him.

Second Servingman

180 - 181
  1. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for
  2. him; I have heard him say so himself.

First Servingman

182 - 184
  1. He was too hard for him, directly to say the troth
  2. on’t,before Corioles; he scotch’d him and notch’d him like a
  3. carbonado.

Second Servingman

185 - 186
  1. And he had been cannibally given, he might have boil’d and
  2. eaten him too.

First Servingman

187
  1. But more of thy news.

Third Servingman

188 - 198
  1. Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir
  2. to Mars; set at upper end o’ th’ table; no question ask’d
  3. him by any of the senators but they stand bald before him.
  4. Our general himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies
  5. himself with ’s hand, and turns up the white o’ th’ eye to
  6. his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is
  7. cut i’ th’ middle, and but one half of what he was
  8. yesterday; for the other has half by the entreaty and grant
  9. of the whole table. He’ll go, he says, and sowl the porter
  10. of Rome gates by th’ ears. He will mow all down before him,
  11. and leave his passage poll’d.

Second Servingman

199
  1. And he’s as like to do’t as any man I can imagine.

Third Servingman

200 - 203
  1. Do’t? He will do’t; for look you, sir, he has as many
  2. friends as enemies; which friends, sir, as it were, durst
  3. not (look you, sir) show themselves (as we term it) his
  4. friends whilest he’s in directitude.

First Servingman

204
  1. Directitude? What’s that?

Third Servingman

205 - 207
  1. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again and the man
  2. in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after
  3. rain, and revel all with him.

First Servingman

208
  1. But when goes this forward?

Third Servingman

209 - 211
  1. Tomorrow, today, presently; you shall have the drum struck
  2. up this afternoon. ’Tis, as it were, a parcel of their
  3. feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

Second Servingman

212 - 214
  1. Why then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is
  2. nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed
  3. ballad-makers.

First Servingman

215 - 219
  1. Let me have war, say I, it exceeds peace as far as day does
  2. night; it’s sprightly, waking, audible, and full of vent.
  3. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy, mull’d, deaf, sleepy,
  4. insensible, a getter of more bastard children than war’s a
  5. destroyer of men.

Second Servingman

220 - 222
  1. ’Tis so, and as wars, in some sort, may be said to be a
  2. ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker
  3. of cuckolds.

First Servingman

223
  1. Ay, and it makes men hate one another.

Third Servingman

224 - 226
  1. Reason: because they then less need one another. The wars
  2. for my money! I hope to see Romans as cheap as
  3. Volscians.—They are rising, they are rising.

Both First and Second Servingmen

227
  1. In, in, in, in!
  1. Exeunt.
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