Coriolanus
Act IV, Scene 7
A camp near Rome.
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Enter Aufidius with his Lieutenant.
Aufidius
1
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Do they still fly to th’ Roman?
Lieutenant to Aufidius
2 - 6
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I do not know what witchcraft’s in him, but
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Your soldiers use him as the grace ’fore meat,
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Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;
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And you are dark’ned in this action, sir,
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Even by your own.
Aufidius
7 - 13
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I cannot help it now,
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Unless by using means I lame the foot
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Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier,
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Even to my person, than I thought he would
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When first I did embrace him; yet his nature
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In that’s no changeling, and I must excuse
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What cannot be amended.
Lieutenant to Aufidius
14 - 18
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Yet I wish, sir
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(I mean for your particular), you had not
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Join’d in commission with him; but either
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Have borne the action of yourself, or else
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To him had left it solely.
Aufidius
19 - 28
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I understand thee well, and be thou sure,
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When he shall come to his account, he knows not
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What I can urge against him. Although it seems,
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And so he thinks, and is no less apparent
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To th’ vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
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And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,
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Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon
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As draw his sword; yet he hath left undone
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That which shall break his neck, or hazard mine,
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When e’er we come to our account.
Lieutenant to Aufidius
29
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Sir, I beseech you, think you he’ll carry Rome?
Aufidius
30 - 59
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All places yields to him ere he sits down,
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And the nobility of Rome are his.
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The senators and patricians love him too;
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The tribunes are no soldiers, and their people
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Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty
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To expel him thence. I think he’ll be to Rome
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As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
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By sovereignty of nature. First he was
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A noble servant to them, but he could not
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Carry his honors even. Whether ’twas pride,
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Which out of daily fortune ever taints
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The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
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To fail in the disposing of those chances
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Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
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Not to be other than one thing, not moving
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From th’ casque to th’ cushion, but commanding peace
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Even with the same austerity and garb
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As he controll’d the war; but one of these
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(As he hath spices of them all, not all,
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For I dare so far free him) made him fear’d,
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So hated, and so banish’d; but he has a merit
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To choke it in the utt’rance. So our virtues
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Lie in th’ interpretation of the time,
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And power, unto itself most commendable,
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Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
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T’ extol what it hath done.
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One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
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Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail.
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Come, let’s away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,
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Thou art poor’st of all; then shortly art thou mine.
