The same. A hall in Aufidius's house.

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is here! I think our fellows are asleep.

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for him. Cotus!

CORIOLANUS

Appear not like a guest.

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Here's no place for you: pray, go to the door.

CORIOLANUS

In being Coriolanus.

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head; that he gives entrance to such companions?

Pray, get you out.

CORIOLANUS

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CORIOLANUS

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out of the house: prithee, call my master to him.

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the house.

CORIOLANUS

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CORIOLANUS

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CORIOLANUS

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station; here's no place for you; pray you, avoid: come.

CORIOLANUS

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strange guest he has here.

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CORIOLANUS

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CORIOLANUS

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CORIOLANUS

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Then thou dwellest with daws too?

CORIOLANUS

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CORIOLANUS

mistress. Thou pratest, and pratest; serve with thy

trencher, hence!

AUFIDIUS

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disturbing the lords within.

AUFIDIUS

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

CORIOLANUS

Not yet thou knowest me, and, seeing me, dost not

Think me for the man I am, necessity

Commands me name myself.

AUFIDIUS

CORIOLANUS

And harsh in sound to thine.

AUFIDIUS

Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face

Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn.

Thou show'st a noble vessel: what's thy name?

CORIOLANUS

thou me yet?

AUFIDIUS

CORIOLANUS

To thee particularly and to all the Volsces

Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may

My surname, Coriolanus: the painful service,

The extreme dangers and the drops of blood

Shed for my thankless country are requited

But with that surname; a good memory,

And witness of the malice and displeasure

Which thou shouldst bear me: only that name remains;

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

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 wilt 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 darest not this and that to prove more fortunes

Thou'rt tired, then, in a word, I also am

Longer to live most weary, and present

My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice;

Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,

Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,

Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,

And cannot live but to thy shame, unless

It be to do thee service.

AUFIDIUS

Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart

A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yond cloud speak divine things,

And say 'Tis true,' I'ld 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

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 loved 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 fort: 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,

Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,

And waked 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 prepared against your territories,

Though not for Rome itself.

CORIOLANUS

AUFIDIUS

The leading of thine own revenges, take

The one half of my commission; and set down--

As best thou art experienced, since thou know'st

Thy country's strength and weakness,--thine own ways;

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!

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a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a

false report of him.

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finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

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him: he had, sir, a kind of face, methought,--I

cannot tell how to term it.

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but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

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man i' the world.

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greater soldier.

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for the defence of a town, our general is excellent.

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What, what, what? let's partake.

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lieve be a condemned man.

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Wherefore? wherefore?

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Caius Marcius.

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good enough for him.

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hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

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on't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched

him like a carbon ado.

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broiled and eaten him too.

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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 that 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: he

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

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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.

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and the man in blood, they will out of their

burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with

him.

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drum struck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, a

parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they

wipe their lips.

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This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase

tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

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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.

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be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a

great maker of cuckolds.

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The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap

as Volscians. They are rising, they are rising.

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