52 If, Tullus, Unmuffling 53 Not yet thou knowest me, and, seeing me, dost not 54 Think me for the man I am, necessity 55 Commands me name myself.
AUFIDIUS
56 What is thy name?
CORIOLANUS
57 A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears, 58 And harsh in sound to thine.
AUFIDIUS
59 Say, what's thy name? 60 Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face 61 Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn. 62 Thou show'st a noble vessel: what's thy name?
CORIOLANUS
63 Prepare thy brow to frown: know'st 64 thou me yet?
AUFIDIUS
65 I know thee not: thy name?
CORIOLANUS
66 My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done 67 To thee particularly and to all the Volsces 68 Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may 69 My surname, Coriolanus: the painful service, 70 The extreme dangers and the drops of blood 71 Shed for my thankless country are requited 72 But with that surname; a good memory, 73 And witness of the malice and displeasure 74 Which thou shouldst bear me: only that name remains; 75 The cruelty and envy of the people, 76 Permitted by our dastard nobles, who 77 Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest; 78 And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be 79 Whoop'd out of Rome. Now this extremity 80 Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope-- 81 Mistake me not--to save my life, for if 82 I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world 83 I would have 'voided thee, but in mere spite, 84 To be full quit of those my banishers, 85 Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast 86 A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge 87 Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims 88 Of shame seen through thy country, speed 89 thee straight, 90 And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it 91 That my revengeful services may prove 92 As benefits to thee, for I will fight 93 Against my canker'd country with the spleen 94 Of all the under fiends. But if so be 95 Thou darest not this and that to prove more fortunes 96 Thou'rt tired, then, in a word, I also am 97 Longer to live most weary, and present 98 My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice; 99 Which not to cut would show thee but a fool, 100 Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate, 101 Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast, 102 And cannot live but to thy shame, unless 103 It be to do thee service.
AUFIDIUS
104 O Marcius, Marcius! 105 Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart 106 A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter 107 Should from yond cloud speak divine things, 108 And say 'Tis true,' I'ld not believe them more 109 Than thee, all noble Marcius. Let me twine 110 Mine arms about that body, where against 111 My grained ash an hundred times hath broke 112 And scarr'd the moon with splinters: here I clip 113 The anvil of my sword, and do contest 114 As hotly and as nobly with thy love 115 As ever in ambitious strength I did 116 Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, 117 I loved the maid I married; never man 118 Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here, 119 Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart 120 Than when I first my wedded mistress saw 121 Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee, 122 We have a power on foot; and I had purpose 123 Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn, 124 Or lose mine arm fort: thou hast beat me out 125 Twelve several times, and I have nightly since 126 Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me; 127 We have been down together in my sleep, 128 Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat, 129 And waked half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius, 130 Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that 131 Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all 132 From twelve to seventy, and pouring war 133 Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome, 134 Like a bold flood o'er-bear. O, come, go in, 135 And take our friendly senators by the hands; 136 Who now are here, taking their leaves of me, 137 Who am prepared against your territories, 138 Though not for Rome itself.
CORIOLANUS
139 You bless me, gods!
AUFIDIUS
140 Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have 141 The leading of thine own revenges, take 142 The one half of my commission; and set down-- 143 As best thou art experienced, since thou know'st 144 Thy country's strength and weakness,--thine own ways; 145 Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, 146 Or rudely visit them in parts remote, 147 To fright them, ere destroy. But come in: 148 Let me commend thee first to those that shall 149 Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes! 150 And more a friend than e'er an enemy; 151 Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: most welcome!
First Servingman
152 Here's a strange alteration!
Second Servingman
153 By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with 154 a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a 155 false report of him.
First Servingman
156 What an arm he has! he turned me about with his 157 finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.
Second Servingman
158 Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in 159 him: he had, sir, a kind of face, methought,--I 160 cannot tell how to term it.
First Servingman
161 He had so; looking as it were--would I were hanged, 162 but I thought there was more in him than I could think.
Second Servingman
163 So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest 164 man i' the world.
First Servingman
165 I think he is: but a greater soldier than he you wot on.
Second Servingman
166 Who, my master?
First Servingman
167 Nay, it's no matter for that.
Second Servingman
168 Worth six on him.
First Servingman
169 Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the 170 greater soldier.
Second Servingman
171 Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: 172 for the defence of a town, our general is excellent.
First Servingman
173 Ay, and for an assault too.
Re-enter third Servingman
Third Servingman
174 O slaves, I can tell you news,-- news, you rascals!
First Servingman
175 What, what, what? let's partake.
Third Servingman
176 I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as 177 lieve be a condemned man.
First Servingman
178 Wherefore? wherefore?
Third Servingman
179 Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general, 180 Caius Marcius.
First Servingman
181 Why do you say 'thwack our general '?
Third Servingman
182 I do not say 'thwack our general;' but he was always 183 good enough for him.
Second Servingman
184 Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too 185 hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.
First Servingman
186 He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth 187 on't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched 188 him like a carbon ado.
Second Servingman
189 An he had been cannibally given, he might have 190 broiled and eaten him too.
First Servingman
191 But, more of thy news?
Third Servingman
192 Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son 193 and heir to Mars; set at upper end o' the table; no 194 question asked him by any of the senators, but they 195 stand bald before him: our general himself makes a 196 mistress of him: sanctifies himself with's hand and 197 turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But 198 the bottom of the news is that our general is cut i' 199 the middle and but one half of what he was 200 yesterday; for the other has half, by the entreaty 201 and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, 202 and sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears: he 203 will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled.
Second Servingman
204 And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine.
Third Servingman
205 Do't! he will do't; for, look you, sir, he has as 206 many friends as enemies; which friends, sir, as it 207 were, durst not, look you, sir, show themselves, as 208 we term it, his friends whilst he's in directitude.
First Servingman
209 Directitude! what's that?
Third Servingman
210 But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, 211 and the man in blood, they will out of their 212 burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with 213 him.
First Servingman
214 But when goes this forward?
Third Servingman
215 To-morrow; to-day; presently; you shall have the 216 drum struck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, a 217 parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they 218 wipe their lips.
Second Servingman
219 Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. 220 This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase 221 tailors, and breed ballad-makers.
First Servingman
222 Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as 223 day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and 224 full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; 225 mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more 226 bastard children than war's a destroyer of men.
Second Servingman
227 'Tis so: and as war, in some sort, may be said to 228 be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a 229 great maker of cuckolds.
First Servingman
230 Ay, and it makes men hate one another.
Third Servingman
231 Reason; because they then less need one another. 232 The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap 233 as Volscians. They are rising, they are rising.