The Complete Tragedies of William Shakespeare - All 12 Books in One Edition. William Shakespeare

AUFIDIUS.

       Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have

       The leading of thine own revenges, take

       Th’ one half of my commission; and set down,—

       As best thou art experienc’d, 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!

       [Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS.]

       FIRST SERVANT.

       Here’s a strange alteration!

       SECOND SERVANT. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.

       FIRST SERVANT. What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

       SECOND SERVANT. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him; he had, sir, a kind of face, methought,—I cannot tell how to term it.

       FIRST SERVANT. He had so, looking as it were,—would I were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

       SECOND SERVANT. So did I, I’ll be sworn: he is simply the rarest man i’ the world.

       FIRST SERVANT.

       I think he is; but a greater soldier than he you wot on.

       SECOND SERVANT.

       Who, my master?

       FIRST SERVANT.

       Nay, it’s no matter for that.

       SECOND SERVANT.

       Worth six on him.

       FIRST SERVANT.

       Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the greater soldier.

       SECOND SERVANT. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: for the defence of a town our general is excellent.

       FIRST SERVANT.

       Ay, and for an assault too.

       [Re-enter third SERVANT.]

       THIRD SERVANT.

       O slaves, I can tell you news,—news, you rascals!

       FIRST and SECOND SERVANT.

       What, what, what? let’s partake.

       THIRD SERVANT. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a condemned man.

       FIRST and SECOND SERVANT.

       Wherefore? wherefore?

       THIRD SERVANT.

       Why, here’s he that was wont to thwack our general,—Caius

       Marcius.

       FIRST SERVANT.

       Why do you say, thwack our general?

       THIRD SERVANT. I do not say thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him.

       SECOND SERVANT. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

       FIRST SERVANT.

       He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth on’t; before

       Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.

       SECOND SERVANT. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too.

       FIRST SERVANT.

       But more of thy news?

       THIRD SERVANT. Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son 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, 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.

       SECOND SERVANT.

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

       THIRD SERVANT. Do’t! he will do’t; for look you, sir, he has as 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 dejectitude.

       FIRST SERVANT.

       Dejectitude! what’s that?

       THIRD SERVANT. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him.

       FIRST SERVANT.

       But when goes this forward?

       THIRD SERVANT. Tomorrow; to-day; presently; you shall have the drum struck up this afternoon: ‘tis as it were parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

       SECOND SERVANT. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

       FIRST SERVANT. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as 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.

       SECOND SERVANT. ‘Tis so: and as war in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

       FIRST SERVANT.

       Ay, and it makes men hate one another.

       THIRD SERVANT. Reason: because they then less need one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. They are rising, they are rising.

       ALL.

       In, in, in, in!

       [Exeunt.]

       SCENE VI. Rome. A public place.

       [Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.]

       SICINIUS.

       We hear not of him, neither need we fear him;

       His remedies are tame i’ the present peace

       And quietness of the people, which before

       Were in wild hurry. Here do make his friends

       Blush that the world goes well; who rather had,

       Though they themselves did suffer by’t, behold

       Dissentious numbers pestering streets than see

       Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going

       About their functions friendly.

       BRUTUS.

       We stood to’t in good time.—Is this Menenius?

       SICINIUS.

       ‘Tis he, ‘tis he. O, he is grown most kind

       Of late.

       [Enter MENENIUS

       BRUTUS.

       Hail, sir!

       MENENIUS.

       Hail to you both!

       SICINIUS.

       Your Coriolanus is not much miss’d

       But with his friends: the commonwealth doth stand;

       And so would do,