Coriolanus: Act 4, Scene 5 Translation

Music plays. Enter a Servingman.

FIRST SERVINGMAN Wine, wine, wine! What service is
here? I think our fellows are asleep. He exits.

Enter another Servingman.

SECOND SERVINGMAN Where’s Cotus? My master calls
for him. Cotus! He exits.

Enter Coriolanus.

CORIOLANUS
A goodly house. The feast smells well, but I 5
Appear not like a guest.

Enter the First Servingman.

FIRST SERVINGMAN What would you have, friend?
Whence are you? Here’s no place for you. Pray, go
to the door. He exits.

CORIOLANUS
I have deserved no better entertainment 10
In being Coriolanus.

Enter Second Servingman.

SECOND SERVINGMAN Whence are you, sir?—Has the
porter his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance
to such companions?—Pray, get you out.

CORIOLANUS Away! 15

SECOND SERVINGMAN Away? Get you away.

CORIOLANUS Now th’ art troublesome.

SECOND SERVINGMAN Are you so brave? I’ll have you
talked with anon.

Enter Third Servingman; the First, entering,
meets him.

THIRD SERVINGMAN What fellow’s this? 20

FIRST SERVINGMAN A strange one as ever I looked on. I
cannot get him out o’ th’ house. Prithee, call my
master to him. He steps aside.

THIRD SERVINGMAN What have you to do here, fellow?
Pray you, avoid the house. 25

CORIOLANUS Let me but stand. I will not hurt your
hearth.

THIRD SERVINGMAN What are you?

CORIOLANUS A gentleman.

THIRD SERVINGMAN A marv’llous poor one. 30

CORIOLANUS True, so I am.

THIRD SERVINGMAN Pray you, poor gentleman, take up
some other station. Here’s no place for you. Pray
you, avoid. Come.

CORIOLANUS Follow your function, go, and batten on 35
cold bits. Pushes him away from him.

THIRD SERVINGMAN What, you will not?—Prithee, tell
my master what a strange guest he has here.

SECOND SERVINGMAN And I shall.

Second Servingman exits.

THIRD SERVINGMAN Where dwell’st thou? 40

CORIOLANUS Under the canopy.

THIRD SERVINGMAN Under the canopy?

CORIOLANUS Ay.

THIRD SERVINGMAN Where’s that?

CORIOLANUS I’ th’ city of kites and crows. 45

THIRD SERVINGMAN I’ th’ city of kites and crows? What
an ass it is! Then thou dwell’st with daws too?

CORIOLANUS No, I serve not thy master.

THIRD SERVINGMAN How, sir? Do you meddle with my
master? 50

CORIOLANUS Ay, ’tis an honester service than to meddle
with thy mistress. Thou prat’st and prat’st. Serve
with thy trencher. Hence! Beats him away.

Third Servingman exits.

Enter Aufidius with the Second Servingman.

AUFIDIUS Where is this fellow?

SECOND SERVINGMAN Here, sir. I’d have beaten him like 55
a dog, but for disturbing the lords within.

He steps aside.

AUFIDIUS Whence com’st thou? What wouldst thou?
Thy name? Why speak’st not? Speak, man. What’s
thy name?

CORIOLANUS, removing his muffler If, Tullus, 60Not yet thou know’st me, and seeing me, dost not
Think me for the man I am, necessity
Commands me name myself.

AUFIDIUS What is thy name?

CORIOLANUS
A name unmusical to the Volscians’ ears 65
And harsh in sound to thine.

AUFIDIUS Say, what’s thy name?
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? 70

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

AUFIDIUS I know thee not. Thy name?

CORIOLANUS
My name is Caius Martius, who hath done
To thee particularly and to all the Volsces
Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may 75
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 80
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 devoured the rest, 85
And suffered me by th’ voice of slaves to be
Whooped 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 feared death, of all the men i’ th’ world 90
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 95
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 100
Against my cankered country with the spleen
Of all the under fiends. But if so be
Thou dar’st 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 105
My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice,
Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,
Since I have ever followed thee with hate,
Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country’s breast,
And cannot live but to thy shame, unless 110
It be to do thee service.

AUFIDIUS O Martius, Martius,
Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my
heart
A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter 115
Should from yond cloud speak divine things
And say ’tis true, I’d not believe them more
Than thee, all-noble Martius. Let me twine
Mine arms about that body, whereagainst
My grainèd ash an hundred times hath broke 120
And scarred the moon with splinters.

They embrace.

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 125
Contend against thy valor. Know thou first,
I loved the maid I married; never man
Sighed truer breath. But that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw 130
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 for ’t. Thou hast beat me out
Twelve several times, and I have nightly since 135
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 Martius,
Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but that 140
Thou art thence banished, we would muster all
From twelve to seventy and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
Like a bold flood o’erbear ’t. O, come, go in,
And take our friendly senators by th’ hands, 145
Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepared against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

CORIOLANUS You bless me, gods!

AUFIDIUS
Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have 150
The leading of thine own revenges, take
Th’ 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, 155
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! 160
And more a friend than ere an enemy—
Yet, Martius, that was much. Your hand. Most
welcome! Coriolanus and Aufidius exit.

Two of the Servingmen come forward.

FIRST SERVINGMAN Here’s a strange alteration!

SECOND SERVINGMAN By my hand, I had thought to 165
have strucken him with a cudgel, and yet my mind
gave me his clothes made a false report of him.

FIRST SERVINGMAN What an arm he has! He turned me
about with his finger and his thumb as one would
set up a top. 170

SECOND SERVINGMAN 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 SERVINGMAN He had so, looking as it were—
Would I were hanged but I thought there was 175
more in him than I could think.

SECOND SERVINGMAN So did I, I’ll be sworn. He is simply
the rarest man i’ th’ world.

FIRST SERVINGMAN I think he is. But a greater soldier
than he you wot one. 180

SECOND SERVINGMAN Who, my master?

FIRST SERVINGMAN Nay, it’s no matter for that.

SECOND SERVINGMAN Worth six on him.

FIRST SERVINGMAN Nay, not so neither. But I take him
to be the greater soldier. 185

SECOND SERVINGMAN Faith, look you, one cannot tell
how to say that. For the defense of a town our general
is excellent.

FIRST SERVINGMAN Ay, and for an assault too.

Enter the Third Servingman.

THIRD SERVINGMAN O slaves, I can tell you news, news, 190
you rascals!

BOTH What, what, what? Let’s partake!

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

BOTH Wherefore? Wherefore? 195

THIRD SERVINGMAN Why, here’s he that was wont to
thwack our general, Caius Martius.

FIRST SERVINGMAN Why do you say “thwack our
general”?

THIRD SERVINGMAN I do not say “thwack our general,” 200
but he was always good enough for him.

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

FIRST SERVINGMAN He was too hard for him directly, to 205
say the truth on ’t, before Corioles; he scotched
him and notched him like a carbonado.

SECOND SERVINGMAN An he had been cannibally given,
he might have boiled and eaten him too.

FIRST SERVINGMAN But, more of thy news. 210

THIRD SERVINGMAN Why, he is so made on here within
as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end
o’ th’ 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 215
himself with ’s hand, and turns up the white o’ th’
eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is,
our general is cut i’ th’ 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, 220
he says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by th’
ears. He will mow all down before him and leave
his passage polled.

SECOND SERVINGMAN And he’s as like to do ’t as any
man I can imagine. 225

THIRD SERVINGMAN 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 whilest he’s
in directitude. 230

FIRST SERVINGMAN Directitude? What’s that?

THIRD SERVINGMAN But when they shall see, sir, his
crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out
of their burrows like coneys after rain, and revel
all with him. 235

FIRST SERVINGMAN But when goes this forward?

THIRD SERVINGMAN Tomorrow, today, presently. You
shall have the drum struck up this afternoon. ’Tis,
as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed
ere they wipe their lips. 240

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

FIRST SERVINGMAN Let me have war, say I. It exceeds
peace as far as day does night. It’s sprightly walking, 245
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 SERVINGMAN ’Tis so, and as wars in some sort 250
may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied
but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

FIRST SERVINGMAN Ay, and it makes men hate one
another.

THIRD SERVINGMAN Reason: because they then less 255
need one another. The wars for my money! I hope
to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. (Noise
within.) They are rising; they are rising.

FIRST AND SECOND SERVINGMEN In, in, in, in!

They exit.