3 Serv. A marvellous poor one.

Cor. True, so I am.

3 Serv. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station: here's no place of you. Pray you, avoid: come.

Cor. Follow your function; go,

And batten on cold bits.

[Pushes him away.

3 Serv. What, will you not? Pr'ythee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here.

[Exit.

3 Serv. I' the city of kites and crows? What an ass it is! Then, thou dwellest with daws too?

Cor. No; I serve not thy master.

3 Serv. How, Sir! Do you meddle with my master? Cor. Ay; 't is an honester service than to meddle with thy

mistress.

Thou prat'st, and prat'st: serve with thy trencher. Hence! [Beats him away.

Enter AUFIDIUS and the second Servant.

Auf. Where is this fellow?

2 Serv. Here, Sir. I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within.

Auf. Whence com'st thou? what would'st thou? Thy name? Why speak'st not? Speak, man: what's thy name?

Cor.

If, Tullus, [Unmuffling.

Not yet thou know'st me, and seeing me, dost not
Think me for the man I am, necessity

Commands me name myself.

Auf.

What is thy name?

[Servants retire.

Cor. A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears, And harsh in sound to thine.

Auf.

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?

Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown. Know'st thou me yet?
Auf. I know thee not. Thy name?

Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done
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 should'st 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 suffered 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 will 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 dar'st not this, and that to prove more fortunes

Thou art tir'd; 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.

Auf.

O Marcius, Marcius!

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, "T is true;" I'd 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 lov'd 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

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
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me:
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius,
Had we no other 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 prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

Cor.

You bless me, gods!

Auf. Therefore, most absolute Sir, if thou wilt have The leading of thine own revenges, take

-

thine own ways;

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,
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.

1 Serv. [Advancing.] Here's a strange alteration!

2 Serv. 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.

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

2 Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: he had, Sir, a kind of face, methought, how to term it.

I cannot tell

Would I were

1 Serv. He had so; looking as it were, hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think. 2 Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn. He is simply the rarest man i' the world.

1 Serv. I think, he is; but a greater soldier than he, you

wot one.

2 Serv. Who? my master?

1 Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that.

2 Serv. Worth six on him.

1 Serv. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the greater soldier.

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

1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too.

Re-enter third Servant.

3 Serv. O, slaves! I can tell you news; news, you rascals. 1. 2. Serv. What, what, what? let's partake.

3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemned man.

3 Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Marcius.

1 Serv. Why do you say thwack our general?

3 Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him.

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

1 Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on 't: before Corioli, he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.

2 Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too.

1 Serv. But, more of thy news?

3 Serv. 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 sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears. He will mow down all before him, and leave his passage polled.

2 Serv. And he 's as like to do 't, as any man I can imagine.