Act 4, Scene 5

Antium. A hall in AUFIDIUS'S house.

[Music within. Enter A SERVANT.]
First Servingman
2499 Wine, wine, wine! What service is here!
2500 I think our fellows are asleep.
[Exit.]
[Enter a second SERVANT.]
Second Servingman
2501 Where's Cotus? my master calls for him.—Cotus!
[Exit.]
[Enter CORIOLANUS.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2502 A goodly house: the feast smells well; but I
2503 Appear not like a guest.
[Re-enter the first SERVANT.]
First Servingman
2504 What would you have, friend? whence are you? Here's no place for
2505 you: pray go to the door.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2506 I have deserv'd no better entertainment
2507 In being Coriolanus.
[Re-enter second SERVANT.]
Second Servingman
2508 Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head that he
2509 gives entrance to such companions? Pray, get you out.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2510 Away!
Second Servingman
2511 Away? Get you away.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2512 Now the art troublesome.
Second Servingman
2513 Are you so brave? I'll have you talked with anon.
[Enter a third SERVANT. The first meets him.]
Third Servingman
2514 What fellow's this?
First Servingman
2515 A strange one as ever I looked on: I cannot get him
2516 out o' the house. Pr'ythee call my master to him.
Third Servingman
2517 What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you avoid the house.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2518 Let me but stand; I will not hurt your hearth.
Third Servingman
2519 What are you?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2520 A gentleman.
Third Servingman
2521 A marvellous poor one.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2522 True, so I am.
Third Servingman
2523 Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here's no
2524 place for you. Pray you avoid; come.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2525 Follow your function, go,
2526 And batten on cold bits.
[Pushes him away.]
Third Servingman
2527 What, you will not?—Pr'ythee, tell my master what a strange
2528 guest he has here.
Second Servingman
2529 And I shall.
[Exit.]
Third Servingman
2530 Where dwell'st thou?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2531 Under the canopy.
Third Servingman
2532 Under the canopy?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2533 Ay.
Third Servingman
2534 Where's that?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2535 I' the city of kites and crows.
Third Servingman
2536 I' the city of kites and crows!—What an ass it is!—Then thou
2537 dwell'st with daws too?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2538 No, I serve not thy master.
Third Servingman
2539 How, sir! Do you meddle with my master?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2540 Ay; 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress.
2541 Thou prat'st and prat'st; serve with thy trencher, hence!
[Beats him away.]
[Enter AUFIDIUS and the second SERVANT.]
Tullus Aufidius
2542 Where is this fellow?
Second Servingman
2543 Here, sir; I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for
2544 disturbing the lords within.
Tullus Aufidius
2545 Whence com'st thou? what wouldst thou? thy name?
2546 Why speak'st not? speak, man: what's thy name?
[Unmuffling.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2547 If, Tullus,
2548 Not yet thou know'st me, and, seeing me, dost not
2549 Think me for the man I am, necessity
2550 Commands me name myself.
Tullus Aufidius
2551 What is thy name?
[Servants retire.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2552 A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears,
2553 And harsh in sound to thine.
Tullus Aufidius
2554 Say, what's thy name?
2555 Thou has a grim appearance, and thy face
2556 Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn,
2557 Thou show'st a noble vessel: what's thy name?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2558 Prepare thy brow to frown:—know'st thou me yet?
Tullus Aufidius
2559 I know thee not:—thy name?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2560 My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done
2561 To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces,
2562 Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may
2563 My surname, Coriolanus: the painful service,
2564 The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
2565 Shed for my thankless country, are requited
2566 But with that surname; a good memory,
2567 And witness of the malice and displeasure
2568 Which thou shouldst bear me: only that name remains;
2569 The cruelty and envy of the people,
2570 Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
2571 Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest,
2572 And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be
2573 Whoop'd out of Rome. Now, this extremity
2574 Hath brought me to thy hearth: not out of hope,
2575 Mistake me not, to save my life; for if
2576 I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world
2577 I would have 'voided thee; but in mere spite,
2578 To be full quit of those my banishers,
2579 Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
2580 A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge
2581 Thine own particular wrongs, and stop those maims
2582 Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight
2583 And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it
2584 That my revengeful services may prove
2585 As benefits to thee; for I will fight
2586 Against my canker'd country with the spleen
2587 Of all the under fiends. But if so be
2588 Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more fortunes
2589 Th'art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am
2590 Longer to live most weary, and present
2591 My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice;
2592 Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,
2593 Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
2594 Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,
2595 And cannot live but to thy shame, unless
2596 It be to do thee service.
Tullus Aufidius
2597 O Marcius, Marcius!
2598 Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart
2599 A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter
2600 Should from yond cloud speak divine things,
2601 And say ''Tis true,' I'd not believe them more
2602 Than thee, all noble Marcius.—Let me twine
2603 Mine arms about that body, where against
2604 My grained ash an hundred times hath broke
2605 And scar'd the moon with splinters; here I clip
2606 The anvil of my sword, and do contest
2607 As hotly and as nobly with thy love
2608 As ever in ambitious strength I did
2609 Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
2610 I lov'd the maid I married; never man
2611 Sighed truer breath; but that I see thee here,
2612 Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart
2613 Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
2614 Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee
2615 We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
2616 Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
2617 Or lose mine arm for't: thou hast beat me out
2618 Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
2619 Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
2620 We have been down together in my sleep,
2621 Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
2622 And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius,
2623 Had we no other quarrel else to Rome, but that
2624 Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
2625 From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war
2626 Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
2627 Like a bold flood o'erbear. O, come, go in,
2628 And take our friendly senators by the hands;
2629 Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
2630 Who am prepar'd against your territories,
2631 Though not for Rome itself.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
2632 You bless me, gods!
Tullus Aufidius
2633 Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have
2634 The leading of thine own revenges, take
2635 Th' one half of my commission; and set down,—
2636 As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st
2637 Thy country's strength and weakness,—thine own ways;
2638 Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
2639 Or rudely visit them in parts remote,
2640 To fright them, ere destroy. But come in;
2641 Let me commend thee first to those that shall
2642 Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
2643 And more a friend than e'er an enemy;
2644 Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: most welcome!
[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS.]
First Servingman
2645 Here's a strange alteration!
Second Servingman
2646 By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and
2647 yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.
First Servingman
2648 What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his
2649 thumb, as one would set up a top.
Second Servingman
2650 Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him; he had,
2651 sir, a kind of face, methought,—I cannot tell how to term it.
First Servingman
2652 He had so, looking as it were,—would I were hanged, but I
2653 thought there was more in him than I could think.
Second Servingman
2654 So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest man i' the
2655 world.
First Servingman
2656 I think he is; but a greater soldier than he you wot on.
Second Servingman
2657 Who, my master?
First Servingman
2658 Nay, it's no matter for that.
Second Servingman
2659 Worth six on him.
First Servingman
2660 Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the greater soldier.
Second Servingman
2661 Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: for the defence
2662 of a town our general is excellent.
First Servingman
2663 Ay, and for an assault too.
[Re-enter third SERVANT.]
Third Servingman
2664 O slaves, I can tell you news,—news, you rascals!
Third Servingman
2665 FIRST and SECOND SERVANT.
2666 What, what, what? let's partake.
Third Servingman
2667 I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a
2668 condemned man.
Third Servingman
2669 FIRST and SECOND SERVANT.
2670 Wherefore? wherefore?
Third Servingman
2671 Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,—Caius
2672 Marcius.
First Servingman
2673 Why do you say, thwack our general?
Third Servingman
2674 I do not say thwack our general; but he was always good enough
2675 for him.
Second Servingman
2676 Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I
2677 have heard him say so himself.
First Servingman
2678 He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth on't; before
2679 Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.
Second Servingman
2680 An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten
2681 him too.
First Servingman
2682 But more of thy news?
Third Servingman
2683 Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to
2684 Mars; set at upper end o' the table: no question asked him by any
2685 of the senators but they stand bald before him: our general
2686 himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself with's hand,
2687 and turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But the
2688 bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' the middle, and but
2689 one half of what he was yesterday; for the other has half, by the
2690 entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and
2691 sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears; he will mow all down
2692 before him, and leave his passage polled.
Second Servingman
2693 And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine.
Third Servingman
2694 Do't! he will do't; for look you, sir, he has as many friends as
2695 enemies; which friends, sir, as it were, durst not, look you,
2696 sir, show themselves, as we term it, his friends, whilst he's in
2697 dejectitude.
First Servingman
2698 Dejectitude! what's that?
Third Servingman
2699 But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in
2700 blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain,
2701 and revel all with him.
First Servingman
2702 But when goes this forward?
Third Servingman
2703 To-morrow; to-day; presently; you shall have the drum struck up
2704 this afternoon: 'tis as it were parcel of their feast, and to be
2705 executed ere they wipe their lips.
Second Servingman
2706 Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is
2707 nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed
2708 ballad-makers.
First Servingman
2709 Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does
2710 night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is
2711 a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a
2712 getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer of men.
Second Servingman
2713 'Tis so: and as war in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher,
2714 so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.
First Servingman
2715 Ay, and it makes men hate one another.
Third Servingman
2716 Reason: because they then less need one another. The wars for my
2717 money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. They are
2718 rising, they are rising.
All
2719 In, in, in, in!
[Exeunt.]

Reading mode

Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 2499cultural context
“Wine, wine, wine! What service is here”
The opening stage direction 'Music within' and the servingman's outcry establish that Aufidius is hosting a formal banquet for Volscian senators who are gathered to plan the coming war against Rome. The feasting hall is the center of Volscian aristocratic life, and Coriolanus's arrival as a ragged stranger at a great lord's feast makes the scene's social humiliation immediate.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 2506rhetorical device
“I have deserv'd no better entertainment In being Coriolanus”
Coriolanus uses bitter irony: the name 'Coriolanus' was given to him in triumph as Rome's great honor, but now it only earns him contempt at a Volscian door. His surname, which was supposed to be a badge of glory, has become a reason to be turned away. The whole long speech at TLN 2560-2596 unpacks exactly this reversal.
TLN 2525archaic vocab
“Follow your function, go, And batten on cold bits”
'Function' means your job or station in life. 'Batten on cold bits' means gorge yourself on leftover scraps of food — 'bits' are pieces or morsels, and 'batten' means to feed and grow fat. Coriolanus is dismissing the servingman to his proper place: a servant eats table scraps and should not interfere with his betters.
TLN 2556rhetorical device
“thy tackle's torn, Thou show'st a noble vessel”
Aufidius uses an extended ship metaphor: Coriolanus's clothes (his 'tackle,' the ropes and rigging of a ship) are torn and ragged, but the hull — the man himself — is still plainly a great warship. The contrast between the battered outward state and the power within is the scene's central image: the disguise cannot hide the warrior beneath it.
TLN 2563historical topical
“the painful service, The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood Shed for my thankless country, are requited But with that surname”
The cognomen (surname) 'Coriolanus' was Rome's official reward for a soldier's exceptional service — named after the Volscian city of Corioli he single-handedly stormed. Coriolanus is saying his entire military career and all his wounds have been paid with nothing but this name, which Rome's citizens then used to exile him. The speech draws directly on Plutarch's account of how Marcius was given the name.
historical The Volscians, Corioli, and Antium
TLN 2572historical topical
“by the voice of slaves to be Whoop'd out of Rome”
'Voice' means votes or formal suffrages — the same word used throughout the play for the citizens' voting power in the consulship election. 'Whoop'd' means driven out with shouts and jeers. Coriolanus is saying the formal legal procedure of his banishment was, to him, nothing more than a mob howling him into exile — the plebeians whose votes he always despised are the ones who expelled him.
historical The Tribunes of the Peoplehistorical The Consulship and the Gown of Humility
TLN 2580archaic vocab
“a heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge Thine own particular wrongs”
'Wreak' (noun) means vengeance or revenge. 'A heart of wreak' means a heart bent on revenge. Coriolanus is asking whether Aufidius has the desire for personal vengeance to match his own — and then offers to be the instrument of that vengeance against Rome.
TLN 2586archaic vocab
“my canker'd country with the spleen Of all the under fiends”
'Canker'd' means diseased, corrupt, eaten from within (as a plant canker rots the stem). 'Spleen' here means hot rage or malice — the spleen was thought the organ that produced anger and spite. 'Under fiends' are the devils of the underworld (hell's lowest spirits). Coriolanus is vowing to attack Rome with the fury of every devil in hell — the most extreme expression of his rage in the play to this point.
TLN 2599classical allusion
“If Jupiter Should from yond cloud speak divine things, And say ''Tis true,' I'd not believe them more”
Jupiter was the king of the Roman gods, who communicated with mortals through thunder and lightning from the clouds. Aufidius is using the highest possible oath: even if Jupiter himself called down from the sky to confirm Coriolanus's words, Aufidius could not believe them more completely. The allusion also makes Coriolanus himself seem godlike — more credible than the king of heaven.
classical Jupiter, king of the gods
TLN 2604archaic vocab
“grained ash an hundred times hath broke And scar'd the moon with splinters”
'Grained ash' is a spear or lance made of ash wood — the grain (texture) of the wood shows in the shaft. 'Scar'd the moon with splinters' is hyperbole: the spear shattered so violently against Coriolanus's body that the splinters flew up to scratch the moon. Aufidius is saying he has broken a hundred spears on Coriolanus's body and still could not defeat him.
TLN 2605rhetorical device
“I clip The anvil of my sword, and do contest As hotly and as nobly with thy love”
'Clip' means embrace. Aufidius calls Coriolanus's body 'the anvil of my sword' — the thing against which his blade has been hammered in every duel. Now he embraces it (and the man himself) as warmly as he ever fought against it. The image compresses the whole fighting history of the two men into a single physical gesture of embrace.
TLN 2614classical allusion
“Why, thou Mars!”
Mars was the Roman god of war — the supreme deity of battle. Calling Coriolanus 'thou Mars' identifies him not merely as a great soldier but as the war-god himself made flesh. Throughout the play Coriolanus is repeatedly compared to Mars; the allusion marks him as the embodiment of martial virtue in its pure, inhuman form.
TLN 2615archaic vocab
“we have a power on foot”
'A power on foot' means an army already assembled and ready to march (foot soldiers mobilized, on the move). Aufidius reveals here that the Volscian war against Rome has already begun, which is why he offers Coriolanus half his command immediately — there is no time to waste.
TLN 2678archaic vocab
“before Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado”
'Scotched' means slashed or scored with a blade; 'notched' means cut with notches, hacked. A 'carbonado' is a piece of meat scored across with a knife before being broiled over coals — the pattern of cuts makes it cook faster. The servingman is saying Coriolanus sliced Aufidius up like a chef preparing a steak. It is a comic, undignified image for what was in fact a brutal combat.
TLN 2683cultural context
“as if he were son and heir to Mars”
Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, was said to be the son of Mars the war-god; Rome itself was thus 'the city of Mars.' The servingman is reporting that Coriolanus is being treated inside as if he were divine royalty — literally the heir to Rome's divine father. The irony is acute: he is being honored more in his enemy's city than he ever was in Rome.
TLN 2691archaic vocab
“sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears; he will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled”
'Sowl' (or 'soal') means to grab by the ears and drag — typically of pulling an animal. 'Mow all down' means cut everyone down like a scythe through grass. 'Polled' means cropped bare, stripped clean (as trees are pollarded). The servingman pictures Coriolanus seizing Rome's gatekeeper by the ears, then scything through the whole city, leaving it stripped bare of life.
TLN 2696wordplay
“show themselves, as we term it, his friends, whilst he's in dejectitude. Dejectitude! what's that?”
'Dejectitude' is a nonsense word the Third Servingman has invented on the spot — a pompous-sounding abstraction for 'dejected state' or 'downfall.' The First Servingman's bewildered echo ('Dejectitude! what's that?') is the joke: the servant is trying to sound educated and has simply made up a Latin-flavored word. It is one of several moments of comic verbal inflation in the servants' conversation.
TLN 2699archaic vocab
“his crest up again, and the man in blood”
'Crest up' means his pride and power restored (the crest is the top of a helmet — a raised crest signals a fighting man at his peak). 'The man in blood' means 'in full bloody fighting form' — heated, at his peak of violent energy, actively at war. A hawk or hound is said to be 'in blood' when it is in prime hunting condition.
TLN 2700archaic vocab
“out of their burrows, like conies after rain”
'Conies' are rabbits. The Third Servingman is saying that Coriolanus's fair-weather friends — who hid while he was disgraced — will come scurrying back like rabbits poking out of their warrens after a rainstorm, now that his fortunes have turned.
TLN 2706cultural context
“This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers”
The Second Servingman's list of what peace produces — rusting weapons, more tailors (for peacetime fashion), ballad-writers — is a comic index of the useless arts of civilian life from a soldier's point of view. 'Rust iron' means the neglect of arms; 'increase tailors' means an explosion of frivolous clothes-making. The servants' enthusiasm for war as the natural state of things parodies and at the same time reinforces the play's martial ideology.
TLN 2709archaic vocab
“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”
'Apoplexy' is a sudden stroke or paralysis; 'lethargy' is a heavy stupor. 'Mulled' here means dulled or deadened (like mulled wine, heated until it loses its sharpness). 'Full of vent' means full of activity, action, and release (as a fire vents heat and smoke). The servingman is praising war in medical language: peace is paralysis and stupor; war is wakefulness and energy. The speech is grotesque comedy — a servant parroting the martial values of his master's world.