SECOND SERVINGMAN An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too.
FIRST SERVINGMAN But more of thy news!
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 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, 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.
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 whilst he’s in dejectitude.
FIRST SERVINGMAN Dejectitude? 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 conies after rain, and revel all with him.
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.
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, 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 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 SERVINGMAN Ay, and it makes men hate one another.
THIRD SERVINGMAN Reason; because they then less need one another. The wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians.
⌈A sound within ⌉
They are rising, they are rising.
FIRST and SECOND SERVINGMEN In, in, in, in.
Exeunt
4.6 Enter the two tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus
SICINIUS
We hear not of him, neither need we fear him.
His remedies are tame—the present peace
And quietness of the people, which before
Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends
Blush that the world goes well, who rather had,
Though they themselves did suffer by‘t, behold
Dissentious numbers pest’ring streets than see
Our tradesmen singing in their shops and going
About their functions friendly.
Enter Menenius
BRUTUS
We stood to’t in good time. Is this Menenius?
SICINIUS
‘Tis he, ’tis he. O, he is grown most kind of late.
Hail, sir.
MENENIUS Hail to you both.
SICINIUS
Your Coriolanus is not much missed
But with his friends. The commonwealth doth stand,
And so would do were he more angry at it.
MENENIUS
All’s well, and might have been much better if
He could have temporized.
SICINIUS Where is he, hear you?
MENENIUS Nay, I hear nothing.
His mother and his wife hear nothing from him.
Enter three or four Citizens
ALL THE CITIZENS (to the tribunes)
The gods preserve you both.
SICINIUS
Good e’en, our neighbours.
BRUTUS
Good e‘en to you all, good e’en to you all.
FIRST CITIZEN
Ourselves, our wives and children, on our knees
Are bound to pray for you both.
SICINIUS
Live and thrive.
BRUTUS Farewell, kind neighbours.
We wished Coriolanus had loved you as we did.
ALL THE CITIZENS
Now the gods keep you!
SICINIUS and BRUTUS
Farewell, farewell.
Exeunt Citizens
SICINIUS
This is a happier and more comely time
Than when these fellows ran about the streets
Crying confusion.
BRUTUS
Caius Martius was
A worthy officer i‘th’ war, but insolent,
O’ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking,
Self-loving—
SICINIUS
And affecting one sole throne
Without assistance.
MENENIUS
I think not so.
SICINIUS
We should by this, to all our lamentation,
If he had gone forth consul found it so.
BRUTUS
The gods have well prevented it, and Rome
Sits safe and still without him.
Enter an Aedile
AEDILE
Worthy tribunes,
There is a slave whom we have put in prison
Reports the Volsces, with two several powers,
Are entered in the Roman territories,
And with the deepest malice of the war
Destroy what lies before ’em.
MENENIUS
’Tis Aufidius,
Who, hearing of our Martius’ banishment,
Thrusts forth his horns again into the world,
Which were inshelled when Martius stood for Rome,
And durst not once peep out.
SICINIUS
Come, what talk you of Martius? BRUTUS (to the Aedile)
Go see this rumourer whipped. It cannot be
The Volsces dare break with us.
MENENIUS
Cannot be?
We have record that very well it can,
And three examples of the like hath been
Within my age. But reason with the fellow,
Before you punish him, where he heard this,
Lest you shall chance to whip your information
And beat the messenger who bids beware
Of what is to be dreaded.
SICINIUS
Tell not me.
I know this cannot be.
BRUTUS Not possible.
Enter a Messenger
MESSENGER
The nobles in great earnestness are going
All to the senate-house. Some news is come
That turns their countenances.
SICINIUS
’Tis this slave.
(To the Aedile) Go whip him fore the people’s eyes.—
His raising,
Nothing but his report.
Exit Aedile
MESSENGER
Yes, worthy sir,
The slave’s report is seconded, and more,
More fearful, is delivered.
SICINIUS
What more fearful?
MESSENGER
It is spoke freely out of many mouths—
How probable I do not know—that Martius,
Joined with Aufidius, leads a power ‘gainst Rome,