Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 3
A highway between Rome and Antium.
Coriolanus : Come, leave your tears: a brief farewell: the beast
[p]With many heads
butts me away. Nay, mother,
[p]Where is your ancient courage? you were
used
[p]To say extremity was the trier of spirits;
[p]That common
chances common men could bear;
[p]That when the sea was calm all boats
alike
[p]Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows,
[p]When most
struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
[p]A noble cunning: you were
used to load me
[p]With precepts that would make invincible
[p]The
heart that conn'd them.
Virgilia : O heavens! O heavens!
Coriolanus : Nay! prithee, woman,--
Volumnia : Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,
[p]And occupations
perish!
Coriolanus : What, what, what!
[p]I shall be loved when I am lack'd. Nay,
mother.
[p]Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,
[p]If you
had been the wife of Hercules,
[p]Six of his labours you'ld have done,
and saved
[p]Your husband so much sweat. Cominius,
[p]Droop not;
adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother:
[p]I'll do well yet. Thou old and
true Menenius,
[p]Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,
[p]And
venomous to thine eyes. My sometime general,
[p]I have seen thee stem,
and thou hast oft beheld
[p]Heart-hardening spectacles; tell these sad
women
[p]'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,
[p]As 'tis to laugh at
'em. My mother, you wot well
[p]My hazards still have been your
solace: and
[p]Believe't not lightly--though I go alone,
[p]Like to a
lonely dragon, that his fen
[p]Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than
seen--your son
[p]Will or exceed the common or be caught
[p]With
cautelous baits and practise.
Volumnia : My first son.
[p]Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
[p]With thee
awhile: determine on some course,
[p]More than a wild exposture to
each chance
[p]That starts i' the way before thee.
Coriolanus : O the gods!
Cominius : I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee
[p]Where thou shalt rest,
that thou mayst hear of us
[p]And we of thee: so if the time thrust
forth
[p]A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
[p]O'er the vast
world to seek a single man,
[p]And lose advantage, which doth ever
cool
[p]I' the absence of the needer.
Coriolanus : Fare ye well:
[p]Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too
full
[p]Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one
[p]That's yet
unbruised: bring me but out at gate.
[p]Come, my sweet wife, my
dearest mother, and
[p]My friends of noble touch, when I am
forth,
[p]Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.
[p]While I
remain above the ground, you shall
[p]Hear from me still, and never of
me aught
[p]But what is like me formerly.
Menenius Agrippa : That's worthily
[p]As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep.
[p]If I
could shake off but one seven years
[p]From these old arms and legs,
by the good gods,
[p]I'ld with thee every foot.
Coriolanus : Give me thy hand: Come.
Roman : I know you well, sir, and you know
[p]me: your name, I think, is
Adrian.
Volsce : It is so, sir: truly, I have forgot you.
Roman : I am a Roman; and my services are,
[p]as you are, against 'em: know
you me yet?
Volsce : Nicanor? no.
Roman : The same, sir.
Volsce : You had more beard when I last saw you; but your
[p]favour is well
approved by your tongue. What's the
[p]news in Rome? I have a note
from the Volscian state,
[p]to find you out there: you have well saved
me a
[p]day's journey.
Roman : There hath been in Rome strange insurrections; the
[p]people against
the senators, patricians, and nobles.
Volsce : Hath been! is it ended, then? Our state thinks not
[p]so: they are in
a most warlike preparation, and
[p]hope to come upon them in the heat
of their division.
Roman : The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing
[p]would make it flame
again: for the nobles receive
[p]so to heart the banishment of that
worthy
[p]Coriolanus, that they are in a ripe aptness to take
[p]all
power from the people and to pluck from them
[p]their tribunes for
ever. This lies glowing, I can
[p]tell you, and is almost mature for
the violent
[p]breaking out.
Volsce : Coriolanus banished!
Roman : Banished, sir.
Volsce : You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor.
Roman : The day serves well for them now. I have heard it
[p]said, the fittest
time to corrupt a man's wife is
[p]when she's fallen out with her
husband. Your noble
[p]Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars,
his
[p]great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no request
[p]of his
country.
Volsce : He cannot choose. I am most fortunate, thus
[p]accidentally to
encounter you: you have ended my
[p]business, and I will merrily
accompany you home.
Roman : I shall, between this and supper, tell you most
[p]strange things from
Rome; all tending to the good of
[p]their adversaries. Have you an
army ready, say you?
Volsce : A most royal one; the centurions and their charges,
[p]distinctly
billeted, already in the entertainment,
[p]and to be on foot at an
hour's warning.
Roman : I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the
[p]man, I think,
that shall set them in present action.
[p]So, sir, heartily well met,
and most glad of your company.
Volsce : You take my part from me, sir; I have the most cause
[p]to be glad of
yours.
Roman : Well, let us go together.
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