Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 7
A camp, at a small distance from Rome.
Tullus Aufidius : Do they still fly to the Roman?
Lieutenant : I do not know what witchcraft's in him, but
[p]Your soldiers use him
as the grace 'fore meat,
[p]Their talk at table, and their thanks at
end;
[p]And you are darken'd in this action, sir,
[p]Even by your
own.
Tullus Aufidius : I cannot help it now,
[p]Unless, by using means, I lame the foot
[p]Of
our design. He bears himself more proudlier,
[p]Even to my person,
than I thought he would
[p]When first I did embrace him: yet his
nature
[p]In that's no changeling; and I must excuse
[p]What cannot be
amended.
Lieutenant : Yet I wish, sir,--
[p]I mean for your particular,--you had
not
[p]Join'd in commission with him; but either
[p]Had borne the
action of yourself, or else
[p]To him had left it solely.
Tullus Aufidius : I understand thee well; and be thou sure,
[p]when he shall come to his
account, he knows not
[p]What I can urge against him. Although it
seems,
[p]And so he thinks, and is no less apparent
[p]To the vulgar
eye, that he bears all things fairly.
[p]And shows good husbandry for
the Volscian state,
[p]Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as
soon
[p]As draw his sword; yet he hath left undone
[p]That which shall
break his neck or hazard mine,
[p]Whene'er we come to our account.
Lieutenant : Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Rome?
Tullus Aufidius : All places yield to him ere he sits down;
[p]And the nobility of Rome
are his:
[p]The senators and patricians love him too:
[p]The tribunes
are no soldiers; and their people
[p]Will be as rash in the repeal, as
hasty
[p]To expel him thence. I think he'll be to Rome
[p]As is the
osprey to the fish, who takes it
[p]By sovereignty of nature. First he
was
[p]A noble servant to them; but he could not
[p]Carry his honours
even: whether 'twas pride,
[p]Which out of daily fortune ever
taints
[p]The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
[p]To fail in the
disposing of those chances
[p]Which he was lord of; or whether
nature,
[p]Not to be other than one thing, not moving
[p]From the
casque to the cushion, but commanding peace
[p]Even with the same
austerity and garb
[p]As he controll'd the war; but one of
these--
[p]As he hath spices of them all, not all,
[p]For I dare so
far free him--made him fear'd,
[p]So hated, and so banish'd: but he
has a merit,
[p]To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
[p]Lie in
the interpretation of the time:
[p]And power, unto itself most
commendable,
[p]Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
[p]To extol what
it hath done.
[p]One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one
nail;
[p]Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do
fail.
[p]Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,
[p]Thou art
poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine.
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Next: Act 5 - Scene 1
