Act IV, Scene 3 A highway between Rome and Antium.

Enter a Roman and a Volsce, meeting

Roman I know you well, sir, and you know
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,
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
favour is well approved by your tongue. What's the
news in Rome? I have a note from the Volscian state,
to find you out there: you have well saved me a
day's journey.
Roman There hath been in Rome strange insurrections; the
people against the senators, patricians, and nobles.
Volsce Hath been! is it ended, then? Our state thinks not
so: they are in a most warlike preparation, and
hope to come upon them in the heat of their division.
Roman The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing
would make it flame again: for the nobles receive
so to heart the banishment of that worthy
Coriolanus, that they are in a ripe aptness to take
all power from the people and to pluck from them
their tribunes for ever. This lies glowing, I can
tell you, and is almost mature for the violent
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
said, the fittest time to corrupt a man's wife is
when she's fallen out with her husband. Your noble
Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars, his
great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no request
of his country.
Volsce He cannot choose. I am most fortunate, thus
accidentally to encounter you: you have ended my
business, and I will merrily accompany you home.
Roman I shall, between this and supper, tell you most
strange things from Rome; all tending to the good of
their adversaries. Have you an army ready, say you?
Volsce A most royal one; the centurions and their charges,
distinctly billeted, already in the entertainment,
and to be on foot at an hour's warning.
Roman I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the
man, I think, that shall set them in present action.
So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company.
Volsce You take my part from me, sir; I have the most cause
to be glad of yours.
Roman Well, let us go together.
  [Exeunt]

 

Act IV, Scene 4 Antium. Before Aufidius's house.

Enter CORIOLANUS in mean apparel, disguised
and muffled

 

CORIOLANUS A goodly city is this Antium. City,
'Tis I that made thy widows: many an heir
Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars
Have I heard groan and drop: then know me not,
Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones
In puny battle slay me.
  [Enter a Citizen]
  Save you, sir.
Citizen And you.
CORIOLANUS Direct me, if it be your will,
Where great Aufidius lies: is he in Antium?
Citizen He is, and feasts the nobles of the state
At his house this night.
CORIOLANUS Which is his house, beseech you?
Citizen This, here before you.
CORIOLANUS Thank you, sir: farewell.
  [Exit Citizen]
  O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,
Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart,
Whose house, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise,
Are still together, who twin, as 'twere, in love
Unseparable, shall within this hour,
On a dissension of a doit, break out
To bitterest enmity: so, fellest foes,
Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep,
To take the one the other, by some chance,
Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends
And interjoin their issues. So with me:
My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon
This enemy town. I'll enter: if he slay me,
He does fair justice; if he give me way,
I'll do his country service.
  [Exit]

 

To see other scenes from the show:

Full Text Act III, Scene 3 The same. The Forum
Act I, Scene 1 Rome. A street. Act IV, Scene 1 Rome. Before a gate of the city.
Act I, Scene 2 Corioli.  The Senate house. Act IV, Scene 2 The same. A street near the gate.
Act I, Scene 3 A room in Marcius' house. Act IV, Scene 3 A highway between Rome and Antium/Act IV, Scene 4 Antium. Before Aufidius' house.
Act I, Scene 4 Before Corioli. Act IV, Scene 5 The same. A hall in Aufidius's house.
Act I, Scene 5 Corioli. A street./Act I, Scene 6 Near the camp of Cominius. Act IV, Scene 6 Rome. A public place.
Act I, Scene 7The gates of Corioli/Act I, Scene 8 A field of battle. Act IV, Scene 7 A camp, at a small distance from Rome.
Act I, Scene 9 The Roman camp. /Act I, Scene 10 The camp of the Volsces. Act V, Scene 1 Rome. A public place.
Act II, Scene 1 Rome. A public place. Act V, Scene 2 Entrance of the Volscian camp before Rome.  Two Sentinels on guard.
Act II, Scene 2 The same. The Capitol. Act V, Scene 3 The tent of Coriolanus.
Act II, Scene 3 The same. The Forum. Act V, Scene 4 Rome. A public place, /Act V, Scene 5 The Same. A street near the gate.
Act III, Scene 1 Rome. A street. Act V, Scene 6 A public place.
Act III, Scene 2 A room in Coriolanus' house.  

 

To view other Coriolanus sections:

Main Play Page      Play Text     Scene by Scene Synopsis     Character Directory     Commentary  

 

To view the other Plays click below:

By  Comedies    Histories    Romances    Tragedies

All's Well the Ends Well Antony & Cleopatra As You Like It Cardenio Comedy of Errors Coriolanus
Cymbeline Edward III Hamlet Henry IV, Part 1 Henry IV, Part 2 Henry V
Henry VI, Part 1 Henry VI, Part 2 Henry VI, Part 3 Henry VIII Julius Caesar King John
King Lear Love's Labours Lost Love's Labours Wonne Macbeth Measure for Measure Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor A Mid Summer Night's Dream  Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard II
Richard III Romeo & Juliet Sir Thomas More Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus Troilus & Cressida Twelfth Night Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsman The Winter's Tale

 

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