Coriolanus

The two SERVINGMEN come forward

FIRST SERVANT. Here's a strange alteration!
SECOND SERVANT. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him
with
a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false
report
of him.
FIRST SERVANT. What an arm he has! He turn'd me about with his

finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.
SECOND SERVANT. Nay, I knew by his face that there was
something in
him; he had, sir, a kind of face, methought- I cannot tell
how to
term it.
FIRST SERVANT. He had so, looking as it were- Would I were
hang'd,
but I thought there was more in him than I could think.
SECOND SERVANT. So did I, I'll be sworn. He is simply the
rarest
man i' th' world.
FIRST SERVANT. I think he is; but a greater soldier than he you
wot
on.
SECOND SERVANT. Who, my master?
FIRST SERVANT. Nay, it's no matter for that.
SECOND SERVANT. Worth six on him.
FIRST SERVANT. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the
greater soldier.
SECOND SERVANT. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say
that;
for the defence of a town our general is excellent.
FIRST SERVANT. Ay, and for an assault too.

Re-enter the third SERVINGMAN

THIRD SERVANT. O slaves, I can tell you news- news, you
rascals!
BOTH. What, what, what? Let's partake.
THIRD SERVANT. I would not be a Roman, of all nations;
I had as lief be a condemn'd man.
BOTH. Wherefore? wherefore?
THIRD SERVANT. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our
general-
Caius Marcius.
FIRST SERVANT. Why do you say 'thwack our general'?
THIRD SERVANT. I do not say 'thwack our general,' but he was
always
good enough for him.
SECOND SERVANT. Come, we are fellows and friends. He was ever
too
hard for him, I have heard him say so himself.
FIRST SERVANT. He was too hard for him directly, to say the
troth
on't; before Corioli he scotch'd him and notch'd him like a
carbonado.
SECOND SERVANT. An he had been cannibally given, he might have
broil'd and eaten him too.
FIRST SERVANT. But more of thy news!
THIRD SERVANT. 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 poll'd.
SECOND SERVANT. And he's as like to do't as any man I can
imagine.
THIRD SERVANT. 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 directitude.
FIRST SERVANT. Directitude? What's that?
THIRD SERVANT. 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 SERVANT. But when goes this forward?
THIRD SERVANT. To-morrow, to-day, presently. You shall have the
drum struck up this afternoon; 'tis as it were parcel of
their
feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.
SECOND SERVANT. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again.
This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and
breed ballad-makers.