Coriolanus
| ACT IV SCENE III. 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? | 5 | |
| 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, | 10 | |
| 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 | 15 |
| 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 | 20 | |
| 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. | 25 | |
| 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 | 30 | |
| 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 | 35 |
| 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? | 40 | |
| 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. | 45 | |
| 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] | ||
Next: Coriolanus, Act 4, Scene 4