ACT IV SCENE III

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