Coriolanus
ACT IV SCENE IV. 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 | 5 | |
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? | 10 | |
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. | 15 |
[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, | 20 | |
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 | 25 | |
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. | 30 | |
[Exit] |
Next: Coriolanus, Act 4, Scene 5