ARKCODEX
Act IV, Scene 4
1Antium. Before Aufidius’s house.
2Enter Coriolanus in mean apparel, disguised and muffled.
3CoriolanusA 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.
4Enter a Citizen.
5Save you, sir.
6CitizenAnd you.
7CoriolanusDirect me, if it be your will,
Where great Aufidius lies: is he in Antium?
8CitizenHe is, and feasts the nobles of the state
At his house this night.
9CoriolanusWhich is his house, beseech you?
10CitizenThis, here before you.
11CoriolanusThank 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.