Speeches (Lines) for First Servingman
in "Coriolanus"
Total: 19

1

IV,5,2750

(stage directions). [Music within. Enter a Servingman]

First Servingman. Wine, wine, wine! What service
is here! I think our fellows are asleep.

2

IV,5,2761

(stage directions). [Re-enter the first Servingman]

First Servingman. What would you have, friend? whence are you?
Here's no place for you: pray, go to the door.

3

IV,5,2776

Third Servingman. What fellow's this?

First Servingman. A strange one as ever I looked on: I cannot get him
out of the house: prithee, call my master to him.

4

IV,5,2918

Tullus Aufidius. Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have
The leading of thine own revenges, take
The one half of my commission; and set down—
As best thou art experienced, since thou know'st
Thy country's strength and weakness,—thine own ways;
Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
Or rudely visit them in parts remote,
To fright them, ere destroy. But come in:
Let me commend thee first to those that shall
Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
And more a friend than e'er an enemy;
Yet, CORIOLANUS, that was much. Your hand: most welcome!
[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. The two]
Servingmen come forward]

First Servingman. Here's a strange alteration!

5

IV,5,2922

Second Servingman. 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 Servingman. What an arm he has! he turned me about with his
finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

6

IV,5,2927

Second Servingman. 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 Servingman. He had so; looking as it were—would I were hanged,
but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

7

IV,5,2931

Second Servingman. So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest
man i' the world.

First Servingman. I think he is: but a greater soldier than he you wot on.

8

IV,5,2933

Second Servingman. Who, my master?

First Servingman. Nay, it's no matter for that.

9

IV,5,2935

Second Servingman. Worth six on him.

First Servingman. Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the
greater soldier.

10

IV,5,2939

Second Servingman. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that:
for the defence of a town, our general is excellent.

First Servingman. Ay, and for an assault too.

11

IV,5,2942

Third Servingman. O slaves, I can tell you news,— news, you rascals!

First Servingman. [together] What, what, what? let's partake.

12

IV,5,2946

Third Servingman. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as
lieve be a condemned man.

First Servingman. [together] Wherefore? wherefore?

13

IV,5,2950

Third Servingman. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,
Caius CORIOLANUS.

First Servingman. Why do you say 'thwack our general '?

14

IV,5,2955

Second Servingman. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too
hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

First Servingman. He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth
on't: before Corioli he scotched him and notched
him like a carbon ado.

15

IV,5,2960

Second Servingman. An he had been cannibally given, he might have
broiled and eaten him too.

First Servingman. But, more of thy news?

16

IV,5,2978

Third Servingman. 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 Servingman. Directitude! what's that?

17

IV,5,2983

Third Servingman. 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 Servingman. But when goes this forward?

18

IV,5,2991

Second Servingman. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again.
This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase
tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

First Servingman. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as
day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and
full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy;
mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more
bastard children than war's a destroyer of men.

19

IV,5,2999

Second Servingman. 'Tis so: and as war, in some sort, may be said to
be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a
great maker of cuckolds.

First Servingman. Ay, and it makes men hate one another.