Monologue

Third Servingman Monologue from Coriolanus

From Coriolanus by William Shakespeare

male · defiant · 1:49 min

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Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end o’ th’ table; no question asked him by any of the senators but they stand bald before him. Our general himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself with’s hand, and turns up the white o’ th’ eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i’ th’ middle and but one half of what he was yesterday, for the other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He’ll go, he says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by th’ ears. He will mow all down before him and leave his passage polled. (SECOND SERVINGMAN: And he’s as like to do’t as any man I can imagine.) 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 whilest he’s in directitude. (FIRST SERVINGMAN: Directitude? What’s that?) But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows like coneys after rain, and revel all with him.

About this piece

The Third Servingman observes the dynamics at a banquet, expressing disdain for the general's behavior and the power dynamics at play, revealing a sense of frustration with the situation.

20s · anger · power · ambition · betrayal · identity

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