Coriolanus Act 4.5.3

Scene 4.5.3

Murmurs of the staffs

The dozen of serving staffs convened to their own rooms after the last of the guests have left for their own homes or the adjoining rooms which was made available to the rear of the house. The revelation of the unregistered guest had shaken up the feast mood to that of anger and then appreciation; sarcasm ring in that last word, but it was appreciated that the hero of Rome would be its bane soon. Coriolanus was accorded the main guest with the others holding onto his attention for the rest of the evening. He had retired to the guest rooms with two of the wanton ladies; one a widower and the other with the consent of her lover. Such was the impunity of these people behind closed doors. Well, not all had left but there were two of the staff immersed in the pool. I guessed personal hygiene was never a matter in the general pool.

“Here’s a strange alteration!” The first staff to have seen Coriolanus was then seated in the cold pool to ease his carnal pain.

“By my hand, I had thought to have stricken him and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report of him.” The second serving lady immersed to her neck in the water beside the first staff spoke up. She needed the cold water to numb the muscles while she removed the marks of the intrusions. She then recalled the slight altercation with the man.

“What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.” The lady commented on Coriolanus. She then recalled his nudity which was more than a hands hold.

“He had so, looking as it were. Would I be hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.” The man staff had seen Coriolanus too and somehow he felt the attraction too.

“So did I, I will be sworn he is simply the rarest man in the world.” The lady added to the compliment. She then saw the hurt feeling on the man and nudged over to him. She reached out to him under the water while she nibbled at his shoulder.

“I think he is”, the man replied on. “But a greater soldier than was one other.”

“Who, my master?” The lady squeezed him hard to spur the blood flow while she smiled at him.

“It’s no matter now.” The man leaned back to enjoy his ministration by her.

“Worth six on him.” The lady whispered to his ears. He was known to go both ways, and she loved nothing more than to be on the receiving end of another.

“Nay, not so neither”, the man replied. He then changed the subject to Tullus. He admired Tullus every much. “I take him to be a better soldier. One must admire one’s own General than a betraying one.

“For the defense of a town our general is excellent.” The lady replied. She was from Corioli and her home still stand because Tullus had stopped the total destruction of the whole place.

“And for assault.” The man rolled over onto the lady having his own urges stirred up. While he was to assault the gates 

of his conquered adversary when the door to the Main Hall admitted in one of the other male staff.

“Oh Man! I can tell you news; new you rascals.” The newly arrived staff intruded on the duo who had moved apart with their mood deflating by the seconds.

“What? What? Lets’ partake with it.” Both voiced out. The staffs are an inquisitive lot, with ears to the doors and eyes through the narrow slits of the walls; nothing evades them. Gossip made the chores more bearable to hear of their masters’ mis-deeds.

“He was the one who whack our General; Caius Martius.” The second man spoke up.

“Why do you say whack our General? I saw him with the lady nymph and the older bitch?” The lady staff defended her observation. She was in mine that Coriolanus may have more the needs for a woman. She knew Tullus was like her lover; a man with both needs but she stay committed on her view of Coriolanus but here Tullus was master.

“Our master was hard for him directly.” The lady bit her tongue to appear neutral. “To say the truth before Corioli, Tullus had scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.”

Tullus had the winning edge until his downfall at Corioli. Maybe he had called on Coriolanus to reinstate his superiority for the loss of the war. These masters are all power crazy, and ego driven. She had known it before, they had done it to her before; all thrice on her without a care for her.

“More of thy news?” The first man asked. He wanted to know the details if it was seen the subjugation of that hero by his master. He hated Romans and more if they are admired by his women. The third man sat down by the pool edge to relate the tale. The true tale and it was not of sex.

“Ayee! Keep you amorous thoughts to yourself. I speak of the new guest in his new role.” The second man spoke out.”Did you not see how he was made here today as if he was a son of Mars; set at the upper end of the table, no questions asked of him by any of the guests but they paid homage to him. Our General made himself a mistress of him; sanctifies himself with his hands.”

“But the real truth is the General is cut in the middle and one half was what he was yesterday, for the other half on the table for the picking of the guests.” Tullus was no more the hero he was before, but to please his friends and allies, he had laid himself feasts to bribe them to stay as one of his. Or go to war to be that hero he was once before. “Tullus said he will go and sow the porter of Rome gates by the ears; he will mow all of them down before him once again. When they see his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will be of their burrows and revel all with him. He has the means now; Coriolanus.”

“When goes this forward?” The first man asked.

“Tomorrow, today, presently. You shall hear the siren calling for men soon. They have decided and to be executed immediately.”

“Then the peace is nothing but to rust the iron, increase the tailors and breed ballad makers.” The lady laid back into her cold water to ease her pains. “Bollocks!”

“Let me have war, said I; it exceeds peace as far as day and night. It’s sprightly, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible, a gutter of bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.”

“This so; and as war in some sort may be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.” The lady muttered her view. “Arse holes to the fore!”

“Aye, it makes men hate one another.” The first man laughed at his cynical remark.

“They then less need one for the other.” The second man added in. He was clearly in favor of one gender. “The war for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volsces.”

“In, in, in….” The lady slump her into the water while she eased herself of her own frustrations. It was obvious these men were more into each other than for her. Self gratification was more welcomed than a cliff hanger frustration.