Here I clip
The
anvil of my sword; and do contest
As
hotly and as nobly with thy love
As
ever in ambitious strength I did
Contend
against thy valour.
Tullus Aufidius
Coriolanus Act
IV, scene v Line 110
My goodness, we end up spending a lot of time in Coriolanus,
don’t we? This is the second time that we’ve been on this very page. The last
time was on 12/17 when one of the servants was talking about hitting Coriolanus
with a cudgel. Remember that?
But this is a pretty interesting line too. This time we have Tullus Aufidius responding to
Coriolanus’s offer to join him to fight the Romans. The response? ‘Yes, I love
you!’ Well, that’s sort of the response. One way or the other Aufidius makes it
clear that he’s pretty fond of Coriolanus and he’s pretty excited about having
him join the Volscian army. And why wouldn’t he be? Coriolanus is a kick-ass
warrior. Now the part that follows, the part where Aufidius talks about being
more excited by the prospect of Coriolanus fighting on his side than he was on
his wedding night looking at his bride, well that just gets a little weird if
you ask me. But it’s Shakespeare, so who am I to judge. Hear, have a read of
Aufidius’s whole speech and see what you think. It’s about thirty four lines
starting on line 98 of Act IV, scene v.
This is my Presto Heat Dish. It does a pretty good job of keeping me heated down here in my cellar office in the winter. I'm not sure whether or not it makes me as hot as Aufidius gets with Coriolanus's love, but it's hot enough for me.
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