Mojo, Will, & Me

 

Stain all your edges on me.—Boy! False hound!

 

-Caius Marcius Coriolanus

Coriolanus                      Act V Scene vi, Line 112

 

This is the last scene of the play and Coriolanus is seconds away from being slain by Tulles Aufidius and a group of his soldiers. When he says stain all your edges on me he’s talking about his red blood on the edges of their swords. He spits the word Boy at Aufidius and calls him a false hound. Aufidius had called Coriolanus a boy of tears a few lines earlier. I guess that not too many men like to be called boy. Here’s Caius Marcius’s full response.

        Cut me to pieces, Volsces; men and lads, 

        Stain all your edges on me.—Boy! False hound!

        If you have writ your annals true, ‘tis there,

        That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I

        Flutter’d your Volscians in Corioli:

        Alone I did it.—Boy!

 Twice he calls Aufidius Boy. Earlier, when Aufidius had called Coriolanus a boy of tears he had called him Cauis Marcius, telling him that Coriolanus was a name that he stole.

         Ay, Marcius, Caius Marcius: dost thou think

Ill grace thee with that robbery, thy stol’n name

Coriolanus, in Corioli?

 Well they’re in Corioli now, and that’s the Volscian city that Coriolanus got his honorary name from. Early on in the play he had helped the Romans defeat the Volscians in Corioli. That’s what Coriolanus is referring to when he talks about being an eagle in a dove-cote.

So, yah, that should be a pretty satisfactory explanation of everything here. This really is one of my favourites of Will’s plays. I’m sure I’ve said that before, but, whatevs.

Sorry, no pic today.