He water’d his new plants with dews of flattery,
Seducing so my friends; and, to this end,
He bow’d his nature, never known before
But to be rough, unswayable and free.
(V. vi. 23.)
But the speaker is an enemy, and an enemy who has to account for the disagreeable circumstance that his own adherents have gone over to his rival, and who, moreover, at the time is looking for a plea that “admits of good construction.” There is nothing that we see or hear of Coriolanus elsewhere that supports the charge. We are told, indeed, that the Volscians throng to him and do him homage. The very magnates of Antium, Aufidius included, treat him like a demi-god:
Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end o’ the table: no question asked 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’ the eye to his discourse.
(iV. v. 203.)
Recruits throng to his standard and the army worships him. The Lieutenant tells Aufidius:
I do not know what witchcraft’s in him, but