Piercing our Romans: then, valiant Titus, take
Convenient numbers to make good the city;
Whilst I, with those that have the spirit, will haste
To help Cominius.
LARTIUS Worthy sir, thou bleed’st;
Thy exercise hath been too violent for
A second course of fight.
MARCIUS Sir, praise me not;
My work hath yet not warm’d me: fare you well:
The blood I drop is rather physical
Than dangerous to me: to Aufidius thus
I will appear, and fight.
LARTIUS Now the fair goddess, Fortune,
Fall deep in love with thee; and her great charms
Misguide thy opposers’ swords! Bold gentleman,
Prosperity be thy page!
MARCIUS Thy friend no less
Than those she placeth highest! So, farewell.
LARTIUS Thou worthiest Marcius!
Exit MARCIUS
Go, sound thy trumpet in the market-place;
Call thither all the officers o’ the town,
Where they shall know our mind: away!
Exeunt
Scene 6
Near the camp of Cominius.
Enter COMINIUS, as it were in retire, with soldiers
COMINIUS Breathe you, my friends: well fought;
we are come off
Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands,
Nor cowardly in retire: believe me, sirs,
We shall be charged again. Whiles we have struck,
By interims and conveying gusts we have heard
The charges of our friends. Ye Roman gods!
Lead their successes as we wish our own,
That both our powers, with smiling
fronts encountering,
May give you thankful sacrifice.
Enter a Messenger
Thy news?
Messenger The citizens of Corioli have issued,
And given to Lartius and to Marcius battle:
I saw our party to their trenches driven,
And then I came away.
COMINIUS Though thou speak’st truth,
Methinks thou speak’st not well.
How long is’t since?
Messenger Above an hour, my lord.
COMINIUS ‘Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums:
How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour,
And bring thy news so late?
Messenger Spies of the Volsces
Held me in chase, that I was forced to wheel
Three or four miles about, else had I, sir,
Half an hour since brought my report.
COMINIUS Who’s yonder,
That does appear as he were flay’d? O gods
He has the stamp of Marcius; and I have
Before-time seen him thus.
MARCIUS [Within]
Come I too late?
COMINIUS The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabour
More than I know the sound of Marcius’ tongue
From every meaner man.
Enter MARCIUS
MARCIUS Come I too late?
COMINIUS Ay, if you come not in the blood of others,
But mantled in your own.
MARCIUS O, let me clip ye
In arms as sound as when I woo’d, in heart
As merry as when our nuptial day was done,
And tapers burn’d to bedward!
COMINIUS Flower of warriors,
How is it with Titus Lartius?
MARCIUS As with a man busied about decrees:
Condemning some to death, and some to exile;
Ransoming him, or pitying, threatening the other;
Holding Corioli in the name of Rome,
Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,
To let him slip at will.
COMINIUS Where is that slave
Which told me they had beat you to your trenches?
Where is he? call him hither.
MARCIUS Let him alone;
He did inform the truth: but for our gentlemen,
The common file–a plague! tribunes for them!–
The mouse ne’er shunn’d the cat as they did budge
From rascals worse than they.
COMINIUS But how prevail’d you?
MARCIUS Will the time serve to tell? I do not think.
Where is the enemy? are you lords o’ the field?
If not, why cease you till you are so?
COMINIUS Marcius,
We have at disadvantage fought and did
Retire to win our purpose.
MARCIUS How lies their battle? know you on which side
They have placed their men of trust?
COMINIUS As I guess, Marcius,
Their bands i’ the vaward are the Antiates,
Of their best trust; o’er them Aufidius,
Their very heart of hope.
MARCIUS I do beseech you,
By all the battles wherein we have fought,
By the blood we have shed together, by the vows
We have made to endure friends, that you directly
Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates;
And that you not delay the present, but,
Filling the air with swords advanced and darts,
We prove this very hour.
COMINIUS Though I could wish
You were conducted to a gentle bath
And balms applied to, you, yet dare I never
Deny your asking: take your choice of those
That best can aid your action.
MARCIUS Those are they
That most are willing. If any such be here–
As it were sin to doubt–that love this painting
Wherein you see me smear’d; if any fear
Lesser his person than an ill report;
If any think brave death outweighs bad life
And that his country’s dearer than himself;
Let him alone, or so many so minded,
Wave thus, to express his disposition,
And follow Marcius.
They all shout and wave their swords, take him up in their arms, and cast up their caps
O, me alone! make you a sword of me?
If these shows be not outward, which of you
But is four Volsces? none of you but is
Able to bear against the great Aufidius
A shield as hard as his. A certain number,
Though thanks to all, must I select
from all: the rest
Shall bear the business in some other fight,
As cause will be obey’d. Please you to march;
And four shall quickly draw out my command,
Which men are best inclined.
COMINIUS March on, my fellows:
Make good this ostentation, and you shall
Divide in all with us.
Exeunt
Scene 7
The gates of Corioli.
TITUS LARTIUS, having set a guard upon Corioli, going with drum and trumpet toward COMINIUS and CAIUS MARCIUS, enters with Lieutenant, other Soldiers, and a Scout
LARTIUS So, let the ports be guarded: keep your duties,
As I have set them down. If I do send, dispatch
Those centuries to our aid: the rest will serve
For a short holding: if we lose the field,
We cannot keep the town.
Lieutenant Fear not our care, sir.
LARTIUS Hence, and shut your gates upon’s.
Our guider, come; to the Roman camp conduct us.
Exeunt
Scene 8
A field of battle.
Alarum as in battle. Enter, from opposite sides, MARCIUS and AUFIDIUS
MARCIUS I’ll fight with none but thee; for I do hate thee
Worse than a promise-breaker.
AUFIDIUS We hate alike:
Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor
More than thy fame and envy. Fix thy foot.
MARCIUS Let the first budger die the other’s slave,
And the gods doom him after!
AUFIDIUS If I fly, Marcius,
Holloa me like a hare.
MARCIUS Within these three hours, Tullus,
Alone I fought in your Corioli walls,
And made what work I pleased: ’tis not my blood
Wherein thou seest me mask’d; for thy revenge
Wrench up thy power to the highest.
AUFIDIUS Wert thou the Hector
That was the whip of your bragg’d progeny,
Thou shouldst not scape me here.
They fight, and certain Volsces come to the aid of AUFIDIUS. MARCIUS fights till they be driven in breathless
Officious, and not valiant, you have shamed me
In your condemned seconds.
Exeunt
Scene 9
The Roman camp.
Flourish. Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Flourish. Enter, from one side, COMINIUS with the Romans; from the other side, MARCIUS, with his arm in a scarf
COMINIUS If I should tell thee o’er this thy day’s work,
Thou’ldst not believe thy deeds: but I’ll report it
Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles,
Where great patricians shall attend and shrug,
I’ the end admire, where ladies shall be frighted,
And, gladly quaked, hear more; where the
dull tribunes,
That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours,
Shall say against their hearts ‘We thank the gods
Our Rome hath such a soldier.’
Yet camest thou to a morsel of this feast,
Having fully dined before.
Enter TITUS LARTIUS, with his power, from the pursuit
LARTIUS O general,
Here is the steed, we the caparison:
Hadst thou beheld–
MARCIUS Pray now, no more: my mother,
Who has a charter to extol her blood,
When she does praise me grieves me. I have done
As you have done; that’s what I can; induced
As you have been; that’s for my country:
He that has but effected his good will
Hath overta’en mine act.
COMINIUS You shall not be
The grave of your deserving; Rome must know
The value of her own: ’twere a concealment
Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement,
To hide your doings; and to silence that,
Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch’d,
Would seem but modest: therefore, I beseech you
In sign of what you are, not to reward
What you have done–before our army hear me.
MARCIUS I have some wounds upon me, and they smart
To hear themselves remember’d.
COMINIUS Should they not,
Well might they fester ‘gainst ingratitude,
And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses,
Whereof we have ta’en good and good store, of all