Complete Plays, The (174 page)

So, the good horse is mine.

Marcius

I’ll buy him of you.

Lartius

No, I’ll nor sell nor give him: lend you him I will
For half a hundred years. Summon the town.

Marcius

How far off lie these armies?

Messenger

Within this mile and half.

Marcius

Then shall we hear their ’larum, and they ours.
Now, Mars, I prithee, make us quick in work,
That we with smoking swords may march from hence,
To help our fielded friends! Come, blow thy blast.

They sound a parley. Enter two Senators with others on the walls

Tutus Aufidius, is he within your walls?

First Senator

No, nor a man that fears you less than he,
That’s lesser than a little.

Drums afar off

Hark! our drums
Are bringing forth our youth. We’ll break our walls,
Rather than they shall pound us up: our gates,
Which yet seem shut, we, have but pinn’d with rushes;
They’ll open of themselves.

Alarum afar off

Hark you. far off!
There is Aufidius; list, what work he makes
Amongst your cloven army.

Marcius

O, they are at it!

Lartius

Their noise be our instruction. Ladders, ho!

Enter the army of the Volsces

Marcius

They fear us not, but issue forth their city.
Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight
With hearts more proof than shields. Advance, brave Titus:
They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts,
Which makes me sweat with wrath. Come on, my fellows:
He that retires I’ll take him for a Volsce,
And he shall feel mine edge.

Alarum. The Romans are beat back to their trenches. Re-enter Marcius cursing

Marcius

All the contagion of the south light on you,
You shames of Rome! you herd of — Boils and plagues
Plaster you o’er, that you may be abhorr’d
Further than seen and one infect another
Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese,
That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
From slaves that apes would beat! Pluto and hell!
All hurt behind; backs red, and faces pale
With flight and agued fear! Mend and charge home,
Or, by the fires of heaven, I’ll leave the foe
And make my wars on you: look to’t: come on;
If you’ll stand fast, we’ll beat them to their wives,
As they us to our trenches followed.

Another alarum. The Volsces fly, and Marcius follows them to the gates

So, now the gates are ope: now prove good seconds:
’Tis for the followers fortune widens them,
Not for the fliers: mark me, and do the like.

Enters the gates

First Soldier

Fool-hardiness; not I.

Second Soldier

Nor I.

Marcius is shut in

First Soldier

See, they have shut him in.

All

To the pot, I warrant him.

Alarum continues

Re-enter Titus Lartius

Lartius

What is become of Marcius?

All

Slain, sir, doubtless.

First Soldier

Following the fliers at the very heels,
With them he enters; who, upon the sudden,
Clapp’d to their gates: he is himself alone,
To answer all the city.

Lartius

O noble fellow!
Who sensibly outdares his senseless sword,
And, when it bows, stands up. Thou art left, Marcius:
A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art,
Were not so rich a jewel. Thou wast a soldier
Even to Cato’s wish, not fierce and terrible
Only in strokes; but, with thy grim looks and
The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds,
Thou madst thine enemies shake, as if the world
Were feverous and did tremble.

Re-enter Marcius, bleeding, assaulted by the enemy

First Soldier

Look, sir.

Lartius

O,’tis Marcius!
Let’s fetch him off, or make remain alike.

They fight, and all enter the city

S
CENE
V. C
ORIOLI
. A
STREET
.

Enter certain Romans, with spoils

First Roman

This will I carry to Rome.

Second Roman

And I this.

Third Roman

A murrain on’t! I took this for silver.

Alarum continues still afar off

Enter Marcius and Titus Lartius with a trumpet

Marcius

See here these movers that do prize their hours
At a crack’d drachm! Cushions, leaden spoons,
Irons of a doit, doublets that hangmen would
Bury with those that wore them, these base slaves,
Ere yet the fight be done, pack up: down with them!
And hark, what noise the general makes! To him!
There is the man of my soul’s hate, Aufidius,
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

S
CENE
VI. N
EAR
THE
CAMP
OF
C
OMINIUS
.

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

S
CENE
VII. T
HE
GATES
OF
C
ORIOLI
.

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

S
CENE
VIII. 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

S
CENE
IX. T
HE
R
OMAN
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.