Alarum. The Romans are beat back ⌈and exeunt⌉ to their trenches, ⌈the Volsces following⌉
1.5 Enter ⌈Roman Soldiers, in retreat, followed by⌉ Martius, cursing
MARTIUS
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 abhorred
Farther 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. Follow.⌈The Romans come forward towards the walls.⌉ Another alarum, and ⌈enter the army of the Volsces.⌉ Martius beats them back ⌈through⌉ 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.
He enters the gates
FIRST SOLDIER
Foolhardiness! Not I.
SECOND SOLDIER Nor I.
Alarum continues. The gates close, and Martius is shut in
FIRST SOLDIER
See, they have shut him in.
⌈THIRD SOLDIER⌉ To th’ pot, I warrant him.
Enter Lartius
LARTIUS
What is become of Martius?
⌈FOURTH SOLDIER⌉
Slain, sir, doubtless.
FIRST SOLDIER
Following the fliers at the very heels,
With them he enters, who upon the sudden
Clapped-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, stand‘st up! Thou art lost, Martius.
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 mad’st thine enemies shake as if the world
Were feverous and did tremble.
Enter Martius, bleeding, assaulted by the enemy
FIRST SOLDIER Look, sir.
LARTIUS O, ’tis Martius!
Let’s fetch him off, or make remain alike.
They fight, and all exeunt into the city
1.6 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.
⌈He throws it away.⌉
Alarum continues still afar off. Enter Martius,
bleeding, and Lartius with a trumpeter. Exeunt
Romans with spoils
MARTIUS
See here these movers that do prize their honours
At a cracked drachma! 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.
MARTIUS Sir, praise me not.
My work hath yet not warmed 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.
MARTIUS Thy friend no less
Than those she placeth highest. So farewell.
LARTIUS Thou worthiest Martius!
Exit Martius
Go sound thy trumpet in the market-place.
Call thither all the officers o’th’ town,
Where they shall know our mind. Away.
Exeunt ⌈severally⌉
1.7 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. The Roman gods
Lead their successes as we wish our own,
That both our powers, with smiling fronts
encount’ring,
May give you thankful sacrifice!
Enter a Messenger
Thy news?
MESSENGER
The citizens of Corioles have issued,
And given to Lartius and to Martius 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. ⌈Exit⌉
Enter Martius, bloody
COMINIUS Who’s yonder,
That does appear as he were flayed? O gods!
He has the stamp of Martius, and I have
Before-time seen him thus.
MARTIUS Come I too late?
COMINIUS
The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor
More than I know the sound of Martius’ tongue
From every meaner man.
MARTIUS Come I too late?
COMINIUS
Ay, if you come not in the blood of others,
But mantled in your own.
MARTIUS O, let me clip ye
In arms as sound as when I wooed, in heart
As merry as when our nuptial day was done,
And tapers burnt to bedward!
⌈They embrace⌉
COMINIUS
Flower of warriors! How is’t with Titus Lartius?
MARTIUS
As with a man busied about decrees,
Condemning some to death and some to exile,
Ransoming him or pitying, threat‘ning th’other;
Holding Corioles 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.
MARTIUS
Let him alone.
He did inform the truth. But for our gentlemen,
The common file—a plague—tribunes for them?—
The mouse ne’er shunned the cat as they did budge
From rascals worse than they.
COMINIUS
But how pre
vailed you?
MARTIUS
Will the time serve to tell? I do not think.
Where is the enemy? Are you lords o’th’ field?
If not, why cease you till you are so?
COMINIUS
Martius, we have at disadvantage fought,
And did retire to win our purpose.
MARTIUS
How lies their battle? Know you on which side
They have placed their men of trust?
COMINIUS
As I guess, Martius,
Their bands i‘th’ vanguard are the Antiates,
Of their best trust; o’er them Aufidius,
Their very heart of hope.
MARTIUS
I do beseech you
By all the battles wherein we have fought,
By th’ blood we have shed together, by th’ 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.
MARTIUS
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 smeared; 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,He waves his sword
Wave thus to express his disposition,
And follow Martius.
They all shout and wave their swords, ⌈then some⌉ take him up in their arms and they 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 obeyed. Please you to march,
And I 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 marching
1.8 Enter Lartius ⌈Through the gates of Corioles⌉, with a drummer and a trumpeter, a Lieutenant, other soldiers, and a scout
LARTIUS (to the Lieutenant)
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.
⌈Exit Lieutenant⌉
(To the scout) Our guider, come; to th’ Roman camp
conduct us.
Exeunt towards Cominius and Caius Martius
1.9 Alarum, as in battle. Enter Martius, bloody, and Aufidius, at several doors
MARTIUS
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.
MARTIUS
Let the first budger die the other’s slave,
And the gods doom him after.
AUFIDIUS
If I fly, Martius,
Holla me like a hare.
MARTIUS Within these three hours, Tullus,
Alone I fought in your Corioles’ walls,
And made what work I pleased. ’Tis not my blood
Wherein thou seest me masked. For thy revenge,
Wrench up thy power to th’ highest.
AUFIDIUS
Wert thou the Hector
That was the whip of your bragged progeny,
Thou shouldst not scape me here.Here they fight, and certain Volsces come in the aid of Aufidius. Martius fights till the Volsces be driven in breathless, ⌈Martius following⌉
Officious and not valiant, you have shamed me
In your condemned seconds.
Exit
1.10 Alarum. A retreat is sounded. ⌈Flourish.⌉Enter at one door Cominius with the Romans, at another door Martius with his arm in a scarf
COMINIUS (to Martius)
If I should tell thee o‘er this thy day’s work
Thou’lt not believe thy deeds. But I’ll report it
Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles,
Where great patricians shall attend and shrug,
I‘th’ 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 cam’st thou to a morsel of this feast,
Having fully dined before.
Enter Lartius, with his power, from the pursuit
LARTIUS O general,
Here is the steed, we the caparison.
Hadst thou beheld—
MARTIUS
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 vouched,
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.
MARTIUS
I have some wounds upon me, and they smart
To hear themselves remembered.
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
The treasure in this field achieved and city,
We render you the tenth, to be ta’en forth
Before the common distribution
At your only choice.
MARTIUS
I thank you, general,
But cannot make my heart consent to take
A bribe to pay my sword. I do refuse it,
And stand upon my common part with those
That have upheld the doing.A long flourish. They all cry ‘Martius, Martius!’, casting up their caps and lances. Cominius and Lartius stand bare
May these same instruments which you profane
Never sound more. When drums and trumpets shall
I’th’ field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be
Made all of false-faced soothing. When steel grows
Soft as the parasite’s silk, let him be made
An overture for th’ wars. No more, I say.
For t
hat I have not washed my nose that bled,
Or foiled some debile wretch, which without note
Here’s many else have done, you shout me forth
In acclamations hyperbolical,
As if I loved my little should be dieted
In praises sauced with lies.
COMINIUS
Too modest are you,
More cruel to your good report than grateful
To us that give you truly. By your patience,
If ‘gainst yourself you be incensed we’ll put you,
Like one that means his proper harm, in manacles,
Then reason safely with you. Therefore be it known,
As to us, to all the world, that Caius Martius
Wears this war’s garland, in token of the which
My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him,
With all his trim belonging; and from this time,
For what he did before Corioles, call him,
With all th’applause and clamour of the host,
Martius Caius Coriolanus. Bear th’addition
Nobly ever!
Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums
ALL Martius Caius Coriolanus!
CORIOLANUS (to Cominius) I will go wash,
And when my face is fair you shall perceive
Whether I blush or no. Howbeit, I thank you.
I mean to stride your steed, and at all times
To undercrest your good addition
To th’ fairness of my power.
COMINIUS
So, to our tent,
Where, ere we do repose us, we will write
To Rome of our success. You, Titus Lartius,
Must to Corioles back. Send us to Rome
The best, with whom we may articulate
For their own good and ours.
LARTIUS
I shall, my lord.
CORIOLANUS
The gods begin to mock me. I, that now
Refused most princely gifts, am bound to beg
Of my lord general.
COMINIUS
Take‘t, ’tis yours. What is’t?
CORIOLANUS
I sometime lay here in Corioles,
And at a poor man’s house. He used me kindly.
He cried to me; I saw him prisoner;
But then Aufidius was within my view,
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 351
