That both our powers, with smiling fronts encountering,
May give you thankful sacrifice!

Enter a Messenger.

Thy news?

Mess. 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.

Though thou speak'st truth,

Com.
Methinks thou speak'st not well.

Mess. Above an hour, my lord.

How long is't since?

Com. 'Tis not a mile; briefly, we heard their drums : How couldst thou in a mile confound 2 an hour,

And bring thy news so late?

Mess.

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.

Who's yonder,

Com.
That does appear as he were flay'd? O gods!
He has the stamp of Marcius; and I have

Before-time seen him thus.

Mar. [Within.]

Come I too late?

Com. The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor, More than I know the sound of Marcius' tongue

From every meaner man's.

Mar.

Enter MARCIUS.

Come I too late?

Com. Ay, if you come not in the blood of others,

2 To confound for to consume or spend. Repeatedly so. The sense of the preceding clause appears to be, "in brief, the distance is so short, that we heard their drums."

But mantled in your own.

Mar.

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!

Com.

How is't with Titus Lartius?

Flower of warriors,

Mar. As with a man busied about decrees:
Condemning some to death, and some to exile;
Ransoming him or pitying,3 threatening th' other;
Holding Corioli in the name of Rome,

Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,
To let him slip at will.

Which told me they had beat you to your trenches?
Where is he? call him hither.

Let him alone;

Mar.
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.

Com.

But how prevail'd you?

Mar. Will the time serve to tell? I do not think so.

Where is the enemy? are you lords o' the field?

If not, why cease you till you are so?

Com.

Marcius,

We have at disadvantage fought, and did

Retire, to win our purpose.

Mar. How lies their battle ?4 know you on which side

3 Taking ransom of one, or letting him go for pity; treating with some of the captives for the price of their freedom, or mercifully discharging them without pay.

4 Battle was often used for army; especially of an army drawn up in battle-array, or an embattled army.

They've placed their men of trust?

Com.

As I guess, Marcius,

Their bands i' the vaward are the Antiates,5

Of their best trust; o'er them Aufidius,

Their very heart of hope.

Mar.

I do beseech you,

By all the battles wherein we have fought,

By th' blood we've shed together, by the vows
We've made to endure friends, that you directly
Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates;

6

And that you not delay the present, but,
Filling the air with swords advanced and darts,
We prove this very hour.

Com.

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.

Mar.

That most are willing.

As it were sin to doubt

7

Those are they

If any such be here

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, t' express his disposition,

And follow Marcius. [They all shout, and wave their swords; take him up in their arms, and cast up their caps.

5 The vaward is the vanguard, that is, the front, where the best soldiers would naturally be placed. Shakespeare uses Antiates as a trisyllable, as if it had been written Antiats.

6 Meaning the present business; that which craves instant dispatch.

7 That is, fear less for his person. Often so. See vol. ix. page 147, note 21.

Go we along; 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 the rest
Shall bear the business in some other fight,
As cause will be obey'd. Please you to march ;
And I shall quickly draw out my command,
Which men are best inclined.9

Com.

March on, my

fellows :

[Exeunt.

Make good this ostentation, 1o and you shall
Divide in all with us.

TITUS LARTIUS, having set a guard upon Corioli, going with drum and trumpet toward COMINIUS and CAIUS MARCIUS, enters with a Lieutenant, a party of Soldiers, and a Scout.

Lart. So, let the ports1 be guarded: keep your duties, As I have set them down. If I do send, dispatch

Those centuries 2 to our aid; the rest will serve
For a short holding: if we lose the field,

We cannot keep the town.

Lieu.

Fear not our care, sir.

8 As occasion shall require. Cause and occasion readily interchange their senses; and the usage is common in all sorts of speech.

9 The order is, apparently, for the army to march along by him; he the while selecting such as seem fittest for the enterprise.

10 This showing or display of courage. See vol. iv. page 225, note 9.

1 The ports are the gates. Like the Latin porta.

2 Centuries are companies of a hundred men each.

Lart. Hence, and shut your gates upon's.

Our guider, come; to th' Roman camp conduct us.

SCENE VIII.

[Exeunt.

- A Field of Battle between the Roman and the Volscian Camps.

Alarum. Enter, from opposite sides, MARCIUS and AUFIDIUS.

Mar. I'll fight with none but thee; for I do hate thee Worse than a promise-breaker.

Auf.

We hate alike :

Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor

More than thy fame I envy. Fix thy foot.

Mar. Let the first budger die the other's slave,

And the gods doom him after !

Auf.

Halloo me like a hare.

Mar.

If I fly, 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 see'st me mask'd; for thy revenge
Wrench up thy power to th' highest.

Wert thou the Hector

Auf.
That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny,3
Thou shouldst not 'scape me here.

[They fight, and certain Volsces come to
the aid of AUFIDIUS.

Officious, and not valiant, you have shamed me
In your condemnèd seconds.4

[Exeunt fighting, driven in by MARCIUS.

3 The whip or scourge that your boasted progenitors were possessed of. This use of progeny for progenitors is, I believe, singular.

4 Condemned seconds is help condemned as worthless or unavailing. The use of to second for to help is very common.