Men. This is strange. Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments! Enter a Messenger, hastily. Mess. Where 's Caius Marcius? Mar. Here: What 's the matter? Mess. The news is, sir, the Volces are in arms. Mar. I am glad on 't; then we shall have means to vent Our musty superfluity :-See, our best elders. Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators; JUNIUS BRUTUS, and SICINIUS VELUTUS. 1 Sen. Marcius, 't is true that you have lately told us; The Volces are in arms. Mar. And were I anything but what I am, I would wish me only he. Com. You have fought together. Mar. Were half to half the world by the ears, and he Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make Only my wars with him: he is a lion That I am proud to hunt. 1 Sen. Then, worthy Marcius, Sir, it is; Attend upon Cominius to these wars. Mar. And I am constant.-Titus Lartius, thou Tit. No, Caius Marcius; I'll lean upon one crutch, and fight with t' other, VOL. X. B Men. O, true bred! 1 Sen. Your company to the Capitol; where, I know, Our greatest friends attend us. Tit. Lead you on: Follow, Cominius; we must follow you; Com. Noble Marcius! 1 Sen. Hence! To your homes, be gone. To the Citizens. Mar. Nay, let them follow: The Volces have much corn; take these rats thither, To gnaw their garners:-Worshipful mutineers, Your valour puts well forth: pray, follow. [Exeunt Senators, Coм., MAR., TIT., and MENEN, Sic. Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius? Sic. When we were chosen tribunes for the people,- Sic. Nay, but his taunts. Bru. Being mov'd, he will not spare to gird the gods. Sic. Be-mock the modest moon. Bru. The present wars devour him: he is grown Too proud to be so valiant.c Sic. Such a nature, Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow a We must here understand, worthy of priority. b Gird. This is the verb of Falstaff's noun, 66 Every man has a gird at me." There is much dispute about the meaning of this sentence. "The present wars devour him" is clear enough, we think; the wars absorb, eat up the whole man: and then comes the explanation; he is grown too proud of his valour-of being so valiant. Bru. Sic. Besides, if things go well, Opinion, that so sticks on Marcius, shall Bru. Come: Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius, Though Marcius earn'd them not; and all his faults To Marcius shall be honours, though, indeed, In aught he merit not. Sic. Let's hence, and hear How the despatch is made; and in what fashion, Upon this present action. Bru. Let's along. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-Corioli. The Senate-House. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, and certain Senators. That they of Rome are enter'd in our counsels, Auf. a Demerits. The word is used in a similar sense in 'Othello,' that of merits. The meaning of ill-deserving was acquired later; for demerit is constantly used for desert by the old writers. b Whatever have-elliptically, whatever things have. I have the letter here; yes, here it is: [Reads. "They have press'd a power, but it is not known Whither 't is bent: most likely, 't is for you: 1 Sen. Our army 's in the field: Auf. Nor did you think it folly To keep your great pretences veil'd till when It seem'd, appear'd to Rome. By the discovery, To take in a many towns, ere, almost, Rome 2 Sen. Take your commission; hie Noble Aufidius, you to your bands: Let us alone to guard Corioli: If they set down before us, for the remove Auf. O, doubt not that; a Take in-subdue. b By "ever strike" we understand, we shall continue to strike; if we adopt the modern reading of never, we must accept strike in the sense of striking a colour-yielding. All. The gods assist you! Auf. And keep your honours safe! 1 Sen. 2 Sen. All. Farewell. Farewell. Farewell. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-Rome. An Apartment in Marcius' House. Enter VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA: They sit down on two low stools, and sew. Vol. I pray you, daughter, sing; or express yourself in a more comfortable sort: If my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour, than in the embracements of his bed, where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of my womb; when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way; when, for a day of king's entreaties, a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding; I,-considering how honour would become such a person; that it was no better than picture-like to hang by the wall, if renown made it not stir,- -was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter,-I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child, than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man. Vir. But had he died in the business, madam? how then? Vol. Then his good report should have been my son; I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely:-Had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, 1 had rather had eleven die nobly for their country, than one voluptuously surfeit out of action. |