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Com. Where is that flave,

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

Mar. Let him alone,

He did inform the truth: but, for our gentlemen, The common file, (a plague! tribunes for them!) The mouse ne'er funn'd the cat, as they did budge From rafcals worfe than they.

Com. But how prevail'd you?

Mar. Will the time ferve to tell? I do not thinkWhere is the enemy? are you Lords o' th' field? If not, why cease you 'till you are fo?

Com. Marcius, we have at difadvantage fought, And did retire to win our purpose.

Mar. How lies their battle? know you on what fide They have plac'd their men of truft?

Com. As I guefs, Marcius,

Their bands i' th' vaward are the Antiates

Of their best truft: 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 w'ave fhed together, by the vows
Wave made to endure friends, that you directly
Set me against Aufidius, and his Antiates;
And that you not delay the prefent, but
Filling the air with fwords advanc'd, 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 beft can aid your action.

Mar. Thofe are they,

That most are willing; if any fuch be here,
(As it were fin to doubt) that love this painting,
Wherein you fee me fmear'd; if any fear
Lefs for his perfon than an ill report:

If any think, brave death out-weighs bad life,
And that his country's dearer than himself,

Let

Let him, alone, (or many, if fo minded)

Wave thus, t'exprefs his difpofition,

And follow Marcius.

[They all fhout, and wave their fwords, take him up in their arms, and caft up their caps.

Oh! me alone, make you a fword of me:
If these shews be not outward, which of you
But is four Volfcians? none of you, but is
Able to bear against the great Aufidius

A fhield as hard as his. A certain number,
(Tho' thanks to all) muft I felect from all:
The reft shall bear the bufinefs in fome other fight,.
As cause will be obey'd; please you to march,
And four fhall quickly draw out my command,
Which men are beft inclin'd.

Com. March on, my fellows:
Make good this oftentation, and you fhall
Divide in all with us.

SCENE changes to Corioli.

[Exeunt.

Titus Lartius having fet a guard upon Corioli, going with drum and trumpet torvard Cominius and Caius Marcius; Enter with a Lieutenant, other Soldiers, and a fcout.

Lart.

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O, let the ports be guarded; keep your duties, As I have fet them down. If I do fend, dispatch Thofe centries to our aid; the reft will ferve For a fhort holding; if we lose the field, We cannot keep the town.

Lieu. Fear not our care, Sir.

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

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

[Exeunt.

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SCENE changes to the Roman Camp.

Alarum, as in battle. Enter Marcius and Aufidius, at feveral doors.

I'

Mar. T'LL fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee
Worfe than a promise-breaker.

Auf. We hate alike:

No Africk owns a ferpent I abhor

More than thy fame, and envy; fix thy foot.
Mar. Let the firft budger die the other's flave,
And the gods doom him after!

Auf. If I fly, Marcius,

Hallow me like a hare.

Mar. Within these three hours, Tullus,
Alone I fought in your Corioli walls,

And made what work I pleas'd: 'tis not my blood,
Wherein thou fee'ft me mask'd; for thy revenge,
Wrench up thy power to th' highest.

Auf. Wert thou the Hector,

That was the whip of your bragg'd
Thou should'st not 'fcape me here.

progeny,

[Here they fight, and certain Volfcians come to the aid of Aufidius. Marcius fights, 'till they be driven in breathless.

Officious, and not valiant!-you have fham'd me

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Flourish. Alarum. A retreat is founded. Enter at one door, Cominius with the Romans; at another door, Marcius, with his arm in a scarf.

Com. If I fhould tell thee o'er this thy day's work, Thou'lt not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it, Where fenators fhall mingle tears with fmiles; Where great patricians fhall attend and fhrug; I' th' end, admire; where Ladies fhall be frighted, And gladly quak'd, hear more; where the dull tribunes, That with the fufty plebeians, hate thine honours, Shall fay against their hearts,-We thank the gods, Our Rome hath fuch a foldier!

Yet cam'ft thou to a morfel of this feaft

Having fully din'd before.

Enter Titus Lartius with his Power, from the pursuit.

Lart. O General,

Here is the steed, we the caparison :

Hadft thou beheld

Mar. 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 ;
Induc'd, as you have been; that's, for my country ;
He, that has but effected his good will,

Hath overta'en mine act.

Com. You fhall not be

The grave of your deferving: Rome must know
The value of her own: 'twere a concealment
Worfe than a theft, no less than a traducement,
To hide your doings; and to filence that,
Which, to the fpire and top of praises vouch'd,
Would feem but modeft: therefore, I beseech you,
In fign of what you are, not to reward

What you have done, before our army hear me.
Mar. I have fome wounds upon me, and they fmart,
To hear themselves remembred.

Com. Should they not,

Well might they fefter 'gainst ingratitude,

And tent themselves with death: Of all the horfes,
Whereof we have ta'en good, and good store, of all
The treasure in the field atchiev'd, and city,

We render you the tenth, to be ta'en forth,
Before the common diftribution, at

Your only choice.

Mar. I thank you, General:

But cannot make my heart consent to take
A bribe, to pay my fword: I do refuse it,
And ftand upon my common part with those
That have beheld the doing,

[A long flourish. They all cry, Marcius! Marcius! caft up their caps and launces: Cominius and Lartius fand bare.

R 6

Mar

Mar. May these fame inftruments, which you profane, (10)

Never found more! when drums and trumpets fhalt
1' th' field prove flatterers, let camps, as cities,
Be made of falfe-fac'd foothing! when steel grows
Soft, as the parafite's filk, let hymns be made
An overture for th' wars-No more, I fay;
For that I have not wash'd my nose that bled,

(10) May thefe fame inftruments, which you profane,
Never found more when drums and trumpets fhall
I' th' field prove flatterers, let courts and cities
Be m de all of falfe-faced foothing.

When feel grows foft, as the parafite's filk,
Let him be made an overture for th' wars:
No more I fay; for that I have not wash'd
My nofe that bled, or foil'd fome debile wretch,
Which quithout note bere's many elfe. have done,

You bout me forth in acclamations byperbolical, &c.]

Many of the verfes in this truly fine paffage are difmounted, unny merous, and imperfect: and the laft is no less than two foot and a half too long. For this reafon I have ventur'd to tranfpofe them to their measure; and the fenfe, 'tis plain, has been no less maim'd than the numbers. To remedy this part, I have had the affiftance of my ingenious friend Mr. Warburton; and with the benefit of his happy conjectures, which I have inferted in the text, the whole, I hope, is reftor'd to that purity, which was quite loft in the corrup tions. I fhall now fubjoin his comment, in proof of the emendati

ons.

"The meaning, that fenfe requires in the antithefis evidently "defign'd here, is this. If one change its usual nature to a thing "moft oppofite, then let the other do fo too. But courts and cities, "being made all of smooth-fac'd foothing, remain in their proper na66 ture. In the fecond part of the fentence, the antithefis between feel and the parafite's filk does not indeed labour with this abfurdi་་ ty: but it labours with another equally bad, and that is, nonfenfe "in the expreffion. The poet's whole thought feems to be this. If "drums and trumpets change their nature preposterously, let camps

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fo too: And in the latter part of the fentence, the emendation "feems to give a particular beauty to the expreffion. He had faid "before, If drums and trumpets prove flatterers; now here, alluding "to the fame thought, he fays, Then let hymns, foft mufick deftin'd 06 to the praifes of gods and beroes, be an overture for the wars: Where "the overture is used with great technical propriety.- -I fhould ob"ferve one thing, that the members of thefe two antithefes are con"founded one with another, which is a practice common with, the "beft authors and it is a figure the rhetoricians have found a name "for."

Or

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