Home
This site uses cookies
log out

Coriolanus: Act I, Scene 9

Sign in with Google to add your annotations.

Coriolanus
Act I, Scene 9

The Roman camp.

Charles Kemble as Coriolanus

Charles Kemble as Coriolanus

George Perfect Harding, circa 1900

  1. Flourish. Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Enter, at one door,
  2. Cominius, with the Roman Soldiers; at another door, Martius
  3. with his arm in a scarf.

Cominius

1 - 11
  1. If I should tell thee o’er this thy day’s work,
  2. Thou’t not believe thy deeds: but I’ll report it
  3. Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles;
  4. Where great patricians shall attend and shrug,
  5. I’ th’ end admire; where ladies shall be frighted,
  6. And gladly quak’d, hear more; where the dull tribunes,
  7. That with the fusty plebeians hate thine honors,
  8. Shall say against their hearts, “We thank the gods
  9. Our Rome hath such a soldier.”
  10. Yet cam’st thou to a morsel of this feast,
  11. Having fully din’d before.
  1. Enter Titus Lartius with his power, from the pursuit.

Lartius

12 - 14
  1.                            O general!
  2. Here is the steed, we the caparison.
  3. Hadst thou beheld—

Caius Martius

15 - 21
  1.                    Pray now, no more. My mother,
  2. Who has a charter to extol her blood,
  3. When she does praise me grieves me. I have done
  4. As you have done—that’s what I can; induc’d
  5. As you have been—that’s for my country:
  6. He that has but effected his good will
  7. Hath overta’en mine act.

Cominius

22 - 30
  1.                          You shall not be
  2. The grave of your deserving; Rome must know
  3. The value of her own. ’Twere a concealment
  4. Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement,
  5. To hide your doings, and to silence that
  6. Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch’d,
  7. Would seem but modest; therefore I beseech you,
  8. In sign of what you are, not to reward
  9. What you have done, before our army hear me.

Caius Martius

31 - 32
  1. I have some wounds upon me, and they smart
  2. To hear themselves rememb’red.

Cominius

33 - 40
  1.                                Should they not,
  2. Well might they fester ’gainst ingratitude,
  3. And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses—
  4. Whereof we have ta’en good and good store—of all
  5. The treasure in this field achiev’d and city,
  6. We render you the tenth, to be ta’en forth,
  7. Before the common distribution, at
  8. Your only choice.

Caius Martius

41 - 58
  1.                   I thank you, general;
  2. But cannot make my heart consent to take
  3. A bribe to pay my sword. I do refuse it,
  4. And stand upon my common part with those
  5. That have beheld the doing.
  6. A long flourish. They all cry, “Martius! Martius!”, cast up
  7. their caps and lances. Cominius and Lartius stand bare.
  8. May these same instruments, which you profane,
  9. Never sound more! When drums and trumpets shall
  10. I’ th’ field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be
  11. Made all of false-fac’d soothing!
  12. When steel grows soft as the parasite’s silk,
  13. Let him be made an overture for th’ wars!
  14. No more, I say! For that I have not wash’d
  15. My nose that bled, or foil’d some debile wretch—
  16. Which, without note, here’s many else have done—
  17. You shout me forth
  18. In acclamations hyperbolical,
  19. As if I lov’d my little should be dieted
  20. In praises sauc’d with lies.

Cominius

59 - 72
  1.                              Too modest are you;
  2. More cruel to your good report than grateful
  3. To us that give you truly. By your patience,
  4. If ’gainst yourself you be incens’d, we’ll put you
  5. (Like one that means his proper harm) in manacles,
  6. Then reason safely with you. Therefore be it known,
  7. As to us, to all the world, that Caius Martius
  8. Wears this war’s garland; in token of the which,
  9. My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him,
  10. With all his trim belonging; and from this time,
  11. For what he did before Corioles, call him,
  12. With all th’ applause and clamor of the host,
  13. Martius Caius Coriolanus! Bear
  14. Th’ addition nobly ever!
  1. Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums.

All

73
  1. Martius Caius Coriolanus!

Coriolanus

74 - 79
  1. I will go wash;
  2. And when my face is fair, you shall perceive
  3. Whether I blush or no; howbeit, I thank you.
  4. I mean to stride your steed, and at all times
  5. To undercrest your good addition
  6. To th’ fairness of my power.

Cominius

80 - 85
  1.                              So, to our tent;
  2. Where, ere we do repose us, we will write
  3. To Rome of our success. You, Titus Lartius,
  4. Must to Corioles back. Send us to Rome
  5. The best, with whom we may articulate
  6. For their own good and ours.

Lartius

86
  1.                              I shall, my lord.

Coriolanus

87 - 89
  1. The gods begin to mock me. I, that now
  2. Refus’d most princely gifts, am bound to beg
  3. Of my lord general.

Cominius

90
  1.                     Take’t, ’tis yours. What is’t?

Coriolanus

91 - 96
  1. I sometime lay here in Corioles
  2. At a poor man’s house; he us’d me kindly.
  3. He cried to me; I saw him prisoner;
  4. But then Aufidius was within my view,
  5. And wrath o’erwhelm’d my pity. I request you
  6. To give my poor host freedom.

Cominius

97 - 99
  1.                               O, well begg’d!
  2. Were he the butcher of my son, he should
  3. Be free as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus.

Lartius

100
  1. Martius, his name?

Coriolanus

101 - 103
  1.                    By Jupiter, forgot!
  2. I am weary, yea, my memory is tir’d.
  3. Have we no wine here?

Cominius

104 - 106
  1.                       Go we to our tent.
  2. The blood upon your visage dries, ’tis time
  3. It should be look’d to. Come.
  1. Exeunt.
© 2021 Unotate.com • contact • privacy policy • Creative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.com • All illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons