William Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Coriolanus

ACT I. 9. SCENE IX. The Roman camp.

[Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Flourish. Enter, at one side,
COMINIUS and Romans; at the other side, MARCIUS, with his arm
in a scarf, and other Romans.]

COMINIUS.
If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work,
Thou't not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it
Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles;
Where great patricians shall attend, and shrug,
I' the end admire; where ladies shall be frighted
And, gladly quak'd, 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 TITUS LARTIUS, with his power, from the pursuit.]

LARTIUS.
O general,
Here is the steed, we the caparison:
Hadst thou beheld,--

MARCIUS.
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 vouch'd,
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.

MARCIUS.
I have some wounds upon me, and they smart
To hear themselves remember'd.

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 achiev'd and city,
We render you the tenth; to be ta'en forth
Before the common distribution at
Your only choice.