William Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Coriolanus

ACT I. 6. SCENE VI. Near the camp of COMINIUS. (continued)

COMINIUS.
Flower of warriors,
How is't with Titus Lartius?

MARCIUS.
As with a man busied about decrees:
Condemning some to death and some to exile;
Ransoming him or pitying, threat'ning the other;
Holding Corioli in the name of Rome,
Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,
To let him slip at will.

COMINIUS.
Where is that slave
Which told me they had beat you to your trenches?
Where's he? call him hither.

MARCIUS.
Let him alone;
He did inform the truth: but for our gentlemen,
The common file,--a plague!--tribunes for them!--
The mouse ne'er shunned the cat as they did budge
From rascals worse than they.

COMINIUS.
But how prevail'd you?

MARCIUS.
Will the time serve to tell? I do not think.
Where is the enemy? are you lords o' the field?
If not, why cease you till you are so?

COMINIUS.
Marcius,
We have at disadvantage fought, and did
Retire, to win our purpose.

MARCIUS.
How lies their battle? know you on which side
They have placed their men of trust?

COMINIUS.
As I guess, Marcius,
Their bands in the vaward are the Antiates,
Of their best trust; o'er them Aufidius,
Their very heart of hope.

MARCIUS.
I do beseech you,
By all the battles wherein we have fought,
By the blood we have shed together, by the vows
We have made to endure friends, that you directly
Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates;
And that you not delay the present, but,
Filling the air with swords advanc'd and darts,
We prove this very hour.

COMINIUS.
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.