Coriolanus
ACT I SCENE VIII. A field of battle. | ||
[ Alarum as in battle. Enter, from opposite sides, MARCIUS and AUFIDIUS ] | ||
MARCIUS | I’ll fight with none but thee; for I do hate thee | |
Worse than a promise-breaker. | ||
AUFIDIUS | We hate alike: | |
Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor | ||
More than thy fame and envy. Fix thy foot. | 5 | |
MARCIUS | Let the first budger die the other’s slave, | |
And the gods doom him after! | ||
AUFIDIUS | If I fly, Marcius, | |
Holloa me like a hare. | ||
MARCIUS | Within these three hours, Tullus, | 10 |
Alone I fought in your Corioli walls, | ||
And made what work I pleased: ’tis not my blood | ||
Wherein thou seest me mask’d; for thy revenge | ||
Wrench up thy power to the highest. | ||
AUFIDIUS | Wert thou the Hector | 15 |
That was the whip of your bragg’d progeny, | ||
Thou shouldst not scape me here. | ||
[ They fight, and certain Volsces come to the aid of AUFIDIUS. MARCIUS fights till they be driven in breathless ] | ||
Officious, and not valiant, you have shamed me | ||
In your condemned seconds. | ||
[Exeunt] |
Next: Coriolanus, Act 1, Scene 9