Coriolanus
ACT I SCENE X. The camp of the Volsces. | ||
[ A flourish. Cornets. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, bloody, with two or three Soldiers ] | ||
AUFIDIUS | The town is ta’en! | |
First Soldier | ‘Twill be deliver’d back on good condition. | |
AUFIDIUS | Condition! | |
I would I were a Roman; for I cannot, | ||
Being a Volsce, be that I am. Condition! | 5 | |
What good condition can a treaty find | ||
I’ the part that is at mercy? Five times, Marcius, | ||
I have fought with thee: so often hast thou beat me, | ||
And wouldst do so, I think, should we encounter | ||
As often as we eat. By the elements, | 10 | |
If e’er again I meet him beard to beard, | ||
He’s mine, or I am his: mine emulation | ||
Hath not that honour in’t it had; for where | ||
I thought to crush him in an equal force, | ||
True sword to sword, I’ll potch at him some way | 15 | |
Or wrath or craft may get him. | ||
First Soldier | He’s the devil. | |
AUFIDIUS | Bolder, though not so subtle. My valour’s poison’d | |
With only suffering stain by him; for him | ||
Shall fly out of itself: nor sleep nor sanctuary, | 20 | |
Being naked, sick, nor fane nor Capitol, | ||
The prayers of priests nor times of sacrifice, | ||
Embarquements all of fury, shall lift up | ||
Their rotten privilege and custom ‘gainst | ||
My hate to Marcius: where I find him, were it | 25 | |
At home, upon my brother’s guard, even there, | ||
Against the hospitable canon, would I | ||
Wash my fierce hand in’s heart. Go you to the city; | ||
Learn how ’tis held; and what they are that must | ||
Be hostages for Rome. | 30 | |
First Soldier | Will not you go? | |
AUFIDIUS | I am attended at the cypress grove: I pray you– | |
‘Tis south the city mills–bring me word thither | ||
How the world goes, that to the pace of it | ||
I may spur on my journey. | 35 | |
First Soldier | I shall, sir. | |
[Exeunt] |
Next: Coriolanus, Act 2, Scene 1