Act 1, Scene 8

A field of battle between the Roman and the Volscian

[Alarum. Enter, from opposite sides, MARCIUS and AUFIDIUS.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
655 I'll fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee
656 Worse than a promise-breaker.
Tullus Aufidius
657 We hate alike:
658 Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor
659 More than thy fame and envy. Fix thy foot.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
660 Let the first budger die the other's slave,
661 And the gods doom him after!
Tullus Aufidius
662 If I fly, Marcius,
663 Halloo me like a hare.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
664 Within these three hours, Tullus,
665 Alone I fought in your Corioli walls,
666 And made what work I pleas'd: 'tis not my blood
667 Wherein thou seest me mask'd: for thy revenge
668 Wrench up thy power to the highest.
Tullus Aufidius
669 Wert thou the Hector
670 That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny,
671 Thou shouldst not scape me here.—
[They fight, and certain Volsces come to the aid of AUFIDIUS.]
Tullus Aufidius
672 Officious, and not valiant,—you have sham'd me
673 In your condemned seconds.
[Exeunt fighting, driven in by MAR.]

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Notes

TLN 658archaic vocab
“Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor”
'Afric' is an archaic shortened form of 'Africa,' which in classical and Renaissance writing was famed above all continents for its lethal serpents. 'Envy' here means intense hatred or ill-will, not jealousy. Aufidius is saying: not even Africa's worst snake disgusts me as much as your reputation ('fame') and your enmity toward me.
TLN 660archaic vocab
“the first budger die the other's slave”
'Budger' is a rare word meaning one who budges — who flinches, yields ground, or retreats. Marcius is proposing a lethal wager: whichever of them moves backward first shall die as the other's slave. The taunt turns battlefield retreat into the worst possible humiliation for a Roman soldier.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 669classical allusion
“Wert thou the Hector That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny”
Hector was the greatest warrior of Troy — the champion who drove back the Greeks for nine years before Achilles killed him. 'Your bragg'd progeny' means the Romans, who claimed descent from the Trojan prince Aeneas: Aufidius taunts Marcius that even the scourge of his own ancestors would not be safe from him. The insult says: your proudest myth cannot save you.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 672archaic vocab
“Officious, and not valiant,—you have sham'd me In your condemned seconds”
'Seconds' are fighters who step in to help one side in a single combat. 'Officious' here means meddlesomely intrusive — acting out of turn — not the modern sense of over-bureaucratic. 'Condemned' means contemptible or damnable. Aufidius is furious at his own soldiers for intervening: their uninvited help is no valour but an insult, because it implies he could not beat Marcius alone.