Act 1, Scene 9

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
674 If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work,
675 Thou't not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it
676 Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles;
677 Where great patricians shall attend, and shrug,
678 I' the end admire; where ladies shall be frighted
679 And, gladly quak'd, hear more; where the dull tribunes,
680 That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours,
681 Shall say, against their hearts 'We thank the gods
682 Our Rome hath such a soldier.'
683 Yet cam'st thou to a morsel of this feast,
684 Having fully dined before.
[Enter TITUS LARTIUS, with his power, from the pursuit.]
Titus Lartius
685 O general,
686 Here is the steed, we the caparison:
687 Hadst thou beheld,—
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
688 Pray now, no more: my mother,
689 Who has a charter to extol her blood,
690 When she does praise me grieves me. I have done
691 As you have done,—that's what I can; induced
692 As you have been,—that's for my country:
693 He that has but effected his good will
694 Hath overta'en mine act.
Cominius
695 You shall not be
696 The grave of your deserving; Rome must know
697 The value of her own: 'twere a concealment
698 Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement,
699 To hide your doings; and to silence that
700 Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch'd,
701 Would seem but modest: therefore, I beseech you,—
702 In sign of what you are, not to reward
703 What you have done,—before our army hear me.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
704 I have some wounds upon me, and they smart
705 To hear themselves remember'd.
Cominius
706 Should they not,
707 Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude,
708 And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses,—
709 Whereof we have ta'en good, and good store,—of all
710 The treasure in this field achiev'd and city,
711 We render you the tenth; to be ta'en forth
712 Before the common distribution at
713 Your only choice.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
714 I thank you, general,
715 But cannot make my heart consent to take
716 A bribe to pay my sword: I do refuse it;
717 And stand upon my common part with those
718 That have beheld the doing.
[A long flourish. They all cry 'Marcius, Marcius!', cast up their caps and lances. COMINIUS and LARTIUS stand bare.]
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
719 May these same instruments which you profane
720 Never sound more! When drums and trumpets shall
721 I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be
722 Made all of false-fac'd soothing.
723 When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk,
724 Let him be made a coverture for the wars.
725 No more, I say! for that I have not wash'd
726 My nose that bled, or foil'd some debile wretch,—
727 Which, without note, here's many else have done,—
728 You shout me forth in acclamations hyperbolical;
729 As if I loved my little should be dieted
730 In praises sauc'd with lies.
Cominius
731 Too modest are you;
732 More cruel to your good report than grateful
733 To us that give you truly; by your patience,
734 If 'gainst yourself you be incens'd, we'll put you,—
735 Like one that means his proper harm,—in manacles,
736 Then reason safely with you.—Therefore be it known,
737 As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius
738 Wears this war's garland: in token of the which,
739 My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him,
740 With all his trim belonging; and from this time,
741 For what he did before Corioli, call him,
742 With all the applause—and clamour of the host,
743 'Caius Marcius Coriolanus.'—
744 Bear the addition nobly ever!
[Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums]
All
745 Caius Marcius Coriolanus!
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
746 I will go wash;
747 And when my face is fair you shall perceive
748 Whether I blush or no: howbeit, I thank you;—
749 I mean to stride your steed; and at all times
750 To undercrest your good addition
751 To the fairness of my power.
Cominius
752 So, to our tent;
753 Where, ere we do repose us, we will write
754 To Rome of our success.—You, Titus Lartius,
755 Must to Corioli back: send us to Rome
756 The best, with whom we may articulate
757 For their own good and ours.
Titus Lartius
758 I shall, my lord.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
759 The gods begin to mock me. I, that now
760 Refus'd most princely gifts, am bound to beg
761 Of my lord general.
Cominius
762 Take't: 'tis yours.—What is't?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
763 I sometime lay here in Corioli
764 At a poor man's house; he used me kindly:
765 He cried to me; I saw him prisoner;
766 But then Aufidius was within my view,
767 And wrath o'erwhelmed my pity: I request you
768 To give my poor host freedom.
Cominius
769 O, well begg'd!
770 Were he the butcher of my son, he should
771 Be free as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus.
Titus Lartius
772 Marcius, his name?
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
773 By Jupiter, forgot:—
774 I am weary; yea, my memory is tir'd.—
775 Have we no wine here?
Cominius
776 Go we to our tent:
777 The blood upon your visage dries; 'tis time
778 It should be look'd to: come.
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 686rhetorical device
“Here is the steed, we the caparison”
Lartius uses a pointed metaphor: the warhorse (Marcius) is everything; the rest of the army is merely the caparison — the ornamental harness and cloth draped over the horse. The image gives Marcius all the life, force, and direction, and reduces the other soldiers to decorative equipment.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 695archaic vocab
“You shall not be / The grave of your deserving”
Cominius tells Marcius he will not be allowed to bury his own merit — to let his great deeds go unknown and unrecorded. 'Grave' is used as a verb meaning 'burial place that silences,' not a pit in the ground.
TLN 707archaic vocab
“fester 'gainst ingratitude, / And tent themselves with death”
'Tent' here is a surgical term: a small roll of lint or cloth pushed into a wound to keep it open and allow it to drain and heal. Cominius says that if the wounds are not acknowledged, they will fester rather than heal — probing themselves, as it were, with death instead of medicine. It is a grim image of wounds growing lethal through neglect.
TLN 711historical topical
“We render you the tenth; to be ta'en forth / Before the common distribution at / Your only choice”
Cominius offers Marcius a tenth of all the captured horses and treasure — chosen before the rest is divided among the army — as a personal reward for his valor at Corioli. This was a recognised Roman military custom: the general could set aside a prize share for an outstanding soldier before the spoils were distributed to the common soldiers.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)historical The Volscians, Corioli, and Antium
TLN 719rhetorical device
“May these same instruments which you profane / Never sound more! When drums and trumpets shall / I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be / Made all of false-fac'd soothing”
Marcius curses the drums and trumpets his soldiers are beating to acclaim him, declaring they profane (desecrate) their proper use by turning battlefield instruments into tools of flattery. He is constructing an argument by analogy: if war's honest instruments become flatterers, then all of society — courts and cities — might as well be built of lies. 'Soothing' means empty, agreeable flattery.
TLN 726archaic vocab
“foil'd some debile wretch”
'Debile' means weak or feeble — from Latin debilis, lacking strength. Marcius is being sarcastic: he says he has done nothing worth the shouting, only blooded his nose and overcome a feeble opponent, as any soldier on the field could have done. The word survives into modern English as 'debilitate.'
TLN 728syntax grammar
“shout me forth in acclamations hyperbolical; / As if I loved my little should be dieted / In praises sauc'd with lies”
The syntax is compressed and requires unpacking: 'my little' means 'my modest achievement'; 'dieted in praises sauc'd with lies' means fed (dieted) on exaggerated praise seasoned with falsehood — as food is sauced to disguise its plainness. Marcius is saying: as if I wanted my small deeds to be inflated and served up to me smothered in lies. 'Hyperbolical' is used as a straightforward adjective meaning extravagant, excessive.
TLN 741historical topical
“For what he did before Corioli, call him, / With all the applause—and clamour of the host, / 'Caius Marcius Coriolanus.'”
Cominius formally confers the surname 'Coriolanus' on Caius Marcius before the assembled army. This was an actual Roman practice: a general or the Senate could award an honorific surname (called an agnomen) derived from the place of a great victory. 'Coriolanus' means, simply, 'the man who took Corioli.'
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)historical The Volscians, Corioli, and Antium
TLN 750archaic vocab
“To undercrest your good addition / To the fairness of my power”
'Addition' means a title added to a person's name — here, the surname 'Coriolanus.' 'Undercrest' is a heraldic term: a crest is the badge of arms worn on top of a helmet; to 'undercrest' an addition is to support it, to be the worthy bearer who lives up to what the title claims. Marcius promises to bear the name 'as fairly as my strength allows.'
TLN 755archaic vocab
“send us to Rome / The best, with whom we may articulate / For their own good and ours”
'Articulate' here means to negotiate or draw up terms — from the Latin articulus, a specific clause or article of a treaty. Cominius tells Lartius to send the most valuable Volscian prisoners to Rome so that peace terms can be arranged. The word does not mean 'to speak clearly' as it does today.
TLN 759rhetorical device
“The gods begin to mock me. I, that now / Refus'd most princely gifts, am bound to beg”
Marcius sees an irony that feels like divine mockery: having just refused a tenth of the spoils and the army's acclaim, he now must humble himself to ask a favor. The moment is genuinely self-aware and comic — and the favor turns out to be an act of mercy for a stranger who sheltered him, which is unexpected tenderness from the play's most famously pride-driven character.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)