Men. This is strange. Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments! [fragments.]
[Enter a Messenger.]
Mes. Where's Caius Marcius? Mar. Here; What's the matter? Mes. The news is, Sir, the Volces are in arms. Mar. I am glad on't; then we shall have means to vent Our musty superfluity:—See, our best elders.
[The procession from the Capitol is entering with two of the new officers of the commonwealth, and the two chief men of the army, with other senators.]
First Sen. Marcius, 'tis true, that you have lately told us;
The Volsces are in arms.
Mar. They have a leader,
Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to't.
I sin in envying his nobility:
And were I anything but what I am,
I would wish me only he.
Com. You have fought together.
Mar. Were half to half the world by the ears, and he
Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make
Only my wars with him [Hear, hear].
He is a lion.
That I am proud to hunt.
First Sen. Then, WORTHY Marcius,
Attend upon Cominius to these wars.
It is the relation of the spirit of military conquest, the relation of the military hero, and his government, to the true human need, which is subjected to criticism here; a criticism which is necessarily an after-thought in the natural order of the human development.