“Thou liest” unto thee with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods.
(iII. iii. 66.)
And similarly when Aufidius calls him traitor, he repeats the word “Traitor! how now!” in a wrath that is for the moment almost speechless, till it overflows in a torrent of reckless abuse. It is part of the tragic irony of the play that with his ingrained horror of such an offence, he should yet in very truth let himself be hurried into treason against his country. For all his instincts are on the side of faith and troth and obligation. When he wishes to express his hostility to Aufidius he can think of no better comparison than this:
I’ll fight with none but thee; for I do hate thee
Worse than a promise-breaker.
(i. viii. 1.)
One result of this is that he has a simple reverence for all prescriptive ties, which suffuses his stern nature with a certain tinge of kindly humanity. His piety to his mother comes of course from Plutarch; but his tenderness for his wife and delight in his son, lightly but strongly marked, are Shakespearean traits. So is the intimacy with Menenius, which greatly removes the impression of “churlishness” and “solitariness” that Plutarch’s portrait conveys; and his self-effacement in obedience to the powers that be and to the word that he has pledged, appears in his willing acceptance of a subordinate rank. The tribunes wonder that
His insolence can brook to be commanded
Under Cominius;