[They fight, and certain Volsces come in the aid of Aufidius. Marcius fights till they be driven in breathless.[2726]
Officious, and not valiant, you have shamed me
In your condemned seconds. [Exeunt.[2727] 15
Scene IX. The Roman camp.
Flourish. Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Enter, from one side, Cominius with the Romans; from the other side, Marcius, with his arm in a scarf.[2728]
Com. If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work,
Thou'ldst not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it,[2729]
Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles;
Where great patricians shall attend, and shrug,[2730]
I' the end admire; where ladies shall be frighted, 5
And, gladly quaked, hear more; where the dull tribunes,
That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours,[2731]
Shall say against their hearts 'We thank the gods
Our Rome hath such a soldier.'
Yet camest thou to a morsel of this feast, 10
Having fully dined before.
Enter Titus Lartius, with his power, from the pursuit.[2732]
Lart. O general,
Here is the steed, we the caparison:[2733]
Hadst thou beheld—[2734]
Mar. Pray now, no more: my mother,[2735]
Who has a charter to extol her blood,[2735]
When she does praise me grieves me. I have done[2736] 15
As you have done; that's what I can: induced[2736]
As you have been; that's for my country:[2736]
He that has but effected his good will
Hath overta'en mine act.
Com. You shall not be[2737]
The grave of your deserving; Rome must know[2737] 20
The value of her own: 'twere a concealment[2737]
Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement,[2737]
To hide your doings; and to silence that,
Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch'd,
Would seem but modest: therefore, I beseech you— 25
In sign of what you are, not to reward
What you have done—before our army hear me.