Cominius complete text
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Cominius. If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work, | 1.9.1
Thou'ldst not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it | 1.9.2
Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles, | 1.9.3
Where great patricians shall attend and shrug, | 1.9.4
I' the end admire, where ladies shall be frighted, | 1.9.5
And, gladly quaked, hear more; where the | 1.9.6
dull tribunes, | 1.9.7
That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours, | 1.9.8
Shall say against their hearts 'We thank the gods | 1.9.9
Our Rome hath such a soldier.' | 1.9.10
Yet camest thou to a morsel of this feast, | 1.9.11
Having fully dined before. | 1.9.12
Enter TITUS LARTIUS, with his power, from the pursuit
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Cominius. Too modest are you; | 1.9.60
More cruel to your good report than grateful | 1.9.61
To us that give you truly: by your patience, | 1.9.62
If 'gainst yourself you be incensed, we'll put you, | 1.9.63
Like one that means his proper harm, in manacles, | 1.9.64
Then reason safely with you. Therefore, be it known, | 1.9.65
As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius | 1.9.66
Wears this war's garland: in token of the which, | 1.9.67
My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him, | 1.9.68
With all his trim belonging; and from this time, | 1.9.69
For what he did before Corioli, call him, | 1.9.70
With all the applause and clamour of the host, | 1.9.71
CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS! Bear | 1.9.72
The addition nobly ever! | 1.9.73
Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums
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Cominius. I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus | 2.2.97
Should not be utter'd feebly. It is held | 2.2.98
That valour is the chiefest virtue, and | 2.2.99
Most dignifies the haver: if it be, | 2.2.100
The man I speak of cannot in the world | 2.2.101
Be singly counterpoised. At sixteen years, | 2.2.102
When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought | 2.2.103
Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator, | 2.2.104
Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight, | 2.2.105
When with his Amazonian chin he drove | 2.2.106
The bristled lips before him: be bestrid | 2.2.107
An o'er-press'd Roman and i' the consul's view | 2.2.108
Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met, | 2.2.109
And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats, | 2.2.110
When he might act the woman in the scene, | 2.2.111
He proved best man i' the field, and for his meed | 2.2.112
Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age | 2.2.113
Man-enter'd thus, he waxed like a sea, | 2.2.114
And in the brunt of seventeen battles since | 2.2.115
He lurch'd all swords of the garland. For this last, | 2.2.116
Before and in Corioli, let me say, | 2.2.117
I cannot speak him home: he stopp'd the fliers; | 2.2.118
And by his rare example made the coward | 2.2.119
Turn terror into sport: as weeds before | 2.2.120
A vessel under sail, so men obey'd | 2.2.121
And fell below his stem: his sword, death's stamp, | 2.2.122
Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot | 2.2.123
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion | 2.2.124
Was timed with dying cries: alone he enter'd | 2.2.125
The mortal gate of the city, which he painted | 2.2.126
With shunless destiny; aidless came off, | 2.2.127
And with a sudden reinforcement struck | 2.2.128
Corioli like a planet: now all's his: | 2.2.129
When, by and by, the din of war gan pierce | 2.2.130
His ready sense; then straight his doubled spirit | 2.2.131
Re-quicken'd what in flesh was fatigate, | 2.2.132
And to the battle came he; where he did | 2.2.133
Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if | 2.2.134
'Twere a perpetual spoil: and till we call'd | 2.2.135
Both field and city ours, he never stood | 2.2.136
To ease his breast with panting. | 2.2.137
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Cominius. I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye | 5.1.75
Red as 'twould burn Rome; and his injury | 5.1.76
The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before him; | 5.1.77
'Twas very faintly he said 'Rise;' dismiss'd me | 5.1.78
Thus, with his speechless hand: what he would do, | 5.1.79
He sent in writing after me; what he would not, | 5.1.80
Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions: | 5.1.81
So that all hope is vain. | 5.1.82
Unless his noble mother, and his wife; | 5.1.83
Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him | 5.1.84
For mercy to his country. Therefore, let's hence, | 5.1.85
And with our fair entreaties haste them on. | 5.1.86
Exeunt
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