Page 2798 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

Before-time seen him thus.

MARTIUS
(shouts) Come I too late?

COMINIUS
The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor [25]
More than I know the sound of Martius’ tongue
From every meaner man.

MARTIUS
Come I too late?

COMINIUS
Ay, if you come not in the blood of others,
But mantled in your own.

MARTIUS
O, let me clip ye
In arms as sound as when I wooed, in heart [30]

As merry as when our nuptial day was done,
And tapers burned to bedward!

COMINIUS
Flower of warriors,
How is’t with Titus Lartius?

MARTIUS
As with a man busied about decrees:
Condemning some to death and some to exile, [35]

Ransoming him or pitying, threatening th’other;
Holding Corioles in the name of Rome
Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,

To let him slip at will.

COMINIUS

Where is that slave