Thou'lt not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it,
Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles;
Where great patricians shall attend, and shrug,
I' the end, admire; where ladies shall be frighted,
And, gladly quak'd,1 hear more; where the dull

Tribunes,

That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours,
Shall say, against their hearts, We thank the gods,
Our Rome hath such a soldier!-

Yet cam'st thou to a morsel of this feast,
Having fully dined before.

Enter TITUS LARTIUS, with his Power, from the

pursuit.

LART.

O general,

Here is the steed, we the caparison: 2
Hadst thou beheld-

MAR.

Pray now, no more: my mother,

sides this great honorable offer he had made him, he gaue him in testimonie that he had wonne that daye the price of prowes above all other, a goodly horse with a capparison, and all furniture to him: which the whole armie beholding, dyd marvelously praise and commend. But Martius stepying forth, told the consul, he most thanckefully accepted the gifte of his horse, and was a glad man besides, that his seruice had deserued his generalls commendation: and as for his other offer, which was rather a mercenary reward, than an honourable recompence, he would none of it, but was contented to haue his equall parte with other souldiers." STEEVENS.

1

And, gladly quak'd,] i. e. thrown into grateful trepidation. To quake is used likewise as a verb active by T. Heywood, in his Silver Age, 1613:

"We'll quake them at that bar

"Where all souls wait for sentence."

* Here is the steed, we the caparison:

STEEVENS.

This is an odd enco

mium. The meaning is, this man performed the action, and we

only filled up the show. JOHNSON.

Who has a charter to extol3 her blood,
When she does praise me, grieves me. I have done,
As you have done; that's what I can; induc'd
As you have been; that's for my country:

He, that has but effected his good will,

Hath overta'en mine act.5

Сом.

You shall not be

The grave of your deserving; Rome must know
The value of her own: 'twere a concealment
Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement,
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,
(In sign of what you are, not to reward
What you have done,*) before our army hear me.
MAR. I have some wounds upon me, and they

smart

To hear themselves remember'd.

3

son.

4

Сом.

Should they not,

--a charter to extol - A privilege to praise her own JOHNSON.

-that's for my country:] The latter word is used here,

as in other places, as a trisyllable. See Vol. IV. p. 201, n. 5.

5

He, that hath but effected his good will,

MALONE.

Hath overta'en mine act.] That is, has done as much as I have done, inasmuch as my ardour to serve the state is such that I have never been able to effect all that I wish'd.

6

So, in Macbeth:

"The flighty purpose never is o'ertook,

"Unless the deed goes with it." MALONE.

not to reward

What you have done,)] So, in Macbeth:

" To herald thee into his sight, not pay thee."

STEEVENS.

* Should they not,] That is, not be remembered. JOHNSON.

Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude,
And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses,

(Whereof we have ta'en good, and good store,) of

all

The treasure, in this field achiev'd, and city,
We render you the tenth; to be ta'en forth,
Before the common distribution, at

Your only choice.

MAR.
I thank you, general;
But cannot make my heart consent to take
A bribe to pay my sword: I do refuse it;
And stand upon my common part with those
That have beheld the doing.

[A long Flourish. They all cry, Marcius!
Marcius! cast up their Caps and Lances:
COMINIUS and LARTIUS stand bare.

MAR. May these same instruments, which you profane, Never sound more! When drums and trumpets

shall 8

- When drums and trumpets shall &c.] In the old copy:

66

when drums and trumpets shall

"I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be

" Made all of false-fac'd soothing.

" When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk,

"Let him be made an overture for the wars:

All here is miserably corrupt and disjointed. We should read the whole thus :

when drums and trumpets shall

I' th' field prove flatterers, let camps, as cities,

Be made of false-fac'd soothing! When steel grows
Soft as the parasite's silk, let hymns be made

An overture for the wars!

The thought is this, If one thing changes its usual nature to a thing most opposite, there is no reason but that all the rest which depend on it should do so too. (If drums and trumpets prove flatterers, let the camp bear the false face of the city. And if another changes its usual nature, that its opposite should do so too.