Cominius

“ Enter Cominius.
Here is Cominius.
COMINIUS.
I have been i’ th’ marketplace; and, sir, ’tis fit
You make strong party or defend yourself
By calmness or by absence. All’s in anger.
MENENIUS.
Only fair speech. ”

“ For their mutual affection is untouched by jealousy, and Cominius not only extols his heroism in the camp, but is his warmest advocate in the Senate. He resents the citizens’ fickleness and the tribunes’ trickery at the election as unworthy of Rome as well as insulting to her hero, and is indignant at the attempt to arrest Coriolanus; but he abhors civil brawls, and, just as in the field so in the city, he bows to “odds beyond arithmetic,” and considers that
Manhood is call’d foolery, when it stands
Against a falling fabric. ”

“ BRUTUS.
The present wars devour him! He is grown
Too proud to be so valiant.
SICINIUS.
Such a nature,
Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow
Which he treads on at noon. But I do wonder
His insolence can brook to be commanded
Under Cominius.
BRUTUS.
Fame, at the which he aims,
In whom already he’s well graced, cannot
Better be held nor more attained than by
A place below the first; for what miscarries
Shall be the General’s fault, though he perform
To th’ utmost of a man, and giddy censure
Will then cry out of Martius “O, if he
Had borne the business!” ”

“ MENENIUS.
You have made good work, you and your cry!—
Shall’s to the Capitol?
COMINIUS.
O, ay, what else?
[Exeunt Cominius and Menenius.]
SICINIUS.
Go, masters, get you home. Be not dismayed.
These are a side that would be glad to have
This true which they so seem to fear. Go home,
And show no sign of fear.
FIRST CITIZEN.
The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let’s home. I ever said we were i’ th’ wrong when we banished him.
SECOND CITIZEN.
So did we all. But, come, let’s home.
[Exeunt Citizens.]
BRUTUS.
I do not like this news. ”

“ Take good Cominius
With thee awhile. Determine on some course
More than a wild exposture to each chance
That starts i’ th’ way before thee.
VIRGILIA.
O the gods!
COMINIUS.
I’ll follow thee a month, devise with thee
Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us
And we of thee; so if the time thrust forth
A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
O’er the vast world to seek a single man
And lose advantage, which doth ever cool
I’ th’ absence of the needer. ”

“ It is a higher accomplishment to use money well than to use arms; but not to need it is more noble than to use it.
When the noise of approbation and applause ceased, Cominius, resuming, said, "It is idle, fellow-soldiers, to force those other gifts of ours on one who is unwilling to accept them; let us, therefore, give him one of such a kind that he cannot well reject it; let us pass a vote, I mean, that he shall hereafter be called Coriolanus, unless you think that his performance at Corioli has itself anticipated any such resolution." ”

“ The escaped Romans had rested at Ardea, where they found Camillus, and were by him formed into an army, but he would not take the generalship without authority from what was left of the Senate, and that was shut up in the Capitol in the midst of the Gauls. A brave man, however, named Pontius Cominius, declared that he could make his way through the Gauls by night, and climb up the Capitol and down again by a precipice which they did not watch because they thought no one could mount it, and that he would bring back the orders of the Senate. ”

“ Of his demerits rob Cominius.
BRUTUS.
Come.
Half all Cominius’ honours are to Martius,
Though Martius earned them not, and all his faults
To Martius shall be honours, though indeed
In aught he merit not.
SICINIUS.
Let’s hence and hear
How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion,
More than in singularity, he goes
Upon this present action.
BRUTUS.
Let’s along.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE II. Corioles. The Senate House Enter Tullus Aufidius with Senators of Corioles.
FIRST SENATOR.
So, your opinion is, Aufidius,
That they of Rome are entered in our counsels
And know how we proceed. ”

“ He loves the nobility indeed, but when they, no doubt for the common good, suffer him to be expelled from Rome, they become to him the “dastard nobles”; and he makes hardly any account of his old henchman and intimate Menenius, and none at all of his old comrade and general Cominius. But he loves his family as himself, and though he strives to root out its claims from his heart, the attempt is vain. He may exclaim ”

“ In earnest, it’s true. I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is: the Volsces have an army forth, against whom Cominius the General is gone with one part of our Roman power. Your lord and Titus Lartius are set down before their city Corioles. They nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour, and so, I pray, go with us. ”

“ Sometimes in the survival the fact is transformed to figure, the prose to poetry. After Marcius’ miracles of valour at Corioli, Cominius gives him, “in testimonie that he had wonne that day the price of prowes [Pg 492] above all other, a goodly horse with a capparison, and all furniture to him.” This Shakespeare does not omit. ”

“ No more of him; he’s a worthy man. Make way. They are coming.
A sennet. Enter the Patricians and the Tribunes of the people, Lictors before them; Coriolanus, Menenius, Cominius the consul. The Patricians sit. Sicinius and Brutus take their places by themselves. ”

“ Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do faile.
Come let's away: when Caius Rome is thine,
Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine.
Exeunt.
Actus Quintus.
Enter Menenius, Cominius, Sicinius, Brutus, the two Tribunes, with others.
Menen. No, ile not go: you heare what he hath said
Which was sometime his Generall: who loued him
In a most deere particular. He call'd me Father:
But what o'that? Go you that banish'd him
A Mile before his Tent, fall downe, and knee
The way into his mercy: Nay, if he coy'd
To heare Cominius speake, Ile keepe at home
Com. ”

“ Guts of thee go to the dogs, all that remains to the wolves.
If, O Cominius, by the people's vote thy hoary age made filthy by unclean practices shall perish, forsure I doubt not but that first thy tongue, hostile to goodness, cut out, shall be given to the greedy vulture-brood, thine eyes, gouged out, shall the crows gorge down with sable maw, thine entrails [shall be flung] to the dogs, the members still remaining to the wolf. ”

“ The renown which Marcius won so completely eclipsed that of the consul, that, had not the treaty with the Latins - which owing to his colleague's absence had been concluded by Sp. Cassius alone - been inscribed on a brazen column, and so permanently recorded, all memory of Postumius Cominius having carried on a war with the Volscians would have perished. In the same year Agrippa Menenius died, a man who all through his life was equally beloved by the patricians and the plebeians, and made himself still more endeared to the plebeians after their secession. ”

“ The first expedient of making strong party and resorting to force is out of the question, both because, as Cominius has already pointed out, it is practically hopeless in face of the odds, and because, as he and others have also pointed out, even if successful it would ruin the state. The second expedient of calmness and conciliation is the one that Volumnia and Menenius in their pertinacious craving to see Coriolanus consul, strongly advocate ”

“ Clearly from this cheery old fighting man, with his reverential enthusiasm for Marcius’ fighting powers in voice, looks and blows, we need not expect much correction of Marcius’ restiveness at the civic curb.
Cominius would seem more likely to prove a fitting Mentor, for to his love and esteem he adds discretion. In Shakespeare, though he “has years upon him,” he is the avowed friend and comrade-in-arms of the [Pg 557] younger man; the brave and prudent general, “neither foolish in his stands, nor cowardly in retire” ”

“ After this Spurius Cassius and Opiter Verginius as consuls made peace with the Sabines. And capturing the city of Camerium they executed most of the inhabitants; the remnant they took alive and sold, and razed the city to the ground.
Postumius Cominius and Titus Larcius arrested and put to death some slaves who were hatching a conspiracy to seize the Capitoline. Servius Sulpicius and Marcus Tullius in their turn anticipated a second conspiracy composed of slaves and some others that had joined them, for it was reported to the consuls by certain men privy to the plot. ”

“ But their numbers were soon thinned by disease, for they had entered Rome in the most unhealthy time of the year, when fevers have always prevailed. The failure of provisions obliged [Pg 47] them to ravage the neighboring countries, the people of which began to combine for defense against the marauders. Meantime the scattered Romans took courage. They collected at Veii, and here resolved to recall Camillus from banishment, and appoint him Dictator. In order to obtain the consent of the Senate, a daring youth, named Pontius Cominius, offered to swim across the Tiber and climb the Capitol. ”

“ In the first place single individuals are substituted for an unspecified number. Just in the same way the final deputation consists of “Virgilia, Volumnia, leading young Marcius, Valeria, and Attendants,” without any of “all the other Romaine Ladies” that accompany them in Plutarch. In the last case it is the members and the friend of Coriolanus’ family, in the previous cases it is his sworn comrade Cominius and his idolatrous admirer Menenius who make the appeal: and this at once gives their intercessions more of a personal and less of a public character. ”

“ Tit. ⁠ [To Cominius.] Lead you on:
[To Martius.] Follow Cominius; we must follow you; ⁠252
Right worthy you priority.
Com. ⁠Noble Martius!
Sen. [To the Citizens.] Hence! to your homes! be gone.
Mar. ⁠Nay, let them follow:
The Volsces have much corn; take these rats thither
To gnaw their garners. Worshipful mutiners, ⁠256
Your valour puts well forth; pray, follow.
Exeunt [Martius, Cominius, Titus, etc.] .
Citizens steal away.
Mane [n] t Sicin. & Brutus.
Sic. Was ever man so proud as is this Martius?
Bru. He has no equal. ”

“ This is perhaps the supreme instance of their headstrong, testy and inconsiderate violence, for, as we shall see, it embitters the wavering Marcius and drives him to alliance with the foe. But the same violence has abundantly appeared before. The rest do all in their power to appease the tumult and procure a hearing for Sicinius, he uses the opportunity to add fuel to the fire and deserves Menenius’ rebuke:
This is the way to kindle, not to quench.
(III. i. 197.) When Brutus proceeds in the same way, Cominius interrupts:
That is the way to lay the city flat ”

“ Must haue that thankes from Rome, after the measure
As you intended well
Mene. Ile vndertak't:
I thinke hee'l heare me. Yet to bite his lip,
And humme at good Cominius, much vnhearts mee.
He was not taken well, he had not din'd,
The Veines vnfill'd, our blood is cold, and then
We powt vpon the Morning, are vnapt
To giue or to forgiue; but when we haue stufft
These Pipes, and these Conueyances of our blood
With Wine and Feeding, we haue suppler Soules
Then in our Priest-like Fasts: therefore Ile watch him
Till he be dieted to my request,
And then Ile set vpon him
Bru. ”

“ Enter Sicinius and Brutus.
Behold! these are the tribunes of the people,
The tongues o' the common mouth: I do despise them;
For they do prank them in authority
Against all noble sufferance.
Sic. ⁠Pass no further. ⁠24
Cor. Ha! what is that?
Bru. It will be dangerous to go on: no further.
Cor. What makes this change?
Men. ⁠The matter? ⁠27
Com. Hath he not pass'd the noble and the common?
Bru. Cominius, no.
Cor. ⁠Have I had children's voices?
Senat. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place.
Bru. The people are incens'd against him. ”

“ Which, being advanc'd, declines, and then men die. ⁠180
A Sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter Cominius, the General, and Titus Lartius; between them, Coriolanus, crowned with an oaken garland; with Captains and Soldiers, and a Herald. Her. ”

“ He bivouacked with them for a considerable time, and gained such an influence over them that they soon styled him 'Emperor.' Then the Comans, who were longing eagerly to gulp down draughts of human blood and take their fill of human flesh, as well as to carry off much booty from our country, used this man as a 'Patroclus excuse ' and decided to invade the Roman territory with their whole army on the pretext of re-establishing him on his paternal throne. ”

“ But Constantine was not a king, nor would he have dared to call himself king, nor to adorn himself with royal ceremony. He was Emperor of the Romans, not king. Where there is a king, there is no republic. But in the republic there were many, even at the same time, who were “imperatores” [generals] ; for Cicero frequently writes thus, “Marcus Cicero, imperator, to some other imperator, greeting”: though, later on, the Roman ruler, as the highest of all, is called by way of distinctive title the Emperor. ”

“ He was eighteen when his father, Constantius, was promoted by the Emperor Diocletian to the dignity of Caesar,--a sort of lieutenant-emperor,--and early distinguished himself in the Egyptian and Persian wars. He was thirty-one when he joined his father in Britain, whom he succeeded, soon after, in the imperial dignity. Like Theodosius, he was tall, and majestic in manners; gracious, affable, and accessible, like Julius; prudent, cautious, reticent, like Fabius; insensible to the allurements of pleasure, and incredibly active and bold, like Hannibal, Charlemagne, and Napoleon ”