And thus far having stretch'd it (here be with | Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his

them,)

Thy knee bussing the stones (for in such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
More learned than the ears,) waving thy head,
Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,'
Now humble, as the ripest mulberry,
That will not hold the handling: Ör, say to them,
Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils,
Hast not the soft way, which, thou dost confess,
Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,
In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame
Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
As thou hast power, and person.

Men.
This but done,
Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours:
For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free
As words to little purpose.

Vol.

Pr'ythee now,

Go, and be rul'd: although, I know, thou hadst

That hath receiv'd an alms!-I will not do't:
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
And, by my body's action, teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.

Vol.

Cor.

At thy choice then:

To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour
Than thou of them. Come all to ruin: let
Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear
Thy dangerous stoutness; for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list.
Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me;
But owe thy pride thyself.
Pray, be content;
Mother, I am going to the market-place;
Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves,
Cog their hearts from them, and come home belov'd
Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going:
Commend me to my wife. I'll return consul;
Or never trust to what my tongue can do
I' the way of flattery, further.

Vol.
Do your will. [Erit.
Com. Away, the tribunes do attend you: arm
yourself

To answer mildly; for they are prepar'd

Com. I have been i' the market-place: and, sir, With accusations, as I hear, more strong

'tis fit

You make strong party, or defend yourself

By calmness, or by absence; all's in anger.
Men. Only fair speech.
Com.

I think, 'twill serve, if he

He must, and will:

Can thereto frame his spirit.
Vol.
Pr'ythee, now, say, you will, and go about it.
Cor. Must I go show them my unbarb'd' sconce ?
Must I

With my base tongue, give to my noble heart
A lie, that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
Yet were there but this single plot to lose,
This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it,
And throw it against the wind-To the market-
place:-

You have put me now to such a part, which

Away, my disposition, and possess me
Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd,
Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of knaves
Tent in my cheeks; and schoolboys' tears take up
The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue
Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd knees,

1 It is probably from want of a more complete acquaintance with the rules of grammar which guided our ancestors, that the use they made of the pronouns appears to us anomalous. Which here, as Malone observes, is to be understood as if the poet had written It often, &c. Steevens pertinaciously insists upon attributing these seeming anomalies of ancient grammar to the incorrectness of ancient printers, whose press-work, he supposes, seldom received any correction; but those who are familiar with the manuscripts of Shakspeare's age will at once acquit the learned and useful body of typographers.

2 Thus in Othello, folio ed. 1623 :

Rude am I in speech,

And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace;
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broils and battles.'

Ed,

Bru.

He's coming.

How accompanied? d. With old Menenius, and those senators That always favoured him.

Sic.

Have you a catalogue
Of all the voices that we have procur'd,
Set down by the poll?

d.

I have; 'tis ready.
Sic. Have you collected them by tribes?
Ed.
I have.

Sic. Assemble presently the people hither:
And when they hear me say, it shall be so
P the right and strength o' the commons, be it either
For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them,
If I say, fine, cry fine; if death, cry death;
Insisting on the old prerogative
And power, i' the truth o' the cause.
Ed.

I shall inform them.

Chaucer, Troilus and Cressida, II. v. 110, Pandarus says to Cressida :-

'Do way your barbe and show your face bare.' Where Speght explains barbe a mask or visard; Mr. Hawkins, a veil or covering; and Mr. Tyrwhitt, a hood or muffler. It should be remembered that a barbed steed was an accoutred steed, or one covered with trappings.

5 Plot is piece, portion, applied to a piece of earth, and here elegantly transferred to the body, carcass.

6 Some of the modern editors substituted as for which here. Malone has shown that this was Shakspeare's usual phraseology. And Horne Tooke tells us why as and which were convertible words. See note on Julius Caesar, Act i. Sc. 2.

7 i. e. which played in concert with my drum. So

3 Bower was the ancient term for a chamber. Spen-in The Merchant of Venice :-cer, speaking of the Temple, Prothalamion, st. 9,

says:

Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers.' 4 Unbarb'd is unarmed, unaccoutred, uncovered. Cotgrave says that a barbute was a ridinghood, or a montero or close hood, and that it also signified the beaver of a helmet. It was probably used for any kind of covering that concealed the head and face. Thus in

Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubims.'

8 To tent is to dwell, to take up residence.

9 The meaning appears to be,Go, do thy worst; let me rather feel the utmost extremity that thy pride can bring upon us than live thus in fear of thy dangerous obstinacy.'

10 i. e. own.

11 Enforce his envy, i. e. object his hatred.

Sic. Make them be strong, and ready for this hint,
When we shall hap to give 't them.
Bru.

Go about it.
Put him to choler straight: He hath been us'd
[Exit Edile.
Ever to conquer, and to have his worth1
Of contradiction: Being once chaf'd, he cannot
Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks
What's in his heart; and that is there, which looks
With us to break his neck.2

Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS,
Senators, and Patricians.

Sic. Well, here he comes.
Men.
Calmly, I do beseech you.
Cor. Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece
Will bear the knave by the volume.3-The honour'd
gods

Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice
Supplied with worthy men! plant love among us!
Throng our large temples with the shows of peace,
And not our streets with war!

1 Sen.

Men. A noble wish.

Amen, amen!

Re-enter Edile, with Citizens.

Sie. Draw near, ye people.

Cor. First, hear me speak.
Ed. List to your tribunes; audience: Peace I say.
Both Tri.
Well, say.-Peace, ho.
Cor. Shall I be charg'd no further than this
present?

Must all determine here?

Sic.

I do demand,

If you submit you to the people's voices,
Allow their officers, and are content
To suffer lawful censure for such faults
As shall be prov'd upon you?

Cor.

I am content.
Men. Lo, citizens, he says, he is content:
The warlike service he has done, consider:
Think on the wounds his body bears, which show
Like graves i' the holy churchyard.
Cor.

Scars to move laughter only.
Men.

Scratches with briars,

Consider further,
That when he speaks not like a citizen,
You find him like a soldier: Do not take
His rougher accents for malicious sounds,
But, as I say, such as become a soldier,
Rather than envy you.

Com.

Well, well, no more.

Cor. What is the matter,

That being pass'd for consul with full voice,
I am so dishonour'd, that the very hour

You take it off again?

Sic.
Answer to us.
Cor. Say then: 'tis true, I ought so.

Sic. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to

take

From Rome all season'd' office, and to wind
Yourself into a power tyrannical;

For which, you are a traitor to the people.

1 i. e. his full part or share, as we should now say his pennyworth of contradiction. So in Romeo and Juliet:

You take your pennyworth [of sleep] now.' 2 The sentiments of Coriolanus's heart are our coadjutors, and look to have their share in promoting his destruction.'

3 Will bear being called a knave as often as would fill out a volume.'

4 Do not take his rougher accents for malicious sounds, but rather for such as become a soldier, than spite or malign you.' See the first note on this scene, Act i. Sc. viii.

5 i. e. wisely tempered office, established by time. 6 Grasp'd. So in Macbeth :

Come let me clutch thee.'

235

Cor. How! Traitor?
Men.
Nay; temperately: Your promise.
Cor. The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people!
Call me their traitor!-Thou injurious tribune!
In thy hands clutch'de as many millions, in
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say,
Thou liest, unto thee, with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods.
Sic.

Mark you this, people?
Cit. To the rock; to the rock with him!
Sic.

The promise that you made your mother?
Com.

I pray you,
Cor.
I'll know no further:
Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying; Pent to linger
But with a grain a day, I would not buy
Nor check my courage for what they can give,
Their mercy at the price of one fair word;
To have 't with saying, Good morrow.
Sic.

For that he has
(As much as in him lies) from time to time
Envied against the people, seeking means
To pluck away their power: as" now at last
Given hostile stokes, and that not in the presence
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers
That do distribute it; In the name o' the people,
And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
Even from this instant, banish him our city;
In peril of precipitation

From off the rock Tarpeian, never more

To enter our Rome gates: l' the people's name, say, it shall be so.

may signify as well as; such elliptical modes of expres-
8 As may here be a misprint for has, or and; or it
sion are not uncommon in Shakspeare. We have as
apparently for as soon as in All's Well that Ends Well.
in the New Testament, 1 Thess. iv. 8:-
9 Not is here again used for not only. It is thus used
God.'
'He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man,
but

10 i. e. received in her service, or on her account. Theobald substituted for, and supported his emendation by these passages:

To banish him that struck more blows for Rome.' Again :-

Good man! the wounds that he does bear for Rome.' 11 I love my country beyond the rate at which I value my dear wife,' &c.

Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so.

Cor.

What, what, what!

Cor. You common cry of curs! whose breath I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother

I hate

As reek o'the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you;3
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till, at length,
Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels,)
Making but reservation of yourselves,4
(Still your own foes,) deliver you, as most
Abated captives, to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENE-
NIUS, Senators, and Patricians.
d. The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
Cit. Our enemy's banish'd! he is gone! Hoo!
hoo!

[The People shout, and throw up their Caps.
Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,
As he hath follow'd you, with all despite ; ̧
Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard
Attend us through the city.

Cit. Come, come, let us see him out at gates:

Nay, I pr'ythec, woman,—

Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in
Rome,

And occupations perish!

I Cry here signifies a pack. So in a subsequent

scene:

"You have made good work,
You and your cry.'

A cry of hounds was the old term for a pack.

2 So in the Tempest:

Seb. As if it had lungs, and rotted ones. Ant. Or, as 'twere, perfum'd by a fen."

3 When it was cast in Diogenes' teeth that the Sinopenetes had banished him Pontus; yea, said he, I them.' We have the same thought in King Richard II. :

Think not the king did banish thee,
But thou the king.'

4 Thus in the old copy. Malone, following Capell's meddling, changed this line to

'Making not reservation of yourselves.' &c.

Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say, you had been the wife of Hercules,

If

Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd
Your husband so much sweat.-Cominius,
Droop not; adieu :-Farewell, my wife! my mother!
I'll do well yet.-Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,
And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime general,
I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hard'ning spectacles; tell these sad women,
'Tis fond' to wail inevitable strokes,

As 'tis to laugh at them.-My mother, you wot
well,

My hazards still have been your solace; and
Believe't not lightly, (though I go alone
Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen
Makes fear'd, and talk'd of more than seen,) your

son

Will, or exceed the common, or be caught
With cautelous1o baits and practice.
Vol.

My first11 son,
Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
With thee a while: Determine on some course,
More than a wild exposture12 to each chance
That starts i'the way before thee.
Cor.
O the gods!
Com. I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee
Where thou shalt rest, that thou may'st 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' the absence of the needer.

Cor.

Fare ye well;-
Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full
Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one
That's yet unbruis'd: bring me but out at gate.-
Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
My friends of noble touch, 13 when I am forth,
Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.
While I remain above the ground, you shall
Hear from me still; and never of me aught
But what is like me formerly.

That's worthily

Men.
As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep.-
If I could shake off but one seven years
From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,
I'd with thee every foot.

Cor.
Come.

Give me thy hand :-
[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same. A Street near the Gate.
Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an Ædile.
Sic. Bid them all home: he's gone, and we'll no
further.-

without a struggle. If we were to read as Malone would have us

'Making not reservation of yourselves,'

it would imply that the people banished themselves, af ter having banished their defenders.

5 Abated, is overthrown, depressed. To abate cas tles and houses, &c. is to overthrow them. See Blount's Glossography, in voce. To abate the courage of a man was to depress or diminish it.

6 Horace, speaking of the Roman mob, says :—
Bellua multorum est capitum.'

7 This is the reading of the second folio; the first folio reads, extremities was, &c.

meaning of this.

9 Foolish.

8 When fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and yet continue calm, requires a noble arisdom.' Cunning is often used in this sense by Shakspeare. Johnson reprehends Warburton for misinter and attempted to defend his reading by a wordy argu-preting the poet's words, and has himself mistaken the ment, which shows that he did not understand the passage. Dr. Johnson's explanation of the text is as correct as his subsequent remark upon it is judicious. Coriolanus imprecates upon the base plebeians that they may still retain the power of banishing their defenders, till their undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the city but themselves; so that for want of those capable of conducting their defence, they may fall an easy prey to some nation who may conquer them

10 Cautelous here means insidious.
11 i. e. noblest.

12 Exposure; for which it is probably a typographical
error, as we have no other instance of the word expos
ture.

13 i. e. of true metal. The metaphor from the touchstone for trying metals, is common in Shakspeare.

CORIOLANUS.

Sic.

Let's not meet her.

Sic. They say, she's mad.
Bru.

Bru.

Keep on your way.

Why?

They have ta'en note of us :

Vol. O, you're well met: The hoarded plague
o' the gods

Requite your love!
Men.
Vol. If that I could for weeping, you should
Peace, peace; be not so loud.
hear,-

Nay, and you shall hear some.-Will you be gone!
Vir. You shall stay too: [To Sic.] I would, I
[To BRUTUS.
had the power

To say so to my husband.
Sic.

Vol. Ay, fool; is that a shame ?-Note but this
Are you mankind?1
fool.-

Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship2
To banish him that struck more blows for Rome,
Than thou hast spoken words?

Sic.

O blessed heavens ! Vol. More noble blows, than ever thou wise words ¿

And for Rome's good.-I'll tell thee what :-yet
go:-

Nay, but thou shalt stay too:-I would my son
Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him,
His good sword in his hand.

Sic.

Vir.

What then?

He'd make an end of thy posterity.

Vol. Bastards, and all.

237

You have told them home,
You'll sup

And, by my troth, you have cause.

with me?

Vol. Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself,
And so shall starve with feeling.-Come, let's go :
Leave this faint puling, and lament as I do,
In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come.
Men. Fye, fye, fye!

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. A Highway between Rome and Antium. Enter a Roman and a Volce meeting.

Rom. I know you well, sir, and you know me: your name, I think, is Adrian."

Vol. It is so, sir: truly I have forgot you.
Rom. I am a Roman; and my services are, as

you are, against them: know you me yet?
Vol. Nicanor? No.

Rom. The same, sir..

but your favour is well appayed by your tongue. Vol. You had more beard, when I last saw you; Volcian state, to find you out there: You have well What's the news in Rome? I have a note from the saved me a day's journey.

Rom. There hath been in Rome strange insurrection: the people against the senators, patricians, and nobles.

thinks not so; they are in a most warlike preparaVol. Hath been! Is it ended then? Our state tion, and hope to come upon them in the heat of their division.

Rom. The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again. For the nobles Coriolanus, that they are in a ripe aptness, to take receive so to heart the banishment of that worthy their tribunes for ever. all power from the people, and to pluck from them you, and is almost mature for the violent Breaking This lies glowing, I can tell

out.

Vol. Coriolanus banished?
Rom. Banished, sir.

Vol. You will be welcome with this intelligence,

What then? Nicanor.

Good man,
the wounds that he does bear for Rome'
Men. Come, come, peace.
Sic. I would he had continu'd to his country,
As he began; and not unknit himself

The noble knot he made.

Bru.

I would he had.

Rom. The day serves well for them now. wife, is when she's fallen out with her husband. Your heard it said, the fittest time to corrupt a man's I have noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars, his great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no request of his country.

Vol. He cannot choose. I am most fortunate, thus accidentally to encounter you: You have ended

Vol. I would he had! "Twas you incens'd the my business, and I will merrily accompany you

[Exeunt Tribunes.mon in our elder language than well appaied, i. e. satis-
fied, contented. The Volcian means to say,
countenance is altered, but your voice perfectly satis
fies me.'

1 Mankind is fierce, ferocious. sense is evident, because we sometimes find it applied That it had this to a stubborn or ferocious animal. Volumnia chooses to understand it as meaning a human creature. 2 i. e. mean cunning.

3 The old copy reads, "Your favour is well appeared by your tongue. For the emendation in the text I am answerable. Warburton proposed appealed; Johnson, affeared; Steevens, approved; and Malone thought the old reading might be right. No phrase is more com- I

SCENE IV. Antium. Before Aufidius's House. Enter CORIOLANUS, in mean Apparel, disguised | and muffled.

Cor. A goodly city is this Antium: City, "Tis I that made thy widows; many an heir Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars

Have I heard groan, and drop: then know me not;
Lest that thy wives with spits, and boys with stones,
Enter a Citizen.

In puny battle slay me.-Save you, sir.
Cit. And you.
Cor.
Direct me, if it be your will,
Where great Aufidius lies: Is he in Antium?
Cit. He is, and feasts the nobles of the state,
At his house this night.

Cor.

Which is his house, 'beseech you?
Cit. This, here, before you.
Cor.

Thank you sir, farewell. [Exit Citizen. O, world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast

Cor. A goodly house: the feast smells well : but I

Appear not like a guest.

Re-enter the first Servant.

1 Serv. What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here's no place for you: Pray, go to the

door.

Cor. I have deserv'd no better entertainment, In being Coriolanus.2

Re-enter second Servant.

2 Serv. Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his head, that he gives entrance to such companions? Pray, get you out.

Cor. Away!

2 Serv. Away? Get you away. Cor. Now thou art troublesome.

2 Serv. Are you so brave? I'll have you talked

with anon.

Enter a third Servant. The first meets him. 3 Serv. What fellow's this?

1 Serv. A strange one as ever I looked on: cannot get him out o' the house: Pr'ythee, call master to him.

my

3 Serv. What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you, avoid the house.

3 Serv. What, will you not? Pr'ythee, tell my
master what a strange guest he has here.
2 Serv. And I shall.

3 Serv. Where dwellest thou?
Cor. Under the canopy.

3 Serv. Under the canopy?
Cor. Ay.

3 Serv. Where's that?

Cor. I' the city of kites and crows.

[Exit.

3 Serv. I' the city of kites and crows?-What an ass it is!-Then thou dwellest with daws too? Cor. No, I serve not thy master.

3 Serv. How, sir! Do you meddle with my master?

Cor. Ay; 'tis an honester service than to med-
dle with thy mistress:

Thou prat'st, and prat'st; serve with thy trencher,
hence!
[Beats him away.

Enter AUFIDIUS and the second Servant.
Auf. Where is this fellow?

2 Serv. Here, sir; I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for disturbing the lords within.

Auf. Whence comest thou? what wouldest thou?
Thy name?

Why speak'st not? Speak, man: What's thy

Cor.

name?

If, Tullus, [Unmuffling.
Not yet thou know'st me, and seeing me, dost not
Think me the man I am, necessity
Commands me name myself.

Auf.

What is thy name? [Servants retire.

Cor. A name unmusical to the Volcians' ears,
And harsh in sound to thine.
Auf.
Say, what's thy name?
Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face
Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn,
Thou show'st a noble vessel: What's thy name?
Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown: Know'st thou

me yet?

Auf, I know thee not:-Thy name?

Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done.
To thee particularly, and to all the Volees,
Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may
My surname, Coriolanus: The painful service,
The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
Shed for my thankless country, are requited
But with that surname; a good memory,
And witness of the malice and displeasure
Which thou should'st bear me: only that name re-
mains;

The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest;
And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be
Whoop'd out of Rome. Now, this extremity
Hath brought me to thy hearth; Not out of hope
Mistake me not, to save my life; for if

I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world
II would have 'voided thee: but in mere spite,
To be full quit of those my banishers,
Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast
A heart of wreak in thee, that will revenge
Thine own particular wrongs, and stop those maims
Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee
straight,

Cor. Let me but stand; I will not hurt your

hearth.

3 Serv. What are you?

1 This fine picture of common friendship is an artful introduction to the sudden league which the poet makes him enter into with Aufidius, and a no less artful apology for his commencing enemy to Rome.'-Warburton. 2 i. e. in having derived that surname from the sack of Corioli

And make my misery serve thy turn: so use it,

3 Feed.

4 Memory for memorial. 5 Wreak is an old term for revenge. So in Titus Andronicus:

"Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude.” 6 i. e. disgraceful diminutions of territory.