3

tertainment, and to be on foot at an hour's warning.

ROM. I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company.

VOL. You take my part from me, sir; I have the most cause to be glad of yours.

ROM. Well, let us go together.

[Exeunt.

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,

3

Enter a Citizen.

battle slay me.-Save you, sir.

CIT. And you.

already in the entertainment,] That is, though not actually encamped, yet already in pay. To entertain an army

is to take them into pay. JOHNSON.

See Vol. V. p. 42, n. 6. MALONE.

VOL. XVI.

N

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.

Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart,
Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise,
Are still together, who twin, as 'twere, in love5
Unseparable, shall within this hour,

On a dissention of a doit, break out
To bitterest enmity: So, fellest foes,

O, world, thy slippery turns! &c.] This fine picture of common friendship, is an artful introduction to the sudden league, which the poet made him enter into with Aufidius, and no less artful an apology for his commencing enemy to Rome. WARBURTON.

Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise, Are still together, who twin, as 'twere, in love-] Our author has again used this verb in Othello:

"And he that is approv'd in this offence,

"Though he had twinn'd with me,—” &c.

Part of this description naturally reminds us of the following lines in A Midsummer-Night's Dream:

"We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,

"Have with our neelds created both one flower,
"Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
"Both warbling of one song, both in one key:
"As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
"Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
"Like to a double cherry, seeming parted;
"But yet a union in partition,

"Two lovely berries molded on one stem:
"So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
"Two of the first," &c. MALone.

Whose passions and whose plots have broke their

sleep

To take the one the other, by some chance,
Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends,
And interjoin their issues. So with me:
My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon
This enemy town.-I'll enter: if he slay me,
He does fair justice; if he give me way,
I'll do his country service.

[Exit.

SCENE V.

The same. A Hall in Aufidius's House.

Musick within. Enter a Servant.

1 SERV. Wine, wine, wine! What service is here! I think our fellows are asleep.

Enter another Servant.

[Exit.

2 SERV. Where's Cotus? my master calls for Cotus!

him.

6

[Exit.

hate 1] The old copy instead of hate reads-have. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. “I'll enter,” means, I'll enter the house of Aufidius. MALONE.

7 This enemy town.-I'll enter:] Here, as in other places, our author is indebted to Sir Thomas North's Plutarch:

"For he disguised him selfe in suche arraye and attire, as he thought no man could euer haue knowen him for the persone he was, seeing him in that apparell he had vpon his backe: and as Homer sayed of Vlysses:

"So dyd he enter into the enemies tovvne." Perhaps, therefore, instead of enemy, we should read-enemy's, or enemies' town. STEEVENS.

Enter CORIOLANUS.

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.8

his

Re-enter second Servant.

2 SERV. Whence are you, sir? Has the porter 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 with anon.

you talked

In being Coriolanus.] i. e. in having derived that surname from the sack of Corioli. STEEVENS.

9

that he gives entrance to such companions?] Companion was formerly used in the same sense as we now use the word fellow. MALONE.

The same term is employed in All's well that ends well, King Henry VI. P. II. Cymbeline, Othello, &c. STEEvens.

See also, Lord Clarendon's History, Vol. I. p. 378: "-by this means that body in great part now consisted of upstart, factious, indigent companions, who were ready" &c. The same term is still or was so lately in use as to be employed by Mr. Foote in 1763, in The Mayor of Garrett. REED.

Enter a third Servant. The first meets him.

3 SERV. What fellow's this?

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

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

COR. Let me but stand; I will not hurt your hearth.1

3 SERV. What are you?

COR. A gentleman.

3 SERV. A marvellous poor one.

COR. True, so I am.

3 SERV. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other station; here's no place for you; pray you, avoid

come.'

COR. Follow your function, go!

And batten on cold bits.

[Pushes him away.

3 SERV. What, will you not? Pr'ythee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here.

2 SERV. And I shall.

[Exit.

Let me but stand; I will not hurt your hearth.] Here our author has both followed and deserted his original, the old translation of Plutarch. The silence of the servants of Aufidius, did not suit the purposes of the dramatist :

For ill

"So he went directly to Tullus Aufidius house, and when he came thither, he got him vp straight to the chimney harthe, and sat him downe, and spake not a worde to any man, his face all muffled ouer. They of the house spying him, wondered what he should be, and yet they durst not byd him rise. fauoredly muffled and disguised as he was, yet there appeared a certaine maiestie in his countenance, and in his silence: whereupon they went to Tullus who was at supper, to tell him of the straunge disguising of this man." STEEVENS.