BRU. Caius Marcius was A worthy officer i' the war; but insolent, O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking, Self-loving,- And affecting one sole throne, Without assistance.3 MEN. I think not so. SIC. We should by this, to all our lamentation, If he had gone forth consul, found it so. BRU. The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits safe and still without him. ED. Enter Edile. Worthy tribunes, There is a slave, whom we have put in prison, And with the deepest malice of the war MEN. 'Tis Aufidius, Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment, 3 affecting one sole throne, Without assistance.] That is, without assessors; without any other suffrage. JOHNSON. Without assistance.] For the sake of measure I should wish to read: Without assistance in't. This hemistich, joined to the following one, would then form a regular verse. It is also not improbable that Shakspeare instead of assistance wrote assistants. Thus in the old copies of our author, we have ingredience for ingredients, occurrence for occurrents, &c. STEEVENS. BRU. Go see this rumourer whipp'd.—It cannot be, The Volces dare break with us. MEN. Cannot be ! We have record, that very well it can ; And three examples of the like have been Within my age. But reason with the fellow,5 Before you punish him, where he heard this: Lest you shall chance to whip your information, And beat the messenger who bids beware Of what is to be dreaded. MESS. The nobles, in great earnestness, are going All to the senate house: some news is come, stood for Rome,] i. e. stood up in its defence. Had the expression in the text been met with in a learned author, it might have passed for a Latinism: 66 summis stantem pro turribus Idam.” STEEVENS. 5 reason with the fellow,] That is, have some talk with him. In this sense Shakspeare often uses the word. Vol. IV. p. 210, n. 8. - JOHNSON. 6 ·some news is come,] Old copy-redundantly, some news is come in. The second folio-coming; but I think, erro neously. STEEVens. 'Tis this slave ; That turns their countenances.7 SIC. Go whip him 'fore the people's eyes :-his raising! Nothing but his report! MESS. Yes, worthy sir, The slave's report is seconded; and more, More fearful, is deliver❜d. SIC. What more fearful? MESS. It is spoke freely out of many mouths, (How probable, I do not know,) that Marcius, Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome; And vows revenge as spacious, as between The young'st and oldest thing. SIC. This is most likely! BRU. Rais'd only, that the weaker sort may wish Good Marcius home again. That turns their countenances.] i. e. that renders their aspect This allusion to the acescence of milk occurs again in Timon of Athens: sour. "Has friendship such a faint and milky heart, "It turns in less than two nights?" MALONE. I believe nothing more is meant than-changes their countenances. So, in Cymbeline: 8 "Change you, madam ? "The noble Leonatus is in safety." STEEVENs. can no more atone,] To atone, reconcile, and is so used by our author. in the active sense, is to To atone here, is in the neutral sense, to come to reconciliation. To atone is to unite. JOHNSON. The etymology of this verb may be known from the following Than violentest contrariety." Enter another Messenger. MESS. You are sent for to the senate: A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius, Associated with Aufidius, rages Upon our territories; and have already, O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire, and took What lay before them. Enter COMINIUS. COм. O, you have made good work! MEN. What news? what news? COM. You have holp to ravish your own daugh ters, and To melt the city leads' upon your pates; passage in the second Book of Sidney's Arcadia: "Necessitie made us see, that a common enemie sets at one a civill warre.” STEEVENS. Atone seems to be derived from at and one;-to reconcile to, or, to be at, union. In some books of Shakspeare's age I have found the phrase in its original form: "to reconcile and make them at one." MALONE. 9- violentest contrariety.] I should read-violentest contrarieties. M. MASON. Mr. M. Mason might have supported his conjecture by the following passage in King Lear: "No contraries hold more antipathy "Than I and such a knave." STEEVENS. the city leads-] Our author, I believe, was here thinking of the old city gates of London. MALONE. The same phrase has occurred already, in this play. See p. 78. Leads were not peculiar to our city gates. Few ancient houses of consequence were without them. STEEVENS. MEN. What's the news? what's the news? COM. Your temples burned in their cement; and Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd Into an augre's bore. 2 MEN. Pray now, your news?You have made fair work, I fear me :-Pray, your news? If Marcius should be join'd with Volcians, Сом. He is their god; he leads them like a thing That shapes man better: and they follow him, Or butchers killing flies. MEN. If! You have made good work, You, and your apron men; you that stood so much Upon the voice of occupation,3 and The breath of garlick-eaters !4 2 confin'd 3 Into an augre's bore.] So, in Macbeth: 66 our fate hid in an augre-hole." STEEVENS. Upon the voice of occupation,] Occupation is here used for mechanicks, men occupied in daily business. So again, in Julius Cæsar, Act I. sc. ii:" An I had been a man of any occupation," &c. So, Horace uses artes for artifices: "Urit enim fulgore suo, qui prægravat artes "Infra se positas." MALONE. In the next page but one, the word crafts is used in the like manner, where Menenius says: 66 you have made fair hands, "You, and your crafts " M. MASON. The breath of garlick-eaters!] To smell of garlick was once such a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara. JOHNSON. |