And state of bodies would bewray what life Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, Constrains them weep, and shake3 with fear and sorrow; Making the mother, wife, and child, to see Our wish, which side should win for either thou a worlde of grievous curses, yea more than any mortall enemie can heape uppon us, are forcibly wrapt up in our prayers. For the bitter soppe of most hard choyce is offered thy wife and children, to forgoe the one of the two: either to lose the persone of thy selfe, or the nurse of their natiue countrie. For my selfe (my sonne) I am determined not to tarrie, till fortune in my life doe make an ende of this warre. For if I cannot persuade thee, rather to doe good unto both parties, then to ouerthrowe and destroye the one, preferring loue and nature before the malice and calamite of warres; thou shalt see, my sonne, and trust unto it, thou shalt no soner marche forward to assault thy countrie, but thy foote shall tread upon thy mother's wombe, that brought thee first into this world." FARMER. 3 Constrains them weep, and shake-] That is, constrains the eye to weep, and the heart to shake, JOHNSON. Must, as a foreign recreant, be led These wars determine: if I cannot persuade thee VIR. Bor. He shall not tread on me; I'll run away till I am bigger, but then I'll fight. COR. Not of a woman's tenderness to be, Requires nor child nor woman's face to see. I have sat too long. [Rising. VOL. Nay, go not from us thus. If it were so, that our request did tend To save the Romans, thereby to destroy The Volces whom you serve, you might condemn us, These wars determine:] i. e. conclude, end. So, in King Henry IV. P. II : 5 "Till thy friend sickness have determin'd me." STEEVENS. and on mine,] On was supplied by some former editor, to complete the measure. STEEVENS, For making up this peace! Thou know'st, great son, Which thou shalt thereby reap, is such a name, To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o'the air, More bound to his mother; yet here he lets me prate the fine strains-] The niceties, the refinements. JOHNSON. The old copy has five. The correction was made by Dr. Johnson, I should not have mentioned such a manifest error of the press, but that it justifies a correction that I have made in Romeo and Juliet, Act I. another in Timon of Athens; and a third that has been made in A Midsummer-Night's Dream. See Vol. IV. p. 447, n. 8. MALONE. "And yet to charge thy sulphur-] The old copy has change. The correction is Dr. Warburton's. In The Taming of the Shrew, Act III. sc. i. charge is printed instead of change. MALONE. The meaning of the passage is, To threaten much, and yet be merciful. WARBURTON. Like one i' the stocks. Thou hast never in thy life When she, (poor hen!) fond of no second brood, Like him by chance:-Yet give us our despatch: And then I'll speak a little. COR. O mother, mother!1 [Holding VOLUMNIA by the Hands, silent. What have you done? Behold, the heavens do ope, * Like one i' the stocks.] Keeps me in a state of ignominy talking to no purpose. JOHNSON. ? Does_reason our petition-] Does argue for us and our petition. JOHNSON. 1O mother, mother!] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Oh mother, what have you done to me? And holding her harde by the right hande, oh mother, sayed he, you have wonne a happy victorie for your countrie, but mortall and unhappy for your sonne: for I see myself vanquished by you alone.” STEEVENS. The gods look down, and this unnatural scene AUF. I was mov'd withal. COR. I dare be sworn, you were: And, sir, it is no little thing, to make Mine eyes to sweat compassion. But, good sir, What peace you'll make, advise me: For my part, I'll not to Rome, I'll back with you; and pray you, Stand to me in this cause.-O mother! wife! AUF. I am glad, thou hast set thy mercy and thy honour At difference in thee: out of that I'll work 2 COR. [Aside. [The Ladies make signs to CORIOLANUS. Ay, by and by; [TO VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, &c. heard-] is here used as a dissyllable. The modern editors read-say, would you have heard-: MALone. As my ears are wholly unreconciled to the dissyllabifications— e-arl, he-ard, &c. I continue to read with the modern editors. Say, in other passages of our author, is prefatory to a question. So, in Macbeth : 66 Say, if thou hadst rather hear it from our mouths, "Or from our masters'?" STEEVENS. -I'll work Myself a former fortune.] I will take advantage of this concession to restore myself to my former credit and power. JOHNSON. |