But we will drink together; and you shall bear
A better witness back than words, which we,
On like conditions, will have counter-seal'd.
Come, enter with us. Ladies, you deserve
To have a temple built you: 5 all the swords
In Italy, and her confederate arms,

Could not have made this peace.

SCENE IV.

Rome. A publick Place.

Enter MENENIUS and SICINIUS.

[Exeunt.

MEN. See you yond' coign o'the Capitol; yond corner-stone?

SIC. Why, what of that?

MEN. If it be possible for you to displace it with your little finger, there is some hope the ladies of Rome, especially his mother, may prevail with him. But I say, there is no hope in't; our throats are sentenced, and stay upon execution.o

drink together;] Perhaps we should read-think.

FARMER.

Our author, in King Henry IV. P. II. having introduced drinking as a mark of confederation:

"Let's drink together friendly, and embrace-;" the text may be allowed to stand; though at the expence of female delicacy, which, in the present instance, has not been sufficiently consulted. STEEVENS..

5

To have a temple built you:] Plutarch informs us, that a temple dedicated to the Fortune of the Ladies, was built on this occasion by order of the senate. STEEVENS.

6

-stay upon execution.] i. e. stay but for it. So, in Mac

th:

"Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure."

STEEVENS.

SIC. Is't possible, that so short a time can alter the condition of a man?

MEN. There is differency between a grub, and a butterfly; yet your butterfly was a grub. This Marcius is grown from man to dragon: he has wings; he's more than a creeping thing.

SIC. He loved his mother dearly.

MEN. So did he me: and he no more remembers his mother now, than an eight year old horse." The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. When he walks, he moves like an engine, and the ground shrinks before his treading. He is able to pierce a corslet with his eye; talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery. He sits in his state, as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done, is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity, and a heaven to throne in.

8

SIC. Yes, mercy, if you report him truly.

MEN. I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his mother shall bring from him: There is no more mercy in him, than there is milk in a male tiger; that shall our poor city find: and all this is 'long of you.

SIC. The gods be good unto us!

MEN. No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto us. When we banished him, we re

7-than an eight year old horse.] Subintelligitur remembers his dam. WARBURTON.

* He sits in his state, &c.] In a foregoing note he was said to sit in gold. The phrase, as a thing made for Alexander, means, as one made to resemble Alexander. JOHNSON.

His state means his chair of state. See the passage quoted from Plutarch, in p. 215, n. 9; and Vol. X. p. 173, n. 5.

MALONE.

spected not them: and, he returning to break our necks, they respect not us.

Enter a Messenger.

MESS. Sir, if you'd save your life, fly to your house;

The plebeians have got your fellow-tribune,
And hale him up and down; all swearing, if
The Roman ladies bring not comfort home,
They'll give him death by inches.

SIC.

Enter another Messenger.

What's the news?

MESS. Good news, good news;-The ladies have

prevail'd,

The Volces are dislodg'd, and Marcius gone:
A merrier day did never yet greet Rome,
No, not the expulsion of the Tarquins.

Friend,

SIC. Art thou certain this is true? is it most certain?

MESS. As certain, as I know the sun is fire: Where have you lurk'd, that you make doubt of

it?

Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tide, As the recomforted through the gates." Why, hark you;

[Trumpets and Hautboys sounded, and Drums beaten, all together. Shouting also within.

Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tide,

As the recomforted through the gates.] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes, Tabors, and cymbals, and the shouting Romans,. Make the sun dance. Hark you!

MEN.

[Shouting again.

This is good news:

I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia
Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians,
A city full; of tribunes, such as you,
A sea and land full: You have pray'd well to-day;
This morning, for ten thousand of your throats
I'd not have given a doit. Hark, how they joy!
[Shouting and Musick.

SIC. First, the gods bless you for their tidings: next,

Accept my thankfulness.

"As through an arch the violent roaring tide
"Out-runs the eye that doth behold his haste."

Blown in the text is swell'd. So, in Antony and Cleopa

"There is a vent of blood, and something blown."

The effect of a high or spring tide, as it is called, is so much greater than that which wind commonly produces, that I am not convinced by the following note that my interpretation is erroneous. Water that is subject to tides, even when it is not accelerated by a spring tide, appears swoln, and to move with more than ordinary rapidity, when passing through the narrow strait of an arch. MALONE.

The blown tide is the tide blown, and consequently accelerated by the wind. So, in another of our author's plays:

"My boat sails swiftly both with wind and tide."

STEEVENS,

SIC.

And help the joy.

We will meet them,

[Going.

Enter the Ladies, accompanied by Senators, Patricians, and People. They pass over the Stage.

1 SEN. Behold our patroness, the life of Rome: Call all your tribes together, praise the gods, And make triumphant fires; strew flowers before them:

Unshout the noise that banish'd Marcius,
Repeal him with the welcome of his mother;
Cry,-Welcome, ladies, welcome!-

AUF. Go tell the lords of the city, I am here: Deliver them this paper: having read it, Bid them repair to the market-place; where I, Even in theirs and in the commons' ears, Will vouch the truth of it. Him I accuse,'

Him I accuse, &c.] So, in The Winter's Tale: "I am appointed him to murder you."

Mr. Pope and all the subsequent editors read-He I accuse. MALONE.