CORIOLANUS. "THE Tragedy of Coriolanus" appears to have been first printed in the folio of 1623. In the same year, November 8th, it was entered on the Registers of the Stationers' Company by Blount and Jaggard, the publishers of the folio, as one of the copies "not formerly entered to other men." Malone ascribes it to the year 1610; but with the exception of some peculiarities in the style, which would lead us to class it among the poet's latest plays, there is not a particle of evidence, internal or extrinsic, to assist in determining within several years the date of its production. That it was written subsequently to the publication of Camden's “Remains” in 1605 is probable, from the resemblance between the following version of the famous apologue of the members' rebellion against the belly, as told by that author, and the same story in the speech of Menenius, Act I. Sc. 1; for, as Malone remarks, although Shakespeare found this fable in North's Plutarch, there are some expressions, as well as the enumeration of the functions performed by the respective instruments of the body, which he seems to have taken from Camden : "All the members of the body conspired against the stomach, as against the swallowing gulfe of all their labours; for whereas the eies beheld, the eares heard, the handes laboured, the feete travelled, the tongue spake, and all partes performed their functions; onely the stomache lay ydle and consumed all. Hereuppon they joyntly agreed al to forbeare their labours, and to pine away their lazie and publike enemy. One day passed over, the second followed very tedious, but the third day was so greevous to them all, that they called a common counsel. The eyes waxed dimme, the feete could not support the bodie; the armes waxed lazie, the tongue faltered, and could not lay open the matter. Therefore they all with one accord desired the advice of the heart. There Reason layd open before them," &c. Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain.'" In the several incidents, and in some of the principal speeches of his tragedy, as may be seen from the parallel passages at the end, Shakespeare has faithfully followed "The Life of Caius Martius Coriolanus," in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch; a translation which was rendered from the French of Amyot, Bishop of Auxerre, and was first published in 1579, with the title,-"The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes, compared together by that grave learned Philosopher and Historiographer Plutarke of Charonea." Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Ediles, Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other Attendants. SCENE,―Partly in ROME; and partly in the territories of the Volscians and Antiates. 1 CIT. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is 't a verdict? CITIZENS. No more talking on 't; let it be done away, away! 2 Crг. One word, good citizens. 1 Crr. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians good. What authority surfeits on would. relieve us if they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them.— Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2 CIT. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? CITIZENS. Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty. 2 CIT. Consider you what services he has done for his country? 1 CIT. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for 't, but that he pays himself with being proud. 2 CIT. Nay, but speak not maliciously. c 1 CIT. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though softconscienced men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. 2 CIT. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous. 1 Crг. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts without.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol ! CITIZENS. Come, come! 1 CIT. Soft! who comes here? 2 CIT. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people. 1 CIT. He's one honest enough; would, all the rest were so ! a-the patricians good.] Good is here used in the commercial sense, of substance; as in "The Merchant of Venice," Act I. Sc. 3, "Antonio is a good man." bere we become rakes:] "As lean as a rake" is a very ancient proverb; it is found in Chaucer's Cant. Tales, 1. 289, "Al so lene was his hors as is a rake;" and Spenser has it in his "Faerie Queene," B. II. c. 11, "His body leane and meagre as a rake." Nay, but speak not maliciously.] In the old text this speech has the prefix "All" to it, as if spoken by a body of the citizens, but it unquestionably belongs to the second Citizen. Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA. MEN. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you with bats and clubs? The matter Speak, I pray you. e 1 CIT. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know we have strong arms too. MEN. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves? 1 ČIT. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. MEN. I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at the heaven with your staves, as lift them Against the Roman state; whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder than can ever Appear in your impediment: for the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it; and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you; and you slander The helms o' the state, who care for you like fathers, When you curse them as enemies. 1 CIT. Care for us! - True, indeed, they ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; (1) repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. MEN. Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious, A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it; 1 CIT. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver. dto please his mother, and to be partly proud;] This may mean, "- partly to please his mother, and because he was proud;" but we believe the genuine text would give us, "—and to be portly proud." e Our business is not unknown to the senate;] This and the subsequent speeches of the civic interlocutor, are in the old copy assigned to the second Citizen. Capell originally gave them to the first Citizen (though Malone, more suo, takes credit for it), and the previous dialogue very clearly shows the necessity of the change. f To stale't a little more.] The folio has "To scale't," for which Theobald substituted stale't, no doubt the genuine word. See Massinger's "Unnatural Combat," Act IV. Sc. 2, "I'll not stale the jest By my relation," and Gifford's note on that passage. MEN. There was a time, when all the body's members Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it:- I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive, Like labour with the rest, where the other in struments Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 1 CIT. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus,- 1 Ст. In this our fabric, if that they What then?— MEN. 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!-what then? what then? [strain'd, 1 CIT.-Should by the cormorant belly be reWho is the sink o' the body, MEN. Well, what then? 1 CIT.-The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer? MEN. I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little) Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer. 1 Cır. You're long about it. MEN. Note me this, good friend; Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered:True is it, my incorporate friends, quoth he, That I receive the general food at first, Which you do live upon; and fit it is, Because I am the store-house and the shop Of the whole body: but, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o' the brain; the way." Yet, if nothing better can be extracted from these words in their metaphorical sense, we would rather understand them literally, and believe "worst" to be a misprint, as it might easily be, for last. The passage then becomes perfectly intelligible, and in character with the speaker. "Thou rascal, that art last in blood [that is, into bloodshed] to run, Lead'st first to win some vantage." bbale:] That is, hurt, injury, calamity. K |