At a poor [4 long flourish. They all cry " MARCIUS! | Refus'd most princely gifts, am bound to beg A “ , MARCIUS !” cast up their caps and lances : Of my lord general. COMINIUS and LARTIUS stand bare. Com. Take it: 'tis yours. What is't? Mar. May these same instruments, which you Cor. I sometime lay here in Corioli profane, [shall man's house ; he us'd me kindly : And wrath o'erwhelmd my pity: I request you Com. 0, well begg'd! No more, I say! For that have not wash'd Were he the butcher of my son, he should My nose that bled, or foild some debile wretch,— Be free as is the wind.-Deliver him, Titus. Which, without note, here 's many else have Lart. Marcius, his name? done, Cor. By Jupiter! forgot :: You shout * me forth in acclamations hyperbolical ; I am weary; yea, my memory is tir’d. As if I lov'd my little should be dieted Have we no wine here? In praises sauc'd with lies. Com. Go we to our tent: Com. Too modest are you ; The blood upon your visage dries; 'tis time More cruel to your good report, than grateful It should be look'd to: come. [Exeunt. To us that give you truly: by your patience, If ’gainst yourself you be incens’d, we'll put you (Like one that means his propers harm) in manacles, [known, Then reason safely with you. Therefore, be it As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius SCENE X.—The Camp of the Volsces. Wears this war's garland : in token of the which, My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him, A flourish. Cornets. Enter Tullus AUFIDIUS With all his trim belonging; and from this time, bloody, with two or three Soldiers. 1 SOL. ’T will be deliver'd back on good conThe addition nobly ever ! dition. [Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums. AUF. Condition !ALL. Caius Marcius Coriolanus !t I would I were a Roman; for I cannot, Cor. I will go wash ; Being a Volsce, be that I am.—Condition ! And when my face is fair, you shall perceive What good condition can a treaty find Whether I blush, or no: howbeit I thank you :- I'the part that is at mercy ?—Five times, Marcius, I mean to stride your steed; and at all times, I have fought with thee; so often hast thou beat To undercrest your good addition me; To the fairness of my power. And wouldst do so, I think, should we encounter Con. So, to our tent; As often as we eat.—By the elements, Where, ere we do repose us, we will write If e'er again I meet him beard to beard, To Rome of our success.—You, Titus Lartius, He's mine, or I am his! Mine emulation Must to Corioli back : send us to Rome Hath not that honour in't it had; for where The best, with whom we may articulate, o I thought to crush him in an equal force, For their own good and ours. (True sword to sword) I'll potch at him some way, LART. I shall, my lord. Or wrath or craft may get him. Cor. The gods begin to mock me. 1 SOL. He's the devil. I that now () Old text, shoot. (1) Old text, Marcus Caius Coriolanus. when drums and trumpets shali Let him be made an overture for the wars!) "Let hymns be made an overture for the wars," Tyrwhitt would read, “Let this (that is, silk! be marie a coverlure for the wars ;' and Mr. Collier's annotatcr, “Let it be made a coverture for the wars." If an alteration be absolutely needed, that of "a roverture" for "an overture," understanding him” to be used for the nenter il, is the least objectionable; but we are strongly disposed to think that "overture,” if not a misprint for oration, is emplosed here in the same sense, and that the meaning is, -When steel grows soft as the parisite's silk, let him be made, i.e. let there be made for him, a triumph, as for a successful warrior. b--his proper harm)-] His peculiar or personal harm. c The best, with whom we may articulare,-) The chirf personages of Corioli, with whom we may enter into articles. Auf. Bolder, though not so subtle. My valour’s | Against the hospitable canon, would I poison’d, Wash my fierce hand in's heart !—Go you to the With only suffering stain by him; for him city; Shall fly out of itself. Nor sleep nor sanctuary, Learn how 't is held ; and what they are that mus Being naked, sick. Nor fane nor Capitol, Be hostages for Rome. The prayers of priests por times of sacrifice, 1 Sol. Will not you go? Embarquements all of fury, shall lift up AUF. I am attended at the cypress grove: I Their rotten privilege and custom 'gainst pray you, Mş hate to Marcius! Where I find him, were it ("Tis south the city mills) bring me word thither At home, upon my brother's guard, even there How the world goes, that to the pace of it I may spur on my journey. Embarquements-] That is, embargoes, or impediments. 1 Sol. I shall, sir. [Exeunt. b 41 home, upon my brother's guard,-) At my own house, under the proteciion of my brother. Enter MENENIUS, SICINIUS, and Brutus. Bru. And topping all others in boasting. MEN. This is strange now: do you two know MEN. The augurer tells me we shall have news how you are censured here in the city, I mean of to-night. us o' the right-hand file? do you? Bru. Good or bad ? Both. Why, how are we censured ? you not be angry? little thief of occasion will rob you of a great Men. Ay, to devour him; as the hungry ple- deal of patience : give your dispositions the reins, beians would the noble Marcius. and be angry at your pleasures ; at the least, if Bru. He's a lamb indeed, that baes like a you take it as a pleasure to you in being so. You bear. blame Marcius for being proud ? MEN. He's a bear, indeed, that lives like a Bru. We do it not alone, sir. lamb. You two are old men : tell me one thing MEN. I know you can do very little alone, for that I shall ask you. your helps are many, or else your actions would Boru Tri. Well, sir. grow wondrous single: your abilities are too inMen. In what enormity is Marcius poor in, fant-like for doing much alone. You talk of that you two have not in abundance ? pride: 0, that you could turn your eyes toward Bru. He's poor in no one fault, but stored the napes of your necks, and make but an interior with all. survey of your good selves ! O, that you could ! Sic. Especially in pride. BRU. What then, sir? MEN. Why, then you should discover a brace it is not worth the wagging of your beards; and of unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, your beards deserve not so honourable a grave as (alias fools) as any in Rome. to stuff a botcher's cushion, or to be entombed in Sic. Menenius, you are known well enough an ass's pack-saddle. Yet you must be saying, too. Marcius is proud ; who, in a cheap estimation, is Men. I am known to be a humorous patrician, worth all your predecessors since Deucalion ; and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a though, peradventure, some of the best of 'em drop of allaying Tiber in't; said to be something were hereditary hangmen. God-den to your imperfect in favouring the first complaint ; hasty worships ; more of your conversation would infect and tinder-like upon too trivial motion ;* one that my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly pleconverses more with the buttock of the night than beians ; I will be bold to take my leave of you.with the forehead of the morning. What I [Brutus and SICINIUS retire. think I utter, and spend my malice in my breath. Meeting two such weal’s-men as you are, (I cannot call you Lycurguses) if the drink you give me Enter VOLUMNIA, Virginia, and VALERIA, touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face attended. at it. I cannot * say your worships have delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in compound How now, my as fair as noble ladies,—and the with the major part of your syllables : and though moon, were she earthly, no nobler,—whither do be content to that you follow eyes so fast are reverend gravemen, yet they lie deadly that savou . Honourable Menenius , my boy Marcius VAL: } Nay, 'tis true. . tell you have good faces. If you see this in the approaches ;—for the love of Juno, let's go. map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known Men. Ha! Marcius coming home ? well enough too ? What harm can your bigson † Vol. Ay, worthy Menenius; and with most conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be prosperous approbation, known well enough too ? MEN. Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank Bru. Come, sir, come, we know you well thee !-Hoo! Marcius coming home! enough. . Men. You know neither me, yourselves, nor any thing. You are ambitious for poor knaves' Vol. Look, here's a letter from him : the caps and legs : you wear out a good wholesome state hath another, his wife another; and I think forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange there's one at home for you. wife and a fosset-seller ; and then rejourn the Men. I will make my very house reel tocontroversy of three-pence to a second day of night:-a letter for me? audience. When you are hearing a matter be- Vir. Yes, certain, there's a letter for you ; I tween party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the colic, you make faces like mummers ; MEN. A letter for me! it gives me an estate set up the bloody flag against all patience; and, in of seven years' health ; in which time I will make roaring for a chamberpot, dismiss the controversy a lip at the physician: the most sovereign prebleeding, the more entangled by your hearing : scription in Galen is but empiricutic, and, to this all the peace you make in their cause is, calling preservative, of no better report than a horseboth the parties knaves. You are a pair of strange drench.—Is he not wounded ? he was wont to come home wounded. Bru. Come, come, you are well understood to Vir. O, no, no, no ! be a perfecter giber for the table, than a necessary Vol. O, he is wounded,—I thank the gods bencher in the Capitol. for't. Men. Our very priests must become mockers, Men. So do I too, if it be not too much :if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as brings 'a victory in his pocket ?—the wounds you are. When you speak best unto the purpose, saw it. b ones. become him. (*) old text, can, corrected by Theobald. (t) Old text, beesome, corrected by Theobald. I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a eup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tibor in't; said to be something imperfect in favouring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like upon too trivial motion ;) The pose in this passage is the expression, "the first complaint." What is “the first complaint"? At one time we conceived the sprightly, warm-hearted old senator, among his other failings, “cried out of women," and referred to what Ben Jonson as obscurely terms “the primitive work of darkness" ("The Devil is an Ass," Act II. Sc. 2); but 9 what militates against this supposition, and the wonderfully acute emendation of Mr Collier's annotator, -"the thirst complaint," also is the doubt whether “complaint" obtained the sense of malady or ailment until many years after these plays were written. If it did not bear this meaning in Shakespeare's day, the only explanation of “ something imperfect, in favouring the first com plaint," appears to be that he was too apt to be led away by first impressions ; to act rather upon impulse than from reflection. -empericutic,-) In the old text, “ Emperickqutique," which Pope altered to “emperic," and for which Nr. Collier's annotator substitutes, "empiric physic,” Vol. On's brows, Menenius, he comes the In honour follows, Coriolanus:-third time home with the oaken garland. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus ! Men. Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly? Flourish. Vol. Titus Lartius writes,—they fought to- All. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus ! gether, but Aufidius got off. Cor. No more of this, it does offend my MEN. And 'twas time for him too, I'll warrant heart; him that: an he had stayed by him, I would not Pray now, no more. have been so 'fidiused for all the chests in Corioli, Com. Look, sir, your mother! and the gold that's in them. Is the senate pos COR. O, sessed of this ? You have, I know, petition'd all the gods Vol. Good ladies, let's go.—Yes, yes, yes ; For my prosperity ! [Kneels. the senate has letters from the general, wherein he Vol. Nay, my good soldier, up; gives my son the whole name of the war: he hath My gentle Marcius, worthy Caius, and in this action outdone his former deeds doubly. By deed-achieving honour newly nam'd, Val. In troth, there's wondrous things spoke What is it ?—Coriolanus must I call thee? of him. But O, thy wife ! Men. Wondrous ! ay, I warrant you, and not COR. My gracious silence, hail ! without his true purchasing. Wouldst thou have laugh'd had I come coffin'd Vir. The gods grant them true ! home, VOL. True! pow, wow. That weep'st to see me triumph ? Ah, my dear, MEN. True! I'll be sworn they are true. Such the widows in Corioli wear, Where is he wounded ?-[To the Tribunes.] God And mothers that lack sons. save your good worships ! Marcius is coming MEN. Now, the gods crown thee ! home: he has more cause to be proud.—Where is Cor. And live you yet ?—0 my sweet lady, he wounded ? pardon. [T. VALERIA. VOL. I' the shoulder and i’ the left arm : there Vol. I know not where to turn :-0, welcome will be large cicatrices to show the people, when home ; he shall stand for his place. He received in the And welcome, general ;—and ye're welcome all. repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i’ the body. MEN. A hundred thousand welcomes :- I could Men. One i' the neck, and two i' the thigh,– weep, there's nine that I know. And I could laugh; I am light and heavy S VOL. He had, before this last expedition, welcome : twenty-five wounds upon him. . A curse begin at very root on's heart, Men. Now it's twenty-seven: every gash was That is not glad to see thee !--You are three, an enemy's grave. [1 shout and flourish.] Hark! That Rome should dote on : yet, by the faith of the trumpets. men, [will not Vol. These are the ushers of Marcius : before We have some old crab-trees here at home, that him Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors: Cor. Menenius, ever, ever. Your hand, and yours : [To Virg, and VOLUM. A Sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter Cominius and Ere in our own house I do shade my head, Titus LARTIUS; between them, CORIOLANUS, The good patricians must be visited; crowned with an oaken garland ; with Cap- From whom I have receivd not only greetings, tains, Soldiers, and a Herald. But with them change of honours. I have liv'd Her. Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did To see inherited my very wishes, fight And the buildings of my fancy: Within Corioli' gates ; where he hath won, Only there's one thing wanting, which I doubt not, With fame, a name to Caius Marcius ; * these But our Rome will cast upon thee. : : Ever right. (*) Old text, Martius Caius Coriolanus. (*) Old text, Martius C s. - charge of honcurs.] Change of honours, in the sense of additional honours, may be right, though we incline to Theobald's substitution, "churge of honours.' |