a The thwartings-] An emendation of Theobald's, the old text having,-" The things," &c. b I have a heart as little apt as yours, But yet a brain that leads my use of anger, Mr. Collier's annotator here indulges in one of his most daring flights, the intercalation of a whole line!-rendering the passage thus, "I have a heart as little apt as yours, To brook reproof without the use of anger, This interpolation, (which, by the way, has been corrupted or corrected since its publication in Mr. Collier's "Notes and Emendations," and in his Mono-volume Shakespeare, where it reads, "To brook control without the use of anger,") we hold to be quite superfluous, and, if even a lacuna were manifest, to be altogether inadmissible. For admitting, which we Enter MENENIUS and Senators MEN. Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough; You must return and mend it. There's no remedy; 1 SEN. Unless, by not so doing, our good city Cleave in the midst, and perish. VOL. Pray, be counsell❜d · I have a heart as little apt as yours, But yet a brain that leads my use of anger, To better vantage. b MEN. Well said, noble woman! Before he should thus stoop to the herd,* but that The violent fit o'the time craves it as physic For the whole state, I'd put mine armour on, Which I can scarcely bear. COR. What must I do? MEN. Return to the tribunes. COR. Well, what then? what then? MEN. Repent what you have spoke. COR. For them?—I cannot do it to the gods; Must I, then, do't to them? VOL. You are too absolute; Though therein you can never be too noble, But when extremities speak. I have heard you say, Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends, [me, I'the war do grow together: grant that, and tell In peace, what each of them by the other lose, That they combine not there. Tush, tush! COR. (*) Old text, heart, corrected by Theobald. are not guilty of, the antiquity claimed by Mr. Collier for the marginal annotations of his copy of the second folio, we agree with Mr. R. G. White (Shakespeare's Scholar, p. 76), that, “the interpolation of an entire line by one man in 1662, is as little justifiable as the interpolation of an entire scene by another man in 1762 or 1853." That there is a difficulty in the construction of the speech as it stands in the ancient text, nobody can deny. But it is surely one susceptible of a solution less perilous and arbitrary than the insertion of a new line. Mr. Singer proposed to read soft for " apt; an emendation which has not been favourably received. Our own impression, long before the "Perkins folio" came to light, was that the transcriber or compositor had slightly erred in the words "as little," and that the poet probably wrote,-of mettle, i.e. of temper, &c.— "I have a heart of mettle apt as yours," which naturally enough led to "But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger, That now it lies you on to speak to the people; Not by your own instruction, nor by the matter Which your heart prompts you, but with such words That are but roted in your tongue, Though but bastards, and syllables" b Of no allowance to your bosom's truth. I would dissemble with my nature, where ΜΕΝ. Noble lady! them) d Thy knee bussing the stones, (for in such business That will not hold the handling: or, say to them, MEN. This but done, Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours: a Though but bastards, and syllables, &c.] In this speech we follow the arrangement of the old copies, which though imperfect is infinitely preferable to that adopted by all the modern editions. The verse before us is evidently corrupt; "but" seems to have crept in from the preceding line, and some word to have been lost; we may be permitted to guess that it originally ran,"Thought's bastards, and persuading syllables," "Thought's bastards, and glib syllables," or, b of no allowance,-] Johnson and Capell read," Of no alli ance." Pr'ythee now, VOL. Go, and be rul'd; although I know thou hadst rather Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf, Than flatter him in a bower.-Here is Cominius. Enter COMINIUS. And throw't against the wind.-To the market place: You have put me now to such a part, which never I shall discharge to the life. COM. Come, come, we'll prompt you. VOL. I pr'ythee now, sweet son,-as thou hast said My praises made thee first a soldier, so, COR. Some harlot's spirit! my throat of war be turn'd, Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his While often, thus, correcting thy stout heart, That will not hold the handling,-say to them," &c. funbarbed sconce?] Unbarbed here means, bare, uncovered M Scars to move laughter only. 163 Scratches with briers, MEN. Consider further, That when he speaks not like a citizen, You find him like a soldier: do not take His rougher accents for malicious sounds, But, as I say, such as become a soldier, Rather than envy you. COM. Well, well, no more. COR. What is the matter, That being pass'd for consul with full voice, I am so dishonour'd, that the very hour You take it off again? [take SIC. (*) Old text, actions, corrected by Theobald. Cом. Know, I pray you,— Cor. From off the rock Tarpeian, never more I say it shall be so. presence I' the people's name, a Envied against the people,-] That is, Steevens explains, "behaved with signs of hatred to the people," but "envied" here is perhaps only a misprint of Inveighed; so in North's Plutarch, (Life of Solon):-" But Solon going up into the pulpit for orations, stoutly inveyed against it." b cry of curs!] Cry here means pack. c Making but reservation of yourselves,-] This, since Capell's CITIZENS. It shall be so! it shall be so! let him away! He's banish'd, and it shall be so! Cом. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends, SIC. He's sentenc'd; no more hearing. I have been consul, and can show for* Rome, As enemy to the people and his country: CITIZENS. It shall be so! it shall be so! As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENE- |