Or, feeing it, of fuch childish friendliness
To yield your voices?

BRU.
Could you not have told him,
As you were leffon'd,—When he had no power,
But was a petty fervant to the state,

He was your enemy; ever fpake against
Your liberties, and the charters that you bear
I' the body of the weal: and now, arriving
A place of potency, and fway o'the state,
If he fhould ftill malignantly remain
Faft foe to the plebeii, your voices might
Be curfes to yourselves? You fhould have faid,
That, as his worthy deeds did claim no lefs
Than what he stood for; fo his gracious nature
Would think upon you for your voices, and
Tranflate his malice towards you into love,
Standing your friendly lord.

SIC.

Thus to have said, As you were fore-advis'd, had touch'd his fpirit, And try'd his inclination; from him pluck'd Either his gracious promife, which you might, As caufe had call'd you up, have held him to; Or else it would have gall'd his furly nature, Which easily endures not article

Tying him to aught; fo, putting him to rage, You thould have ta'en the advantage of his choler, And pafs'd him unelected.

BRU.

Did you perceive, He did folicit you in free contempt,

8 — arriving

A place of potency,] Thus the old copy, and rightly. So, in the third part of King Henry VI. A&t V. fc. iii:

thofe powers that the queen

"Hath rais'd in Gallia, have arriv'd our coaft." STEEVENS. 9 Would think upon you—] Would retain a grateful remembrance of you, &c. MALONE.

2

-free contempt,] That is, with contempt open and unreftrained. JOHNSON.

When he did need your loves; and do you

think, That his contempt fhall not be bruising to you, When he hath power to crufh? Why, had your

bodies

No heart among you? Or had you tongues, to cry Against the rectorship of judgement?

SIC.

Have you, Ere now, deny'd the afker? and, now again, On him, that did not afk, but mock, bestow Your fu'd-for tongues? 3

2

3. CIT. He's not confirm'd, we may deny him yet. 2. CIT. And will deny him:

I'll have five hundred voices of that found.

1. CIT. I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece 'em.

BRU. Get you hence instantly; and tell those friends,

They have chofe a conful, that will from them take
Their liberties; make them of no more voice

Than dogs, that are as often beat for barking,
As therefore kept to do fo.

SIC.

Let them affemble;

And, on a safer judgement, all revoke
Your ignorant election: Enforce his pride,+

2 On him,] Old copy-of him-. STEEVENS.

3 Your fu'd-for tongues?] Your voices that hitherto have been folicited. STEEVENS.

Your voices, not folicited, by verbal application, but fued-for by this man's merely ftanding forth as a candidate.-Your fued-for tongues, however, may mean, your voices, to obtain which so many make fuit to you; and perhaps the latter is the more juft interpre tation. MALONE.

4 Enforce his pride,] Object his pride, and enforce the objection. JOHNSON.

So afterwards:

"Enforce him with his envy to the people." STEEVENS.

And his old hate unto you: befides, forget not
With what contempt he wore the humble weed;
How in his fuit he fcorn'd you: but your loves,
Thinking upon his fervices, took from you
The apprehenfion of his prefent portance,
Which gibingly," ungravely, he did fashion
After the inveterate hate he bears you.

5

BRU.
Lay
A fault on us, your tribunes; that we labour'd,
(No impediment between) but that you muft
Caft your election on him.

SIC.
Say, you chofe him
More after our commandment, than as guided
By your own true affections: and that, your minds
Pre-occupy'd with what you rather must do
Than what you fhould, made you against the grain
To voice him conful: Lay the fault on us.

BRU. Ay, fpare us not. Say, we read lectures to

you,

How youngly he began to ferve his country,
How long continued: and what ftock he fprings of,
The noble houfe o'the Marcians; from whence

came

That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's fon,
Who, after great Hoftilius, here was king:
Of the fame houfe Publius and Quintus were,
That our best water brought by conduits hither;
And Cenforinus, darling of the people,

S bis prefent portance,] i. e. carriage. So, in Othello: "And portance in my travels' hiftory." STEEVENS.

• Which gibingly,] The old copy, redundantly,

Which mott gibingly, &c. STEEVENS.

* And Cenforinus, darling of the people,] This verfe I have fupplied; a line having been certainly left out in this place, as will appear to any one who confults the beginning of Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus, from whence this paffage is directly tranflated. POPE.

And nobly nam'd fo, being cenfor twice,"
Was his great ancestor.'

SIC.
One thus defcended,
That hath befide well in his person wrought

The paffage in North's tranflation, 1579, runs thus: "The houfe of the Martians at Rome was of the number of the patricians, out of which hath fprong many noble perfonages: whereof Ancus Martius was one, king Numaes daughter's fonne, who was king of Rome after Tullus Hoftilius. Of the fame houfe were Publius and Quintus, who brought to Rome their best water they had by conduits. Cenforinus alfo came of that familie, that was fo furnamed because the people had chofen him cenfor twice."-Publius and Quintus and Cenforinus were not the ancestors of Coriolanus, but his defcendants. Caius Martius Rutilius did not obtain the name of Cenforinus till the year of Rome 487; and the Marcian waters were not brought to that city by aqueducts till the year 613, near 350 years after the death of Coriolanus.

Can it be fuppofed, that he who would difregard fuch anachronifms, or rather he to whom they were not known, fhould have changed Cato, which he found in his Plutarch, to Calves, from a regard to chronology? See a former note, p. 37. MALONE.

6 And nobly nam'd fo, being cenfor twice,] The old copy reads: being twice cenfor; but for the fake of harmony, I have arranged thefe words as they ftand in our author's original,-Sir T. North's tranflation of Plutarch: " - the people had chofen him cenfor twice." STEEVENS.

7 And Cenforinus

Was his great ancestor.] Now the firft cenfor was created U. C. 314, and Coriolanus was banished U. C. 262. The truth is this: the paffage, as Mr. Pope obferves above, was taken from Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus; who, fpeaking of the houfe of Coriolanus, takes notice both of his ancestors and of his pofterity, which our author's hafte not giving him leave to obferve, has here confounded one with the other. Another inftance of his inadvertency, from the fame caufe, we have in the first part of Henry IV. where an account is given of the prifoners took on the plains of Holmedon:

Mardake the earl of Fife, and eldeft fon

To beaten Douglas

But the earl of Fife was not fon to Douglas, but to Robert duke of Albany, governor of Scotland. He took his account from Holinfbed, whofe words are, And of prifoners amongst others were thefe, Mordack earl of Fife, fon to the governor Arkimbald, earl Douglas, &c. And he imagined that the governor and earl Douglas were one and the fame perfon. WARBURTON.

8

To be fet high in place, we did commend
To your remembrances: but you have found,
Scaling his prefent bearing with his past,
That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your fudden approbation.

BRU.

Say, you ne'er had done't,

(Harp on that ftill,) but by our putting on:" And prefently, when you have drawn your number, Repair to the Capitol.

CIT. We will fo: almost all [Several Speak. Repent in their election.

BRU.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Let them go on;

This mutiny were better put in hazard,
Than stay, paft doubt, for greater:

If, as his nature is, he fall in rage

With their refusal, both observe and answer
The vantage of his anger.*

SIC.

To the Capitol :

Come; we'll be there before the ftream o' the

people; 3

And this fhall feem, as partly 'tis, their own,
Which we have goaded onward.

[Exeunt.

8 Scaling his prefent bearing with his paft,] That is weighing his paft and prefent behaviour. JOHNSON.

9

66

by our :]
putting on i. e. incitation.

you protect this courfe

"And put it on by your allowance."

So, in King Henry VIII:

So, in King Lear:

STEEVENS.

The vantage of his anger.] Mark, catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hafty anger will afford us. JOHNSON.

3 the ftream of the people ;] So, in King Henry VIII:

66

-The rich fream

"Of lords and ladies having brought the queen

"To a prepar'd place in the choir," &c. MALONE.