АСТ III. SCENE I. The fame. A Street. Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, Senators, and Patricians. COR. Tullus Aufidius then had made new head? LART. He had, my lord; and that it was, which caus'd Our swifter compofition. COR. So then the Volces ftand but as at first; Ready, when time fhall prompt them, to make road Upon's again. LART. On fafe-guard he came to me; and did curfe Against the Volces, for they had fo vilely Yielded the town: he is retir'd to Antium. COR. Spoke he of me? LART. COR. He did, my lord. How? what? LART. How often he had met you, fword to fword: 3 lord conful,] Shakspeare has here, as in other places, attributed the usage of England to Rome. In his time the title of lord was given to many officers of state who were not peers; thus, lords of the council, lord ambassador, lord general, &c.` MALONE. 4 On fafe-guard he came to me ;] i. e. with a convoy, a guard appointed to protect him. STEEVENS. That, of all things upon the earth, he hated Be call'd your vanquisher. COR. LART. At Antium. At Antium lives he? COR. I wish I had a cause to seek him there, To oppose his hatred fully.-Welcome home. [To Lartius. Enter SICINIUS, and BRUTUS. Behold! these are the tribunes of the people, them; For they do prank them in authority," Against all noble fufferance. COм. Hath he not pafs'd the nobles, and the commons?" 5 prank them in authority,] Plume, deck, dignify themfelves. So, in Measure for Meafure, A& II. fc. ii: Dreft in a little brief authority." STEEVENS. JOHNSON. 6 Hath he not pafs'd the nobles, and the commons ?] The first folio reads: " -noble," and " common." The fecond has-commons. I have not hesitated to reform this paffage on the authority of others in the play before us. Thus : "A fhower and thunder," &c. STEEVENS, BRU. Cominius, no. COR. Have I had children's voices? 1. SEN. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place. BRU. The people are incens'd against him. SIC. Or all will fall in broil. COR. Stop, Are thefe your herd?Must these have voices, that can yield them now, And ftraight disclaim their tongues? What are your offices? You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? 6 Have you not set them on? MEN. Be calm, be calm. COR. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility :— Suffer't, and live with fuch as cannot rule, BRU. Call❜t not a plot: The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late, When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd; Scandal'd the fuppliants for the people; call'd them Time-pleafers, flatterers, foes to nobleness. 6 COR. Why, this was known before. BRU. Not to them all. How! I inform them! COR. Have you inform'd them fince?" COR. You are like to do fuch bufinefs. why rule you not their teeth?] The metaphor is from men's fetting a bull-dog or mastiff upon any one. WARBURTON fince?] The old copy-fuhence. STEEVENS. BRU. Each way, to better yours.' Not unlike, COR. Why then fhould I be conful? By yon clouds, Let me deserve fo ill as you, and make me Your fellow tribune. SIC. You fhow too much of that," For which the people ftir: If you will pass To where you are bound, you must inquire your way, Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit; Nor yoke with him for tribune. ΜΕΝ. Let's be calm. COм. The people are abus'd:-Set on.-This palt'ring 2 Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus Not unlike, Each way, to better yours. &c.] i. e. likely to provide better for the fecurity of the commonwealth than you (whofe business it is) will do. To which the reply is pertinent: Why then should I be conful?" WARBURTON. 9 Sic. You how too much of that, &c.] This fpeech is given in the old copy to Cominius. It was rightly attributed to Sicinius by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. 2 This palt'ring Becomes not Rome;] That is, this trick of diffimulation; this fhuffling: "And be thefe juggling fiends no more believ'd, Becomes not Rome;] I would read Becomes not Romans; JOHNSON. Coriolanus being accented on the first, and not the fecond fyllable, in former inftances. STEEVENS. 3 rub, laid falfely &c.] Falfely for treacherously. JOHNSON. The metaphor is from the bowling-green. MALONE. VOL. XII. I I' the plain way of his merit. COR. Tell me of corn! This was my fpeech, and I will speak't again;— MEN. Not now, not now. I. SEN. Not in this heat, fir, now. COR. Now, as I live, I will.-My nobler friends, I crave their pardons : For the mutable, rank-fcented many, let them Therein behold themfelves: I fay again, In foothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate The cockle of rebellion," infolence, fedition, Which we ourselves have plough'd for, fow'd and fcatter'd, By mingling them with us, the honour'd number; Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that Which they have given to beggars. MEN. Well, no more. How! no more? 1. SEN. No more words, we beseech you. COR. 4 -many,] i. e. the populace. The Greeks ufed exactly in the fame fenfe. HOLT WHITE. Regard me as I do not flatter, and Therein behold themfelves:] Let them look in the mirror which I hold up to them, a mirror which does not flatter, and fee themfelves. JOHNSON. 6 The cockle of rebellion,] Cockle is a weed which grows up with the corn. The thought is from Sir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch, where it is given as follows: " Moreover, he faid, that they nourished against themfelves the naughty feed and cockle of infolency and fedition, which had been fowed and scattered abroad among the people" &c. STEEVENS. The cackle of rebellion, infolence, fedition,] Here are three fyllables We might read, as in North's Plutarch: too many. "The cockle of infolency and fedition." RITSON. |