As for my country I have shed my blood, BRU. You speak o' the people, As if you were a god to punish, not A man of their infirmity. Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, By Jove, 'twould be my mind. SIC. It is a mind, That shall remain a poison where it is, Not poifon any further. COR. Shall remain! Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you His abfolute ball? Сом. COR. 'Twas from the canon." Shall! 7 meazels,] Mefell is ufed in Pierce Plowman's Vifion for a leper. The fame word frequently occurs in The London Prodigal, 1605. STEEVENS. 8 — minnows?] i. e. fmall fry. WARBURTON. A minnow is one of the fmalleft river fifh, called in fome counties a pink. JOHNSON. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: " mirth,-." STEEVENS. that bafe minnow of thy 9 'Twas from the canon.] Was contrary to the established rule; it was a form of fpeech to which he has no right. JOHNSON. O good, but most unwife patricians,' why, That with his peremptory hall, being but The horn and noife' o'the monsters, wants not fpirit These words appear to me to imply the very reverfe. Cominius means to fay, "that what Sicinius had faid, was according to the rule," alluding to the abfolute veto of the Tribunes, the power of putting a ftop to every proceeding :-and, accordingly, Coriolanus, inftead of difputing this power of the Tribunes, proceeds to argue against the power itfelf, and to inveigh against the Patricians for having granted it. M. MASON. 2 O good, but most unwife patricians, &c.] The old copy has-O God, but &c. Mr. Theobald made the correction. Mr. Steevens afks, "when the only authentick ancient copy makes fenfe, why fhould we depart from it?"-No one can be more thoroughly convinced of the general propriety of adhering to the old copy than I am; and I trust I have given abundant proofs of my at tention to it, by reftoring and establishing many ancient readings in every one of thefe plays, which had been difplaced for modern innovations: and if in the paffage before us the ancient copy had afforded fenfe, I fhould have been very unwilling to diiturb it. But it does not; for it reads, not " O Gods," as Mr. Steevens fuppofed, but O God, an adjuration furely not proper in the mouth of a heathen. Add to this, that the word but is exhibited with a small initial letter, in the only authentick copy; and the words "good but unwife" here appear to be the counterpart of grave and reckless in the fubfequent line. On a re-confideration of this paffage therefore, I am confident that even my learned predecessor will approve of the emendation now adopted. MALONE. I have not difplaced Mr. Malone's reading, though it may be bbferved, that an improper mention of the Supreme Being of the Christians will not appear decifive on this occafion to the reader who recollects that in Troilus and Creffida the Trojan Pandarus fwears, " by God's lid," the Greek Therfites exclaims Goda-mercy;" and that, in The Midfummer-Night's Dream, our author has put God fhield us!" into the mouth of Bottom, an Athenian weaver. I lately met with a ftill more glaring inftance of the fame impropriety in another play of Shakspeare, but cannot, at this moment, afcertain it. STEEVENS. 3 The born and noife] Alluding to his having called him Triton before. WARBURTON. 4 To fay, he'll turn your current in a ditch, ୮ г Τ Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians, I T A Then vail your ignorance:] If this man has power, let the ignorance that gave it him vail or bow down before him. So, in The Taming of a Shrew: Again, in Meafure for Meafure: 66 66 vail your regard Upon a wrong'd" &c. STEEVENS. 5 You are plebeians, If they be fenators: and they are no less, When, both your voices blended, the greatest tafte JOHNSON. Moft palates theirs.] Thefe lines may, I think, be made more intelligible by a very flight correction : -they no lefs [than fenators] When, both your voices blended, the greatest tafte སྙ། When the taste of the great, the patricians, muft palate, must pleafe [or must try] that of the plebeians. JOHNSON. The plain meaning is, that fenators and plebeians are equal, when the highest tafte is beft pleased with that which pleases the lowest. ons STEEVENS: I think the meaning is, the plebeians are no lefs than fenators, when, the voices of the fenate and the people being blended toge ther, the predominant tafte of the compound fmacks more of the populace than the fenate. MALONE. 6 — and my foul akes,] The mifchief and abfurdity of what is called Imperium in imperio, is here finely expreffed. WARBURTON. To know, when two authorities are up, Сом. Well,-on to the market-place. COR. Whoever gave that counsel,' to give forth The corn o'the ftorehouse gratis, as 'twas us'd Sometime in Greece, MEN. Well, well, no more of that. COR. (Though there the people had more absolute power,) I fay, they nourish'd difobedience, fed BRU. Why, fhall the people give 7 Whoever gave that counfel, &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Therefore, fayed he, they that gaue counfell, and perfuaded that the Corne fhould be giuen out to the common people gratis, as they vfed to doe in cities of Græce, where the people had more abfolute power, dyd but only nourishe their disobedience, which would breake out in the ende, to the vtter ruine and ouerthrow of the whole ftate. For they will not thincke it is done in recompenfe of their fervice paft, fithence they know well enough they haue fo often refufed to go to the warres, when they were commaunded: neither for their mutinies when they went with vs, whereby they haue rebelled and forfaken their countrie: neither for their accufations which their flatterers haue preferred vnto them, and they have recevued, and made good against the fenate: but they will rather judge we geue and graunt them this, as abafing our felues, and ftanding in feare of them, and glad to flatter them euery way. By this meanes, their difobedience will still grow worfe and worfe; and they will neuer leave to practife newe fedition, and vprores. Therefore it were a great follie for vs, me thinckes, to do it: yea, fhall I faye more? we should if we were wise, take from them their tribunefhippe, which moft manifeftly is the embafing of the confulfhippe, and the cause of the diuifion of the cittie. The ftate whereof as it ftandeth, is not now as it was wont to be, but becommeth difmembered in two factions, which mainteines allwayes ciuill diffention and difcorde betwene vs, and will neuer fuffer us againe to be vnited into one bodic." STEEVENS. One, that speaks thus, their voice? Cor. I'll give my reasons, More worthier than their voices. They know, the corn Was not our recompenfe; refting well affur'd They ne'er did fervice for't: Being prefs'd to the war, Even when the navel of the ftate was touch'd, They would not thread the gates: this kind of fervice 8 Did not deserve corn gratis: being i' the war, Call our cares, fears: which will in time break ope 8 They would not thread the gates :] That is, pass them. We yet fay, to thread an alley. JOHNSON. So, in King Lear: "threading dark-ey'd night." STEEVENS. 9 ·could never be the native-] Native for natural birth. WARBURTON, Native is here not natural birth, but natural parent, or cause of birth, JOHNSON, So, in a kindred fenfe, in King Henry V: 2 "A many of our bodies fhall no doubt "Find native graves." MALONE. this bofom multiplied-] This multitudinous bofom; the bofom of that great monfter, the people. MALONE. |