Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of fight, yet will I ftill

Be thus to them.

1. PAT.

Enter VOLUMNIA.

You do the nobler.

COR. I mufe,' my mother

Does not approve me further, who was wont
To call them woollen vaffals, things created
To buy and fell with groats; to fhow bare heads
In congregations, to yawn, be ftill, and wonder,
When one but of my ordinance + stood up
To fpeak of peace, or war. I talk of you;

[TO VOLUMNIA, Why did you with me milder? Would you have me Falfe to my nature? Rather fay, I play

The man I am.'

VOL.

O, fir, fir, fir,

I would have had you put your power well on,
Before you had worn it out.

COR.

Let go."

3 I mufe,] That is, I wonder, I am at a lefs. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth:

4

"Do not mufe at me, my moft noble friends.'

STEEVENS.

5 The man I am.] Sir Thomas Hanmer supplies the defect in this line, very judiciously in my opinion, by reading:

Truly the man I am.

Truely is properly oppofed to Falfe in the preceding line.

STEEVENS.

Let go.] Here again Sir Thomas Hanmer, with fufficient propriety, reads-Why, let it go.-Mr. Ritfon would complete the meafure with a fimilar expreffion, which occurs in Othello,“ Let it go all."-Too many of the fhort replies in this and other plays of Shakspeare, are apparently mutilated. STEEVENS.

VOL. You might have been enough the man you

are,

With striving lefs to be fo: Leffer had been
The thwartings of your difpofitions,* if
You had not show'd them how you were difpos'd
Ere they lack'd power to cross you.

COR.

VOL. Ay, and burn too.

Let them hang.

Enter MENENIUS, and Senators.

MEN. Come, come, you have been too rough, fomething too rough;

You must return, and mend it.

I. SEN.
Unless, by not fo doing, our good city
Cleave in the midst, and perish.

VOL.

There's no remedy;

Pray, be counsel'd:

I have a heart as little apt as yours,
But yet a brain, that leads my ufe of anger,
To better vantage.

MEN.

Well faid, noble woman: Before he should thus ftoop to the herd, but that

The thwartings of your difpofitions,] The old copies exhibit it:
The things of your difpofitions.

A few letters replac'd, that by fome careleffness dropp'd out, reftore us the Poet's genuine reading:

The thwartings of your difpofitions. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald only improved on Mr. Rowe's correction

The things that thwart your difpofitions. MALONE.

5 Before he should thus floop to the herd,] [Old copy-stoop to the heart.] But how did Coriolanus ftoop to his heart? He rather, as we vulgarly express it, made his proud heart ftoop to the neceffity of the times. I am perfuaded, my emendation gives the true read ing. So before in this play:

"Are these your herd?"

So, in Julius Cæfar: "when he perceived, the common berd was glad he refus'd the crown," &c. THEOBALD.

The violent fit o' the time craves it as phyfick
For the whole state, I would put mine armour on,
Which I can scarcely bear.

COR. For them?—I cannot do it to the gods; Muft I then do't to them?

VOL.

You are too abfolute;"

Though therein you can never be too noble,
But when extremities fpeak. I have heard you say,
Honour and policy, like unfever'd friends,

I' the war do grow together: Grant that, and tell

me,

In peace, what each of them by th' other lofe,
That they combine not there.

COR.
MEN.

Tush, tush!

A good demand.

VOL. If it be honour, in your wars, to feem The fame you are not, (which, for your beft ends, You adopt your policy,) how is it lefs, or worse, That it fhall hold companionship in peace

With honour, as in war; fince that to both
It stands in like request?

Mr. Theobald's conjecture is confirmed by a paffage, in which Coriolanus thus defcribes the people :

"You fhames of Rome! you herd of—”

Herd was anciently fpelt heard. Hence heart crept into the old copy. MALONE.

6 You are too abfilute;

Though therein you can never be too noble,

But when extremities Speak.] Except in cafes of urgent neceffity, when your refolute and noble fpirit, however commendable at other times, ought to yield to the occafion. MALONE.

COR.

Why force you" this?
VOL. Because 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
to,8

But with fuch words that are but roted in
Your tongue, though but baftards, and fyllables
Of no allowance, to your bofom's truth."

7 Why force you] Why urge you. JOHNSON. So, in King Henry VIII:

"If you will now unite in your complaints,

"And force them with a conftancy-" MALONE. Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you to,] [Old copy prompts you,] Perhaps, the meaning is, which your heart prompts you to. We have many fuch elliptical expreffions in thefe plays. See Vol. XI. p. 185, n. 2. So, in Julius Cæfar:

"Thy honourable metal may be wrought
"From what it is difpos'd [to]."

But I rather believe, that our author has adopted the language of the theatre, and that the meaning is, which your heart fuggefts to you; which your heart furnishes you with, as a prompter furnishes the player with the words that have efcaped his memory. So afterwards: Come, come, we'll prompt you." The editor of the fecond folio, who was entirely unacquainted with our author's peculiarities, reads-prompts you to, and fo all the subsequent copies read. MALONE.

I am content to follow the fecond folio; though perhaps we ought to read:

Nor by the matter which your heart prompts in you.

So, in a Sermon preached at St. Paul's Croffe &c. 1589: "-for often meditatyon prompteth in us goode thoughtes, begettyng theron goode workes," &c.

Without fome additional fyllable the verse is defective.

9baftards, and fyllables

STEEVENS

Of no allowance, to your bofom's truth.] I read: “ of no alliance; "therefore baftards. Yet allowance may well enough stand, as meaning legal right, eftablished rank, or fettled authority.

JOHNSON.

Allowance is certainly right. So, in Othello, Act II. fc. i:

his pilot

"Of very expert and approv'd allowance."

2

Now, this no more dishonours you at all,
Than to take in a town with gentle words,
Which elfe would put you to your fortune, and
The hazard of much blood.-

I would diffemble with my nature, where
My fortunes, and my friends, at stake, requir'd,
I fhould do fo in honour: I am in this,

Your wife, your fon, these fenators, the nobles; And you will rather fhow our general lowts* How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon them, For the inheritance of their loves, and fafeguard Of what that want might ruin.

Dr. Johnson's amendment, however, is countenanced by an expreffion in The Taming of a Shrew, where Petruchio's stirrups are faid to be of no kindred." STEEVENS.

I at firft was pleafed with Dr. Johnson's propofed emendation, because of no allowance, i. e. approbation, to your bofom's appeared to me unintelligible. But allowance has no connection with the fubfequent words, "to your bofom's truth." The conftruction is-though but baftards to your bofom's truth, not the lawful iffue of your heart, The words, "and fyllables of no allowance," are put in oppofition with baftards, and are as it were parenthetical. MALONE.

2 Than to take in a town-] To fubdue or destroy. See p. 26, n. 9. MALONE.

3 - I am in this,

Your wife, your fon, thefe fenators, the nobles;

And you &c.] Volumnia is perfuading Coriolanus that he ought to flatter the people, as the general fortune was at stake; and fays, that in this advice, fhe fpeaks as his wife, as his fon; as the fenate and body of the patricians; who were in fome measure link'd to his conduct. WARBURTON.

I rather think the meaning is, I am in their condition, I am at fake, together with your wife, your fon. JOHNSON.

I am in this, means, I am in this predicament. M. MASON.

I think the meaning is, In this advice, in exhorting you to act thus, I fpeak not only as your mother, but as your wife, your fon, &c. all of whom are at ftake. MALONE.

4

our general lowts →] Our common clowns. JOHNSON. that want] The want of their loves. JOHNSON.