Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, Senators, and Patricians.

SIC. Well, here he comes.

ΜΕΝ.

Calmly, I do befeech you.

COR. Ay, as an oftler, that for the poorest piece Will bear the knave by the volume."-The honour'd gods

Keep Rome in fafety, and the chairs of justice Supply'd with worthy men! plant love among us! Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, And not our ftreets with war!"

fenfe I believe is, What he has in his heart is waiting there to help us to break his neck. JOHNSON.

The tribune rather feems to mean- -The fentiments of Coriolanus's heart are our coadjutors, and look to have their share in promoting his deftruction. STEEVENS.

9 Will bear the knave by the volume.] i. e. would bear being called a knave as often as would fill out a volume. STEEVENS.

2

-plant love among us!

Throng our large temples with the fhows of peace,

And not our streets with war!] [The old copy-Through.] We fhould read:

Throng our large temples

The other is rank nonfenfe. WARBURTON.

The emendation was made by Mr. Theobald,

The bows of peace are multitudes of people peaceably affembled, either to hear the determination of caufes, or for other purposes of civil government. MALONE.

The real bows of peace among the Romans, were the olivebranch and the caduceus; but I queftion if our author, on the prefent occafion, had any determinate idea annexed to his words. Mr. Malone's fuppofition, however, can hardly be right; because the "temples" (i. e. thofe of the gods,) were never used for the determination of civil caufes, &c. To fuch purposes the Senate and the Forum were appropriated. The temples indeed might be thronged with people who met to thank the gods for a return of peace.

STEEVENS.

ÆD. Lift to your tribunes; audience: Peace, I

fay.

COR. First, hear me speak.

BOTH TRI.

Well, fay.-Peace, ho."

COR. Shall I be charg'd no further than this pre

fent?

Muft all determine here?

SIC.

I do demand,

If you fubmit you to the people's voices,
Allow their officers, and are content
To fuffer lawful cenfure for fuch faults
As fhall be prov'd upon you?

COR.

I am content.

MEN. Lo, citizens, he says, he is content: The warlike fervice he has done, confider;

Think on the wounds his body bears, which show Like graves i' the holy churchyard,

COR.

Scars to move laughter only.

MEN.

Scratches with briars,

Confider further,

That when he speaks not like a citizen,

You find him like a foldier: Do not take
His rougher accents' for malicious founds,

Well, fay.-Peace, bo.] As the metre is here defective, we might fuppofe our author to have written:

Well, fir; fay on.-Peace, ho, STEEVENS.

3 His rougher accents -] The old copy reads-actions. Mr. Theobald made the change. STEEVENS.

· His rougher accents are the harsh terms that he ufes. MALONE.

But, as I fay, fuch as become a foldier,
Rather than envy you.+

Сом.

Well, well, no more.

COR. What is the matter,

That being pafs'd for conful with full voice,
I am so dishonour'd, that the very hour

You take it off again?

COR. Say then: 'tis true, I ought fo.

SIC. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to

take

From Rome all feafon'd office,' and to wind
Yourself into a power tyrannical;

For which, you are a traitor to the people.
COR. HOW! Traitor?

ΜΕΝ.

Nay; temperately: Your promise. COR. The fires i' the loweft hell fold in the peo

ple!

Call me their traitor!-Thou injurious tribune! Within thine eyes fat twenty thousand deaths, In thy hands clutch'd' as many millions, in

• Rather than envy you.] Envy is here taken at large for malignity or ill intention. JOHNSON.

According to the construction of the fentence, envy is evidently ufed as a verb, and fignifies to injure. In this fenfe it is used by Julietta in The Pilgrim:

"If I make a lie

"To gain your love, and envy my best mistress,
"Pin me up against a wall," &c. M. MASON.

Rather than envy you.] Rather than import ill will to you. See P. 147, n. ; and Vol. XI. p. 61, n. 9. MALONE.

Season'd office,] All office eftablished and fettled by time, and made familiar to the people by long ufe. JOHNSON.

6 — clutch'd—] i. e. grafp'd. So Macbeth, in his addrefs to the air-drawn dagger :"

66

Come, let me clutch thee."

STEEVENS.

Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would fay,
Thou lieft, unto thee, with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods.

SIC.

Mark you this, people?

CIT. To the rock with him; to the rock with

We need not put new matter to his charge:
What you have seen him do, and heard him speak,
Beating your officers, curfing yourselves,
Oppofing laws with strokes, and here defying
Those whofe great power must try him; even this,
So criminal, and in fuch capital kind,

Deferves the extremeft death.

Let them pronounce the fteep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying; Pent to linger
But with a grain a day, I would not buy
Their mercy at the price of one fair word;
Nor check my courage for what they can give,

7 To the rock &c.] The firft folio reads:

To th' rock, to th' rock with him.—

The fecond only:

To th' rock with him.

The prefent reading is therefore formed out of the two copies.

STEEVENS.

To have't with faying, Good morrow.

SIC. For that he has (As much as in him lies) from time to time Envy'd against the people,' seeking means To pluck away their power; as now at laft" Given hoftile ftrokes, and that not in the prefence▾ Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers

That do diftribute it; In the name o' the people,
And in the power of us the tribunes, we,

Even from this inftant, banish him our city;
In peril of precipitation

From off the rock Tarpeian, never more

To enter our Rome gates: I' the people's name, I fay, it shall be so.

It fhall be fo; let him away: he's banish'd,

And fo it fhall be.

COM. Hear me, my mafters, and my common friends ;

SIC. He's fentenc'd: no more hearing.

Сом.

Let me fpeak:

Envy'd against the people,] i. e. behaved with figns of hatred to the people. STEEVENS.

6 as now at laft] Read rather.

has now at laft. JOHNSON.

I am not certain but that as in this inftance, has the power of as well as. The fame mode of expreffion I have met with among our ancient writers. STEEVENS.

7-not in the prefence-] Not ftands again for not only.

JOHNSON.

It is thus used in The New Teftament, 1 Theff. iv. 8: "He therefore that defpifeth, defpifeth not man but God," &c.

STEEVENS.

And fo it fhall be.] Old copy, unmetrically-And it shall be fo.

STREVENS.