And witness of the malice and displeasure
Which thou should'st bear me: only that name re-
mains ;

The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our daftard nobles, who

Have all forfook me, hath devour'd the reft;
And fuffer'd me by the voice of flaves to be
Whoop'd out of Rome. Now, this extremity
Hath brought me to thy hearth; Not out of hope,
Mistake me not, to fave my life; for if

I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world
I would have 'voided thee: but in mere spite,
To be full quit of those my
banishers,

Stand I before thee here. Then if thou haft
A heart of wreak in thee, that will revenge

8

Thine own particular wrongs, and stop those maims Of fhame seen through thy country, speed thee ftraight,

And make my misery serve thy turn; fo ufe it,
That my revengeful fervices may prove
As benefits to thee; for I will fight
Against my canker'd country with the spleen
Of all the under fiends. But if fo be

7 — of all the men i the world

I would have 'voided thee:] So, in Macbeth:

"Of all men elfe I have avoided thee." STEEVENS.

A heart of wreak in thee,] A heart of refentment. JOHNSON. Wreak is an ancient term for revenge. So, in Titus Andronicus: "Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude."

Again, in Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, Lib. V. fol. 83: "She faith that hir felfe fhe fholde

2

"Do wreche with hir own honde," STEEVENS.

maims

Of Shame] That is, difgraceful diminutions of territory.

with the spleen

JOHNSON.

Of all the under fiends.] Shakspeare, by imputing a stronger

Thou dar'ft not this, and that to prove more for

tunes

Thou art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am
Longer to live moft weary, and prefent
My throat to thee, and to thy ancient malice :
Which not to cut, would fhow thee but a fool;
Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,
And cannot live but to thy fhame, unless

It be to do thee fervice.

AUF.

O Marcius, Marcius,

Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my

heart

A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yon cloud speak divine things, and

fay,

'Tis true; I'd not believe them more than thee,
All noble Marcius.-O, let me twine
Mine arms about that body, where against
My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,

degree of inveteracy to fubordinate fiends, feems to intimate, and very justly, that malice of revenge is more predominant in the lower than the upper claffes of fociety. This circumftance is repeatedly exemplified in the conduct of Jack Cade and other heroes of the mob. STEEVENS.

This appears to me to be refining too much. Under fiends in this paffage does not mean, as I conceive, fiends fubordinate, or in an inferior ftation, but infernal fiends. So, in King Henry VI. P. I:

Now, ye familiar fpirits, that are call'd

"Out of the powerful regions under earth," &c.

In Shakspeare's time fome fiends were fuppofed to inhabit the air, others to dwell under ground, &c. MALONE.

As Shakspeare ufes the word under-fkinker, to exprefs the lowest rank of waiter, I do not find myself difpofed to give up my explanation of under fiends. Inftances, however, of" too much refinement" are not peculiar to me. STEFVENS.

1

And fear'd the moon' with splinters! Here I clip
The anvil of my fword; and do contest
As hotly and as nobly with thy love,

As ever in ambitious ftrength I did

Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
I lov'd the maid I married; never man

Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart,
Than when I first my wedded mistress faw
Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee,

3 And fear'd the moon] [Old copy-fcarr'd,] I believe, rightly. The modern editors read fear'd, that is, frightened; a reading to which the following line in King Richard III. certainly adds fome fupport:

"Amaze the welkin with your broken staves." MALONE. I read with the modern editors, rejecting the Chrononhotonthological idea of Scarifying the moon. The verb to feare is again written fcarr, in the old copy of The Winter's Tale: " They have fcarr'd away two of my best sheep." STEEVENS.

Here I clip

The anvil of my fword;] To clip is to embrace. So, in Antony and Cleopatra :

"Enter the city, clip your wives."

Aufidius ftyles Coriolanus the anvil of his fword, because he had formerly laid as heavy blows on him, as a smith strikes on his anvil. So, in Hamlet:

"And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall

"On Mars's armour

"With lefs remorfe that Pyrrhus' bleeding fword

"Now falls on Priam."

never man

STEEVENS.

Sigh'd truer breath;] The fame expreffion is found in our au

thor's Venus and Adonis:

"I'll figh celeftial breath, whofe gentle wind

"Shall cool the heat of this defcending fun."

Again, in The Two Noble Kinfmen, by Shakspeare and Fletcher, 1634:

"Lover never yet made figh

"Truer than I." MALONE.

• Beftride my threshold.] Shakspeare was unaware that a Roman VOL. XII.

N

1

We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
Or lofe mine arm for't: Thou haft beat me out
Twelve feveral times,' and I have nightly fince
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyfelf and me;
We have been down together in my fleep,
Unbuckling helms, fifting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead" with nothing. Worthy Mar-
cius,

Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that'
Thou art thence banish'd, we would mufter all
From twelve to feventy; and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,

Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in,
And take our friendly fenators by the hands;

bride, on her entry into her husband's house, was prohibited from beftriding his threshold; and that, left she should even touch it, she was always lifted over it. Thus, Lucan, B. II. 359:

5

Tralata vetuit contingere limina planta. STEEVENS.

Thou haft beat me out

Twelve feveral times,] Out here means, I believe, full, complete. MALONE.

So, in The Tempeft:

for then thou waft not

"Out three years old." STEEVENS.

6 And wak'd half dead-] Unless the two preceding lines be confidered as parenthetical, here is another inftance of our author's concluding a fentence, as if the former part had been conftructed differently. "We have been down," must be confidered as if he had written-I have been down with you, in my fleep, and wak'd, &c. See Vol. XI. p. 110, n. 9; and Vol. VI. p. 189, n. 9, and P. 359, n. 5. MALONE.

7 Had we no quarrel elfe to Rome, but that] The old copy, redundantly, and unneceffarily,-

Had we no other quarrel elfe &c. STLEVENS.

Like a bold flood o'er-beat.] Though this is intelligible, and the reading of the old copy, perhaps our author wrote-o'er-bear. So, in Othello:

"Is of fuch flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature—."

STEEVENS.

Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

COR.

You blefs me, Gods!

AUF. Therefore, most absolute fir, if thou wilt.

have

The leading of thine own revenges, take

The one half of my commiffion; and fet down,-
As beft thou art experienc'd, fince thou know'st
Thy country's ftrength and weakness,-thine own
ways:

Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
Or rudely visit them in parts remote,
To fright them, ere deftroy. But come in:
Let me commend thee first to those, that shall
Say, yea, to thy defires. A thousand welcomes !
And more a friend than e'er an enemy;

Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand! Moft welcome!

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. 1. SERV. [advancing.] Here's a ftrange alteration! 2. SERV. By my hand, I had thought to have ftrucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me, his clothes made a falfe report of him.

1. SERV. What an arm he has! He turn'd me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would fet up a top.

2. SERV. Nay, I knew by his face that there was fomething in him: He had, fir, a kind of face, methought,-I cannot tell how to term it.

1. SERV. He had fo; looking, as it were,'Would I were hang'd, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

2. SERV. So did I, I'll be sworn: He is fimply the rareft man i' the world.