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Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends Blush, that the world goes well; who rather had, Though they themselves did fuffer by't, behold Diffentious numbers peftering streets, than fee Our tradesmen finging in their fhops, and going About their functions friendly.

Enter MENENIUS.

BRU. We ftood to't in good time. Is this Menenius?

SIC. 'Tis he, 'tis he: O, he is grown moft kind Of late.-Hail, fir!

MEN.

Hail to you both!*

SIC. Your Coriolanus, fir, is not much mifs'd,' But with his friends: the common-wealth doth

stand;

And fo would do, where he more angry at it.

in commotion, his friends might have ftrove to remedy his disgrace by tampering with them; but now, neither wanting to employ his bravery, nor remembering his former actions, they are unfit fubjects for the factious to work upon.

Mr. M. Mason would read, lame; but the epithets tame and wild were, I believe, defignedly oppofed to each other.

STEEVENS.

In, [the prefent peace] which was omitted in the old copy, was inferted by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

2 Hail to you both!] From this reply of Menenius, it should seem that both the tribunes had faluted him; a circumstance also to be inferred from the prefent deficiency in the metre, which would be reftored by reading (according to the propofal of a modern editor): Of late. Hail, fir!

Bru.

Men.

Hail, fir!

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3 Your Coriolanus, fir, is not much mifs'd,] I have admitted the word-fir, for the fake of measure. STEEVENS.

MEN. All's well; and might have been much

better, if

He could have temporiz'd.

SIC.

Where is he, hear you?

MEN. Nay, I hear nothing; his mother and his

wife

Hear nothing from him.

Enter three or four Citizens.

CIT. The gods preserve you both!

SIC.

Good-e'en, our neighbours.

BRU. Good-e'en to you all, good e'en to you all. 1. CIT. Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our knees,

Are bound to pray for you both.

SIC.

Live, and thrive!

BRU. Farewell, kind neighbours: We wifh'd Coriolanus

Had lov'd you as we did.

CIT.

Now the gods keep you!

BOTH. TRI. Farewell, farewell. [Exeunt Citizens. SIC. This is a happier and more comely time, Than when these fellows ran about the streets, Crying, Confufion.

BRU.

Caius Marcius was

A worthy officer i' the war; but infolent,

O'ercome with pride, ambitious paft all thinking, Self-loving,

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affecting one fole throne,

Without affiftance.] That is, without offers; without any other fuffrage. JOHNSON.

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SIC. We fhould by this, to all our lamentation, If he had gone forth conful, found it fo.

BRU. The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits fafe and still without him.

ED.

Enter Edile.

Worthy tribunes,

There is a flave, whom we have put in prifon,
Reports, the Volces with two feveral powers
Are enter'd in the Roman territories;
And with the deepest malice of the war
Destroy what lies before them.

'Tis Aufidius,

MEN. Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment, Thrufts forth his horns again into the world; Which were infhell'd, when Marcius ftood for Rome,'

And durft not once peep out.

SIC.

Of Marcius?

Come, what talk you

BRU. Go fee this rumourer whipp'd.—It cannot

be,

Without affiftance.] For the fake of meafure I fhould wish to read

Without affiftance in't.

This hemiftich, joined to the following one, would then form a regular verfe.

It is alfo not improbable that Shakspeare inftead of affiftance wrote affiftants. Thus in the old copies of our author, we have ingredience for ingredients, occurrence for occurrents, &c. STEEVENS.

3 stood for Rome,] i. e. ftood up in its defence. Had the expreffion in the text been met with in a learned author, it might have paffed for a Latinifm:

fummis ftantem pro turribus Idam. Eneid IX. 575

STEEVENS.

The Volces dare break with us.

MEN.

Cannot be! We have record, that very well it can ; And three examples of the like have been Within my age. But reafon with the fellow,3 Before you punish him, where he heard this; Left you shall chance to whip your information, And beat the meffenger who bids beware Of what is to be dreaded.

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MESS. The nobles, in great earnestness, are going All to the fenate houfe: fome news is come,+

That turns their countenances."

SIC.

'Tis this flave;

Go whip him 'fore the people's eyes:-his raifing!

3

· reafon with the fellow,] That is, have fome talk with him. In this fenfe Shakspeare often ufes the word. See Vol. III. p. 200, n. 3. JOHNSON.

4

-fome news is come,] Old copy-redundantly,-fome news is come in. The fecond folio-coming; but, I think, erroncoufly. STEEVENS.

S -fome news is come,

That turns their countenances.] i. e. that renders their aspect four. This allufion to the acefcence of milk occurs again in Timon of Athens:

"Has friendship fuch a faint and milky heart,

"It turns in less than two nights?" MALONE.

I believe nothing more is meant than-changes their countenances. So, in Cymbeline:

"Change you, madam?

The noble Leonatus is in fafety." STEEVENS.

Nothing but his report!

MESS.

Yes, worthy fir,

The flave's report is feconded; and more,
More fearful, is deliver'd.

SIC.

What more fearful?

MES. It is fpoke freely out of many mouths, (How probable, I do not know,) that Marcius, Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome; And vows revenge as fpacious, as between The young'ft and oldest thing.

SIC This is most likely! BRU. Rais'd only, that the weaker fort may Good Marcius home again.

SIC.

MEN. This is unlikely :

with

The very trick on't.

He and Aufidius can no more atone,"

Than violenteft contrariety.

Enter another Meffenger.

MES. You are fent for to the fenate: A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius, Affociated with Aufidius, rages

Upon our territories; and have already

6 can no more atone,] To atone, in the active fenfe, is to reconcile, and is so used by our author. To atone here, is, in the peutral fenfe, to come to reconciliation. To atone is to unite.

JOHNSON.

The etymology of this verb may be known from the following paffage in the fecond Book of Sidney's Arcadia: "Neceffitie made us fee, that a common enemie fets at one a civill warre,'

STEEVENS.

Atone feems to be derived from at and one ;-to reconcile to, or, to be at, union. In fome books of Shakspeare's age I have found the phrafe in its original form, "—to reconcile and make them at one." MALONE.

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