Who, as I hear, mean to folicit him

For mercy to his country." Therefore, let's hence, And with our fair entreaties hafte them on.

[Exeunt.

ever, to yield to his conditions, means—to yield only to his conditions; referring these words to oath: that his oath was irrevocable, and fhould yield to nothing but such a reverse of fortune as he could not refift. MALONE.

6 So, that all hope is vain,

Unless his noble mother, and his wife;

Who, as I hear, mean to folicit him

For mercy to his country.

Unless his mother and wife-do

what? The fentence is imperfect. We should read:

Force mercy to his country.

and then all is right. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton's emendation is furely harfh, and may be rendered unnecessary by printing the paffage thus:

mean to folicit him

For mercy to his country

to his country-Therefore, &c.

This liberty is the more juftifiable, becaufe, as foon as the remaining hope croffes the imagination of Menenius, he might fupprefs what he was going to add, through hafte to try the fuccefs of a laft expedient.

It has been propofed to me to read:

So that all hope is vain,

Unless in his noble mother and his wife, &c.

In his, abbreviated in's, might have been easily mistaken by such inaccurate printers. STEEVENS.

No amendment is wanting, the fenfe of this paffage being com-plete without it. We fay every day in converfation,-You are my only hope-He is my only hope,-inftead of My only hope is in you, or in him. The fame mode of expreffion occurs in this fentence, and occafions the obscurity of it. M. MASON.

That this paffage has been confidered as difficult, furprises me. Many paffages in thefe plays have been fufpected to be corrupt, merely because the language was peculiar to Shakspeare, or the phrafeology of that age, and not of the prefent; and this furely is one of them. Had he written-his noble mother and his wife are our only hope,his meaning could not have been doubted; and is not this precisely what Cominius fays?-So that we have now no other hope, nothing to rely upon but his mother and his wife, who, as I am told, mean, &c. Unless is here used for except. MALONE.

An advanced poft of the Volcian Camp before Rome. The Guard at their Stations.

Enter to them, MENENIUS.

1. G. Stay: Whence are you?

2. G.

Stand, and go back.4

MEN. You guard like men; 'tis well: But, by

your leave,

I am an officer of ftate, and come

To speak with Coriolanus.

1. G.

MEN.

From whence? s

From Rome.

1. G. You may not pafs, you must return: our

general

Will no more hear from thence.

2. G. You'll fee your Rome embrac'd with fire,

before

You'll speak with Coriolanus.

MEN.
Good my friends,
If you have heard your general talk of Rome,
And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks,"

4 Stand, and go back.] This defective measure might be completed by reading-Stand, and go back again. STEEVENS.

s From whence?] As the word-from is not only needlefs, but injures the measure, it might be fairly omitted, being probably caught by the compofitor's eye from the fpeech immediately following. STEEVENS.

6 lots to blanks,] A lot here is a prize. Lot, in French, fignifies prize. Le gros lot.

JOHNSON.

The capital prize.

S. W.

My name hath touch'd your ears: it is Menenius. 1. G. Be it fo; go back: the virtue of your

name

Is not here paffable.

ΜΕΝ.

I tell thee, fellow,

Thy general is my lover: I have been

The book of his good acts, whence men have read His fame unparallel'd, haply, amplified;

For I have ever verify'd my friends,

(Of whom he's chief,) with all the fize that verity?

I believe Dr. Johnfon here miftakes. Menenius, I imagine, only means to fay, that it is more than an equal chance that his name has touch'd their ears. Lots were the term in our author's time for the total number of tickets in a lottery, which took its name from thence. So, in the Continuation of Stowe's Chronicle, 1615, p. 1002: "Out of which lottery, for want of filling, by the number of lots, there were then taken out and thrown away threefcore thousand blanks, without abating of any one prize." The lots were of courfe more numerous than the blanks. If lot fignified prize, as Dr. Johnson fuppofed, there being in every lottery many more blanks than prizes, Menenius must be fuppofed to fay, that the chance of his name having reached their ears was very fmall; which certainly is not his meaning. MALONE.

Lots to blanks is a phrafe equivalent to another in K. Richard III: "All the world to nothing." STEEVENS.

The general is my lover:] This alfo was the language of Shakfpeare's time. See Vol. V. p. 486, n. 4. MALONE.

8 The book of his good acts, whence men have read &c.] So, in Pericles:

"Her face the book of praifes, where is read" &c. Again, in Macbeth:

"Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men

May read" &c. STEEVENS.

• For I have ever verify'd my friends,

with all the fize that verity &c.] To verify, is to eftablish by teftimony. One may fay with propriety, he brought falfe witnees to verify his title. Shakspeare confidered the word with his ufual laxity, as importing rather teftimony than truth, and only meant to fay, I bore witness to my friends with all the fize that ve rity would fuffer.

Would without lapfing fuffer: nay, fometimes,
Like to a bowl upon a fubtle ground,'

I have tumbled past the throw; and in his praise Have, almost, ftamp'd the leafing: Therefore, fellow,

I must have leave to pass.

1. G. 'Faith, fir, if you had told as many lies in

I must remark, that to magnify, fignifies to exalt or enlarge, but not neceffarily to enlarge beyond the truth. JOHNSON.

Mr. Edwards would read varnished; but Dr. Johnson's explanation of the old word renders all change unnecessary.

To verify may, however, fignify to difplay. Thus in an an cient metrical pedigree in poffeffion of the late duchefs of Northumberland, and quoted by Dr. Percy in The Reliques of ancient English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 279, 3d edit.

In hys fcheld did fchyne a mone veryfying her light."

STEEVENS.

The meaning (to give a fomewhat more expanded comment) is, "I have ever fpoken the truth of my friends, and in fpeaking of them have gone as far as I could go confiftently with truth: I have not only told the truth, but the whole truth, and with the moft favourable colouring that I could give to their actions, without tranfgreffing the bounds of truth." MALONE.

9 upon a subtle ground,] Subtle means smooth, level. So, Ben Jonfon, in one of his mafques:

Tityus's breaft is counted the subtleft bowling ground in all Tartarus."

Subtle, however, may mean artificially unlevel, as many bowling-greens are. STEEVENS.

May it not have its more ordinary acceptation, deceitful?

a — and in his praise

MALONE.

Have, almoft, ftamp'd the leafing.] i. e. given the fan&tion of truth to my very exaggerations. This appears to be the fense of the paffage, from what is afterwards faid by the 2. Guard.

66

Howfoever you have been his liar, as you fay you have."Leafing occurs in our Tranflation of the Bible. See Pfalm. iv. 2.

HENLEY.

Have, almoft, ftamp'd the leafing:] I have almoft given the lie fuch a fanction as to render it current. MALONE.

his behalf, as you have utter'd words in your own, you should not pafs here: no, though it were as virtuous to lie, as to live chaftly. Therefore, go back.

MEN. Pr'ythee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always factionary on the party of your general.

2. G. Howfoever you have been his liar, (as you fay, you have,) I am one that, telling true under him, must say, you cannot pafs. Therefore, go back.

MEN. Has he dined, can'ft thou tell? for I would not speak with him till after dinner.

1. G. You are a Roman, are you?

MEN. I am as thy general is.

1. G. Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you, when you have pufh'd out your gates the very defender of them, and, in a violent popular ignorance, given your enemy your fhield, think to front his revenges with the eafy groans' of old women, the virginal palms of your daughters,+ or with the palfied interceffion of fuch a decay'd dotant' as you seem to be? Can you think to blow

3 eafy groans. King Henry VI. P. II:

-] i. e. flight, inconfiderable. So, in

these faults are easy, quickly answer'd." STEEVENS. the virginal palms of your daughters,] The adjective vir◄

ginal is ufed in Woman is a Weathercock, 1612:

"Lav'd in a bath of contrite virginal tears.'

Again, in Spenfer's Faerie Queen, B. II. c. ix:

"She to them made with mildness virginal." STEEVENS.

Again, in King Henry VI. P. II:

66

tears virginal

"Shall be to me even as the dew to fire." MALONE.

-a decay'd dotant-] Thus the old copy. Modern editors have read-dotard. STEEVENS.