And fo fhall starve with feeding.-Come, let's go: In [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Highway between Rome and Antium. Enter a Roman and a Volce, meeting. ROM. I know you well, fir, and you know me: your name, I think, is Adrian. VOL. It is fo, fir: truly, I have forgot you. ROM. I am a Roman; and my fervices are, as you are, against them: Know you me yet? VOL. Nicanor? No. ROM. The fame, fir. VOL. You had more beard, when I laft faw you; but your favour is well appear'd by your tongue.9 8 And fo fall ftarve with feeding.] This idea is repeated in Antony and Cleopatra, A&t II. fc. ii. and in Pericles: "Who farves the ears the feeds," &c. STEEVENS. 9 -but your favour is well appear'd by your tongue.] This is ftrange nonfenfe. We fhould read: is well appeal'd, i. e. brought into remembrance. I would read: is well affear'd. WARBURTON. That is, ftrengthened, attefted, a word ufed by our authour. "His title is affear'd." Macbeth. To repeal may be to bring to remembrance, but appeal has another meaning. JOHNSON. What's the news in Rome? I have a note from the Volcian state, to find you out there: You have well faved me a day's journey. ROM. There hath been in Rome strange infurrection: the people against the fenators, patricians, and nobles. VOL. Hath been! Is it ended then? Our state thinks not fo; they are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon them in the heat of their divifion. ROM. The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again. For the nobles receive fo to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus, that they are in a ripe aptnefs, to take all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes for ever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almoft mature for the violent breaking out. VOL. Coriolanus banish'd? I would read: Your favour is well approv'd by your tongue, i. e. your tongue confirms the evidence of your face. So, in Hamlet, fc. i: "That if again this apparition come, "He may approve our eyes, and fpeak to it." STEEVENS. If there be any corruption in the old copy, perhaps it rather is in a preceding word. Our author might have written-your favour bas well appear'd by your tongue: but the old text may, in Shakfpeare's licentious dialect, be right. Your favour is fully manifefted, or rendered apparent, by your tongue. In fupport of the old copy it may be obferved, that becomed was formerly used as a participle. So, in North's tranflation of Plutarch, Life of Sylla, p. 622. edit. 1575: "which perhaps would not have becomed Pericles or Ariftides." We have, I think, the fame participle in Timon of Athens. So Chaucer ufes difpaired: this be Alas, quod Pandarus, what may Roм. Banifh'd, fir. VOL. You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor. ROM. The day ferves well for them now. I have heard it faid, The fittest time to corrupt a man's wife, is when fhe's fallen out with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in these wars, his great oppofer Coriolanus being now in no request of his country. VOL. He cannot choose. I am most fortunate, thus accidentally to encounter you: You have ended my business, and I will merrily accompany you home. ROM. I fhall, between this and fupper, tell you most strange things from Rome; all tending to the good of their adverfaries. Have you an army ready, say you? VOL. A most royal one: the centurions, and their charges, diftinctly billeted, already in the entertainment, and to be on foot at an hour's warning. ROM. I am joyful to hear of their readinefs, and am the man, I think, that fhall fet them in present action. So, fir, heartily well met, and most glad of your company. VOL. You take my part from me, fir; I have the most cause to be glad of yours. ROM. Well, let us go together. [Exeunt. 9already in the entertainment,] That is, though not actually encamped, yet already in pay. To entertain an army is to take them into pay. JOHNSON. See Vol. III. p. 336, n. 8. MALONE. SCENE IV. Antium. Before Aufidius's Houfe. Enter CORIOLANUS, in mean apparel, disguised, and muffled. COR. A goodly city is this Antium: City, 'Tis I that made thy widows; many an heir Of these fair edifices 'fore my wars Have I heard groan, and drop: then know me not; Left that thy wives with fpits, and boys with ftones, In Enter a Citizen. puny battle flay me.-Save you, fir. CIT. And you. COR. Where great Direct me, if it be your will, Aufidius lies: Is he in Antium? Cır. He is, and feafts the nobles of the state, At his house this night. O, world, thy flippery turns! Friends now faft fworn, 2 O, world, thy flippery turns! &c.] This fine picture of common friendships, is an artful introduction to the fudden league, which the poet made him enter into with Aufidius, and no less artful an apology for his commencing enemy to Rome. WARBURTON. Whofe double bofoms feem to wear one heart, On a diffention of a doit, break out 3 Whose paffions and whofe plots have broke their fleep To take the one the other, by fome chance, 3 Whofe hours, whofe bed, whofe meal, and exercife, Are ftill together, who twin, as 'twere, in love-] Our author has again ufed this verb in Othello: "And he that is approv'd in this offence, Though he had twinn'd with me,-" &c. Part of this description naturally reminds us of the following lines in A Midsummer Night's Dream: We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, "Have with our neelds created both one flower, "Two lovely berries molded on one stem: "Two of the firft," &c. MALONE. + hate I,] The old copy instead of hate reads-have. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. "I'll enter," means I'll enter the house of Aufidius. MALONE. 5 This enemy town.-I'll enter :] Here, as in other places, our author is indebted to Sir Thomas North's Plutarch: "For he disguised him felfe in fuche arraye and attire, as he thought no man could euer haue knowen him for the perfone he was, feeing him in that apparell he had vpon his backe: and as Homer fayed of Vlysses, |
