The one fide must have bale. - Hail, noble Mar

cius!

Enter Caius Marcius.

Mar. Thanks.- What's the matter, you dissentious

rogues,

That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs ?

2 Cit. We have ever your good word,

Mar. He that will give good words to thee, will

flatter

Beneath abhorring. --- What would you have, you curs,
That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights

you,

The

The one fide must have bale.-] Bale is an old Saxon word, for mifery or calamity.

"For light she hated as the deadly bale."

Spenser's Fairy Queen.
STEEVENS.

→ That like nor peace, nor war? The one affrights you,
The other makes you proud ]

That they did not like war is evident from the reason assigned,
of its frighting them; but why they should not like peace (and
the reason of that too is affigned) will be very hard to conceive.
Peace, he says, made them proud, by bringing with it an increase
of wealth and power, for those are what make a people proud;
but then those are what they like but too well, and fo must needs
like peace the parent of them. This being contrary to what the
text fays, we may be assured it is corrupt, and that Shakspeare

wrote:

That likes not peace, nor war?

i. e. whom neither peace nor war fits or agrees with, as making them either proud or cowardly. By this reading, peace and war, from being the accusatives to likes, become the nominatives. But the editors not understanding this construction, and seeing likes a verb fingular, to curs a noun plural, which they supposed the nominative to it, would, in order to thew their skill in grammar, alter it to like; but likes for pleases was common with the writers of this time. So Fletcher's Maid's Tragedy:

What look likes you best? WARBURTON.
That to like is to please, every one knows, but in that sense it

is

:

1

The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,
Where he should find you lions, finds you hares ;
Where foxes, geefe: You are no furer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,
Or hailstone in the fun. • Your virtue is,
To make him worthy, whose offence fubdues him,
And curse that justice did it. Who deserves great-

ness,

:

Deserves your hate: and your affections are
A fick man's appetite, who defires most that
Which would increase his evil. He that depends
Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,
And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust

ye ?

With every minute you do change a mind;
And call him noble, that was now your hate,

Him vile, that was your garland. What's the mat

ter,

That in these several places of the city
You cry against the noble fenate, who,

Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else

Would feed on one another? - What's their feek

ing"?

is as hard to say why peace should not like the people, as, in the other sense, why the people should not like peace. The truth is, that Coriolanus does not use the two fentences consequentially, but first reproaches them with unsteadiness, then with their other occafional vices. JOHNSON.

6 Your virtue is,

To make him worthy, whose offence fubdues bim,
And curse that justice did it.]

i. e. Your virtue is to speak well of him whom his own offences
have fubjected to justice; and to rail at those laws by which he
whom you praise was punished. STEEVENS.

i

Men. For corn at their own rates; whereof, they

say,

The city is well stor'd.

Mar. Hang 'em! They say?

They'll fit by the fire, and prefume to know
What's done i' the Capitol: who's like to rife,

Who thrives, and who declines: side factions, and

give out

Conjectural marriages; making parties strong,
And feebling fuch, as stand not in their liking,

Below their cobled shoes. They say, there's grain

enough?

Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,
And let me use my fword, I'd make a quarry
With thousands of these quarter'd flaves, as high
As I could picke my lance 1.

Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly perfuaded;
For though abundantly they lack difcretion,
Yet are they paffing cowardly. But, I beseech you,
What says the other troop ?

Mar. They are diffolv'd: Hang 'em ! They faid, they were an-hungry; figh'd forth pro

verbs;

That, hunger broke stone walls; that, dogs must

eat;

That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods

fent not

* their ruth,] i. e. their pity, compassion. Fairfax and

Spenser often use the word. STEEVENS.

9-I'd make a quarry

With thousands

-]

Why a quarry? I suppose, not because he would pile them square, but because he would give them for carrion to the birds of prey. JOHNSON.

So, in the Miracles of Moses, by Drayton :

" And like a quarry cast them on the land." STEEVENS. -picke my lance.] And so the word is still pronounced in Staffordshire, where they say-picke me such a thing, that is, throw any thing that the demander wants. See p. 330.

TOLLET.

Corn

Corn for the rich men only:-With these shreds They vented their complainings, which being art

fwer'd,

And a petition granted them, a strange one,

(To break the heart of generofity,

And make bold power look pale) they threw their caps As they would hang them on the horns o'the moon, Shouting their emulation.

Men. What is granted them?

Mar. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wif

doms,

Of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus, Sicinius Velutus, and I know not's death! The rabble should have first unroof'd the city,

Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time

Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes

For insurrection's arguing.

Men. This is strange.

Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments!

Enter a Messenger.

Mes. Where's Caius Marcius ?
Mar. Here: What's the matter?

Mes. The news is, fir, the Volces are in arms.
Mar. I am glad on't; then we shall have means

to vent

Our mufty fuperfluity: --See, our best elders.

Enter Cominius, Titus Lartius, with other Senators; Junius Brutus, and Sicinius Velutus.

1 Sen. Marcius, 'tis true, that you have lately told us;

2-the heart of generosity, nobles. Generosity is high birth. 3-tis true, that you have The Volces are in arms.]

The

To give the final blow to the JOHNSON. lately told us;

1

Corio

,

:

Mar. They have a leader,

Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to't.

I fin in envying his nobility :

And were I any thing but what I am,
I could wish me only he.

Com. You have fought together.

Mar. Were half to half the world by the ears,

and he

Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make

Only my wars with him: He is a lion

That I am proud to hunt.

1 Sen. Then, worthy Marcius,
Attend upon Cominius to these wars.
Com. It is your former promife.
Mar. Sir, it is;

And I am conftant. -Titus Lartius, thou
Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' face:
What, art thou stiff? stand'st out?

Tit. No, Caius Marcius;

I'll lean upon one crutch, and fight with the other, Ere stay behind this business.

Men. O, true bred !

I Sen. Your company to the Capitol; where, I

know,

Our greatest friends attend us.

Tit. Lead you on :

Follow, Cominius; we must follow you;

Right worthy you priority.
Com. Noble Lartius!

1 Sen. Hence! To your homes, be gone.

Mar. Nay, let them follow:

[To the Citizens.

The Volces have much corn; take these rats thither,

arms.

Coriolanus had been but just told himself that the Volces were in The meaning is, The intelligence which you gave us some little time ago of the designs of the Volces are now verified; they are in arms. JOHNSON..

To