A Sennet. Enter the Patricians, and the Tribunes of the people, Lictors before them; Coriolanus, Menenius, Cominius the Conful: Sicinius and Brutus, as Tribunes, take their places by themselves.

Men. Having determin'd of the Volces, and
To fend for Titus Lartius, it remains,
As the main point of this our after-meeting,
To gratify his noble service, that

Hath thus stood for his country: Therefore, please

you,

Most reverend and grave elders, to defire
The prefent conful, and last general
In our well-found successes, to report
A little of that worthy work perform'd
By Caius Marcius Coriolanus; whom

We meet here, both to thank, and to remember
With honours like himself.

1 Sen. Speak, good Cominius : Leave nothing out for length; and make us think, Rather our state's defective for requital, Than we to stretch it out. - Masters o' the people, We do request your kindest ear; and, after, * Your loving motion toward the common body,

To yield what passes here.

Sic. We are convented

Upon a pleasing treaty; and have hearts

Inclinable to honour and advance 3 The theme of our affembly.

Bru.

2 Your loving motion toward the common body,] Your kind interposition with the common people. JOHNSON.

3 The theme of our assembly.] Here is a fault in the expression: And had it affected our author's knowledge of nature, I should have adjudged it to his transcribers or editors, but as it affects only his knowledge in history, I suppose it to be his own. should have faid your assembly. For till the Lex Attinia, (the author of which is supposed by Sigonius, [De vetere Italia Jure]

He

to

Bru. Which the rather

We shall be blest to do, if he remember

A kinder value of the people, than

He hath hereto priz'd them at.

Men. That's off, that's off;

I would you rather had been filent: Please you

To hear Cominius speak?

Bru. Most willingly :

But yet my caution was more pertinent,

Than the rebuke you give it.

Men. He loves your people;

But tye him not to be their bed-fellow.

Worthy Cominius, fpeak.-Nay, keep your place.

[Coriolanus rifes, and offers to go away.

1 Sen. Sit, Coriolanus; never shame to hear

What you have nobly done.

Cor. Your honour's pardon;
I had rather have my wounds to heal again,
Than hear say how I got them.
Bru. Sir, I hope,

My words dif-bench'd you not?
Cor. No, fir: yet oft,

When blows have made me stay, I fled from words.
You footh'd not, therefore hurt not': But, your

people,

to have been contemporary with Quintus Metellus Macedonicus) the tribunes had not the privilege of entering the fenate, but had feats placed for them near the door on the outside of the house. WARBURTON.

Had Shakspeare been as learned as his commentator, he could not have conducted this scene otherwise than as it stands. The presence of Brutus and Sicinius was necessary; and how was our author to have exhibited the outside and infide of the senate nouse at one and the same instant? STEEVENS.

+ That's off, that's off ;) That is, that is nothing to the purpose. JOHNSON.

s You sooth not, therefore hurt not.) The old copy reads:

You footh'd not

I think rightly. You did not flatter me, and therefore did not offend me.-Hurt is commonly used by our author for burted.

MALONE.

I love them as they weigh.

Men. Pray now, fit down.

Cor. I had rather have one fcratch my head i' the

fun,

When the alarum were struck, than idly fit
To hear my nothings monster'd.
Men. Masters o' the people.

(Exit Coriolanus.

Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter, (That's thousand to one good one) when you now

fee,

He had rather venture all, his limbs for honour,

Than one of his ears to hear it ? - Proceed, Comi

nius.

Com. I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus Should not be uttered feebly. It is held, That valour is the chiefest virtue, and Most dignifies the haver: if it be, The man I speak of cannot in the world Be singly counterpois'd. At fixteen years, ? When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator, Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight, When with his Amazonian chin he drove The briftled lips before him: he bestrid An o'er-prest Roman, and i' the conful's view Slew three opposers; Tarquin's self he met, And struck him on his knee: in that day's feats, When he might act the woman in the scene,

He

He prov'd best man i' the field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age
Man-enter'd thus, he waxed like a fea;
And, in the brunt seventeen battles since,

He lurch'd all swords o' the garland'. For this laft,
Before and in Corioli, let me say,

I cannot speak him home: He stopt the fliers;
And, by his rare example, made the coward
Turn terror into sport: as waves before
A vessel under fail, fo men obey'd,

And fell below his stem: his sword, (death's

stamp')

Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot
He was a thing of blood, whose 4 every motion
Was tim'd with dying cries: alone he enter'd

than once mentioned, that the parts of women were, in Shakspeare's time, represented by the most simooth-faced young men to be found among the players. STEEVENS.

* He lurch'd all fwords o' the garland.] Ben Jonson has the fame expreffion in the Silent Woman: "-you have lurch'd your friends of the better half of the garland." STEEVENS.

2 And fell below his stern.-) We should read, according to the old copy :

his stem.-

The stem is that end of the ship which leads. From stem to ftern is an expression used by Dryden in his tranflation of Virgil:

"Orontes' bark

" From lem to stern by waves was over-borne."

3-His fword, death's stamp,

Where it did mark, it took from face to foot.
He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was tim'd with dying cries.]

This passage should be pointed thus:

-His fword (death's stamp)

STEEVENS.

Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot

He was a thing of blood, &c. TYRWHITT.

I have followed the punctuation recommended. STEEVENS.

4 --every motion

Was tim'd with dying cries.-]

The cries of the flaughter'd regularly followed his motions, as musick and a dancer accompany each other. JOHNSON.

The

The mortal gate o' the city, which he painted
With shunless destiny'; aidless came off,
And with a fudden re-inforcement struck
Corioli, like a planet: Now all's his :
When by and by the din of war 'gan pierce
His ready fenfe: then straight his doubled spirit
Re-quicken'd what in flesh was fatigate,
And to the battle came he; where he did
Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if
'Twere a perpetual spoil: and, 'till we call'd
Both field and city ours, he never stood
To ease his breast with panting.

Men. Worthy man !

1 Sen. 7 He cannot but with measure fit the ho

nours

Which we devise him.

Com. Our spoils he kick'd at;

And look'd upon things precious, as they were
The common muck o' the world: he covets less
*Than misery itself would give; rewards
His deeds with doing them; 9 and is content

To fpend his time, to end it.

Men.

5 The mortal gate - The gate that was made the scene of death. JOHNSON.

• With shunless destiny:] The second folio reads, whether by accident or choice :

With shunless defamy.

Defamie is an old French word fignifying infamy. TYRWHITT. 1 He cannot but with measure fit the honours,] That is, no honour will be too great for him; he will thew a mind equal to any elevation. JOHNSON.

8 Than mifery itself would give;-) Misery for avarice; because a mifer fignifies an avaricious. WARBURTON.

Com.and is content

To spend bis time to end it.

Men. He's right noble ;]

The last words of Cominius's speech are altogether unintelligible.

Shakspeare, 1 suppose, wrote the passage thus:

and is content

To spend his time

1

VOL. VII.

Dd

Men.