Men. The fenate, Coriolanus, are well pleas'd To make thee conful. Cor. I do owe them still My life, and services. Men. It then remains, Men. To end it, he's right noble. That Cominius, in his last words, was entering upon a new topic in praise of Coriolanus; when his warm friend Menenius, impatient to come to the subject of the honours designed him, interrupts Cominius, and takes him short with, to end it, i. e. to end this long discourse in one word, he's right noble.-Let him be called for. This is exactly in character, and restores the passage to fenfe. WARBURTON. I know not whether my conceit will be approved, but I cannot forbear to think that our authour wrote thus: _ he rewards His deeds with doing them, and is content To do great acts, for the sake of doing them; to spend his life, for the fake of spending it. JOHNSON. The old copy reads : To spend the time- MALONE. * It then remains, That you do speak to the people.] Coriolanus was Danished U. C. 262. But till the time of Manlius Torquatus, U. C, 393, the senate chose both the consuls: And then the people, assisted by the feditious temper of the tribunes, got the choice of one. But if he makes Rome a democracy, which at this time was a perfect aristocracy; he fets the balance even in his Timon, and turns Athens, which was a perfect democracy, into an aristocracy. But it would be unjust to attribute this entirely to his ignorance; it sometimes proceeded from the too powerful blaze of his imagination, which, when once lighted up, made all acquired knowledge fade and disap*pear before it. For sometimes again we find him, when ocса That you do speak to the people. Cor. I do befeech you, Let me o'er-leap that custom; for I cannot Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them, For my wounds' fake, to give their fuffrage: please Must have their voices; neither will they bate One jot of ceremony. Men. Put them not to't: Pray you, go fit you to the custom; and Cor. It is a part That I shall blush in acting, and might well Bru. Mark you that? Cor. To brag unto them,-Thus I did, and thus; Shew them the unaking scars, which I should hide, As if I had receiv'd them for the hire Of their breath only : Men. Do not stand upon't. We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, Sen. To Coriolanus come all joy and honour! Manent Sicinius, and Brutus. Bru. You see how he intends to use the people. Sic. May they perceive his intent! He will require them, sion serves, not only writing up to the truth of history, but fitting his fentiments to the nicest manners of his peculiar subject, as well to the dignity of his characters, or the dictates of nature in general. WARBURTON. Dd 2 As As if he did contemn what he requested Bru. Come, we'll inform them Of our proceedings here: on the market place SCENE III. The Forum. Enter seven or eight Citizens. [Exeunt. 1 Cit. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him. 2 Cit. We may, fir, if we will. 3 Cit. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do: for if he shew us his wounds, and tell us his deeds, we are to 2 Once,] Once here means the fame as when we fay, once for WARBURTON. all. This use of the word once is found in the Supposes by Gafcoigne : "Once, twenty-four ducattes he cost me. Again, in the Comedy of Errors: FARMER. Once this your long experience of her wisdom. See Vol. I. p. 207. STEEVENS. 3 We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do:] I am perfuaded this was intended as a ridicule on the Augustine manner of defining free-will at that time in the schools. WARBURTON. A ridicule may be intended, but the sense is clear enough. Power first signifies natural power or force, and then moral power or right. Davies has used the same word with great variety of meaning: Use all thy powers that heavenly power to praise, JOHNSON. Shakspeare could not mean to ridicule a circumstance of which it was hardly possible for him to have the least knowledge. He spent his time better than in reading scholaftic trash. See the Revifal, p. 416. STEEVENS. 'put our tongues into those wounds, and speak for them; fo, if he tell us his noble deeds, we must alfo tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous: and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude; of the which, we being members, should bring ourselves to be monstrous members. / : 1 Cit. And to make us no better thought of, a little help will ferve: for once, when we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us-the + many-headed multitude. 3 Cit. We have been call'd fo of many; not that our heads are some brown, fome black, fome auburn's, fome bald, but that our wits are so diversly - colour'd: and truly, I think, if all our wits were to issue out of one scull, they would fly east, west, north, fouth; and their consent of one direct way • should be at once to all points o' the compass. 2 Cit. Think you so? Which way, do you judge, my wit would fly? 3 Cit. Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man's will, 'tis strongly wedg'd up in a blockhead: but if it were at liberty, 'twould, fure, fouthward. 2 Cit. Why that way? 3 Cit. To lose itself in a fog; where being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would : 4 many-headed multitude.] Hanmer reads, many-headed monster, but without neceffity. To be many-headed includes monstrousness. JOHNSON. Some auburn,] The folio reads, some Abram. I should unwillingly suppose this to be the true reading; but we have already heard of Cain and Abram-coloured beards. STEEVENS. if all our wits were to issue out of one scull, &c.] Meaning though our having but one interest was most apparent, yet our wishes and projects would be infinitely discordant. This meaning the Oxford editor has totally discharged, by changing the text thus, issue out of our soulls. WARBURTON. the fourth would return for confcience fake, to help to get thee a. Dd 3 would return for confcience sake, to help to get thee a wife. 2 Cit. You are never without your tricks :- You may, you may. 3 Cit. Are you all resolv'd to give your voices? But that's no matter, the greater part carries it. I say, if he would incline to the people, there was never a worthier man. Enter Coriolanus, and Menenius. Here he comes, and in the gown of humility; mark his behaviour. We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he stands, by ones, by twos, and by threes. He's to make his requests by particulars; wherein every one of us has a single honour, in giving him our own voices with our own tongues; therefore follow me, and I'll direct you how you shall go by him. All. Content, content. Men. O fir, you are not right; Have you not known The worthiest men have done't? * Cor. What must I say? I pray, fir, Plague upon't! I cannot bring My tongue to such a pace: - Look, firmy wounds ; 1 I got them in my country's service, when Men. O me, the gods! You must not speak of that; you must defire them To think upon you. wife.] A fly satirical infinuation how small a capacity of wit is neceffary for that purpose. But every day's experience of the sex's prudent disposal of themselves, may be fufficient to inform us how unjust it is. WARBURTON. Cor. |