Cor. Spoke he of me? Cor. How? what? Lart. How often he had met you, fword to sword: That, of all things upon the earth, he hated Your perfon most: that he would pawn his fortunes To hopeless restitution, so he might Be call'd your vanquisher. Cor. At Antium lives he? Lart. At Antium. Cor. I wish I had a cause to feek him there, To oppose his hatred fully.-Welcome home. [To Lartius. Enter Sicinius, and Brutus. Behold! these are the tribunes of the people, The tongues o' the common mouth. I do despise them; For they do prank them in authority Against all noble fufferance. Sic. Pass no further. Cor. Ha! what is that? o on: no further. Bru. It will be dangerous to go Cor. What makes this change? Men. The matter? Com. Hath he not pass'd the nobles, and the com mons? Bru. Cominius, no. Cor. Have I had children's voices? Sen. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market place. Bru. The people are incens'd against him. Sic. Stop, Or all will fall in broil. 5-prank them in authority,] Plume, deck, dignify them selves. JOHNSON, : Cor. Are these your herd ? Must these have voices, that can yield them now, And straight disclaim their tongues? - What are your offices? You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? Have you not fet them on? Men. Be calm, be calm. Cor. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot, To curb the will of the nobility :- Bru. Call't not a plot : The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late, も Bru. Not to them all. Cor. Have you inform'd them fince 7? Bru. How! I inform them! Cor. You are like to do fuch businefs. Bru. Not unlike, Each way, to better yours. Cor. Why then should I be conful? By yon clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me Your fellow tribune. 6 why rule you not their teeth? The metaphor is from men's fetting a bull-dog or mastiff upon any one. WARBURTON. fince.] The old copy fithence. STEEVENS. _ Not unlike, Each way, to better yours.] i. e. likely to provide better for the security of the commonwealth than you (whose business it is) will do. To which the reply is pertinent: Why then pould I be conful? Yet the restlefs humour of reformation in the Oxford editor dif turbs the text to, better you. WARBURTON. 1 Sic. You shew too much of that, For which the people stir: If you will pass To where you are bound, you must enquire your way, Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit; Or never be so noble as a conful, Nor yoke with him for tribune.. Men. Let's be calm. 9 Com. The people are abus'd: -Set on. This palt'ring Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus Deserv'd this so dishonour'd rub, laid 'falfly I' the plain way of his merit. Cor. Tell me of corn ! This was my speech, and I will speak't again; Men. Not now, not now. Sen. Not in this heat, fir, now. Cor. Now, as I live, I will.---My nobler friends, I crave their pardons : For the mutable, rank-fcented many, let them Therein behold themselves: I say again, In foothing them, we nourish 'gainst our fenate 3 The cockle of rebellion, insolence, fedition, This palt'ring Becomes not Rome; Which That is, this trick of dissimulation; this shuffling. That palter with us in a double sense. Macbeth. *-laid fally] Falfly her 2 JOHNSON. for treacherously. JOHNSON. Regard me as I do not flatter, and Let them look in the mirror which I hold up to them, a mirror which does not flatter, and fee themselves. JOHNSON. 3 The cockle of rebellion, -) Cockle is a weed which grows up with the corn. The thought is from fir Tho. North's tranf lation of Plutarch, where it is given as follows: " Moreover, he faid, that they nourished against themfelves the naughty feed Eez and ! Which we ourselves have plough'd for, fow'd, and scatter'd, By mingling them with us, the honour'd number; Which they have given to beggars. Sen. No more words, we beseech you. As for my country I have shed my blood, Bru. You speak o' the people, We let the people know't. Men. What, what? his choler? Were I as patient as the midnight fleep, Sic. It is a mind That shall remain a poison where it is, Not poison any further. Cor. Shall remain! Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you Com. 'Twas from the canon. and cockle of insolency and sedition, which had been fowed and fcattered abroad among the people, &c." STEEVENS. 4-meazels,] Mefell is used in Pierce Plowman's Vifion for a leper. The fame word frequently occurs in the London Prodigal. STEEVENS. 5-minnowe?] i. e. fmall fry. WARBURTON. A minnow is one of the smallest river fish, called in some counties a pink. See Vol. II. p. 407. JOHNSON. 'Twas from the canon.] Was contrary to the established rule; it was a form of speech to which he has no right. JOHNSON. Cor Cor. Shall! O gods!-but most unwife patricians, why "The horn and noise o' the monsters, want not spirit Let them have cushions by you. 9 You are plebeians, 「The horn and noise) Alluding to his having called him Triton before. WAREURTON. & Then vail your ignorance :) Ignorance for impotence; because it makes impotent. The Oxford editor not understanding this, transposes the whole fentence according to what in hiş fancy is accuracy. WARBURTON. Hanmer's transposition deferves notice, If they have power, Let them have cushions by you; if none, arvake Then vail your ignorance. You are Plebeians, &c. I neither think the transposition of one editor right, nor the interpretation of the other. The sense is plain enough without supposing ignorance to have any remote or consequential sense. If this man has power, let the ignorance that gave it him vail or bow down before him. JOHNSON, 9-You are plebeians, If they be fenators; and they are no less, When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste These lines may, I think, be made more intelligible by a very light correction : they no less [than Senators] When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste Muft palate theirs. When the taste of the great, the patricians, muft palate, must please [or must try] that of the plebeians. JOHNSON. The plain meaning is, that fenators and plebeians are equal, when the highest taste is best pleased with that which pleases the lowest. STEEVENS. |