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Cor. Spoke he of me?
Lart. He did, my lord.

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,

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:

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 :-
Suffer't, and live with fuch as cannot rule,
Nor ever will be rul'd.

Bru. Call't not a plot :

The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late,
When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd;
Scandal'd the fuppliants for the people; call'd them
Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.
Cor. Why, this was known before.

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.

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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
Regard me as I do not flatter, and

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;

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Which

That is, this trick of dissimulation; this shuffling.
And be these jugling fiends no more believ'd,

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
Therein behold themselves:]

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;
Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that

Which they have given to beggars.
Men. Well, no more.

Sen. No more words, we beseech you.
Cor. How! no more?

As for my country I have shed my blood,
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs
Coin words 'till their decay, against those meazels,
Which we disdain should tetter us, yet fought
The very way to catch them.

Bru. You speak o' the people,
As if you were a god to punish, not
A man of their infirmity.
Sic. 'Twere well,

We let the people know't.

Men. What, what? his choler?
Cor. Choler!

Were I as patient as the midnight fleep,
By Jove, 'twould be my mind.

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
His abfolute shall?

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
You grave, but reckless senators, have you thus
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory shall, being but

"The horn and noise o' the monsters, want not spirit
To say, he'll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have power,
* Then vail your ignorance: if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learned,
Be not as common fools; if you are not,

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
Your dang'rous lenity; if you are learned,
Be not as common fools; if you are not,

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
Moft palates theirs.]

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.

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