Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
With thee a while: determine on some course,
More than a wild exposture to each chance
That starts i' the way before thee.1

Cor.

O the gods!

Com. I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee
Where thou shalt rest, that thou may'st hear of us,
And we of thee: so, if the time thrust forth
A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
O'er the vast world, to seek a single man;
And lose advantage, which doth ever cool
I' the absence of the needer.

Fare ye well:

Cor.
Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full
Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one
That's yet unbruis'd: bring me but out at gate.
Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
My friends of noble touch,5 when I am forth,
Bid me farewel, and smile. I pray you, come.
While I remain above the ground, you shall
Hear from me still; and never of me aught
But what is like me formerly.

Men.
That 's worthily
As any ear can hear.-Come, let's not weep.—
If I could shake off but one seven years

From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,
I'd with thee every foot.

Cor. Come.

Give me thy hand:—

[Exeunt.

4 More than a wild exposture to each chance

That starts i the way before thee.] I know not whether the word exposture be found in any other author. If not, I should incline to read exposure. Malone.

We should certainly read-exposure. So, in Macbeth:

"And when we have our naked frailties hid

"That suffer in exposure,

Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

"To weaken and discredit our exposure

Exposture is, I believe, no more than a typographical error.

Steevens. My friends of noble touch,] i. e. of true metal unalloyed. Metaphor from trying gold on the touchstone. Warburton.

Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an Ædile.

Sic. Bid them all home; he's gone, and we 'll no further.

The nobility are vex'd, who, we see, have sided

In his behalf.

Bru.
Let us seem humbler after it is done,
Than when it was a doing.

Now we have shown our power,

Bid them home:

Sic.
Say, their great enemy is gone, and they
Stand in their ancient strength.

Bru.

Dismiss them home.

Keep on your way.

Vol. O, you 're well met: the hoarded plague o' the

gods

Requite your love!

Men. Peace, peace; be not so loud. Vol. If that I could for weeping, you should hear,— Nay, and you shall hear some.-Will you be gone?

[To BRU. Vir. You shall stay too: [to SICIN.] I would, I had the power

To say so to my husband.

Sic.

Are you mankind? Vol. Ay, fool; Is that a shame?-Note but this fool.→ Was not a man my father?6 Hadst thou foxship?

6 Sic. Are you mankind?

Vol. Ay, fool; Is that a shame ?—Note but this fool.

Was not a man my father?] The word mankind is used maliciously by the first speaker, and taken perversely by the second. A mankind woman is a woman with the roughness of a man, and, in an aggravated sense, a woman ferocious, violent, and ea

To banish him that struck more blows for Rome,
Than thou hast spoken words?

Sic.

O blessed heavens!

Vol. More noble blows, than ever thou wise words; And for Rome's good.-I'll tell thee what;-Yet go:Nay, but thou shalt stay too:-I would my son

Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him,

His good sword in his hand..

Sic.

Vir.

What then?

What then?

He'd make an end of thy posterity.

Vol. Bastards, and all.

Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome!

Men. Come, come, peace.

Sic. I would he had continu'd to his country,

As he began; and not unknit himself

The noble knot he made.8

Bru.

I would he had.

Vol. I would he had? 'Twas you incens'd the rabble: Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth, As I can of those mysteries which heaven Will not have earth to know.

Bru.

Pray, let us go.

Vol. Now, pray, sir, get you gone:

You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this:
As far as doth the Capitol exceed

ger to shed blood. In this sense Sicinius asks Volumnia, if she be mankind. She takes mankind for a human creature, and accordingly cries out:

Note but this fool.

Was not a man my father? Johnson.

So, Jonson, in The Silent Woman:

"O mankind generation!"

Shakspeare himself, in The Winter's Tale:

a mankind witch."

Fairfax, in his translation of Tasso:

"See, see this mankind strumpet; see, she cry'd,
"This shameless whore."

See Vol. VI, p. 213, n. 2. Steevens.

7 Hadst thou foxship-] Hadst thou, fool as thou art, mean cunning enough to banish Coriolanus? Johnson.

8 unknit himself

The noble knot he made.] So, in King Henry IV, P. I:

will you again unknit

"This churlish knot" &c. Steepens.

The meanest house in Rome; so far, my son,
(This lady's husband here, this, do you see,)
Whom you have banish'd, does exceed you all.
Bru. Well, well, we 'll leave you.

Sic.

With one that wants her wits?

Vol.

Why stay we to be baited

Take my prayers with you.

I would the gods had nothing else to do,

[Exeunt Tribunes. But to confirm my curses! Could I meet them But once a day, it would unclog my heart Of what lies heavy to 't.

Men.

You have told them home,9

And, by my troth, you have cause. You'll sup with me?
Vol. Anger 's my meat; I sup upon myself,
And so shall starve with feeding.-Come, let's go:
Leave this faint puling, and lament as I do,
In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come.
Men. Fy, fy, fy!

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

A Highway between Rome and Antium.

Enter a Roman and a Volce, meeting.

Rom. I know you well, sir, and you know me: your name, I think, is Adrian.

Vol. It is so, sir: truly, I have forgot you.

Rom. I am a Roman; and my services are, as you are, against them: Know you me yet?

Vol. Nicanor? No.

Rom. The same, sir.

Vol. You had more beard, when I last saw you; but your favour is well appeared by your tongue.2 What's

You have told them home,] So again, in this play:

"I cannot speak him home." Malone.

1 And so shall starve with feeding.] This idea is repeated in Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, sc. ii, and in Pericles:

2

"Who starves the ears she feeds," &c. Steevens.

but your favour is well appeared by your tongue.] This is strange nonsense. We should read:

is well appealed,

i. e. brought into remembrance. Warburton.

the news in Rome? I have a note from the Volcian state, to find you out there: You have well saved me a day's journey.

Rom. There hath been in Rome strange insurrection: the people against the senators, patricians, and nobles.

Vol. Hath been! is it ended then? Our state thinks not so; they are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon them in the heat of their division.

Rom. The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again. For the nobles receive so to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus, that they are in a ripe aptness, to take all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes for ever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almost mature for the violent breaking out.

Vol. Coriolanus banished?

Rom. Banished, sir.

Vol. You will be welcome with this intelligence, Ni

canor.

Rom. The day serves well for them now. I have heard it said, The fittest time to corrupt a man's wife, is when she 's fallen out with her husband. Your noble Tullus

I would read:

is well affeared.

That is, strengthened, attested, a word used by our author. "His title is affear'd." Macbeth.

To repeal may be to bring to remembrance, but appeal has another meaning. Johnson.

I would read:

Your favour is well approved by your tongue.

i. e. your tongue confirms the evidence of your face.

So, in Hamlet, sc. i:

"That if again this apparition come,

"He may approve our eyes, and speak to it." Steevens. If there be any corruption in the old copy, perhaps it rather is in a preceding word. Our author might have written-your favour has well appeared by your tongue: but the old text may, in Shakspeare's licentious dialect, be right. Your favour is fully manifested, or rendered apparent, by your tongue.

In support of the old copy it may be observed, that becomed was formerly used as a participle. So, in North's translation of Plutarch, Life of Sylla, p. 622, edit. 1575: "-which perhaps would not have becomed Pericles or Aristides." We have, I think, the same participle in Timon of Athens.

So Chaucer uses dispaired:

"Alas, quod Pandarus, what may this be
"That thou dispaired art," &c. Malone.