Ed.

Enter Edile.

Worthy tribunes,

There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,
Reports, the Volces with two several powers
Are enter'd in the Roman territories;
And with the deepest malice of the war
Destroy what lies before them.

Men.

'Tis Aufidius,

Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment,
Thrusts forth his horns again into the world;

Which were inshell'd, when Marcius stood for Rome,1
And durst not once peep out.

Sic.

Of Marcius?

Come, what talk you

Bru. Go see this rumourer whipp'd.-It cannot be, The Volces dare break with us.

Men.
Cannot be!
We have record, that very well it can;
And three examples of the like have been
Within my age. But reason with the fellow,5
Before you punish him, where he heard this;
Lest you shall chance to whip your information,
And beat the messenger who bids beware
Of what is to be dreaded.

Sic.

I know, this cannot be.

Bru.

Tell not me:

Not possible.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. The nobles, in great earnestness, are going All to the senate house: some news is come,6 That turns their countenances.7

- stood for Rome,] i. e. stood up in its defence. Had the expression in the text been met with in a learned author, it might have passed for a Latinism:

66

summis stantem pro turribus Idam "

Eneid IX, 575. Steevens.

5 reason with the fellow,] That is, have some talk with him. In this sense Shakspeare often uses the word. See Vol. II, p. 167, n. 6. Johnson.

6 some news is come,] Old copy-redundantly,-some news is come in. The second folio-coming; but I think, erroneously. Steevens.

That turns their countenances.] i. e. that renders their aspect
VOL. XIII.

Sic.

'Tis this slave ;

Yes, worthy sir,

Go whip him 'fore the people's eyes:—his raising!

Nothing but his report!

Mess.

The slave's report is seconded; and more,
More fearful, is deliver'd.

Sic.

What more fearful?

Mess. It is spoke freely out of many mouths,
(How probable, I do not know,) that Marcius,
Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome;
And vows revenge as spacious, as between
The young'st and oldest thing.

Sic.
This is most likely!
Bru. Rais'd only, that the weaker sort may wish
Good Marcius home again.

Sic.

Men. This is unlikely:

The very trick. on 't.

He and Aufidius can no more atone,

Than violentest contrariety."

Enter another Messenger.

Mess. You are sent for to the senate:

sour. This allusion to the acescence of milk occurs again in Tmon of Athens :

"Has friendship such a faint and milky heart,

"It turns in less than two nights?" Malone.

I believe nothing more is meant than-changes their countenances. So, in Cymbeline:

66

Change you, madam?

"The noble Leonatus is in safety." Steevens.

8 —can no more atone,] To atone, in the active sense, is to reconcile, and is so used by our author. To atone here, is in the neutral sense, to come to reconciliation. To atone is to unite.

Johnson.

The etymology of this verb may be known from the following passage in the second Book of Sidney's Arcadia: "Necessitie made us see, that a common enemie sets at one a civil warre." Steevens.

Atone seems to be derived from at and one-to reconcile to, or, to be at, union. In some books of Shakspeare's age I have found the phrase in its original form: ". -to reconcile and make them at one." Malone.

9 -violentest contrariety.] I should read-violentest contrarieties. M. Mason.

Mr. M. Mason might have supported his conjecture by the following passage in King Lear:

"No contraries hold more antipathy

"Than I and such a knave." Steevens.

A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius,
Associated with Aufidius, rages

Upon our territories; and have already,

O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire, and took
What lay before them.

Enter COMINIUS.

Com. O, you have made good work!

Men,

What news? what news?

Com. You have holp to ravish your own daughters, and To melt the city leads upon your pates;

To see your wives dishonour'd to your noses;
Men. What 's the news? what 's the news?

Com. Your temples burned in their cement; and
Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd
Into an augre's bore.2

Men.

Pray now, your news?You have made fair work, I fear me :-Pray, your news? If Marcius should be join'd with Volcians,

Com.

"He is their god; he leads them like a thing
"Made by some other deity than nature,

That shapes man better: and they follow him,
Against us brats, with no less confidence,
Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,

Or butchers killing flies.

If!

Men. You have made good work, You, and your apron men; you that stood so much Upon the voice of occupation,3 and

1

-the city leads] Our author, I believe, was here thinking of the old city gates of London. Malone.

The same phrase has occurred already, in this play. See p. 56. -Leads were not peculiar to our city gates. Few ancient houses of consequence were without them. Steevens.

2 confin'd

Into an augre's bore.] So, in Macbeth:

66

-our fate hid in an augre-hole." Steevens.

3 Upon the voice of occupation,] Occupation is here used for mechanicks, men occupied in daily business. So again, in Julius Cesar, Act I, sc. ii: "An I had been a man of any occupation,"

&c.

So, Horace uses artes for artifices:

"Urit enim fulgore suo, qui prægravat artes

"Infra se positas." Malone.

In the next page but one, the word crafts is used in the like manner, where Menenius says:

Did shake down mellow fruit:5 You have made fair work! Bru. But is this true, sir?

Ay; and you'll look pale

C'om.
Before you find it other. All the regions

Do smilingly revolt; and, who resist,
Are only mock'd for valiant ignorance,7

And perish constant fools. Who is 't can blame him?
Your enemies, and his, find something in him.

Men. We are all undone, unless

The noble man have mercy.

66 you have made fair hands,

"You, and your crafts!" M. Mason.

The breath of garlick-eaters!] To smell of garlick was once such a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara. Johnson. So, in Measure for Measure: " he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelled brown bread and garlick." Malone. To smell of leeks was no less a mark of vulgarity among the Roman people in the time of Juvenal. Sat. iii :

66

quis tecum sectile porrum

"Sutor, et elixi vervecis labra comedit?"

And from the following passage in Deckar's If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, 1612, it should appear that garlick was once much used in England, and afterwards as much out of fashion:

"Fortune favours nobody but garlick, nor garlick neither now; yet she has strong reason to love it: for though garlick made her smell abominably in the nostrils of the gallants, yet she had smelt and stunk worse for garlick."

Hence, perhaps, the cant denomination Pil-garlick for a deserted fellow, a person left to suffer without friends to assist him. Steevens.

5 As Hercules &c.] A ludicrous allusion to the apples of the Hesperides. Steevens.

6 Do smilingly revolt;] Smilingly is the word in the old copy, for which seemingly has been printed in late editions.

To revolt smilingly is to revolt with signs of pleasure, or with marks of contempt. Steevens.

7 Are only mock'd for valiant ignorance,] So, in Troilus and Cressida: "I had rather be a tick in a sheep, than such a valiant ignorance."

The adverb-only, was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer to complete the verse. Steevens.

Com.

Who shall ask it?

The tribunes cannot do 't for shame; the people
Deserve such pity of him, as the wolf

Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they
Should say, Be good to Rome, they charg❜d him3 even
As those should do that had deserv'd his hate,

And therein show'd like enemies.

Men.

'Tis true:

If he were putting to my house the brand
That should consume it, I have not the face

Το say, 'Beseech you, cease. You have made fair hands, You, and your crafts! you have crafted fair!

Com. You have brought A trembling upon Rome, such as was never So incapable of help.

Tri.

Say not, we brought it.

Men. How! Was it we? We lov'd him; but, like beasts, And cowardly nobles, gave way to your clusters,

Who did hoot him out o' the city.

Com.
But, I fear
They 'll roar him in again.1 Tullus Aufidius,
The second name of men, obeys his points
As if he were his officer:-Desperation
Is all the policy, strength, and defence,
That Rome can make against them.

Men.

Enter a Troop of Citizens.

Here come the clusters.

And is Aufidius with him?-You are they

That made the air unwholesome, when you cast
Your stinking, greasy caps, in hooting at
Coriolanus' exile. Now he 's coming;

And not a hair upon a soldier's head,

8 they charg'd him &c.] Their charge or injunction would show them insensible of his wrongs, and make them show like enemies. Johnson.

They charg'd, and therein show'd, has here the force of They would charge, and therein show. Malone.

And cowardly nobles,] I suspect that our author wrote-coward, which he sometimes uses adjectively. So, in King John:

"Than e'er the coward hand of France can win." Steevens.

1 They 'll roar him in again.] As they hooted at his departure, they will roar at his return; as he went out with scoffs, he will come back with lamentations. Johnson.