Ed. Enter Edile. Worthy tribunes, There is a slave, whom we have put in prison, Men. 'Tis Aufidius, Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment, Which were inshell'd, when Marcius stood for Rome,1 Sic. Of Marcius? Come, what talk you Bru. Go see this rumourer whipp'd.-It cannot be, The Volces dare break with us. Men. 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 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, Sic. What more fearful? Mess. It is spoke freely out of many mouths, Sic. 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, Upon our territories; and have already, O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire, and took 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; Com. Your temples burned in their cement; and 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 That shapes man better: and they follow him, 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. Do smilingly revolt; and, who resist, And perish constant fools. Who is 't can blame 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 Does of the shepherds: for his best friends, if they And therein show'd like enemies. Men. 'Tis true: If he were putting to my house the brand 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. 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 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. |