But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him, Men. Do you hear? Com. Yet one time he did call me by my name: I urg'd our old acquaintance, and the drops That we have bled together. Coriolanus He would not answer to: forbad all names; He was a kind of nothing, titleless, Till he had forg'd himself a name i' the fire Of burning Rome. Men. Why, so; you have made good work: A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,3 To make coals cheap: a noble memory!4 Com. I minded him, how royal 'twas to pardon When it was less expected: He replied, It was a bare petitions of a state let's away, to their present situation, to complete the rhyming couplet with which the scene concludes. Were these words replaced in what perhaps was their original situation, the passage would at once exhibit the meaning already given. Maione. 2 coy'd-] i. e. condescended unwillingly, with reserve, coldness. Steevens. 3that have rack'd for Rome,] To rack means to harrass by exactions, and in this sense the poet uses it in other places: "The commons hast thou rack'd; the clergy's bags "Are lank and lean with thy extortions." I believe it here means in general, You that have been such good stewards for the Roman people, as to get their houses burned over their heads, to save them the expense of coals. Steevens. 4 ·memory!] for memorial. See p. 135, n. 4. Steevens. 5 It was a bare petition-] A bare petition, I believe, means. only a mere petition. Coriolanus weighs the consequence of verbal supplication against that of actual punishment. See Vol. II, p. 197, n. 2. Steevens. I have no doubt but we should read: It was a base petition &c. meaning that it was unworthy the dignity of a state, to petition a man whom they had banished. J. Mason. In King Henry IV, P. I, and in Timon of Athens, the word bare is used in the sense of thin, easily seen through; having only a slight superficial covering. Yet, I confess, this interpretation will hardly apply here. In the former of the passages alluded to, To one whom they had punish'd. Men. Could he say less? Very well: Com. I offer'd to awaken his regard For his private friends: His answer to me was, Of noisome, musty chaff: He said, 'twas folly, Men. His child, and this brave fellow too, we are the grains: aid Sic. Nay, pray, be patient: If you refuse your In this so never-heeded help, yet do not Upbraid us with our distress. But, sure, if you Would be your country's pleader, your good tongue, More than the instant army we can make, Might stop our countryman. Men. Sic. I pray you, go to him. No; I'll not meddle. What should I do? Bru. Only make trial what your love can do For Rome, towards Marcius. Men. Well, and say that Marcius Return me, as Cominius is return'd, But as a discontented friend, grief-shot Sic. Men. I'll undertake it: I think, he'll hear me. Yet to bite his lip, And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me. the editor of the first folio substituted base for bare, improperly. In the passage before us perhaps base was the author's word. Malone. 6 I pray you, &c.] The pronoun personal—I, is wanting in the old copy. Steevens. He was not taken well; he had not din'd: &c.] This observation is not only from nature, and finely expressed, but admirably The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I'll watch him Till he be dieted to my request, And then I'll set upon him. Bru. You know the very road into his kindness, And cannot lose your way. Men. Good faith, I'll prove him, Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge Of my success.9 Com. Sic. He 'll never hear him. [Exit. Not? Com. I tell you, he does sit in gold,1 his eye befits the mouth of one, who in the beginning of the play had told us, that he loved convivial doings. Warburton. Mr. Pope seems to have borrowed this idea. See Epist. I, ver. 127: 8 "Perhaps was sick, in love, or had not din'd." Steevens. our priest-like fasts:] I am afraid, that when Shakspeare introduced this comparison, the religious abstinence of modern, not ancient Rome, was in his thoughts. Steevens. Priests are forbid, by the discipline of the church of Rome, to break their fast before the celebration of mass, which must take place after sun-rise, and before mid-day. C. 9 Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge Of my success.] There could be no doubt but Menenius himself would soon have knowledge of his own success. The sense therefore requires that we should read: Speed how it will, you shall ere long have knowledge That Menenius at some time would have knowledge of his success is certain; but what he asserts, is, that he would ere long gain that knowledge. Malone. All Menenius designs to say, may be-I shall not be kept long in suspense as to the result of my embassy. Steevens. 1 I tell you, he does sit in gold,] He is enthroned in all the pomp and pride of imperial splendour: -"xpuσób pov "Hgn." Hom. Johnson. So, in the old translation of Pluarch: "-he was set in his chaire of state, with a marvellous and unspeakable majestie." Shakspeare has a somewhat similar idea in King Henry VIII, Act 1, sc. i: "All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods." Red as 'twould burn Rome; and his injury The idea expressed by Cominius occurs also in the 8th Iliad, 442: “ Αὐτὸς δὲ χρύσειον ἐπὶ θρόνον εὐρύοπα Ζεὺς 66 σε "Εζετο.”. In the translation of which passage Mr. Pope was perhaps indebted to Shakspeare: "Th' eternal Thunderer sat thron'd in gold." Steevens. 2 Bound with an oath, to yield to his conditions:] This is apparently wrong. Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read: Bound with an oath not yield to new conditions." They might have read more smoothly: to yield to new conditions: But the whole speech is in confusion, and I suspect something left out. I should read: What he would do, He sent in writing after; what he would not, Bound with an oath. To yield to his conditions.— Here is, I think, a chasm. The speaker's purpose seems to be this: To yield to his conditions is ruin, and better cannot be ob tained, so that all hope is vain. Johnson. I suppose, Coriolanus means, that he had sworn to give way to the conditions, into which the ingratitude of his country had forced him. Farmer. The amendment which I have to propose, is a very slight deviation from the text-the reading, "in his conditions," instead of "to his conditions."-To yield, in this place, means to relax, and is used in the same sense, in the next scene but one, by Coriolanus himself, where speaking of Menenius, he says: 66 to grace him only, "That thought he could do more, a very little "I have vielded too :" What Cominius means to say, is, "That Coriolanus sent in writing after him the conditions on which he would agree to make a peace, and bound himself by an oath not to depart from them." The additional negative which Hanmer and Warburton wish to introduce, is not only unnecessary, but would destroy the sense; for the thing which Coriolanus had sworn not to do, was to yield in his conditions. M. Mason. What he would do, i. e. the conditions on which he offered to return, he sent in writing after Cominius, intending that he should have carried them to Menenius. What he would not, i. e. his resolution of neither dismissing his soldiers, nor capitulating with Rome's mechanicks, in case the terms he prescribed should be refused, he bound himself by an oath to maintain. If these So, that all hope is vain, Unless his noble mother, and his wife; Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him For mercy to his country.3 Therefore, let 's hence, conditions were admitted, the oath of course, being grounded "The things I have fors worn to grant, may never Henley. I believe, two half lines have been lost; that Bound with an oath was the beginning of one line, and to yield to his conditions the conclusion of the next. See Vol. VII, p. 87, n. 4. Perhaps, however, to yield to his conditions, means-to yield only to his conditions; referring to these words to oath that his oath was irrevocable, and should yield to nothing but such a reverse of fortune as he could not resist. 3 So, that all hope is vain, Malone. Unless his noble mother, and his wife; Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him For mercy to his country.-] Unless his mother and wife,—do what? The sentence is imperfect. We should read: Force mercy to his country. and then all is right. Warburton. Dr. Warburton's emendation is surely harsh, and may be rendered unnecessary by printing the passage thus: mean to solicit him For mercy to his country Therefore, &c. This liberty is the more justifiable, because, as soon as the remaining hope crosses the imagination of Cominius, he might suppress what he was going to add, through haste to try the success of a last expedient. It has been proposed to me to read: So that all hope is vain, Unless in his noble mother and his wife, &c. In his, abbreviated in 's, might have been easily mistaken by such inaccurate printers. Steevens. No amendment is wanting, the sense of the passage being complete without it. We say every day in conversation,-You are my only hope-He is my only hope,-instead of My only hope is in you, or in him. The same mode of expression occurs in this sentence, and occasions the obscurity of it. M. Mason. That this passage has been considered as difficult, surprises me. Many passages in these plays have been suspected to be corrupt merely because the language was peculiar to Shakspeare, or the phraseology of that age, and not of the present; and this |