And presently, when you have drawn your number, We will so: almost all [Several speak. Repent in their election. Bru. [Exeunt Citizens. Let them go on; This mutiny were better put in hazard, If, as his nature is, he fall in rage With their refusal, both observe and answer Sic. To the Capitol: Come; we 'll be there before the stream o' the people ;3 And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own, Which we have goaded onward. [Exeunt. ACT III.....SCENE I. The same. A Street. Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, Senators, and Patricians. Cor. Tullus Aufidius then had made new head? Lart. He had, my lord; and that it was, which caus'd Our swifter composition. Cor. So then the Volces stand but as at first; Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road Com. They are worn, lord consul, so, 66 you protect this course, "And put it on by your allowance." Steevens. So, in King Henry VIII: 66 as putter on "Of these exactions." See Vol. XI, p. 215, n. 2. Malone. 2 observe and answer The vantage of his anger.] Mark, catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hasty anger will afford us. Johnson. 3 -the stream of the people;] So, in King Henry VIII: The rich stream "Of lords and ladies having brought the queen "To a prepar'd piace in the choir," &c. Malone. lord consul,] Shakspeare has here, as in other places, attributed the usage of England to Rome. In his time the title That we shall hardly in our ages see Cor. Saw you Aufidius? Lart. On safe-guard he came to me ;5 and did curse Against the Volces, for they had so vilely Yielded the town: he is retired to Antium. Cor. Spoke he of me? Lart. Cor. He did, my lord. How? what? Lart. How often he had met you, sword to sword: Your person most: that he would pawn his fortunes Be call'd your vanquisher. Cor. Lart. At Antium. At Antium lives he? Cor. I wish I had a cause to seek him there, To oppose his hatred fully.-Welcome home. [To LART. 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 sufferance. Sic. Cor. Ha! what is that? Go on: no further. Cor. Men. Pass no further. It will be dangerous to What makes this change? The matter? Com. Hath he not pass'd the nobles, and the commons?" Bru. Cominius, no. of lord was given to many officers of state who were not peers; thus, lords of the council, lord ambassador, lord general, &c. Malone. 5 On safe-guard he came to me;] i. e. with a convoy, a guard appointed to protect him. Steevens. 6 prank them in authority,] Plume, deck, dignify themselves. Johnson. So, in Measure for Measure, Act II, sc. ii: "Drest in a little brief authority." Steevens. 7 Hath he not pass'd the nobles, and the commons?] The first folio reads: "noble," and "common." The second has-commons. I have not hesitated to reform this passage on the authority of others in the play before us. Thus: Cor. Have I had children's voices? 1 Sen. Tribunes, give way; he shall to the market-place. Bru. The people are incens'd against him. Sic. Or all will fall in broil. Cor. Stop, 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 set 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 it, and live with such as cannot rule, Bru. Call 't not a plot: The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late, Cor. Why, this was known before. Not to them all. Cor. Have you inform'd them since?9 How! I inform them! Cor. You are like to do such business. Each way, to better yours.1 Not unlike, Cor. Why then should I be consul? By yon clouds, Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me "A shower and thunder," &c. Steevens. 8why rule you not their teeth?] The metaphor is from men's setting a bull-dog or mastiff upon any one. Warburton. since?] The old copy-sithence. Steevens. 9 Each way, to better yours. &c.] 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 should I be consul!" Warburton. 2 Sic. You show too much of that, &c.] This speech is given in For which the people stir: If you will pass Or never be so noble as a consul, Nor yoke with him for tribune. Men. Let's be calm. Com. The people are abus'd:-Set on.-This palt'ring Becomes not Rome;3 nor has Coriolanus Deserv'd this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely I' the plain way of his merit. Cor. Tell me of corn! This was my speech, and I will speak 't again;- 1 Sen. Not in this heat, sir, now. Cor. Now, as I live, I will.-My nobler friends, For the mutable, rank-scented many,5 let them Therein behold themselves: I say again, In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate the old copy to Cominius. It was rightly attributed to Sicinius by Mr. Theobald. Malone. 3 This palt'ring Becomes not Rome;] That is, this trick of dissimulation ; this shuffling: "And be these juggling fiends no more believed, Becomes not Rome;] I would read: Becomes not Romans; Johnson Coriolanus being accented on the first, and not the second syllable, in former instances. Steevens. rub, laid falsely, &c.] Falsely for treacherously. Johnson. The metaphor is from the bowling-green. Malone. 5 many,] i. e. the populace. The Greeks used a wor exactly in the same sense. H. White. 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 see themselves. Johnson. 7 The cockle of rebellion,] Cockle is a weed which grows up with the corn. The thought is from Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch, where it is given as follows: "Moreover, he said, that they nourished against themselves the naughty seed Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd and scat ter'd, By mingling them with us, the honour'd number; Men. Well, no more. 1 Sen. No more words, we beseech you. Cor. How! no more? As for my country I have shed my blood, Bru. You speak o' the people, As if you were a god to punish, not Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, 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?9 mark you Com. 'Twas from the canon.1 and cockle of insolence and sedition, which had been sowed and scattered abroad among the people," &c. Steevens. The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,] Here are three syllables too many. We might read, as in North's Plutarch: 8 "The cockle of insolency and sedition." Ritson. meazels,] Mesell is used in Pierce Plowman's Vision, for a leper. The same word frequently occurs in The London Prodigal, 1605. Steevens. 9 minnows?] i. e. small fry. Warburton. A minnow is one of the smallest river fish, called in some counties a pink. Johnson. So, in Love's Labour's Lost: ". mirth," Steevens. that base minnow of thy 1'Twas from the canon,] Was contrary to the established rule; it was a form of speech to which he has no right. Johnson. |