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Cor.

Shall!

thus

O good, but most unwise patricians, why,
You grave, but reckless senators, have you
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory shall, being but
The horn and noise3 o' the monsters, wants not spirit
To say, he 'il turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have power,
Then vail your ignorance: if none, awake

These words appear to me to imply the very reverse. Cominius means to say, "that what Sicinius had said, was according to the rule," alluding to the absolute veto of the Tribunes, the power of putting a stop to every proceeding :-and, accordingly, Coriolanus, instead of disputing this power of the Tribunes, proceeds to argue against the power itself, and to inveigh against the Patricians for having granted it. M. Mason.

2 O good, but most unwise patricians, &c.] The old copy hasO God, but &c. Mr. Theobald made the correction. Mr. Steevens asks, "when the only authentick ancient copy makes sense, why should we depart from it?"-No one can be more thoroughly convinced of the general propriety of adhering to the old copy than I am; and I trust I have given abundant proofs of my attention to it, by restoring and establishing many ancient readings in every one of these plays, which had been displaced for modern innovations: and if in the passage before us the ancient copy had afforded sense, I should have been very unwilling to disturb it. But it does not; for it reads, not "O Gods," as Mr. Steevens supposed, but O God, an adjuration surely not proper in the mouth of a heathen. Add to this, that the word but is exhibited with a small initial letter, in the only authentic copy; and the words "good but unwise" here appear to be the counterpart of grave and reckless in the subsequent line. On a reconsideration of this passage therefore, I am confident that even my learned predecessor will approve of the emendation now adopted. Malone.

I have not displaced Mr. Malone's reading, though it may be observed, that an improper mention of the Supreme Being of the Christians will not appear decisive on this occasion to the reader who recollects that in Troilus and Crassula the Trojan Pandarus swears, "by God's lid," the Greek Thersites exclaims-" Goda-mercy;" and that, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, our author has put "God shield us!" into the mouth of Bottom, an Athenian weaver.-I lately met with a still more glaring instance of the same impropriety in another play of Shakspeare, but cannot, at this moment, ascertain it. Steevens.

3 The horn and noise-] Alluding to his having called him Triton before. Warburton.

4 Then vail your ignorance:] If this man has power, let the ignorance that gave it him vail or bow down before him. Johnson.

Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd,
Be not as common fools; if you are not,

Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
If they be senators: and they are no less,

When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste
Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate;
And such a one as he, who puts his shall,
His popular shall, against a graver bench
Than ever frown'd in Greece! By Jove himself,
It makes the consuls base: and my soul akes,
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion

May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take
The one by 'tother.

Com.

Well-on to the market-place.

Cor. Whoever gave that counsel,7 to give forth

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66 'Upon a wrong'd" &c. Steevens.

-You are plebeians,

If they be senators: and they are no less,

When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste

Most palates theirs.] These lines may, I think, be made more intelligible by a very slight correction:

they no less than senators]

When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste

Must palate theirs.

When the taste of the great, the patricians, must palate, must please [or must try] that of the plebeians. Johnson.

The plain meaning is, that senators and plebeians are equal, when the highest taste is best pleased with that which pleases the lowest. Steevens.

I think the meaning is, the plebeians are no less than senators, when, the voices of the senate and the people being blended together, the predominant taste of the compound smacks more of the populace than the senate. Malone.

6

and my soul akes,] The mischief and absurdity of what is called Imperium in imperio, is here finely expressed. Warburton. 7 Whoever gave that counsel, &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "Therefore, sayed he, they that gaue counsell, and persuaded that the Corne should be giuen out to the common people gratis, as they vsed to doe in cities of Græce, where the people had more absolute power, dyd but only nourishe their disobedience, which would breake out in the ende, to the vtt ruine and ouerthrow of the whole state. For they will not thinck

The corn o' the store-house gratis, as 'twas us'd
Sometime in Greece,

Men.

Well, well, no more of that.

Cor. (Though there the people had more absolute

power,)

I say, they nourish'd disobedience, fed

The ruin of the state.

Bru.

Why, shall the people give

One, that speaks thus, their voice?

Cor.
I'll give my reasons,
More worthier than their voices. They know, the corn
Was not our recompense; resting well assur'd

They ne'er did service for 't: Being press'd to the war,
Even when the navel of the state was touch'd,
They would not thread the gates: this kind of service
Did not deserve corn gratis: being i' the war,
Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd
Most valour, spoke not for them: The accusation
Which they have often made against the senate,
All cause unborn, could never be the native9

it is done in recompense of their service past, sithence they know well enough they haue so often refused to go to the warres, when they were commaunded: neither for their mutinies when they went with vs, whereby they haue rebelled and forsaken their countrie: neither for their accusations which their flatterers haue preferred vnto them, and they have recevued, and made good against the senate: but they will rather judge we geue and graunt them this, as abasing our selues, and standing in feare of them, and glad to flatter them euery way. By this meanes, their disobedience will still grow worse and worse; and they will neuer leave to practise newe sedition, and vprores. Therefore it were a great follie for vs, me thinckes, to do it: yea, shall I say more? we should if we were wise, take from them their tribuneshippe, which most manifestly is the embasing of the consulshippe, and the cause of the diuision of the cittie. The state whereof as it standeth, is not now as it was wont to be, but becommeth dismembered in two factions, which mainteines allwayes ciuill dissention and discorde betwene vs, and will neuer suffer us againe to be vnited into one bodie." Steevens.

8 They would not thread the gates:] That is, pass them. We yet say, to thread an alley. Johnson.

So, in King Lear:

66

threading dark-ey'd night.” Steevens.

could never be the native-] Native for natural birth."

Warburton.

Native is here not natural birth, but natural parent, or cause of birth. Johnson.

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Of our so frank donation. Well, what then?
How shall this bosom multiplied1 digest
The senate's courtesy? Let deeds express

What 's like to be their words:-We did request it;
We are the greater poll, and in true fear
They gave us our demands:-Thus we debase
The nature of our seats, and make the rabble
Call our cares, fears: which will in time break ope
The locks o' the senate, and bring in the crows
To peck the eagles.-

Men.
Come, enough.2
Bru. Enough, with over-measure.
Cor.
No, take more:
What may be sworn by, both divine and human,
Seal what I end withal! This double worship,-
Where one part 4 does disdain with cause, the other
Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom
Cannot conclude, but by the yea and no

Of general ignorance, it must omit

So, in a kindred sense, in King Henry V:

"A many of our bodies shall no doubt

"Find native graves." Malone.

I cannot agree with Johnson that native can possibly mean natural parent, or cause of birth; nor with Warburton in supposing that it means natural birth; for if the word could bear that meaning, it would not be sense here, as Coriolanus is speaking not of the consequence, but the cause, of their donation. I should therefore read motive instead of native. Malone's quotation from King Henry V, is nothing to the purpose, as in that passage native graves, means evidently graves in their native soil.

1

M. Mason.

this bosom multiplied-] This multitudinous bosom; the bosom of that great monster, the people. Malone.

2 Come, enough.] Perhaps this imperfect line was originally completed by a repetition of enough. Steevens.

3 No, take more:

What may be sworn by, both divine and human

Seal what I end withal!] The sense is, No, let me add this further; and may every thing divine and human which can give force to an oath, bear witness to the truth of what I shall conclude with.

The Romans swore by what was human as well as divine; by their head, by their eyes, by the dead bones and ashes of their parents, &c. See Brisson de formulis, p. 808-817. Heath.

4 Where one part-] In the old copy, we have here, as in many other places, on instead of one. The correction was made by Mr. Rowe. See Vol. VII, p. 357, n. 1. Malene.

Real necessities, and give way the while

To unstable slightness: purpose so barr'd, it follows, Nothing is done to purpose: Therefore, beseech you,You that will be less fearful than discreet;

That love the fundamental part of state,

More than you doubt the change of 't; that prefer
A noble life before a long, and wish

To jump a body with a dangerous physick
That 's sure of death without it, at once pluck out
The multitudinous tongue, let them not lick
The sweet which is their poison:7 your dishonour
Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the state
Of that integrity which should become it;9
Not having the power to do the good it would,

5 That love the fundamental part of state,

3

More than you doubt the change of 't;] To doubt is to fear. The meaning is, You whose zeal predominates over your terrors; you who do not so much fear the danger of violent measures, as wish the good to which they are necessary, the preservation of the original constitution of our government. Johnson.

To jump a body-] Thus the old copy. Modern editors read:

To vamp

To jump anciently signified to jolt, to give a rude concussion to any thing. To jump a body may therefore mean, to put it into a violent agitation or commotion. Thus, Lucretius, III, 452,—quassatum est corpus.

So, in Phil. Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, B. XXV, ch. v, p. 219: “If we looke for good successe in our cure by ministring ellebore, &c. for certainly it putteth the patient to a jumpe, or great hazard." Steevens.

From this passage in Pliny, it should seem that "to jump a body," meant to risk a body; and such an explication seems to me to be supported by the context in the passage before us. So, in Macbeth:

"We 'd jump the life to come."

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, sc. viii :

7

66 our fortune lies

"Upon this jump." Malone.

- let them not lick

-

The sweet which is their poison] So, in Measure for Measure: "Like rats that ravin up their proper bane " Steevens. Mangles true judgment:] Judgment is the faculty by which right is distinguished from wrong. Johnson.

Of that integrity which should become it;] Integrity is in this place soundness, uniformity, consistency, in the same sense as Dr. Warburton often uses it, when he mentions the integrity of a metaphor. To become, is to suit, to befit. Johnson.

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