NOTES ON CORIOLANUS.

p. 173.

p. 174.

ACT FIRST.

SCENE I.

"Our business is not unknown to th' Senate : - This and the remaining replies to Menenius on the part of the Citizens in this Scene have the prefix "2 Cit." in the folio. But as the Second Citizen is plainly a friend of Coriolanus and an admirer of Menenius, which appears by all his previous speeches, Malone, who first assigned those in question to the First Citizen, seems to have done well in trusting rather to Shakespeare's consistency of characterization than to the typographical accuracy of this very incorrectly printed play, upon a point in which error might so easily be committed.

"To stale't a little more": -The folio, "To seale it," &c. Some editors interpret "scale," to disperse; but granting the word that meaning, what sense does it afford in the place it holds ? Menenius tells the people that it may be that they have heard his story; but, since it serves his purpose, he will venture to use it, old as it is, and make it even staler. Can there be the least doubt that Theobald was right in changing one letter, and reading as in the text? So I'll not stale the jest by my relation," Massinger's Unnatural Combat, Act IV. Scene 2. The old fable that Menenius recounts is put into his mouth by Plutarch, and the language of the play is very nearly that of North's translation. See p. 240, ed. 1579.

I may make the belly smile": — - So in North's Plutarch: "And so the bellie, all this notwithstanding, laughed at their follie, and sayed, It is true that I first receyve all the meates that norishe mans bodie," &c., p. 240.

p. 175.

p. 176.

The folio misprints, "It

the store-house and the shop":- According to modern British usage, Shakespeare is here somewhat pleonastic; but according to the best English usage, which is still preserved in New England and her offshoots, he is not at all so. C Shop' means properly a place where fabrics are made, or work is done; and such is the sense in which it is always used with us; but in Great Britain it is now very rarely so applied, and is almost universally misused to mean a store, or collection of articles kept or stored for sale a confusion avoided in Elizabethan usage and in that of the present day in this country. Thus, for instance, we say a watchmaker's shop, a milliner's shop, a saddler's shop, a carpenter's shop, but a book store, a grocery store, a hardware store, a carpet store; an apothecary's shop, but a drug store; a tailor's shop, but a clothing store; a shoemaker's shop, but a shoe store; a cabinet maker's shop, but a furniture store. The transatlantic use of the word, and its active verb-al sense, which we have adopted, are clearly traceable to the custom of having the booth or the sales-room in front of the shop, such a vivid picture of which is presented in the opening chapter of The Fortunes of Nigel. In the passage before us the stomach is represented as both the storehouse of the body- still cupboarding the viand and its shop- sending it through the rivers of the

blood."

"— to th' seat o' th' brain":— - Tyrwhitt, characterizing this expression as "very languid," proposed to read, "to the seat, the brain" - in the sense of royal But that sense may be accepted without making any change in the original text. Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 has," to the Senate brain."

seat.'

digest things rightly": -The folio has here and elsewhere "disgest," &c. an obsolete form of the word which I remember to have heard in my boyhood from very old people in New England.

"The one side must have bale":-6 Bale' means ruin, calamity, misery, as it is hardly necessary to remark; for, once obsolete, this word is now coming into use again.

"He that will give good words to ye":- The original has, to thee" clearly a misprint due to the mistaking of 'ye' for 'ye,' as Mr. Dyce has remarked.

p. 177.

p. 178.

p. 180.

p. 181.

p. 182.

p. 183.

I'd make a quarry

Quarry' seems to have been applied to the remains after slaughter either in fight or the chase. In Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 2, Fortinbras exclaims, "This quarry cries on, havock;" in Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. 3, Rosse says,

"to relate the manner

Were, on the quarry of these murdered deer,
To add the death of you."

Nay, these are all most thoroughly," &c.: - The folio prints, “almost thoroughly.”

the heart of generosity":-- i. e., of the nobly born, the aristocracy, those who are generosi.

unroof'd the city": —

The folio has, “unrooft"

- a misprint hardly worth notice.

"Win upon power : Should we not read, "Win open power"? The rhythm and the sense of the passage leave me hardly a doubt that we should.

to gird the gods

i. e., to taunt or jeer at the gods. So Falstaff, "Men of all sorts take pride to gird at me," 2 Henry IV., Act I. Sc. 2.

"Of his demerits : Shakespeare and his contemporaries frequently used demerit' as synonymous with 'merit.'

SCENE II.

"What ever have been thought on," &c. : - The folio has, " thought one.' See the Note on "my gloves are on," Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. Sc. 1.

"To take in many towns":-i. e., to subdue, &c. The phrase occurs again in this sense in Antony and Cleopatra and in this play.

to guard Corioli : The folio always has "Corioles," in which cacography it but follows North's Plutarch.

his brows bound with oak The oaken garland, or corona civica, was bestowed upon him only who had saved the life of a Roman citizen in battle, slain his opponent, and held the ground. It was never granted except upon the evidence of the person whose life was saved. Once obtained, it might always be worn; and it insured the wearer a place next the senators in public assemblies, where all rose from their seats as he entered.

p. 184.

p. 185.

p. 188.

p. 189.

He, his father, and his grandfather were also exempt from taxes and other public services.

"At Grecian swords contending" : — The first folio has, "At Grecian fword. Contenning tell Valeria," the compositor having clearly supposed the word which he misprinted "Contenning to be the name of the gentlewoman to whom Volumnia speaks; and I will not say that I am certain that he was in error. The second folio has, "At Grecian fwordes Contending: tell Valeria,” which reading is given in the text because it has been generally received and I have no better one to substitute, rather than from any confidence on my part that it is what Shakespeare wrote. The word 'contending' is at least superfluous. Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 has, "At Grecian swords contemning."

has such a confirm'd countenance : So the folio; the pronoun being omitted, according to a practice remarked elsewhere in these Notes. See All's Well that Ends Well, Act IV. Sc. 3, p. 137.

"A crack, madam :—i. e., a boy. "I saw him break Skogan's head at the court gate when he was a crack not thus high," 2 Henry IV., Act III. Sc. 2. Boys may have been so called on account of their talkative, boastful dispositions.

SCENE IV.

The

you herd of — Boils and plagues,” &c.: folio prints this line, "You shames of Rome: you Heard of Byles and Plagues;" and this reading is left unchanged in the second folio. Theobald printed, "You shames of Rome, you! herds of boils and plagues." Malone first gave the reading of the text. Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 has, "You shames of Rome! Unheard-of Boils and Plagues;" which is a very acceptable reading, both for its fitness and its conformity to the original text. Thou art lost, Marcius": The folio has, "Thou art left." But when 'e' was so much like 'o,' and 'f' like 'f,' the supposed misprint was of the easiest; and Thou art left,' although it is not nonsense, yet has not a sense suited to the context.

"Even to Cato's wish": The folio has, Euen to Calues wish" an easy misprint for Even to Catoes wish.' And that it was so is clear enough from a passage in Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus which Shakespeare found

p. 191.

p. 193.

p. 194.

p. 195.

p. 196.

in North's translation, in which an idea of a soldier such as Lartius sees in Coriolanus is attributed to Cato. the Elder. Theobald made the correction.

SCENE VI.

Ye Roman gods":

Roman gods."

The folio misprints, “The

i' th' vaward are the Antiates": -The folio has, "the antients," which is clearly a misprint for the Antiates,' as appears by the following passage from North's Plutarch, which is also an instance in point of the close resemblance between Shakespeare's text and that of his authority. "Martius asked him howe the order of their enemies battel was, and on which side they had placed their best fighting men. The Consul made him aunswer, that he thought the bandes which were in the vaward of their battell were those of the Antiates, whom they esteemed to be the warlikest men, and which for valliant corage would geve no place to any of the hoste of their enemies. Then prayed Martius to be set directly against them. The Consul graunted him, greatly praysing his corage," p. 241, ed. 1579.

and

"Lesser his person": The folio misprints, "Lessen his person." Theobald read, "Less for his person; it was left for Steevens to introduce the obviously correct reading of the text.

"And four shall quickly draw out my command": Why four? The number is a strange one, considering the object in view. The integrity of the passage has been long suspected; but no emendation worthy of notice has been proposed, unless "foure" is a misprint for 'fome,' as Mr. Singer conjectured.

"Those centuries one hundred men.

SCENE VII.

A century was a company of

SCENE IX.

"Thou'dst not believe thy deeds" : The folio has, "Thou't not," which has hitherto been given, "Thou'lt not." But "If I should" requires, of course, "thou wouldst," not "thou wilt." But perhaps we should retain the original text literally.