This was my speech, and I will speak't again,— MEN. Not now, not now. 1 SEN. COR. Now, as I live, I will.-My nobler friends, Not in this heat, sir, now. I crave their pardons :— For the mutable, rank-scented many, Let them regard me as I do not flatter, And therein behold themselves: I say again, By mingling them with us, the honour'd number; MEN. Well, no more. As for my country I have shed my blood, very way to catch them. BRU. You speak o' the people, as if a god you were To punish, not a man of their infirmity. COR. Choler! Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, By Jove, 't would be my mind! SIC. COR. Shall remain— (*) Old text, Com. (†) Old text, O God! a Given Hydra here-] Mr. Collier's annotator reads, "Given Hydra leave," &c. The horn and noise o' the monster," wants not spirit If they be senators; and they are no less, May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take COM. ΜΕΝ. I say, they nourish'd disobedience, Fed the ruin of the state. an emendation, however clever, of very questionable propriety; for "lenity" in this place does not, perhaps, mean mildness, but lentitude, inactivity, supineness. So, in Plutarch's life of Coriolanus;-"For he [Marcius] alledged, that the creditors losing their money they had lost, was not the worst thing; but that the lenity [i. e. the inaction of the people when summoned to resist the enemy] was favoured, was a beginning of disobedience," &c. das common fools;] Does not the next line,-"Let them Most valour, spoke not for them: the accusations Come, enough. No, take more: What may be sworn by, both divine and human, Cannot conclude but by the yea and no Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you, You that will be less fearful than discreet; (*) Old text, native, corrected by Mason. have cushions," &c. instruct us to read,-"commons' fools"? • How shall this bisson multitude, &c.] Notwithstanding what has been said, and much more that might be said, in support of the old reading, "bosom multiplied," as meaning, many-stomached, we accept this emendation of Mr. Collier's aunotator, as an almost certain restoration of the poet's text. f To jump a body with a dangerous physic-] So the old text, and so Steevens and Malone, who explain "jump" as risk or hazard. Pope's emendation is "vamp," and he is followed, among others, by Mr. Dyce and Mr. Knight. Mr, Singer reads "imp. We have not presumed to change the ancient text, but have little doubt that "To jump" is a misprint, and the true lection,— "To purge a body with a dangerous physic," &c. Thus in "Macbeth," Act V. Sc. 2.: "Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal; Again, in the same play, Act V. Sc. 3: MEN. On both sides more respect. SIC. Here's he, that would take from you all your power. BRU. Seize him, Ediles! CITIZENS. Down with him! down with him! 2 SEN. Weapons, weapons, weapons! [They all bustle about CORIOLANUS. Tribunes, patricians, citizens !—what ho !— Sicinius, Brutus, Coriolanus, citizens ! CITIZENS. Peace, peace, peace! stay, hold, peace! MEN. What is about to be ?-I am out of breath; Confusion's near;-I cannot speak.-You, tribunes To the people,-Coriolanus, patience :- SIC. Hear me, people ;-peace! Sic. You are at point to lose your liberties: And bear him to the rock! No; I'll die here. [Drawing his sword. There's some among you have beheld me fighting; Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me. MEN. Down with that sword!-Tribunes, withdraw awhile. BRU. Lay hands upon him! MEN. Help Marcius, help, You that be noble! help him, young and old! CITIZENS. Down with him, down with him! [In this mutiny, the Tribunes, the Ediles, and the People, are beat out. MEN. Go, get you to your house; be gone, away! All will be nought else. 2 SEN. Get you gone. But the speech is not at all characteristic of Coriolanus; and the observation of the Tribune refers to what he had previously spoken, "Marcius would have all from you," &c. MEN. Shall it be put to that? 1 SEN. The gods forbid ! I pr'ythee, noble friend, home to thy house; Leave us to cure this cause. MEN. For 'tis a sore upon us, You cannot tent yourself: begone, 'beseech you. Coм. Come, sir, along with us." [are, COR. I would they were barbarians, (as they Though in Rome litter'd) not Romans, (as they are not, Though calv'd i' the porch o' the Capitol)- Be gone; Put not your worthy rage into your tongue; COм. But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic ; MEN. gone: Pray you, be I'll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little: this must be patch'd With cloth of any colour. COM. Nay, come away. [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and others. 1 PAT. This man has marr'd his fortune. MEN. His nature is too noble for the world: He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth : a Coм. Come, sir, along with us.] In the distribution of this and the two following speeches, we follow the arrangement proposed by Tyrwhitt. The old copies present them thus, "CORIO. Come, Sir, along with us. MENE. I would they were Barbarians, as they are, Be gone, put not your worthy Rage into your Tongue, MEN. You worthy tribunes,—— SIC. He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock. With rigorous hands he hath resisted law, And therefore law shall scorn him further trial Than the severity of the public power, Which he so sets at nought. MEN. Now the good gods forbid SIC. He's a disease that must be cut away. A brand to the end o'the world. bery, Havoc,-] To "cry, Havoc," appears to have been a signal for indiscriminate slaughter; the expression occurs again in "King John," Act II. Sc. 2: "Cry, Havoc, Kings !" and in "Julius Cæsar," Act III. Sc. 1: "Cry, Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war." c Were but one danger;] Theobald altered this to," but our danger." |