AUF.
I cannot help it now;
Unless, by using means, I lame the foot

Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier
Even to my person, than I thought he would
When first I did embrace him; yet his nature
In that's no changeling, and I must excuse
What cannot be amended.

LIEU.

Yet I wish, sir, (I mean for your particular) you had not Join'd in commission with him; but either Had* borne the action of yourself, or else To him had left it solely.

AUF. I understand thee well; and be thou sure,

When he shall come to his account, he knows not
What I can urge against him. Although it seems,
And so he thinks, and is no less apparent
To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state,
Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon
As draw his sword; yet he hath left undone
That which shall break his neck or hazard mine,
Whene'er we come to our account.

LIEU. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll

Rome?

carry

AUF. All places yield to him ere he sits down ; And the nobility of Rome are his: The senators and patricians love him too: The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people

(*) Old text, have.

a By sovereignty of nature.] The image is founded on the fabulous power attributed to the ospray, of fascinating the fish on which it preys. Thus, in Peele's play, called "The Battle of Alcazar," 1594, Act II. Sc. 1,

"I will provide thee of a princely osprey,
That as she flieth over fish in pools,

The fish shall turn their glistering bellies up,
And thou shalt take thy liberal choice of all."
but he has a merit,

To choke it in the utterance.]

Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty
To expel him thence. I think he'll be to Rome,
As is the ospray to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. First he was
A noble servant to them; but he could not
Carry his honours even whether 'twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints
The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving
From the casque to the cushion, but commanding
peace

Even with the same austerity and garb
As he controll'd the war; but one of these,
(As he hath spices of them all, not all,
For I dare so far free him) made him fear'd,
So hated, and so banish'd: but he has a merit,
To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time;
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
To extol what it hath done.

c

b

*

Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo,)

Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault."

And so, proceeds Aufidius, our very virtues appear false by the misconstruction of the age, and even authority, which can exact applause, has not a more inevitable, i.e. certain, tomb for its best actions than the very chair of triumph wherein they are (xtolled.

d Rights by rights founder,-] The old copies have "fouler,' which has been changed to,-fouled; foul are; suffer; foil'd are, and falter. The emendation we adopt is by Malone.

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, To make coals cheap,-a noble memory!

COM. I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon When it was less expected: he replied, It was a bare petition of a state

To one whom they had punish'd.

but, even with this amendment, it is questionable if we have got what the poet wrote.

Coм. I offer'd to awaken his regard
For's private friends: his answer to me was,
He could not stay to pick them in a pile
Of noisome musty chaff: he said, 't was folly
For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt,
And still to nose the offence.

MEN.
For one poor grain or two!
I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child,
And this brave fellow too, we are the grains:
You are the musty chaff; and you are smelt
Above the moon. We must be burnt for you.
SIC. Nay, pray, be patient: if you refuse your
aid

In this so never-heeded help, yet do not
Upbraid 's 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. Pray you, go to him.
ΜΕΝ.

No! I'll not meddle.

What should I do?

COм. I tell you, he does sit in gold," his eye Red as 't would burn Rome; and his injury The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before him; 'Twas very faintly he said, Rise; dismiss'd me Thus, with his speechless hand: what he would do, He sent in writing after me; what he would not, Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions: 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. Therefore, let's hence, And with our fair entreaties haste them on.

c

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-An advanced Post of the Volscian Camp before Rome. The Guard at their Stations.

Enter to them, MENENIUS.

:

1 G. Stay whence are you?
2 G.
Stand, and go back.
MEN. You guard like men; 'tis well: but, by
your leave,

I am an officer of state, and come
To speak with Coriolanus.

1 G. MEN.

From whence?

From Rome.

1 G. You may not pass, you must return: our general

Will hear no more from thence.

2 G. You'll see your Rome embrac'd with fire, before You'll speak with Coriolanus. MEN.

Good my friends, If you have heard your general talk of Rome,

Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions:]

The sense of this passage we conjecture to have been destroyed by the misprint of "his" for no; "his" being inadvertently caught by the transcriber from the next line. If we read,

"what he would do,

He sent in writing after me; what he would not,
Bound with an oath to yield to no conditions,"

the meaning is clear enough,-what he would consent to, he senin writing; what he would not, he bound himself by oath to yield on no conditions.

dunless-] That is, except.

N

And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks,"
My name hath touch'd your ears; it is Menenius.
1 G. Be it so, go back; the virtue of your name
Is not here passable.

MEN.
I tell thee, fellow,
Thy general is my lover: I have been

The book of his good acts, whence men have read
His fame unparallel'd, haply amplified;

b

For I have ever verified my friends,

(Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity Would without lapsing suffer: nay, sometimes, Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,

I have tumbled past the throw; and in his praise Have almost stamp'd the leasing: therefore, fellow, I must have leave to pass.

1 G. Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back.

MEN. Pr'ythee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always factionary on the party of your general.

alots to blanks,-] Prizes to blanks, everything to nothing: so in "Romeo and Juliet," Act III. Sc. 5,

"and all the world to nothing That he dares ne'er come back."

For I have ever verified my friends, &c.] Hanmer gave magnified, and Mr. Collier's annotator has the same emendation; but perhaps the true word is rarefied, that is, stretched out. See Love's Labour's Lost," Act IV. Sc. 2, where, for "ratified,"

2 G. Howsoever you have been his liar, (as you say you have) I am one that, telling true under him, must say, you cannot pass. Therefore, go back.

MEN. Has he dined, canst thou tell? for I would not speak with him till after dinner. 1 G. You are a Roman, are you? MEN. I am as thy general is.

1 G. Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you, when you have pushed out your gates the very defender of them, and, in a violent popular ignorance, given your enemy your shield, think to front his revenges with the easy groans of old women, the virginal palms of your daughters, or with the palsied intercession of such a decayed dotant as you seem to be? Can you think to blow out the intended fire your city is ready to flame in, with such weak breath as this? No, you are deceived; therefore, back to Rome, and prepare for your execution you are condemned; our general has sworn you out of reprieve and pardon.

MEN. Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would use me with estimation.

"Here are only numbers ratified," we should also probably read rarefied.

ca subtle ground,-] A smooth, slippery ground.

stamp'd the leasing:] "I have almost given the lie such a sanction as to render it current."-MALONE.

the easy groans-] "Easy groans" may mean the slight, inconsiderable groans; but query, wheezy groans?

fa decayed dotant-] So the old text. Many editors, however, read dotard.

2 G. Come, my captain knows you not. MEN. I mean, thy general.

1 G. My general cares not for you. Back, I say, go; lest I let forth your half pint of blood;back, that's the utmost of your having:-back. MEN. Nay, but fellow, fellow,—

Enter CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS.

COR. What's the matter?

MEN. Now, you companion," I'll say an errand for you; you shall know now that I am in estimation; you shall perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me from my son Coriolanus: guess, but by my entertainment with him, if thou standest not i'the state of hanging, or of some death more long in spectatorship, and crueller in suffering; behold now presently, and swoon for what's to come upon thee. The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy particular prosperity, and love thee no worse than thy old father Menenius does! O, my son, my son! thou art preparing fire for us; look thee, here's water to quench it. I was hardly moved to come to thee; but being assured none but myself could move thee, I have been blown out of your gates with sighs; and conjure thee to pardon Rome, and thy petitionary countrymen. The good gods assuage thy wrath, and turn the dregs of it upon this varlet here ;-this, who, like a block, hath denied my access to thee.

COR. Away!

MEN. How! away?

Set down our host.-My partner in this action,
You must report to the Volscian lords, how plainly
I have borne this business.

AUF.
Only their ends
You have respected; stopp'd your ears against
The general suit of Rome; never admitted
A private whisper, no, not with such friends
That thought them sure of you.

COR.
This last old man,
Whom with a crack'd heart I have sent to Rome,
Lov'd me above the measure of a father;
Nay, godded me, indeed. Their latest refuge
Was to send him; for whose old love, I have

affairs

Are servanted to others: though I owe

My revenge properly, my remission lies

In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar,
Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison, rather
Than pity note how much.-Therefore, be gone.
Mine ears against your suits are stronger than
Your gates against my force. Yet, for I lov'd thee,
Take this along; I writ it for thy sake,

[Gives a letter. And would have sent it. Another word, Menenius, I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius, Was my belov'd in Rome: yet thou behold'st!AUF. You keep a constant temper.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFidius, 1 G. Now, sir, is your name Menenius? 2 G. "Tis a spell, you see, of much power: you home again.

know the

way 1 G. Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your greatness back?

2 G. What cause, do you think, I have to swoon?

(*) Old text omits, by.

companion,-] That is, as we now say, fellow.

a

The first conditions, which they did refuse,
And cannot now accept; to grace him only
That thought he could do more, a very little
I have yielded to: fresh embassies and suits,
Nor from the state nor private friends, hereafter
Will I lend ear to.-Ha! what shout is this?
[Shout without.

Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow
In the same time 'tis made? I will not.-