a The thwartings-] An emendation of Theobald's, the old text having,-" The things," &c.

b

I have a heart as little apt as yours,

But yet a brain that leads my use of anger,
To better vantage.]

Mr. Collier's annotator here indulges in one of his most daring flights, the intercalation of a whole line!-rendering the passage thus,

"I have a heart as little apt as yours,

To brook reproof without the use of anger,
But yet a brain that leads my use of anger,
To better vantage."

This interpolation, (which, by the way, has been corrupted or corrected since its publication in Mr. Collier's "Notes and Emendations," and in his Mono-volume Shakespeare, where it reads,

"To brook control without the use of anger,")

we hold to be quite superfluous, and, if even a lacuna were manifest, to be altogether inadmissible. For admitting, which we

Enter MENENIUS and Senators.

MEN. Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough;

You must return and mend it.

There's no remedy;

1 SEN. Unless, by not so doing, our good city Cleave in the midst, and perish.

VOL.

Pray, be counsell'd: I have a heart as little apt as yours, But yet a brain that leads my use of anger, To better vantage. MEN.

b

Well said, noble woman! Before he should thus stoop to the herd, but that The violent fit o'the time craves it as physic For the whole state, I'd put mine armour on, Which I can scarcely bear.

COR.

What must I do?

MEN. Return to the tribunes. COR. Well, what then? what then? MEN. Repent what you have spoke. COR. For them?—I cannot do it to the gods; Must I, then, do't to them?

VOL.

[me,

You are too absolute; Though therein you can never be too noble, But when extremities speak. I have heard you say, Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends, I'the war do grow together: grant that, and tell In peace, what each of them by the other lose, That they combine not there.

Tush, tush!

COR.
MEN.
A good demand.
VOL. If it be honour in your wars to seem

(*) Old text, heart, corrected by Theobald. are not guilty of, the antiquity claimed by Mr. Collier for the marginal annotations of his copy of the second folio, we agree with Mr. R. G. White (Shakespeare's Scholar, p. 76), that, "the interpolation of an entire line by one man in 1662, is as little justifiable as the interpolation of an entire scene by another man in 1762 or 1853." That there is a difficulty in the construction of the speech as it stands in the ancient text, nobody can deny. But it is surely one susceptible of a solution less perilous and arbitrary than the insertion of a new line. Mr. Singer proposed to read soft for " apt;" an emendation which has not been favourably received. Our own impression, long before the "Perkins folio" came to light, was that the transcriber or compositor had slightly erred in the words "as little," and that the poet probably wrote,-of mettle, i.e. of temper, &c.—

"I have a heart of mettle apt as yours,"

which naturally enough led to

"But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger,
To better vantage."

That now it lies you on to speak to the people;
Not by your own instruction, nor by the matter
Which your heart prompts you, but with such words
That are but roted in your tongue,
Though but bastards, and syllables
Of no allowance to your bosom's truth.
Now, this no more dishonours you at all
Than to take in a town with gentle words,
Which else would put you to your fortune, and
The hazard of much blood.-

I would dissemble with my nature, where
My fortunes and my friends at stake requir'd
I should do so in honour: I am in this,
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
And you will rather show our general louts
How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon 'em,
For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguard
Of what that want might ruin.

Of what is past. VOL.

I pr'ythee now, my son,
Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;
And thus far having stretch'd it, (here be with
them) 4

Thy knee bussing the stones, (for in such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
More learned than the ears) waving thy head,
Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
Now humble as the ripest mulberry

That will not hold the handling: or, say to them,
Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils,
Hast not the soft way, which, thou dost confess,
Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,
In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame
Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far
As thou hast power and person.
MEN.
This but done,
Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours:
For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free
As words to little purpose.

• Though but bastards, and syllables, &c.] In this speech we follow the arrangement of the old copies, which though imperfect is infinitely preferable to that adopted by all the modern editions. The verse before us is evidently corrupt; "but" seems to have erept in from the preceding line, and some word to have been ia; we may be permitted to guess that it originally ran,Thought's bastards, and persuading syllables," "Thought's bastards, and glib syllables,"

or.

ance.""

Of no allowance,-] Johnson and Capell read,-" Of no alli-to take in a town-] To take in, meant to win, or subdue. 4- (here be with them)-] That is, adopt this action. So in 161

VOL. III.

COм. I have been i'the market-place; and, sir, 'tis fit

You make strong party, or defend yourself
By calmness or by absence; all's in anger.
MEN. Only fair speech.
COм.
I think 'twill serve,

If he can thereto frame his spirit.

VOL. He must, and will:Pr'ythee now, say you will, and go about it.

COR. Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce?

Must I with my base tongue give to my noble

heart

A lie, that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
Yet were there but this single plot to lose,
This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind

it,

And throw't against the wind.-To the marketplace::

You have put me now to such a part, which never
I shall discharge to the life.

COM.
Come, come, we'll prompt you.
VOL. I pr'ythee now, sweet son,-as thou hast

said

My praises made thee first a soldier, so,
To have my praise for this, perform a part
Thou hast not done before.

COR.
Well, I must do't:
Away, my disposition, and possess me

Some harlot's spirit! my throat of war be turn'd,
Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! the smiles of knaves
Tent in my cheeks; and schoolboys' tears take up
The glasses of my sight! a beggar's tongue
Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd
knees,

Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath receiv'd an alms !-I will not do't;
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,

Sears to move laughter only.

Scratches with briers,

MEN.

Consider further, That when he speaks not like a citizen, You find him like a soldier: do not take His rougher accents for malicious sounds, But, as I say, such as become a soldier, Rather than envy you.

COM.

*

Well, well, no more.

COR. What is the matter,

That being pass'd for consul with full voice, I am so dishonour'd, that the very hour You take it off again?

[take

SIC.
Answer to us.
COR. Say, then: 'tis true, I ought so.
SIC. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to

(*) Old text, actions, corrected by Theobald.

Coм. Know, I pray you,—

You?

COR. I'll know no further: Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger But with a grain a day, I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word; Nor check my courage for what they can give, To have't with saying, Good morrow.

SIC. For that he has (As much as in him lies) from time to time Envied against the people, seeking means To pluck away their power; has now at last Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers That do distribute it; in the name of the people, And in the power of us the tribunes, we, Even from this instant, banish him our city; In peril of precipitation

From off the rock Tarpeian, never more

To enter our Rome gates. I' the people's name, I say it shall be so.

a Envied against the people,-] That is, Steevens explains, "behaved with signs of hatred to the people," but "envied" here is perhaps only a misprint of Inveighed; so in North's Plutarch, (Life of Solon):-" But Solon going up into the pulpit for orations, stoutly inveyed against it."

b cry of curs!] Cry here means pack.

c Making but reservation of yourselves,-] This, since Capell's

CITIZENS. It shall be so it shall be so! let him away!

He's banish'd, and it shall be so!

COм. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends,

SIC. He's sentenc'd; no more hearing.
COM.
Let me speak:

I have been consul, and can show for* Rome,
Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love
My country's good with a respect more tender,
More holy, and profound, than mine own life,
My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase,
And treasure of my loins: then if I would
Speak that-

SIC. We know your drift: speak what? BRU. There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd,

As enemy to the people and his country:
It shall be so.

CITIZENS. It shall be so! it shall be so!
COR. You common cry of curs! whose breath
I hate

As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air,—I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every
feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till at length
Your ignorance, (which finds not till it feels)
Making but reservation of yourselves,
(Still your own foes) deliver you,
As most abated captives, to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENE-
NIUS, Senators, and Patricians.
ED. The people's enemy is gone, is gone e!
CITIZENS. Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone!
Hoo! hoo!

[Shouting, and throwing up their caps. SIC. Go, see him out at gates, and follow

him,

As he hath follow'd you, with all despite ;
Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard
Attend us through the city.

CITIZENS. Come, come, let us see him out at gates; come:

The gods preserve our noble tribunes !—come. [Exeunt.

(*) Old text, from, corrected by Theobald.

edition, has been invariably printed, "Making not reservation," &c., to the complete destruction of the sense, which manifestly is, -Banish all your defenders as you do me, till, at last, your ignorance, having reserved only your impotent selves, always your own foes, deliver you the humbled captives to some nation, &c. &c.