Than sway with them in theirs. Com. On, to the Capitol ! [Flourish. Cornets. Exeunt in state, as before. BRUTUS and SICINIUS come forward. Bru. All tongues speak of him, and the blearèd sights Are spectacled to see him: your prattling nurse Into a rupture lets her baby cry While she chats him: 22 the kitchen malkin pins Clambering the walls to eye him: stalls, bulks, windows, In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens Do press among the popular throngs, and puff 25 To win a vulgar station : our veil'd dames " 22" While she chats him" probably means while she makes him the theme of chat; she being so carried away with the enthusiasm as to lose all thought of the crying baby, cry he never so vehemently. It having been questi ed whether crying ever causes a rupture in babies, Judge Blackstone said, "I have inquired, and am told it is usual." Whereupon Dr. C. M. Ingleby observes, "Probably most fathers and mothers know that such is the fact." And he quotes from Phioravante's Secrets, 1582: "To helpe yong Children of the Rupture. The Rupture is caused two waies, the one through weaknesse of the place, and the other through much criyng." " 23" Kitchen malkin' is equivalent to kitchen wench, as "country malkin" is to country wench. Malkin, applied to a woman, is of frequent occurrence in old writers, and is supposed to be a diminutive of Mal, that is Mary, as Wilkin is of Will, and Tomkin of Tom.-Lockram was a cheap coarse linen. - Reechy is recking, that is, smoky. So in The Invisible Comedy, 1610: He look'd so reechily, like bacor. hanging on the chimney's roof." 24 Men crowd together upon the lead-covered roofs, and sit astride the ridge-poles, of houses. - 25 Seld was often used for seldom. Flamens were a high order of priests."Vulgar station" is a standing-place among the vulgar. A war of colours in a woman's face seems to have been a favourite image with the Poet. So in The Taming of the Shrew: "Such war of white and red within her cheeks." And in Lucrece: The silent war of lilies and of roses, Which Tarquin view'd in her fair face's field. Commit the war of white and damask, in And gave him graceful posture. Sic. I warrant him Consul. Bru. On the sudden, Then our office may, During his power, go sleep. Sic. He cannot temperately transport his honours From where he should begin to th' end; but will Lose those he hath won.26 Bru. In that there's comfort. Doubt not The commoners, for whom we stand, but they, With the least cause, these his new honours; which As he is proud to do't.27 Bru. I heard him swear, Were he to stand for Consul, never would he Nor, showing, as the manner is, his wounds Sic. 'Tis right. Bru. It was his word: O, he would miss it, rather 23 The meaning seems to be, he cannot be content to proceed temperately in the course of honour, beginning, as he should, with the lower, and advancing gradually to the highest: and so will make shipwreck of all his honours by the way. 27 "Which cause make as little question that he will give them as that he is proud of doing it." "Proud to do't" is another instance of the infinitive used gerundively. Than carry't but by th' suit o' the gentry to him, Sic. I wish no better Than have him hold that purpose, and to put it Sic. It shall be to him, then, as our good wills, 28 A sure destruction. Bru. 29 he would So it must fall out To him or our authorities. For an end, We must suggest the people in what hatred He still hath held them; that to's power Have made them mules, silenced their pleaders, and Dispropertied their freedoms; holding them, In human action and capacity, Of no more soul nor fitness for the world Than camels in the war; who have their provand 30 Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows For sinking under them. Sic. This, as you say, suggested At some time when his soaring insolence Shall touch the people, which time shall not want, If he be put upon't; and that's as easy As to set dogs on sheep, will be as fire To kindle their dry stubble; and their blaze Shall darken him for ever. Bru. Enter a Messenger. What's the matter? Mess. You're sent for to the Capitol. "Tis thought That Marcius shall be Consul. 28 As our interest requires; wills being a verb. 29 Meaning, to the utmost of his power. 30 Provand is an old word for provender. I've seen the dumb men throng to see him, and Bru. Let's to the Capitol ; And carry with us ears and eyes for th' time, But hearts for the event. Sic. Have with you. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. The Capitol. --- Enter two Officers, to lay cushions. I Off. Come, come, they are almost here. How many stand for consulships? 2 Off. Three, they say: but 'tis thought of every one Coriolanus will carry it. 1 Off. That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance proud, and loves not the common people. so 2 Off. Faith, there have been many great men that have flatter'd the people, who ne'er loved them; and there be many that they have loved, they know not wherefore that, if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground: therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition; and, out of his noble carelessness, lets them plainly see't. I Off. If he did not care whether he had their love or 31 Another anachronism; the Romans being represented as doing what, in the days of chivalry, was done at tiltings and tournaments in honour of the successful combatant. no, he'd waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm; but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it him, and leaves nothing undone that may fully discover him their opposite. Now, to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he dislikes, to flatter them for their love. : 2 Off. He hath deserved worthily of his country and his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted into their estimation and report, without any further deed to have them at all: 2 but he hath so planted his honours in their eyes, and his actions in their hearts, that for their tongues to be silent, and not confess so much, were a kind of ingrateful injury; to report otherwise, were a malice, that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it. 1 Off. No more of him; he's a worthy man: make way, they are coming. A sennet. Enter, with Lictors before them, COMINIUS, MENENIUS, CORIOLANUS, Senators, SICINIUS, and BRUTUS. The Senators take their places; the Tribunes take theirs also by themselves. Men. Having determined of the Volsces, and 1 Properly it should be "as theirs who"; but the Poet has many like instances of loose construction. Here the irregularity does not obscure the sense. 2 The meaning is, won the favour of the people by pulling off the hat to them, without doing any thing further to earn it. This is the explanation given by Delius, and is surely right. To bonnet or to cap is to uncover the head as a token or ceremony of respect. So in Othello, i. 1: Three great ones of the city, in personal suit to make me his lieutenant, oft capp'd to him." See, also, vol. xvii. page 171, note 8.- Political demagogues are the same in all ages, evermore fawning and toadying their way into popular favour, and eating all sorts of dirt to the people in order to get their votes; and the people love to have it so all which we need not go far to learn. See Critical Notes. |