Auf. No more. Ha! Cor. Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart Too great for what contains it. Boy! O slave!Pardon me, lords, 'tis the first time that ever I was forc'd to scold. Your judgments, my grave lords, Must give this cur the lie: and his own notion My beating to his grave) shall join to thrust 1 Lord. Flutter'd your Volcians in Corioli: Alone I did it.-Boy! Why, noble lords, Auf. Will you be put in mind of his blind fortune, Which was your shame, by this unholy braggart, For your own eyes and ears? All Conspirators. Let him die for't. All the People. Tear him to pieces, do it presently. He killed my son;-my daughter;-He killed my cousin Marcus;-He killed my father.2 Lord. Peace, ho!-no outrage ;-peace! The man is noble, and his fame folds in This orb o' the earth. His last offences to us Bear from hence his body, And mourn you for him: let him be regarded As the most noble corse that ever herald Did follow to his urn. 2 Lord. His own impatience Takes from Aufidius a great part of blame. Let's make the best of it. Auf. My rage is gone, And I am struck with sorrow.-Take him up:Help, three o' the chiefest soldiers; I'll be one.Beat thou the drum that it speak mournfully: Trail your steel pikes.-Though in this city he Hath widow'd and unchilded many a one, Which to this hour bewail the injury, Yet he shall have a noble memory. Assist. [Exeunt, bearing the body of CORIOLANUS. A dead march sounded. many of the senate began to be of divers opinions among themselves. For some thought it was reason they ere we become RAKES"-Spenser, in his "Fairy should somewhat yield to the poor people's request, and Queen," has : : His body lean and meagre as a rake. The allusion here is to the gardening instrument, but that was not the original meaning of the phrase, which referred to the rache, or race, signifying a gray-hound. "2 Cit."-All the subsequent dialogue with Menenius is given, by modern editors, to the first citizen. Malone thus explains the change:-"This and all the subsequent plebeian speeches in this scene are given, by the old copy, to the second citizen. But the dialogue at the opening of the play shows that it must have been a mistake, and that they ought to be attributed to the first citizen. The second is rather friendly to Coriolanus." We adhere to the original copy, for the precise reason which Malone gives for departing from it. The first citizen is a hater of public men,-the second of public measures; the first would kill Coriolanus,-the second would repeal the laws relating to corn and usury. He says not one word against Coriolanus. We are satisfied that it was not Shakespeare's intention to make the low brawler against an individual argue so well with Menenius, in the matter of the "kingly-crowned head," etc. This speaker is of a higher cast than he who says, "Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price."-KNIGHT. - make edicts for usury, to support usurers," etc. "This was the principal cause of the first insurrection; and it was upon this occasion that Menenius told the 'pretty tale' which Shakespeare has so dramatically treated: Now, he being grown to great credit and authority in Rome for his valiantness, it fortuned there grew sedition in the city, because the senate did favour the rich against the people, who did complain of the sore oppression of usurers, of whom they borrowed money. Whereupon their chief magistrates and * that they should a little qualify the severity of the law; other held hard against that opinion, and that was Martius for one; for he alleged that the creditors losing their money they had lent was not the worst thing that was herein; but that the lenity that was favoured was a beginning of disobedience, and that the proud attempt of the commonalty was to abolish law, and to bring all to confusion; therefore he said, if the senate were wise they should betimes prevent and quench this ill-favoured and worse-meant beginning. The senate met many days in consultation about it; but in the end they concluded nothing. Of those, Menenius Agrippa was he who was sent for chief man of the mes sage from the senate. He, after many good persuasions. and gentle requests made to the people on the behalf of the senate, knit up his oration in the end with a notable tale, in this manner:-That, on a time, all the mem-bers of man's body did rebel against the belly, complaining of it that it only remained in the midst of the body, without doing anything, neither did bear any labour to the maintenance of the rest; whereas all other parts and members did labour painfully, and were very careful to satisfy the appetites and desires of the body. And so the belly, all this notwithstanding, laughed at their folly, and said, It is true I first receive all meats. that nourish man's body; but afterwards I send it again to the nourishment of other parts of the same. Even so, (quoth he,) O you, my masters and citizens of Rome, the reason is alike between the senate and you: for, matters being well digested, and their counsels tho roughly examined, touching the benefit of the common wealth, the senators are cause of the common. commodity that cometh unto every one of you. These persuasions pacified the people, conditionally that the senate would grant there should be yearly chosen five magistrates, which they now call Tribuni plebis, whose office should be to defend the poor people from violence and oppression. So Junius Brutus and Sicinius Velutus were the first tribunes of the people that were chosen, who had only been the causers and procurers of this sedition.' "Shakespeare found the apologue also in Camden's 'Remains,' and he has availed himself of one or two peculiarities of the story, as there related : All the members of the body conspired against the stomach, as against the swallowing gulf of all their labours for whereas the eyes beheld, the ears heard, the hands laboured, the feet travelled, the tongue spake, and all parts performed their functions; only the stomach lay idle and consumed all. Hereupon they jointly agreed all to forbear their labours, and to pine away their lazy and public enemy. One day passed over, the second followed yery tedious, but the third day was BO grievous to them all that they called a common council. The eyes waxed dim, the feet could not support the body, the arms waxed lazy, the tongue faltered and could not lay open the matter; therefore they all with one accord desired the advice of the heart. There reason laid open before them,' etc."-KNIGHT. "To STALE't a little more"-The ancient editions have "to scale it a little more," which Stevens, as well as the two last English editors, with others, retain; some of them taking scale in the old and provincial sense of disperse, scatter; and Knight, to weigh or try the value of the tale." But Gifford, in his note on a passage in Massinger's "Unnatural Combat," (act iv. scene 1:) 66 well remarks, that this is one of a thousand passages to prove that the true reading of CORIOLANUS is, "To stale 't a little more.' The phrase is used frequently in the contemporary dramatists, as by Shakespeare himself in JULIUS CESAR: 66 Were I a common laugher, and did use To stale with ordinary oaths my love. And, mutually participate ;-did minister"-This is usually pointed thus: And, mutually participate, did minister, etc. Malone tells us that "participate" is participant, (the participle.) I agree with Knight, that this mode of pointing the line, which is not that of the original, destroys the freedom and euphony of the passage. "Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain"— Many modern editions give this punctuation of this pas sage: Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o' the brain. Malone and Douce say that "brain" is here put for the understanding; and according to the old philosophy the 'heart" was the seat of the understanding. "I send (says the belly) the food through the blood, even to the heart, the royal residence, where the kingly understanding is enthroned." But this is taking the heart literally and the brain metaphorically. With the two last editors, we follow the original punctuation, of which the obvious sense is:-I send the general food through the rivers of your blood, to the court, the heart; I send it to the seat of the brain, and through the cranks and offices (obscure parts) of the whole body. By this means The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins, "RASCAL, that art worst IN BLOOD"-" Rascal" and "in blood" are terms of the forest, both here used equivocally. The meaning seems to be, "Thou worthless scoundrel, though thou art in the worst plight for running of all this herd of plebeians, like a deer not in blood, thou takest the lead in this tumult in order to obtain some private advantage to thyself." "Worst in blood" has a secondary meaning of lowest in condition.-SINGER. "the one side must have BALE"-i. e. Evil, or mischief; as "ruth," shortly after, for pity. Both are old words, which were already becoming obsolete in the Poet's age, and are now retained in use only in their adjectives, baleful and ruthful. "And curse that justice did it"—i. e. Your virtue is to speak well of him whom his own offences have subjected to justice; and to rail at those laws by which he whom you praise was punished.-STEVENS. "PICK my lance"-i. e. Pitch; still in provincial use in England, where, in some parts, a pitchfork is called a pick-fork. "To break the heart of GENEROSITY"-Johnson is generally followed in his understanding of this passage— To give the final blow to the nobles;" taking "generosity" in its original Latin sense, for high birth. Yet I do not see why the more common, which is not a modern sense, is not the one intended-i. e. bounty, liberality. "The people's petition (he says) was so extravagant as to disgust and repel the most liberal, and alarm the bold and powerful." "-worthy you priority"-We must here understand, you being worthy of priority, or precedence. "The present wars DEVOUR him"-i. e. “The wars absorb, eat up the whole man; for he is grown too proud of being so valiant." "—his DEMERITS"-The word is used in a similar sense in OTHELLO-that of merits. The meaning of illdeserving was acquired later; for "demerit" is constantly used for desert, by the old writers. "More than his singularity"—i. e. More than the fashion of his own singular and perverse character, says the sneering tribune. Such I take to be the sense, but Johnson interprets it, "that besides going himself, with what powers," etc. SCENE II. "Whatever have"-Elliptically, whatever things have. "They have PRESS'D a power"-The old spelling being prest, Stevens and others have taken the word as an adjective, in its obsolete sense of ready-from the old French prest, (now prêt.) But participles were generally thus spelled, with the final t, in Shakespeare's time; and the verb press, in this sense, now retained only in the English naval sense, was familiar in the reign of the Tudors and Stuarts, and was here employed by the Poet as he found it in North's "Plutarch." "The common people would not appear when the consuls called their names to press them for the wars." "TAKE IN many towns"-i. e. Subdue; as in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA:-" Take in Toryne." "we shall EVER strike"-Malone, Boswell, Singer, etc., have changed this to never. By "ever strike," we understand, we shall continue to strike. If we adopt the modern reading of never, we must accept "strike" in the sense of striking a colour, yielding-a phrase not of Shakespeare's age. SCENE III. "To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned," etc. Plutarch thus describes the prowess of Coriolanus. When yet he was but tender-bodied :"The first time he went to the wars, being but a stripling, was when Tarquin, surnamed the Proud, (that had been king of Rome, and was driven out for his pride, after many attempts made by sundry battles to come in again, wherein he was ever overcome,) did come to Rome with all the aid of the Latins, and many other people of Italy, even, as it were, to set up his whole rest upon a battle by them, who with a great and mighty army had undertaken to put him into his kingdom again, not so much to pleasure him as to overthrow the power of the Romans, whose greatness they both feared and envied. In this battle, wherein were many hot and sharp encounters of either party, Martius valiantly fought in the sight of the dictator; and a Roman soldier being thrown to the ground even hard by him, Martius straight bestrid him, and slew the enemy with his own hands that had before overthrown the Roman. Hereupon, after the battle was won, the dictator did not forget so noble an act, and therefore, first of all, he crowned Martius with a garland of oaken boughs: for whosoever saveth the life of a Roman, it is a manner among them to honour him with such a garland." "― his brows bound with oak"-The crown given by the Romans to him that saved the life of a citizen, which was accounted more honourable than any other. "Than GILT his trophy"-" Gilt" is the old English noun for any external coating of gold; a somewhat more extensive word in its meaning than our modern gilding, though it included that as one of the modes of "gilt." "At Grecian swords CONTEMNING"-The original edition has "at Grecian sword, contenning," which last word I think clearly a literal error for "contemning." With that correction the sense is clear, giving the strong but natural image of the hero's forehead spitting forth its blood; not as from the injury of the enemies' sword, but as in contempt of them. This reading differs little whether we take the sword of the first folio, or the "swords" of the second. But the later editions have all adopted another reading-partly that of the second folio, which has contending, and partly conjectural, so as to read At Grecian swords' contending;" thus taking contending substantively, and in a very harsh and obscure sense, and losing the bold figure of the warrior's thus bleeding as in contempt of his adversary. "A CRACK"-This word, which seems sometimes to be used merely to signify a lad, was more commonly taken, as here, for a forward and lively lad—a character which, with half praise, half modest censure, Virgilia allows to her boy, while she declines the stronger praise of her friend. SCENE IV. "Who SENSIBLY outdares his senseless sword"-Sense, and its derivatives, sensible and sensibly, had originally the meaning of sensation, feeling: -"He, having feeling, exposes himself even more than he does his insensible sword." "Sensibly" is the original text; the later editors alter it to sensible, without much alteration of the sense, or any improvement. "Even to CATO's wish"-The old editions had "even to Calve's wish," which is clearly shown to be a misprint for "Catoe's wish," (as Cato's would be spelled according to the mode of the times,) by the comparison with the passage in North's "Plutarch," from which the Poet has drawn not only the thought, but almost the very words. Speaking of the deeds of Martius before Corioli, the biographer says, (in the language of his old translator:)" For he was even such another as Cato would have a souldier and a captain to be; not only terrible and fierce to lay about him, but to make the enemy afeard with the sound of his voice and grimness of his countenance." The Poet overlooked the circumstance that this remark, so appropriate in the biographer, was an anachronism in the mouth of a contemporary of Coriolanus, who lived, according to the received chronology, two centuries and a half before the elder Cato. M. Mason, therefore, suggests that " Calve's wish" should be read "Calvus' wish;" as putting Cato's words into the mouth of an imaginary person, who was to the age of Coriolanus what Cato was to Plutarch's. But the internal evidence is too clear that Cato was meant, and that the error was the Poet's own, though probably one rather of oversight than of mere ignorance; since he had undoubtedly read the life of the elder Cato in the same favourite folio of North's "Plutarch." Dryden and Walter Scott, with their unquestioned vast reading and memory, have both of them committed and confessed similar anachronisms. SCENE V. "that do prize their HOURS"-Most modern editions follow Pope's conjecture in reading "prize their honours." But the old editions all read "hours," which is shown to be right, and to be intended for their time, by the passage in North's "Plutarch," from which these lines are taken :-" Martius was marvellous angry, and cried out on them that it was no time now to looke after spoyle-while the other consul and their fellowcitizens were fighting with their enemies." And some shall quickly draw out my command: The passage, as it stands in the old copy, has been thus explained:-" Coriolanus means to say, that he would appoint four persons for his particular, or party, those who are best inclined; and, in order to save time, he proposes to have the choice made while the army is marching forward." The old translation of " Plutarch" only says:-"Wherefore, with those that willingly offered themselves to follow him, he went out of the citie."-SINGER. SCENE VIII. - thy fame and envy"—The construction here appears to be, "Not Afric owns a serpent I more abhor and envy than thy fame." the WHIP of your bragg'd progeny❞—i. e. The "whip" that your bragged progenitors possessed. Stevens suggests that "whip" might be used as crack has been since, to denote any thing peculiarly boasted of; as the crack house in the country, the crack boy of the school, etc. "-condemned seconds"-i. e. You have to my shame sent me help, which I must condemn as intrusive, instead of applauding it as necessary. SCENE IX. "Let them be made an overture for the wars," etc. In this passage, obscure as it stands in the original and variously printed and pointed in the modern editions, we have followed the original metrical arrangement, but have otherwise adopted Knight's ingenious emendation and satisfactory interpretation. He observes:"We here make an important change in the generally received reading of this passage. It is invariably print ed thus: May these same instruments, which you profane, The commentators have long notes of explanation; and they leave the matter more involved than they found it. The stage-direction of the original, which precedes this speech, is, 'A long flourish.' The drums and trumpets have sounded in honour of Coriolanus; but, displeased as he may be, it is somewhat unreasonable of him to desire that these instruments may never sound more.' We render his desire, by the slightest change of punctuation, somewhat more rational: May these same instruments, which you profane, The difficulty increases with the received reading; for, according to this, when drums and trumpets prove flatterers, courts and cities are to be made of false-faced soothing. Courts and cities are precisely what a soldier would describe as invariably so made. But Coriolanus contrasts courts and cities with the field; he separates them : Let courts and cities be Where steel grows soft The difficulties with the received reading are immeasurable. When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk, the commentators say that him, (the steel,) used for it, is to be made an overture for the wars; but what overture means here they do not attempt to explain. The slight change we have made gives a perfectly clear meaning. The whole speech has now a leading idea :— Let them be made an overture for the wars. Let them, the instruments which you profane, be the prelude to our wars." Thus the whole sum is :-"Let trumpets and drums cease to sound when they become flatterers in the field. Let falsehood and flatterers have the rule in courts and cities, where even steel becomes soft as the parasite's silk. But let martial music be the prelude only to war." "-undercrest your good addition To the fairness of my power." This is an heraldic metaphor, as obscure now as it was probably familiar in Elizabeth's age. “I will, to the fair extent of my ability, give an honourable support to that addition to my name, or title, which you have given me to wear as a crest to my armorial bearings." "The best with whom we may ARTICULATE"-i. e. The chief men of Corioli, with whom we may enter into articles. Bullokar has the word "articulate, to set down articles, or conditions of agreement." We still retain the word capitulate, which anciently had nearly the same meaning, viz.: "To article, or agree upon articles." - Mine emulation"-Coleridge thus remarks upon this speech:-"I have such deep faith in Shakespeare's heart-lore, that I take it for granted that this is in nature, and not a mere anomaly; although I cannot in myself discover any germ of possible feeling which could wax and unfold itself into such a sentiment as this. However, I presume that in this speech is meant to be contained a prevention of shock at the after-change in Aufidius's character." Such a criticism from Coleridge is worthy the reader's consideration, but I cannot myself perceive its justice. The varying feelings of Aufidius are such as may be often observed to arise in the contentions of able and ambitious men for honour or power, and are just such as would, under these circumstances, be natural in a mind like that of Aufidius-ambitious, proud, and bold, with many noble and generous qualities, yet not above the influence of selfish and vindictive emotions and desires. The mortification of defeat embitters his rivalry to hatred. When afterwards his banished rival appeals to his nobler nature, that hatred dies away, and his generous feeling revives. Bitter jealousy and hatred again grow up, as his glories are eclipsed by his former adversary; yet this dark passion too finally yields to a generous sorrow at his rival's death. I think that I have observed very similar alternations of such mixed motives and sentiments, in eminent men, in the collisions of political life. "I'll POTCH at him"-To "potch" is to thrust at with a sharp pointed instrument. Thus in Carew's "Survey of Cornewall:"-" They use to potche them [i. e. fish] with an instrument somewhat like a salmon speare." It is still a North-of- England word, and is probably but another, though less familiar form, of our old word poke. “EMBARQUEMENTS all of fury”—i. e. Embargoes; a sense which this word had sometimes, as mentioned in the old dictionaries, as well as embarkation. ACT II. SCENE I. “ — turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks”— As Johnson explains, " with allusion to the fable which says that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind him, in which he stows his own." ·BISSON”—i. e. Blind; as in HAMLET, "bisson rheum." "the most sovereign prescription in Galen"-As Galen was born A. D. 130, here is an anachronism of some six hundred years or more, which induces Coleridge to ask, "Was it without, or in contempt of historical knowledge, that Shakespeare makes the contemporaries of Coriolanus quote Cato and Galen? I can not decide to my own satisfaction." The most probable solution is that already suggested, that such errors spring from mere carelessness, or oversight, such as have led to similar anachronisms in writers like Addison and Walter Scott, who could never be suspected of mere ignorance. "—is but EMPIRICUTIC"-A word coined from empiric, and is spelled in the original emperickqutique. "On's brows"-Volumnia here answers the question of Menenius, "Brings a [he] victory in his pocket?" without noticing the old man's observation about the wounds. "Menenius, ever, ever"-The consul having replied to Menenius's last remark, that he is "ever right," Coriolanus assents to the unvarying character of his friend; as, "Menenius? Yes, he is always right." This seems the obvious sense, and not that given by Malone, and often repeated in other editions:-" Menenius is still the same affectionate friend as ever." "CHANGE of honours"-"Change of honours" is variety of honours, as change of raiment is variety of raiment. Theobald would read charge. "Into a RAPTURE lets her baby cry"-" Rapture" anciently was synonymous with fit, or trance. Thus Torriano:-"Ratto, s.; a rapture or trance of the mind, or a distraction of the spirits." This is confirmed by Stevens's quotation from the "Hospital for London Follies," (1602,) where gossip Luce says, "Your darling will weep itself into a rapture, if you do not take heed." "the kitchen MALKIN"-A malkin," or maulkin, was a kind of mop, made of rags, used for sweeping ovens, etc. A figure made of clouts, to scare birds, was also so called: hence it came to signify a dirty wench. The scullion very naturally takes her name from this utensil, her French title escouillon being only another name for a malkin. "Her richest LOCKRAM"-" Lockram" was a kind of coarse linen. the same image in TARQUIN AND LUCRECE, of white "Their nicely-gawded cheeks"-Shakespeare has and red contending for the empire of a lady's cheek: The silent wars of lilies and of roses Which Tarquin view'd in her fair face's field. As also again in the TAMING OF THE SHREW, and in his VENUS AND ADONIS. It was a favourite image with the poets of his age, and might originally have been suggested and intended (as Knight thinks it is here) to convey an allusion to the more fearful civil War of the Roses |