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which is more specially introduced by a later writer, should, for certain days before, be in the market-place, Cleaveland:

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Her cheeks

Where roses mix: no civil war

Between her York and Lancaster.

NAPLESS vesture"-i. e. Threadbare.

"-as our good WILLS"-The passage may be either taken to mean that the purpose of Coriolanus will be to him a sure destruction, in the same way as the good "wills" (ironically) of the tribunes; or as our good, our advantage, "wills" (a verb.)

"-Matrons flung gloves"-Shakespeare here attributes some of the customs of his own times to a people who were wholly unacquainted with them. This was exactly what occurred at tiltings and tournaments when a combatant had distinguished himself.

SCENE II.

"-courteous to the people, BONNETED"-This word seems to be here used, in a careless confusion of old Roman and later Italian customs, for putting on the cap of office and patrician dignity, as was the mode in Venice. Some annotators take it in another sense, for taking off the cap in humility; or, as Malone explains, "They humbly took off their caps without further deed."

"Rather our STATE's defective for requital"-i. e. "Rather say that our means are too defective to afford an adequate reward, than our inclinations defective to extend it toward him."

"That's OFF"-i. e. That is nothing to the matter; it is quite "off" from it.

"He LURCH'D all swords o' the garland"-We have a similar expression in Ben Jonson's "Silent Woman:" "You have lurched your friends of the better half of the garland." The term is, or was, used in some game of cards, in which a complete and easy victory is called a lurch. Coles (Dict., 1677) explains, "Lurch, facilis victoria."

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The second folio changed this word to waves; and Stevens adopting it, this reading is the common one. Malone supports the original; of the correctness of which we think there can be no doubt. "Waves falling before the stem of a vessel under sail, is an image which conveys no adequate notion of a triumph over petty obstacles. A ship cuts the waves as a bird the air: there is opposition to the progress, but each moves in its element. But take the image of weeds encumbering the progress of a vessel under sail, but with a favouring wind dashing them aside; and we have a distinct and beautiful illustration of the prowess of Coriolanus. Stevens says, 'Weeds, instead of falling below a vessel under sail, cling fast about the stem of it.' But Shakespeare was not thinking of the weed floating on the billow: the Avon or the Thames supplied him with the image of weeds rooted at the bottom."

Thus Knight; and the weeds of the flats of the Hudson, and the inlets of Long Island Sound, have so often furnished the American editor with a practical illustration of this image, that he has no hesitation in adopting this as the true reading.

"It then remains

That you do speak to the people." The circumstance of Coriolanus standing for the consulship, which Shakespeare has painted with such wonderful dramatic power, is told briefly in "Plutarch:"

"Shortly after this, Martius stood for the consulship, and the common people favoured his suit, thinking it would be a shame to them to deny and refuse the chiefest noble man of blood, and most worthy person of Rome, and specially him that had done so great service and good to the commonwealth; for the custom of Rome was at that time that such as did sue for any office

only with a poor gown on their backs, and without any coat underneath, to pray the citizens to remember them at the day of election; which was thus devised, either to move the people the more by requesting them in such mean apparel, or else because they might show them their wounds they had gotten in the wars in the service of the commonwealth, as manifest marks and testimonies of their valiantness. # Now,

Martius, following this custom, showed many wounds and cuts upon his body, which he had received in seventeen years' service at the wars, and in many sundry battles, being ever the foremost man that did set out feet to fight; so that there was not a man among the people but was ashamed of himself to refuse so valiant a man; and one of them said to another, We must needs choose him consul; there is no remedy."

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"-like the virtues

Which our divines lose by 'em."

"I wish they would forget me, as they do the moral teachings of our divines." This (repeat a dozen critics) is "an amusing instance of anachronism." I do not see why the priestly teachers of morals in a heathen land may not well be termed "divines," by an English poet, without implying that he supposed them to be doctors of divinity of Oxford or Geneva.

"-in this WOLFISH GOWN"-The reading of the first folio is woolvish tongue; of the second, woolvish gowne. We believe the correction of tongue to "gown" is right. Some of the commentators think that the original word was toge. It is difficult to say whether woolvish means a gown made of wool, or a gown resembling a wolf, or "wolfish." We adopt the latter opinion; for it is no proper description of the napless gown of humility to call it woollen. By "wolfish," Coriolanus probably meant to express something hateful.-KNIGHT.

Stevens, I think, is right in interpreting it as deceitful, in allusion to the familiar phrase of "a wolf in sheep's affecting a humility I have not?" clothing." "Why should I make myself like the wolf,

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[“And Censorinus, darling of the people"]-The fine in brackets is not in the original. but was supplied by Pope. Something is clearly wanting to connect with "twice being censor;" and Plutarch tells us who was "nobly named:"-" Censorinus also came of that family, that was so surnamed because the people had

chosen him censor twice."

But Warburton and other critics remark, that the first censor was created in the year of Rome 314, whilst Coriolanus was banished about fifty years before, according to the received chronology of Livy and the Latin historians. The error of the Poet was a natural one, in following North's "Plutarch," where it is said, "Of the same house with Coriolanus were Publius and Quintus, who brought to Rome the best water. Censorinus also came of that familie, that was so surnamed because the people had chosen him censor twice." Shakespeare misunderstood the biographer, and supposed that he meant to give the genealogy of his hero, when he intended merely to speak of the illustrious men who had at different times sprung from the Marcian family, some before Coriolanns, and the last named long after him. Yet it is a singular circumstance, which shows the little real value of such minute criticism, that Neibuhr and the modern school of critical Roman historians, while they allow the story of Coriolanus to be substantially true, yet maintain that he must have lived much later than the date assigned to him by the popular histories. If they are correct in this theory, the Poet is accidentally much nearer to the chronological truth than many of the learned critics who have been so precise in marking the number of years he has gone astray.

ACT III-SCENE I.

"the NOBLE and the COMMON"-These words are used not as substantives, but adjectively. All the old editions have "noble" and "common;" but Stevens, and those who follow his text, have changed this reading of the original to "the nobles and the commons."

"Have you informed them SITHENCE"-i. e. Since. "You are like to do such business"-This interposition of Cominius is according to the old copy. The modern editors give the words to Coriolanus, as a continuation of his dialogue with Brutus. The words are not characteristic of Coriolanus; whilst the interruption of Cominius gives spirit and variety to the scene.

KNIGHT.

"The COCKLE of rebellion"-" Cockle" is a weed which grows up with and chokes the grain. The thought is from North's "Plutarch:"-" Moreover, he said, that they nourished against themselves the naughty seed and cockle of insolency and sedition, which had been sowed and scattered abroad among the people," etc. "-against those MEAZELS"-"Meazel" originally signified leper, and is here taken in that sense, (from the old French mesel, a leper; or meselle, leprosy.) Modern use has transferred it, since the gradual extinction, in civilized nations, of the more terrible disease, to the milder distemper common in childhood. The only vestige of the ancient use is found in the term of “measled hogs, or pork," (i. e. scurvied or leproused meat.) "'Twas from the canon"-i. e. Contrary to rule and right; an unauthorised use of language.

"VAIL your ignorance"-i. e. Bow down.

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-THREAD the gates"-i. e. Pass them; as we yet say, "thread an alley."-JOHNSON.

"JUMP a body with a dangerous physic"-i. e. Risk. Phil. Holland, the contemporary translator of Pliny, uses and explains this word in his translation; where he says, "ellebore putteth the patient to a jump, or great hazard."

"And bury all which yet distinctly ranges,

In heaps and piles of ruin."

We give this speech, as in the original, to the calm

and reverend Cominius. Coriolanus is standing apart, in proud and sullen rage; and yet the modern editors put these four lines in his mouth, as if it was any part of his character to argue with the people about the prodence of their conduct. The editors continue this change in the persons to whom the speeches are as signed, without the slightest regard, as it appears to us, to the exquisite characterization of the Poet. Amidst all this tumult the first words which Coriolanus utters, according to the original copy, are, "No, I'll die here." He again continues silent; but the modern editors must have him talking; and so they put in his mouth the calculating sentence, "We have as many friends as enemies," and the equally characteristic talk of Menenius, “I would they were barbarians." We have left all these passages precisely as they are in the original.—KNIGHT.

"One time will own another"-I think Menenius means to say, "Another time will offer when you may be quits with him." There is a common proverbial phrase, “One good turn deserves another."

“This is clean KAM”—i. e. Crooked. “Clean contrarie, quite kamme, a contrepoil," says Cotgrave; and the same old lexicographer explains, “a revers, cross,

cleane kamme."

SCENE II.

"-words that are but ROTED"-The old copy reads roated. Mr. Boswell says, perhaps it should be rooted. We have no example of roted for got by rote; but it is much in Shakespeare's manner of forming expressions.

"Which often-thus,-correcting thy stout heart"— This passage has been a stumbling-block to the commentators. She is explaining her meaning by her action:-Waving thy head, which often wave-thus(and she then waves her head several times.) She adds, "correcting thy stout heart," be "humble as the ripest mulberry." We owe this interpretation to a pamphlet printed at Edinburgh, in 1814:-" Explana tions and Emendations of some Passages in the Text of Shakespeare."

SCENE III.

"-can show FOR Rome"-The old copies, followed by many later editors, have "from Rome;" which (says Collier)" is an instance of the licentious use of prepositions, instead of for Rome;" while Malone explains, that "the wounds were got out of Rome, or else were derived from Rome by his acting in comformity with her orders." But, in fact, the misprint of from for for is one of the commonest errors of the press, in old books, and such it is here. For there is no evidence of any such "licentious use of these prepositions" for one another, while the phrase "for Rome" occurs in the very sense here clearly intended, four times in this very play :-"The wounds that he doth bear for Rome," (act iv. scene 2;) "struck more blows for Rome," (ibid. ;) 'he hath served well for Rome;" "when Marcius stood for Rome."

ACT IV. SCENE 1.

the beast

With many heads butts me away."

I cannot say whether this phrase, so characteristic in the mouth of the proud patrician, was original with the Poet, and merely an accidental coincidence with a similar epithet of Horace, or was suggested by the Roman satirist's sneer at the Roman populace:

Bellua est multorum capitum ;which Pope has imitated thus:

Well, if a king's a monster, at the least,
The people is a many-headed beast.

"A noble CUNNING"-i. e. When fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and yet continue calm, requires a noble wisdom. Cunning" is often used in this sense by Shakespeare.

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imous to be free from the malignant desire of revenging himself upon his rival for that very superiority.

"As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature."

This image, frequent in old English poetry, will be best understood from the following extract from Drayton's "Polyolbion," (Song xxv.:)—

The osprey, oft here seen, though seldom here it breeds,
Which over them the fish no sooner doth espy,

But, betwixt him and them by an antipathy,

Turning their bellies up, as though their death they saw, They at his pleasure lie to stuff his gluttonous maw. The commentators quote a similar passage from a play of Peele's.

"From the CASQUE to the CUSHION"-Aufidius assigns three probable reasons for the miscarriage of Coriolanus-pride, which easily follows an uninterrupted train of success; unskilfulness to regulate the consequences of his own victories; a stubborn uniformity of nature, which could not make the proper transition from the "casque" to the "cushion," or chair of civil authority; but acted with the same despotism in peace as in war.-JOHNSON.

But he has a merit

To choke it in the utterance.".

This Johnson explains as meaning, "He has a merit for no other purpose but to destroy it by boasting it." I cannot so understand the words, which seem on the contrary to say-Some one of his faults made him feared, but such is his merit that it ought to choke and stifle the proclaiming his fault, whatever it was.

"And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
To extol what it hath done."

"as a

This is the reading of all the older printed copies, which is retained in the present edition; not because it is satisfactorily explained, or likely to be the true text, but because I do not see any probable emendation or solution of the passage. It seems to me one continuous and inexplicable misprint. Singer would read, hair," and explains the lines thus:-" So our virtues be at the mercy of the time's interpretation, and power, which esteems itself while living so highly, hath not, when defunct, the least particle of praise allotted to it." This is not easily extracted even from the lines when amended as the critic proposes.

"Rights by rights FOULER"-So the original. Malone substitutes founder; and the emendation has provoked pages of controversy. We may understand the meaning of the original expression if we substitute the opposite epithet, fairer. As it is, the lesser rights drive out the greater-the fairer rights fail through the "fouler."

ACT V.-SCENE I.

"and KNEE

The way into his mercy."

So the original. The second folio, which has been followed in all the editions until Knight's, has the less expressive verb kneel. Shakespeare uses "knee" as a verb in LEAR:

To knee his throne.

"He would not seem to know me."

"So they all agreed together to send ambassadors unto him, to let him understand how his countrymen did call him home again, and restored him to all his goods, and besought him to deliver them from this war. The ambassadors that were sent were Martius's familiar friends and acquaintance, who looked at the least for a courteous welcome of him, as of their familiar friend and kinsman. Howbeit they found nothing less; for, at their coming, they were brought through the camp to the place where he was set in his chair of state, with a marvellous and an unspeakable majesty, having the chiefest men of the Volces about him: so he commanded

them to declare openly the cause of their coming, which they delivered in the most humble and lowly words they possibly could devise, and with all modest countenance and behaviour agreeable to the same. When they had done their message, for the injury they had done him he answered them very hotly and in great choler; but as general of the Volces, he willed them to restore unto the Volces all their lands and cities they had taken from them in former wars; and, moreover, that they should give them the like honour and freedom of Rome as they had before given to the Latins. For otherwise they had no other mean to end this wars if they did not grant these honest and just conditions of peace."-NORTH'S Plutarch.

"A pair of tribunes, that have WRECK'D for Rome, To make coals cheap, a noble memory!"

That is, a pair of magistrates who have wrecked, or destroyed, the noble reputation of Coriolanus, (now become "nothing, titleless,") which once belonged to Rome; and all this only to make coals cheap in the burning city. The old copies have "wrack'd for Rome," which is the common spelling of Ben Jonson and his contemporaries, for "wreck'd." But the more common reading of modern editions is thus::

A pair of tribunes, that have rack'd for Rome, To make coals cheap. A noble memory! The annotators explain rack'd, "who have harassed by exaction;" from which I can extract no satisfactory meaning, in this connexion.

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- so never-NEEDED help"-This is the original text, which has the clear meaning of "help never so much wanted." There is, therefore, no propriety in the common editorial alteration of "never-heeded help.”

"Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions," etc. Coriolanus sends his ultimatum (to use the language of diplomacy) in writing, stating both what he would and what he would not consent to, and binding all with an oath that these are the conditions to which Rome must yield. The last line is elliptically expressed, yet the sense is sufficiently explicit. But the editors have not been satisfied, and propose various emendations, of which "to yield to no conditions" is far the most prob

able.

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My wife comes foremost," etc. "She took her daughter-in-law, and Martius's children, with her, and, being accompanied with all the other Roman ladies, they went in troop together unto the Volces' camp; whom, when they saw, they of themselves did both pity and reverence her, and there was not a man among them that once durst say a word unto her. Now was Martius set then in his chair of state, with all the honours of a general, and when he

had spied the women coming afar off, he marvelled what the matter meant; but afterwards, knowing his wife which came foremost, he determined at the first to persist in his obstinate and inflexible rancour. But, overcome in the end with natural affection, and being altogether altered to see them, his heart would not serve him to tarry their coming to his chair, but, coming down in haste, he went to meet them, and first he kissed his mother, and embraced her a pretty while, then his wife and little children; and nature so wrought with him that the tears fell from his eyes, and he could not keep himself from making much of them, but yielded to the affection of his blood, as if he had been violently carried with the fury of a most swift running stream. After he had thus lovingly received them, and perceiv ing that his mother Volumnia would begin to speak to him, he called the chiefest of the council of the Volces to hear what she would say. Then she spake in this sort: If we held our peace (my son), and determined not to speak, the state of our poor bodies, and present sight of our raiment, would easily betray to thee what life we have led at home, since thy exile and abode abroad; but think now with thyself, how much more unfortu nate than all the women living we are come hither, considering that the sight which should be most pleasant to all other to behold, spiteful Fortune hath made most fearful to us; making myself to see my son, and my daughter here her husband, besieging the walls of his native country; so as that which is the only comfort to all other in their adversity and misery, to pray unto the gods, and to call to them for aid, is the only thing which plungeth us into most deep perplexity. For we cannot (alas!) together pray both for victory to our country, and for the safety of thy life also; but a world of grievous curses, yea, more than any mortal enemy can heap upon us, are forcibly wrapped up in our prayers. For the bitter sop of most hard choice is offered thy wife and children, to forego one of the two-either to lose the person of thyself, or the nurse of their native country. For myself, my son, I am determined not to tarry till fortune in my lifetime do make an end of this war. For if I cannot persuade thee rather to do good unto both parties, than to overthrow and destroy the calamity of wars, thou shalt see, my son, and trust unto one, preferring love and nature before the malice and

it, thou shalt no sooner march forward to assault thy country, but thy foot shall tread upon thy mother's womb, that brought thee first into this world. And I may not defer to see the day, either that my son be led prisoner in triumph by his natural countrymen, or that he himself do triumph of them and of his natural country. For if it were so that my request tended to save thy country in destroying the Volces, I must confess thou wouldst hardly and doubtfully resolve on that. For as to destroy thy natural country, it is altogether unmeet and unlawful; so were it not just, and less honourable, to betray those that put their trust in thee. But my only demand consisteth to make a gaol-delivery of all evils, which delivereth equal benefit and safety both to the one and the other, but most honourable for the Volces. For it shall appear that, having victory in their hands, they have of special favour granted us singular graces, peace, and amity, albeit themselves have no less part of both than we; of which good, if so it come to pass, thyself is the only author, and so hast thou the only honour. But if it fail, and fall out contrary, thyself alone deservedly shalt carry the shameful reproach and burden of either party; so, though the end of war be uncertain, yet this notwithstanding is most certain, that, if it be thy chance to conquer, this benefit shalt thou reap of thy goodly conquest, to be chronicled the plague and destroyer of thy country. And if fortune overthrow thee, then the world will say, that through desire to revenge thy private injuries, thou hast for ever undone thy good friends, who did most lovingly and courteously receive thee.' Martius gave good ear unto his mother's words, without interrupting her speech at all, and, after she had said what she would, he held his peace a pretty while, and answered not a word. Here

upon she began again to speak unto him, and said-' My son, why dost thou not answer me? dost thou think it good altogether to give place unto thy choler and desire of revenge, and thinkest thou it not honesty for thee to grant thy mother's request in so weighty a cause ? dost thou take it honourable for a noble man to remember the wrongs and injuries done him, and dost not, in like case, think it an honest noble man's part to be thankful for the goodness that parents do show to their children, acknowledging the duty and reverence they ought to bear unto them? No man living is more bound to show himself thankful in all parts and respects than thyself, who so universally showest all ingratitude. Moreover, my son, thou hast sorely taken of thy country, exacting grievous payments upon them in revenge of the injuries offered thee; besides, thou hast not hitherto showed thy poor mother any courtesy, and therefore it is not only honest, but due unto me, that, without compulsion, I should obtain my so just and reasonable request of thee. But since by reason I cannot persuade thee to it, to what purpose do I defer my last hope?' And with these words, herself, his wife and children, fell down upon their knees before him. Martius, seeing that, could refrain no longer, but went straight and lift her up, crying out, Oh, mother, what have you done to

me?'

And, holding her hard by the right hand, 'Oh, mother,' said he, you have won a happy victory for your country, but mortal and unhappy for your son; for I see myself vanquished by you alone.' These words being spoken openly, he spake a little apart with his mother and wife, and then let them return again to Rome, for so they did request him; and so, remaining in camp that night, the next morning he dislodged, and marched homeward into the Volces' country again."— NORTH'S Plutarch.

"I purpose not to wait on fortune"-Instead of the truly Roman coolness with which the resolved matron communicates her intention, Thomson, in his tragedy, has substituted the very common-place and melodramatic incident of making his heroine "draw a dagger from under her robe," and attempt to stab herself before her son and the Romans and Volcians; and the dialogue runs thus:

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the Roman nobles,

The seed of outlaws and of robbers.

Cor. The seed of gods!-'Tis not for thee, vain boaster-
"Tis not for such as those, so often spar'd
By her victorious sword, to talk of Rome
But with respect and awful veneration.

Whate'er her blots, whate'er her giddy factions,

There is more virtue in one single year

Of Roman story, than your Volcian annals

Can boast through all your creeping, dark duration. This passage was retained by John Kemble, in his revision of the stage edition; and as he declaimed the lines, none but the most exclusive Shakespearian could wish them away.

The tragedy of CORIOLANUS is one of the most amusing of our author's performances. The old man's merriment in Menenius; the lofty lady's dignity in Volumnia; the bridal modesty in Virgilia; the patrician and military haughtiness in Coriolanus; the plebeian malignity and tribunitian insolence in Brutus and Sicinius, make a very pleasing and interesting variety ;--and the various revolutions of the hero's fortune fill the mind with anxious curiosity. There is, perhaps, too much bustle in the first act, and too little in the last.-JOHNSON.

Shakespeare has, in this play, shown himself well versed in history and state affairs. CORIOLANUS is a storehouse of political common-places. Any one who studies it may save himself the trouble of reading Burke's" Reflections on Paine's Rights of Man," or the Debates in Parliament since the French Revolution, or our own. The arguments for and against aristocracy and democ racy, on the privileges of the few and the claims of the many, on liberty and slavery, power and the abuse of it, peace and war, are here very ably handled, with the spirit of a poet and the acuteness of a philosopher.HAZLITT.

Mr. Hallam remarks that in the other Roman dramas

Shakespeare "has followed Plutarch too closely," and then adds:-" This fault is by no means discerned in the third Roman tragedy of Shakespeare, CORIOLANUS. He luckily found an intrinsic historical unity which he could not have destroyed, and which his magnificent delineation of the chief personage has thoroughly maintained. Coriolanus himself has the grandeur of sculpture; his proportions are colossal, nor would less than this transcendent superiority by which he towers over his fellow-citizens, warrant, or seem for the moment to warrant, his haughtiness and their pusillanimity. The surprising judgment of Shakespeare is visible in this. A dramatist of the second class, a Corneille, a Schiller, or an Alfieri, would not have lost the occasion of representing the plebeian form of courage and patriotism. A tribune would have been made to utter noble speeches, and some critics would have extolled the balance and contrast of the antagonist principles. And this might have degenerated into the general saws of ethics and politics which philosophical tragedians love to pour forth. But Shakespeare instinctively perceived that to render the arrogance of Coriolanus endurable to the spectator, or dramatically probable, he must abase the plebeians to a contemptible populace. The sacrifice of historic truth is often necessary for the truth of poetry. The citizens of early Rome, rusticorum mascula militum proles,' are indeed calumniated in his scenes, and might almost pass for burgesses of Stratford; but the unity of emotion is not dissipated by contradictory energies. CORIOLANUS is less rich in poetical style than the other two, but the comic parts are full of humour. In the three Roman tragedies it is manifest that Roman character, and still more Roman manners, are not exhibited with the precision of a scholar; yet there is something that distinguishes them from the rest, something of a grandiosity in the sentiments and language, which shows us that Shakespeare had not read that history without entering into its spirit."

In Volumnia, Shakespeare has given us the portrait of a Roman matron, conceived in the true antique spirit, and finished in every part. Although Coriolanus is the hero of the play, yet much of the interest of the action and the final catastrophe turn upon the character of his mother Volumnia, and the power she exercised over his mind, by which, according to the story, "she saved Rome and lost her son." Her lofty patriotism, her patrician haughtiness; her maternal pride, her eloquence, and her towering spirit, are exhibited with the utmost power of effect, yet the truth of female nature is beautifully preserved, and the portrait, with all its vigour, is without harshness.

The resemblance of temper in the mother and the

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