Fell before his stem.

Stem does not here mean any part of a ship.-Stem is used for prowess, valour. Fell before his stem,' yielded to his prowess. B.

Com. He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was tim'd with dying cries: alone he enter`d
The mortal gate o' the city, which he painted
With shunless destiny;

—every motion

Was tin'd with dying cries.——]

The cries of the slaughter'd regularly followed his motions, as musick and a dancer accompany each other. JOHN.

There is no necessity for this ludicions explanation. The sense is easy. Wherever he shewed himself the cries of dying men were heard. B.

With shunless destiny:] The second folio reads, whether by accident or choice:

With shunless defamy.

Defamie is an old French word signifying infamy. TYRWHITT.

'alone he entered

The mortal gate of the city, which he painted
With shunless destiny.'

'Destiny' and not defamy,' if we judge from the context, will be the poet's word. Defamy, however, is not infamy, but slender, calumny. But there is yet much difficulty in the passage- which he painted with shunless destiny.' And as connected with the other part of the sentence, I do not understand it: nor can it by any construction whatever, (painted remaining, and whether the reading be destiny or defamy) be made to produce sense. 'Painted' should, I think, be gained: g might easily be mistaken at the press. for p (as may be seen by the fac-simile of Shakspeare's hand writing: and the same of other letters). I read as under:

'Alone he entered

The mortal gate of the city which he gained,
With shunless destiny.'

Marcius alone entered the city, and which he became master of: he entered it regardless of the destruction, of the death which might await him. B.

Com. He covets less

Than misery itself would give: rewards

His deeds with doing them; and is content

To spend his time, to end it.

Com.and is content

To spend his time to end it.

Men. He's right noble ;]

The last words of Cominius's speech are altogether unintelligible. Shakspeare, I suppose, wrote the passage thus:

and is content

To spend his time

Men. To end it, he's right noble.

Cominius, in his last words, was entering upon a new topic in praise of Coriolanus; when his warm friend Menenius, impatient to come to the subject of the honors designed him, interrupts Cominius, and takes him short with,-to end it, i. e. to end this long discourse in one word, he's right noble. Let him be called for. This is exactly in character, and restores the passage to sense. WARB.

I know not whether my conceit will be approved, but I cannot forbear to think that our author wrote thus:

-be rewards

His deeds with doing them, and is content

To spend his time, to spend it.

To do great acts, for the sake of doing them; to spend his life, for the sake of spending it. JOHN.

The old copy reads:

To spend the time. MAL.

The whole, I believe, may stand, and without any change, though there is certainly a fault in the expression. He is content to spend his time (life) to end it. That is, he is content to pass his life in such a way (i. e. in war,) as may possibly put an end to his life. B.

3 Cit. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do:

We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do:] I am persuaded this was intended as a ridicule on the Augustine manner of defining free-will at that time in the schools. WARB. A ridicule may be intended, but the sense is clear enough. Power first signifies natura! power or force, and then moral power or right. JOHN. Shakspeare could not mean to ridicule a circumstance of which it was hardly possible for him to have the least knowledge. He spent his time better than in reading scholastic trash. STEEV.

We have power, &c.' This remark of Mr. Steevens is absurd. Shakspeare might easily glean the knowledge bere exhibited without studying or even reading Scholastic trash.' It should be remembered too that he has frequently a stroke at the practice of the schools. B.

Cor. Think upon me? Hang 'em!

I would they would forget me, like the virtues

Which our divines lose by 'em.

Which our divines lose by them.'

'Divines' should be printed

diviners (aruspices). Rome was not so happy, U. C. 250, as to be in possession of the former; as one would imagine the editors might have known. B.

Cor. Why in this wolvish gown should I stand here,
To beg of Hob, and Dick, that does appear,

Their needless vouches?

-this woolvish gown.] Signifies this rough hirsute gown. I own I was surprized, oni consulting the old copy, to find the passage JOHN printed thus:

"Why in this wolvish tongue.'

Mr. Rowe received gown from the second folio, and has been followed (perhaps without necessity) by all the editors.

The white robe worn by a candidate was made, I think, of white lamb skins. How comes it then to be called woolvish, unless in allusion to the fable of the wolf in sheep's cloathing ? Perhaps the poet meant only, Why do I stand with a tongue deceitful as that of the wolf, and seem to flatter those whom I could wish to treat with my usual ferocity? We may perhaps more distinctly read:

with this woolvish tongue,

unless tongue be used for tone or accent. Tongue might, indeed, be only a typographical mistake, and the word designed be toge, which is used in Othello. Shakspeare, however, does not appear to have known what the toga hirsuta was, because he has just before called it the napless gown of humility. -STEEv.

This woolvish gown.' 'Wolvish' should certainly be printed woolish, (i. e. woolly) in allusion to the lamb skin of which the gown or toga in question (for either reading may stand) was made. Mr. Steevens' conjecture about the tongue of the wolf is evidently erroneous. Shakspeare has not called the toga hirsuta the napless vesture of humility. Mr. S. as I have before had occasion to remark, is for understanding every thing literally. When Brutus remarks that Coriolanus will not put on the napless vesture of humility, he means, as we should now say, that he will not clothe himself in the plain garb of humility: in other words, that he will not shew the smallest token of humbleness or submission. B.

3 Cit. I would be consul, says he : aged custom, But by your voices, will not so permit me ; Your voices therefore:

-aged custom,] This was a strange inattention. The Romans at this time had but lately changed the regal for the consular government for Coriolanus was banished the eighteenth year after the expulsion of the kings. WARB.

Aged custom.' Shakspeare may speak of 'custom' as an established rule, however recent that rule might be; but it is scarcely possible that he should make a citizen of Coriolanus' time talk of aged custom, when the manner of choosing the consuls was the subject. I therefore read and point as follows:

، I would be consul (says he) aigred. Custom,

But by your voices,' &c.

(Aigre fr.) rudely, sharply, in a churlish manner. This agrees with the character of Caius Marcius. Aigred might easily be mistaken in sound for aged, or indeed by the eye of the printer. B.

Sic. Why, either, were you ignorant to see't?
Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness

To yield your voices?

-ignorant to see't?] Were you ignorant to see it, is, did you

want knowledge to discern it. JOHN.

Why either were you ignorant to see't.' Johnson's interpretation is wrong. They could not be wanting in knowledge of that which they were actually complaining of. When Sicinius says that the citizens should have been ignorant to see it,' he means that in seeing it (the mockery) they should have left it unnoticed, appeared ignorant of it or seeing it (i. e. having acknowledged that they perceived it,) they should not have given their voices for Coriolanus. The passage is not strictly grammatical from want of the negative particle. The sense is yet sufficiently clear. B.

Cor. Have you inform'd them since?

since.] The old copy-sithence. STEEV.

'Since.' Sithence, i. e. therefore because of that, should stand. Brutus says that Coriolanus' haughtiness was not known to all. The consul replies, and asks: And is it on that account you havs published it? B.

Cor. If he have power,

Then vail your ignorance: if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity.

Then vail your ignorance: - Ignorance for impotence; because it makes impotent. The Oxford editor, not understanding this, transposes the whole sentence according to what in his fancy is accuracy. WARS. Hanmer's transposition deserves notice.

--If they have power,

Let them have cushions by you; if none, awake
Your dang'rous lenity; if you are learned,

Be not as common fools; if you are not,

Then vail your ignorance. You are Plebeians, &c.

I neither think the transposition of one editor right, nor the interpretation of the other. The sense is plain enough without supposing ignorance to have any remote or consequential sense. If this man bas power let the ignorance that gave it him vail or bow down before him. Joux.

Dr. Johnson's interpretation seems wrong. To vail, is here to hide, and ignorance is used for weakness. If this man has really the power he pretends to, says Coriolanus, then hide or conceal your weakness; but if he has, in fact, no authority, then exercise yours. B.

Cor. That prefer

A noble life before a long, and wish

To jump a body with a dangerous physic,

To jump a body-] Thus the old copy. Modern editors read :

To vamp.

To jump anciently signified to jolt, to give a rude concussion to any thing. To jump a body may therefore mean, to put it into a violent . agitation or commotion.

So, in Phil. Holland's translation of Pliny's Nat. Hist. B. XXV. ch. v. p. 219: If we looke for good successe in our cure by ministring ellebore, &c. for certainly it putteth the patient to a jumpe, or great hazard.'

To jump a body. To jump a body' is harsh. Mr. Steevens quotation from Holland's translation of Pliny is no way in point. The meaning in Pliny is, that Hellebore must be carefully administered, or the patient will have but a leap ( i. e. little chance) for his life. We have at this day a similar expression. I think the poet may have contracted jumble into jumb' on account of the metre. I therefore read:

To jumb' a body,' &c.

Such abbreviations are not unfrequent with him. B.

Men. Be gone.

Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
One time will owe another.

One time will owe another. I know not whether to owe in this place means to possess by right, or to be indebted. Either sense may be admitted. One time, in which the people are salitious, will give us power in some other time: or, this time of the people's predominance will run them in debt: that is, will lay them open to the law, and expose them hereafter to more servile subjection: JoHN.

I am of opinion that Dr. Johnson has mistaken the sense; and that we should read, we'll, instead of will.

Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;

One time we'll owe (i. e. own) another.'

That is, at another time, at a more convenient season, we'll own another kind of tongue, we'll hold a very different language. B.

Sic. This is clean kam.

This is clean kam.] i. e. Awry. So Cotgrave interprets, Tout va contre-poil. All goes clean kam. Hence a kambrel for a crooked stick, or the bend in a horse's hinder leg. WARB.

This is clean kam.' Kim kam' may mean stuff, nothing to the purpose. As we now say whim wham, for a trifle. B.

Bru. Merely awry: when he did love his country,
It honor'd him.

Merely awry:] i. e. absolutely. STEEV.

'Merely awry.' I do not understand how merely' can at any time have the sense of absolutely. I believe, it should in this, and in other instances be written murely, a word formed on the French expression murement, i. e. completely, fully. B.

Vol.

Waving thy head,

With often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,
Now humble as the ripest mulberry,
That will not hold the handling;

-waving thy head,

Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart,]

But do any of the ancient or modern masters of elocution prescribe the