an enemy that courage which he honours in himself; he places himself on the hearth of Aufidius with the same confidence that he would have met him in the field, and feels that by putting himself in his power, he takes from him all temptation for using it against him.

Two

In the title-page of 'Coriolanus,' it is said at the bottom of the Dramatis Persona, "The whole history exactly followed, and many of the principal speeches copied from the life of Coriolanus in Plutarch." It will be interesting to our readers to see how far this is the case. of the principal scenes, those between Coriolanus and Aufidius and between Coriolanus and his mother, are thus given in Sir Thomas North's Translation of Plutarch, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, 1579. The first is as

follows:

"It was even twilight when he entered the city of Antium, and many people met him in the streets, but no man knew him. So he went directly to Tullus Aufidius' house, and when he came thither, he got him up straight to the chimney-hearth, and sat him down, and spake not a word to any man, his face all muffled over. They of the house spying him, wondered what he should be, and yet they durst not bid him rise. For ill-favouredly muffled and disguised as he was, yet there appeared a certain majesty in his countenance and in his silence: whereupon they went to Tullus, who was at supper, to tell him of the strange disguising of this man. Tullus rose presently from the board, and coming towards him, asked him what he was, and wherefore he came. Then Martius unmuffled himself, and after he had paused awhile, making no answer, he said unto him, 'If 'thou knowest me not yet, Tullus, and seeing me, dost not perhaps 'believe me to be the man I am indeed, I must of necessity betray " myself to be that I am. I am Caius Martius, who hath done to thyself particularly, and to all the Volces generally, great hurt and mischief, which I cannot deny for my surname of Coriolanus that I bear. For I never had other benefit nor recompence of the 'true and painful service I have done, and the extreme dangers 'I have been in, but this only surname: a good memory and witness of the malice and displeasure thou shouldest bear me. Indeed the name only remaineth with me; for the rest, the envy and cruelty of 'the people of Rome have taken from me, by the sufferance of the dastardly nobility and magistrates, who have forsaken me, and let

me be banished by the people. This extremity hath now driven * me to come as a poor suitor, to take thy chimney-hearth, not of any hope I have to save my life thereby. For if I had feared death, I would not have come hither to have put myself in hazard; 'but pricked forward with desire to be revenged of them that thus have banished me, which now I do begin, in putting my person into the hands of their enemies. Wherefore if thou hast any heart 'to be wrecked of the injuries thy enemies have done thee, speed 'thee now, and let my misery serve thy turn, and so use it as my 'service may be a benefit to the Volces: promising thee, that I will fight with better good will for all you, than I did when I was against you, knowing that they fight more valiantly who know the 'force of the enemy, than such as have never proved it. And if it 'be so that thou dare not, and that thou art weary to prove fortune any more: then am I also weary to live any longer. And it were no wisdom in thee to save the life of him who hath been heretofore thy mortal enemy, and whose service now can nothing help, nor pleasure thee.' Tullus hearing what he said, was a marvellous glad man, and taking him by the hand, he said unto him: 'Stand ⚫ up, O Martius, and be of good cheer, for in proffering thyself unto us, thou dost us great honour: and by this means thou mayest hope also of greater things at all the Volces' hands.' So he feasted him for that time, and entertained him in the honourablest manner he could, talking with him of no other matters at that present: but within few days after, they fell to consultation together in what sort they should begin their wars.'

The meeting between Coriolanus and his mother is also nearly the same as in the play :—2

"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

1 Plutarch's 'Lives,' translated by North, 1579, ed. 1603, pp. 232, 233.-ED.

2 Ibid., pp. 238, 239.-Ed.

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 swiftrunning stream. After he had thus lovingly received them, and perceiving 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 unfortunate than all the women living, we are come hither, considering that the sight which 'should be most pleasant to all others to behold, spiteful fortune 'had 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 others 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 for our country, and for 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 one, preferring love and nature before the malice and calamity of wars, thou shalt see, my son, and trust unto 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 ⚫ wouldest 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 goal 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 them'selves have no less part of both than we. Of which good, if so it

6

came to pass, thyself is the only author, and so hast thou the only 'honour. But if it fail, and fall out contrary, thyself alone de'servedly shalt carry the shameful reproach and burthen 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 also 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. Hereupon 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 unnaturally 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 lifted 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."

6

Shakespear has, in giving a dramatic form to this

passage, adhered very closely and properly to the text. He did not think it necessary to improve upon the truth of nature. Several of the scenes in 'Julius Cæsar,' particularly Portia's appeal to the confidence of her husband by showing him the wound she had given herself, and the appearance of the ghost of Cæsar to Brutus, are in like manner taken from the history.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.1

THIS is one of the most loose and desultory of our author's plays it rambles on just as it happens, but it overtakes, together with some indifferent matter, a prodigious number of fine things in its way. Troilus himself is no character he is merely a common lover: but Cressida and her uncle Pandarus are hit off with proverbial truth. By the speeches given to the leaders of the Grecian host, Nestor, Ulysses, Agamemnon, Achilles, Shakespear seems to have known them as well as if he had been a spy sent by the Trojans into the enemy's camp-to say nothing of their affording very lofty examples of didactic eloquence. The following is a very stately and spirited declamation :

"Ulysses. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master, But for these instances.

The specialty of rule hath been neglected.

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
Observe degree, priority, and place,

Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,

Office, and custom, in all line of order:

1 Printed twice in 1609, and again in the folio of 1623. There was an earlier drama on this subject by Thomas Decker and Henry Chettle, mentioned in Henslowe's Diary under 1599. The latter was the piece, probably, which we find licensed to James Roberts in 1602-3. But nothing is now known of it.-ED.