Thy thoughts with noblenefs, that thou mayft prove
To fhame invulnerable, and stick i'th' wars
Like a great fea-mark, ftanding every flaw,
And faving those that eye thee!

Coriolanus' Mother's pathetic Speech to him. -Think with thy felf, How more unfortunate than all living women Are we come hither; fince thy fight, which fhould Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with com

forts,

Conftrains them weep, and shake with fear and forrow;
Making the mother, wife, and child to fee,
The fon, the husband, and the father tearing
His country's bowels out; and to poor we
Thine enmity's most capital; thou barr'it us
Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort
That all but we enjoy.

*

*

* We must find,

An eminent calamity though we had
Our with which fide fhou'd win. For either
Muft, as a foreign recreant, be led
With manacles along our streets or elfe
Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin,
And bear the palm for having bravely fhe
Thy wife and children's blood or my, fon,
I purpose not to wait on fortune, still
Thefe wars determine; if I can't perfuade thee
Rather to fhew a noble grace to both parts,

:

*

*

*

*

ou

Than

In the Two Noble Kinfmen, Arcite, lamenting the many miferies of their captivity, among the reft complains that they Should have

No iffue know them ;-
No figure of ourselves fhall we e'er fee,

To glad our eye, and like young eagles, teach 'em
Boldly to gaze against bright arms, and fay
Remember what your fathers were-and conquer.

Than feek the end of one: thou shalt no fooner
March to affault thy country, than to tread
(Truft to't, thou shalt not) on thy mother's womb,
That brought thee to this world.

SCENE IV. Peace after a Siege.

Ne'er thro' an arch fo hurried the blown tide,
As the re-comforted thro' th' gates. Why, hark you!
(15) The trumpets, fackbuts, pfalteries and fifes,
Tabors and cymbals, and the shouting Romans
Make the fun dance.

(15) The, &c.] Shakespear poffibly might have this verse from the 3d chapter of Daniel, in view, when he wrote the above.

At what time ye hear the found of the cornet, flute, barp, sackbut, pfaltery, dulcimer, and, all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image, &c.

Or this from the laft Pfalm.

Praise him with the found of the trumpet, praise him with the pfaltery and harp: praise him with the timbrel and dance, praise him with the ftringed inftruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals, praise bim upon the high-founding cymbals. Let every thing that bath breath braife the Lord.

General Obfervation.

The tragedy of Coriolanus (fays Johnson) is one of the most amufing of our author's performances. The old man's merriment in Menenius; the lofty lady's dignity in Volumnia; the bridal modefty in Virgilia; the patrician and military haughtinefs in Coriolanus; the plebeian malignity and tribunitian infolence in Brutus and Sicinius, make a very pleafing and interefting variety: and the various revolutions of the hero's fortune fill the mind with anxious curiofity. There is, perhaps, too much bustle in the first act, and too little in the last.

Cymbeline.

Parting Lovers.

AHOU fhould'st have made him
As little as a crow, or lefs, ere left

Imo.

T

To after-eye him.
Pif. Madam, fo I did.

Imo. I would have broke mine eye-strings; crackt
'em, but

To look upon him; (1) till the diminution
Of fpace, had pointed him sharp as my needle;
Nay, followed him, 'till he had melted from
The fmallness of a gnat, to air; and then
Have turn'd mine eye, and wept: but, good Pifanio,
When fhall we hear from him?

Pif. Be affur'd, madam,

With his next vantage.

Imo. I did not take my leave of him, but had
Moft pretty things to fay; ere I could tell him

How

(1) Till, &c.] There needs no alteration here: Imogen says, "She would not have left to after-eye him, till he was as little as a crow, nay, fhe would have crackt her eye-ftrings to look. apon him, till the diminution of fpace [the leffening of the nace he took up] had pointed him sharp as a needle," (till the ace he took up feem'd not only fmall as a bird, but even sharp a needle's point.)

How I would think of him at certain hours,
Such thoughts, and fuch; or I could make him fwear,
The fhe's of Italy should not betray

Mine intereft, and his honour: or have charg'd him
At the fixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight,
T'encounter me with orifons, (for then
I am in heav'n for him ;) or e'er I could
Give him that parting kiss, (2) which I had set
Betwixt two charming words, confes in my father,
And like the tyrannous breathing of the north,
Skakes all our buds from blowing *.

SCENE VIII. The Bafeness of Falfhood to a Wife.

Doubting things go ill often hurts more,
Than to be fure they do; for certainties
Or are paft remedies; or timely knowing,
The remedy then borne, difcore to me
What both you spur and stop..
Iach. (3) Had I this cheek

To

(2) Which, &c.] Mr. Warburton, in his note on this passage, has had the felicity to difcover what the two charming words were, between which Imogen would have fet her parting kiss, which Shakespear probably never thought of. He fays, "without queftion, by thefe two charming prds, he would be understood to mean,

Adieu, Pofthumus.

The one religion made fo, the other love."

Imogen must have understood the etymology of our language very exactly, to find out fo much religion in the word adieu, which we ufe commonly, without fixing any fuch idea to it; as when we fay, fuch a man has bid adieu to all religion. And on the other fide, the must have understood the language of love very little, if he could find no tenderer expreffion of it, than the name by which every body elfe called her husband. Edward's Ga. of Crit. p. 115.

Blowing, Warb. vulg. growing.

(3) Had I, &c.] He afterwards fays,

Το

To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch
Whofe very touch wou'd force the feeler's foul
To th' oath of loyalty: this object, which
Takes prifoner the wild motion of mine eye,
Fixing it only here; should I, (damn'd then)
Slaver with lips, as common as the stairs
That mount the capitol; join gripes with hands
Made hard with hourly falfhood as with labour;
Then glad myself by peeping in an eye,
Bafe and unluftrious as the fmoaky light
That's fed with ftinking tallow: it were fit
That all the plagues of hell should at one time
Encounter fuch revolt.

ACT II. SCENE II.

Imogen's Bedchamber; in one Part of it, a large Trunk.

Imogen is difcovered reading.

Imo.
-Mine eyes are weak
Fold down the leaf where I have left; to bed-
Take not away the taper, leave it burning:
And if thou canft awake by four o'th' clock,
I prithee call me-Sleep hath feized me wholly.

[Exit Lady.

To your protection I commend me, gods,

From

To be partner'd

With tom-boys, hir'd with that self-exhibition
Which your own coffers yield: with difeas'd venturés
That play with all infirmities for gold,
Which rottennefs lends nature! fuch boil'd ftuff

As well might poifon poifon : be reveng'd, &c.

Thefe lines are well worthy the reflection of all those gent'emen, who style themfelves Men of Pleasure: if they would duly weigh the truth of them; their own pride fure would be the first thing, to drum them, as Shakespear fays, from their lascivious ports,