corn3, he himself stuck not to call us-the many-headed multitude+. 3. Cit. We have been call'd fo of many; not that our heads are fome brown, fome black, fome auburn', fome bald, but that our wits are fo diverfly colour'd: and truly I think, if all our wits were to iffue out of one fkull, they wonld fly east, weft, north, fouth; and their concent of one direct way should be at once to all the points o' the compafs. 2. Cit. Think you fo? Which way, do you judge, my wit would fly? 3. Cit. Nay, your wit will not fo foon out as another man's will, 'tis ftrongly wedg'd up in a block-head: but if it were at liberty, twould, fure, fouthward. 2. Cit. Why that way? 3. Cit. To lose itself in a fog; where being three parts melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for confcience fake, to help to get thee a wife. 2. Cit. You are never without your tricks :-You may, you may. 3. Cit. Are you all refolved to give your voices? But that's no matter, the greater part carries it. I fay, if he would incline to the people, there was never a worthier man. Enter CORIOLANUS, and MENENIUS. Here he comes, and in the gown of humility; mark his 3 - for once we stood up about the corn,] That is, as foon as ever we food up. This word is ftill fed in nearly the fame fenfe, in familiar or rather vulgar language, fuch as Shakspeare wifhed to allot to the Roman populace. "Once the will of the monarch is the only law, the conftitution is destroyed." Mr. Rowe and all the subsequent editors read -for once, when we ftood up, &c. MALONE. 4-many-beaded multitude.] Hanmer reads, many headed monster, but withou neceffity. To be many-beaded includes monstrousness. 5 JOHNSON. Some auburn,] The folio reads, fome Abram. I fhould unwillingly fuppofe this to be the true reading; but we have already heard of Cain and Abram-coloured beards. STEEVENS. The emendation was made in the fourth folio. MALONE. -if all our wits were to iffue out of one skull, &c.] Meaning, though our having but one intereft was most apparent, yet our wishes and projects would be infinitely difcordant. WARBURTON. behaviour. behaviour. We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he ftands, by ones, by twos, and by threes. He's to make his requests by particulars; wherein every one of us has a fingle honour, in giving him our own voices with our own tongues: therefore follow me, and I'll direct you how you fhall go by him. All. Content, content. [Exeunt. Men. O fir, you are not right; have you not known The worthieft men have done't? Cor. What must I say?— I pray, fir,-Plague upon't! I cannot bring My tongue to fuch a pace:-Look, fir;-my wounds;- Some certain of your breth'ren roar'd, and ran Men. O me, the gods! You must not speak of that; you must defire them Cor. Think upon me? Hang 'em? I would they would forget me, like the virtues Men. You'll mar all; I'll leave you: Pray you, speak to them, I pray you, Enter two Citizens. Cor. Bid them wash their faces. [Exit. And keep their teeth clean.-So, here comes a brace. You know the caufe, fir, of my standing here. 1. Cit. We do, fir; tell us what hath brought you to't. Cor. Mine own defert. 2. Cit. Your own defert? Cor. Ay, not mine own defire 3. 7 I wish they would forget me, like the virtues, 1. Cit. Which our divines lofe by them.] i. e. I with they would forget me as they do thofe virtuous precepts, which the divines preach up to them, and lufe by them, as it were, by their neglecting the practice. THEOBALD. 8- not mine own defire. The old copy has-but mine own defire. The answer of the citizen fully fupports the correction, which was made by the editor of the third rolio. But and not are often confounded :. Cit. How! not your own defire? Cor. No, fir: 'Twas never my defire yet To trouble the poor with begging. 1. Cit. You must think, if we give you any thing, we hope to gain by you. Cor. Well then, I pray, your price o' the confulfhip? 1. Cit. The price is, to ask it kindly. Cor. Kindly? Sir, I pray, let me ha't: I have wounds to fhew you, Which fhall be yours in private.-Your good voice, fir; What fay you? 2. Cit. You shall have it, worthy fir. Cor. A match, fir:-There's in all two worthy voices begg'd: I have your alms; adieu. 1. Cit. But this is fomething odd. 2. Cit. An 'twere to give again,-But 'tis no matter. [Exeunt two Citizens. Enter two other Citizens. Cor. Pray you now, if it may ftand with the tune of your voices, that I may be conful, I have here the cuf tomary gown. 1. Cit. You have deferved nobly of your country, and you have not deserved nobly. Cor. Your ænigma? 1. Cit. You have been a fcourge to her enemies, you have been a rod to her friends; you have not, indeed, loved the common people. Cor. You should account me the more virtuous, that I have not been common in my love. I will, fir, flatter my fworn brother the people, to earn a dearer estimation of them; 'tis a condition they account gentle: and fince the wisdom of their choice is rather to have my hat than in these plays. See Vol. III. p. 142, n. 1. and Vol. V. p. 284, n. 5; and p. 252. n. 1. In a paffage in Love's Labour's Loft, Vol. II. p. 377, from the reluctance which I always feel to depart from the original copy, I have fuffered not to remain, and have endeavoured to explain the words as they stand; but I am now convinced that I ought to have printed "By earth, he is but corporal; there you lie.' MALONE. VOL. VII. P my my heart, I will practise the infinuating nod, and be off to them most counterfeitly; that is, fir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of fome popular man, and give it bountifully to the defirers. Therefore, befeech you, I may be conful. 2. Cit. We hope to find you our friend; and therefore give you our voices heartily. 1. Cit. You have received many wounds for your country. Cor. I will not feal your knowledge with thewing them. I will make much of your voices, and so trouble you no further. Both Cit. The gods give you joy, fir, heartily! [Exeunt. Cor. Moft fweet voices! Better it is to die, better to ftarve, Than crave the hire which firft we do deserve. Why in this woolvish toge should I ftand here, To • I will not feal your knowledge] I will not ftrengthen or complete your knowledge. The feal is that which gives authenticity to a writing. JOHNSON. -the hire-] The old copy has bigber, and this is one of the many proofs that feveral parts of the original folio edition of these plays were dictated by one and written down by another. MALONE. Why in this woolvish toge should I ftand bere,] I fuppofe the meaning is, Why fhould I ftand in this gown of humility, which is little expreffive of my feelings towards the people; as far from being an emblem of my real character, as the theep's cloathing on a wolf as expreffive of his difpofition. I believe woolwish was used by our author for falfe or deceitful, and that the phrafe was fuggefted to him, as Mr. Steevens feems alfo to think, by the common expreffion," a wolf in fheep's cloathing." Mr. Mafon fays, that this is "a ludicrous idea, and ought to be treated as fuch." I have paid due attention to many of the ingenious commentator's remarks in the prefent edition, and therefore I am fure he will pardon me when I obferve that fpeculative criticism on these plays will ever be liable to error, unless we add to it an intimate acquaintance with the language and writings of the predeceflors and contemporaries of Shakspeare. If Mr. Mafon had read the following line in Churchyard's legend of Cardinal Wolfey, Mirror for Magitrates, 1587, instead of confidering this as a ludicrous interpretation, he would probably have admitted it to be a natural and just explication of the epithet before us: “O fye on wolves, that march in masking ciotkes.” The To beg of Hob, and Dick, that do appear, What The woolvish toge is a gown of humility, in which Coriolanus thinks he fhall appear in masquerade; not in his real and natural character. Woolvib cannot mean rough, birfute, as Dr. Johnson interprets it, because the gown Coriolanus wore has already been described as napless. The old copy has tongue; which was a very natural error for the compofitor at the prefs to fall into, who almoft always fubftitutes a familiar English word for one derived from the Latin, which he does not understand. The very fame mistake has happened in Othello, where we find tongued confuls," for toged confuls.-The particle in fhews that tongue cannot be right. The editor of the fecond folio folved the difficulty as ufual, by fubftituting gown, without any regard to the word in the original copy. MALONE. The white robe worn by a candidate was made, I think, of white lamb fkins. How comes it then to be called woolvish, unless in allufion to the fable of the wolf in sheep's cloathing? Perhaps the poet meant only, Why do I ftand with a tongue deceitful as that of the awolf, and feem to flatter thofe whom I could wish to treat with my ufual fero city? We may perhaps more diftinctly read: with this woolvish tongue, unless tongue be used for tone or accent. Tongue might, indeed, be only a typographical mistake, and the word defigned be toge, which is ufed in Orbello. Shakspeare, however, does not appear to have known what the toga birfuta was, because he has just before called it the napless gown of humility. Since the foregoing note was written, I met with the following paffage in "A Merye Jeft of a Man called Howleglas," bl. 1. no date. Howleglas hired himself to a taylor, who cafte unto him a huibande mans gowne, and bad him take a wolfe, and make it up.-Than cut Howleglafs the husbandmans gowne and made thereof a woulfe with the head and feete, &c. Then fayd the mafter, I ment that you should have made up the ruffet gown, for a husbandman's gowne is here called a wolfe." By a wolvish gown, therefore, (if gown be the true reading) Shakspeare might have meant Coriolanus to compare the dress af a Roman candidate to the coarse frock of a ploughman, who expofed himself to folicit the votes of his fellow rufticks. STEEVENS. 3 To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear, Their needlefs vouches.] Why ftand I here,-to beg of Hob and Dick, and fuch others as make their appearance here, their unneceffary voices? JOHNSON. 'By strange inattention our poet has here given the names (as in many other places he has attributed the customs) of England, to ancient Rome. It appears from Minfheu's DICTIONARY, 1617, in v. QUINTAINE, that these were some of the most common names among the people in Shakspeare's time. "A QUINTAINE OF Pa QUIN |