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Was his great ancestors.

Sic. One thus defcended,

That hath befide well in his person wrought
To be fet high in place, we did commend
To your remembrances: but you have found,
Scaling his prefent bearing with his past,
That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your fudden approbation.

Bru. Say, you ne'er had done't,

(Harp on that ftill,) but by our putting on 7:

And prefently, when you have drawn your number,

Repair to the Capitol.

Cit. We will fo: almoft all

Repent in their election.

[Jeveral Speak [Exeunt Citizens.

Marcian waters were not brought to that city by aqueducts till the year 613, near 350 years after the death of Coriolanus.

Can it be fuppofed, that he who would difregard fuch anachronisms, or rather he to whom they were not known, should have changed Cato, which he found in his Plutarch, to Calves, from a regard to chronology? See a former note, p. 168. MALONE.

5 And Cenforinus

Was bis great ancestor.] Now the first cenfor was created U. C. 314, and Coriolanus was banished U. C. 262. The truth is this: the pallage, as Mr. Pope obferves above, was taken from Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus; who, fpeaking of the houfe of Coriolanus, takes notice both of his ancestors and of his pofterity, which our author's hafte not giving him leave to obferve, has here confounded with the other. Another inftance of his inadvertency, from the fame caufe, we have in the first part of Henry IV. where an account is given of the prifoners took on the plains of Holmedon:

Mordake the earl of Fife, and eldeft fon

To beaten Douglas

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But the earl of Fife was not fon to Douglas, but to Robert duke of Albany, governor of Scotland. He took his account from Holinfhed, whofe words are, And of prisoners amongst others were thefe; Mordack earl of Fife, fon to the governor Arckembald earl Douglas, &c. And he imagined that the governor and cari Douglas were one and the fame perfon.

WARBURTON.

6 Scaling bis prefent bearing with his paft,] That is, weighing his past and prefent behaviour. JoHNSON.

1:] By our inftigation. So, in K. Henry VIII.

7 by our putting on:
as putter on
"Of these exactions."-

See p. 21, n. 4.

MALONE.
Bru.

Bru. Let them go on ;

This mutiny were better put in hazard,
Than ftay, paft doubt, for greater:

If, as his nature is, he fall in rage

With their retufal, both observe and answer*
The vantage of his anger.

Sic. To the Capitol, come;

We will be there before the stream o' the people";

And this fhall feem, as partly 'tis, their own,

Which we have goaded onward.

ACT III.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.

The fame. A Street.

Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS,
TITUS LARTIUS, Senators, and Patricians.

Cor. Tullus Aufidius then had made new head?
Lart. He had, my lord; and that it was, which caus'd

Our fwifter composition.

Cor. So then the Volces ftand but as at firft;

Ready, when time fhall prompt them, to make road
Upon us again.

Com. They are worn, lord conful *, fo,

That we fhall hardly in our ages fee

Their banners wave again.

Cor. Saw you Aufidius?

Lart. On fafe-guard he came to me; and did curfe

Against the Volces, for they had fo vilely

Yielded the town: he is retir'd to Antium.

Cor. Spoke he of me?

$ - obferve and answer

The vantage of bis anger,] Mark, catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hafty anger will afford us. JOHNSON.

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the ftream of the people;] So, in K. Henry VIII.

66

-The rich fream

"Of lords and ladies having brought the queen

"To a prepar'd place in the choir," &c. MALONE.

-lord conful, Shakspeare has heie, as in other places, attributed the ufage of England to Rome. In his time the title of lord was given to many officers of frate who were not peers; thus, lords of the council, lord ambasador, lord general, &c. MALONE.

Lart.

Lart. He did, my lord.

Cor. How? what?

Lart. How often he had met you, fword to fword:
That, of all things upon the earth, he hated
Your perfon moft: that he would pawn his fortunes
To hopeless reftitution, fo he might

Be call'd your vanquisher.

Cor. At Antium lives he?

Lart. At Antium.

Cor. I wish I had a caufe to feek him there, To oppofe his hatred fully.-Welcome home.

Enter SICINIUS, and BRUTUS.

Behold! thefe are the tribunes of the people,

[To Lartius.

The tongues o'the common mouth. I do defpife them; For they do prank them in authority',

Against all noble fufferance.

Sic. Pafs no further.

Cor. Ha! what is that?

Bru. It will be dangerous to go on: no further.
Cor. What makes this change?

Men. The matter?

Com. Hath he not pass'd the noble, and the common? Bru. Cominius, no.

Cor. Have I had children's voices?

1. Sen. Tribunes, give way; he fhall to the market-place. Bru. The people are incens'd against him.

Sic. Stop,

Or all will fall in broil.

Cor. Are thefe your herd?

Must thefe have voices, that can yield them now,

And ftraight difclaim their tongues ?-What are your offices?

You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth?

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prank them in authority,] Plume, deck, dignify themselves.

So, in Meafure for Mafure:

JOHNSON.

Dreft in a little brief authority." STEEVENS. 2why rule you not their teeth?] The metaphor is from men's fetting a bull-dog or mastiff upon any one. WARBURTON.

Have

Have you not set them on ?

Men. Be calm, be calm.

Cor. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot,
To curb the will of the nobility:-

Suffer't, and live with fuch as cannot rule,
Nor ever will be rul'd.

Bru. Call't not a plot:

The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late,
When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd;
Scandal'd the fuppliants for the people; call'd them
Time-pleafers, flatterers, foes to nobleness.

Cor. Why, this was known before.

Bru. Not to them all.

Cor. Have you inform'd them fince 3?
Bru. How! I inform them!

Cor. You are like to do fuch bufinefs.

Bru. Not unlike,

Each way, to better yours 4.

Cor. Why then fhould I be conful? By yon clouds, Let me deserve fo ill as you, and make me

Your fellow tribune.

Sic. You fhew too much of that ",

,

For which the people ftir: If you will pafs

To where you are bound, you must enquire your way,
Which you are out of, with a gentler fpirit;

Or never be fo noble as a coníul,

Nor yoke with him for tribune.

Men. Let's be calm.

Com. The people are abus'd:-Set on.-This palt'ring Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus

3

- fince. ] The old copy-fitbence. STEEVENS. 4 Not unlike,

Deferv'd

Each way, to better yours.] i. e. likely to provide better for the fe. curity of the commonwealth than you (whose business it is) will do. To which the reply is pertinent:

Why then fhould I be conful? WARBURTON.

5 Sic. You fhew 100 much of that, &c.] This fpeech is given in the old copy to Cominius. It was rightly attributed to Sicinius by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

0 This palt'ring

Becomes not Rome: That is, this trick of dissimulation, this shuffling,

And

Deferv'd this fo difhonour'd rub, laid falfly7

I' the plain way of his merit.

Cor. Tell me of corn!

This was my fpeech, and I will fpeak't again ;-
Men. Not now, not now.

1. Sen. Not in this heat, fir, now.

Cor. Now, as I live, I will.-My nobler friends,
I crave their pardons :-

For the mutable, rank-fcented many, let them
Regard me as I do not flatter, and

Therein behold themselves: I fay again,

In foothing them, we nourish 'gainst our fenate

The cockle of rebellion, infolence, fedition,

Which we ourselves have plough'd for, fow'd and scatter'd, By mingling them with us, the honour'd number;

Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that

Which they have given to beggars.

Men. Well, no more.

1. Sen. No more words, we beseech you.

Cor. How! no more?

As for my country I have shed my blood,
Not fearing outward force, fo fhall my lungs
Coin words till their decay, against those meazels',

"And be thefe jugling fiends no more believ'd,

"That palter with us in a double fenfe." Macbeth. JOHNSON. 7-rub, laid falfly, &c.] Falfly for treacherously. JOHNSON. The metaphor is from the bowling-green. MALONE. Slet them

Regard me as I do not flatter, and

Therein behold themfelves :] Let them look in the mirror which I hold up to them, a mirror which does not flatter, and fee themselves. JOHNSON.

9 The cockle of rebellion,-] Cockle is a weed which grows up with the corn. The thought is from fir Tho. North's tranflation of Plutarch, where it is given as follows: "Moreover, he said, that they nourished against themselves the naughty feed and cockle of infolency and fedition, which had been fowed and fcattered abroad among the people," &c. STEEVENS,

1-thofe meazels,] Mefell is ufed in Pierce Plowman's Vifion for a leper. The fame word frequently occurs in the London Prodigal, 1605. STEEVENS.

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