Men. Sir, fir,

Sic. Peace.

Men. Do not cry, havock', where you should but hunt With modeft warrant.

Sic. Sir, how comes it, that you
Have holp to make this rescue ?
Men. Hear me speak :-

As I do know the conful's worthiness,
So can I name his faults :-

I

Sic. Conful!-what conful?
Men. The conful Coriolanus.
Bru. He conful!

Cit. No, no, no, no, no.

Men. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people,

may be heard, I'd crave a word or two;

The which fhall turn you to no further harm,

Than fo much lofs of time.

Sic. Speak briefly then;

For we are peremptory, to dispatch

This viperous traitor: to eject him hence,
Were but one danger; and, to keep him here,
Our certain death; therefore, it is decreed,

He dies to-night.

1 Do not cry, havock,] i. e. Do not give the fignal for unlimited flaughter, &c. STEEVENS.

See Vol. IV. p. 477, n. 7. MALONE.

Do not cry bavock, where you should but bunt

With modeft warrant.] To cry bavock, was, I believe, originally a fporting phrafe, from bafoc, which in Saxon fignifies a bawk. It was afterwards ufed in war. So, in K. John:

"Cry baueck, kings.”

And in Julius Cæfar:

Cry bavock, and let flip the dogs of war."

It feems to have been the fignal for general flaughter, and is exprefsly forbid in the Ordinances des Batailles, 9 R. ii. art. 10:

"Item, que nul foit fi hardy de crier bavok fur peine d'avoir la teft coupe."

The fecond article of the fame Ordinances feems to have been fatal to Bardolph. It was death even to touch the pix of little price.

"Item que nul foit fi hardy de toucher le corps de noftre Seigneur, i le veffel en quel il eft, fur peyne d'eftre trainez & pendu, et la tefte avoir coupe," M. S. Cotton, Nero D. VI, TYRWHITT.

Мен.

Men. Now the good gods forbid,
'That our renowned Rome, whofe gratitude
Towards her deserved children 2 is enroll'd
In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!

Sic. He's a disease, that must be cut away.
Men, O, he's a limb, that has but a disease;
Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.

What has he done to Rome, that's worthy death?
Killing our enemies? The blood he hath loft,
(Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath,
By many an ounce,) he dropp'd it for his country:
And, what is left, to lofe it by his country,
Were to us all, that do't, and fuffer it,

A brand to the end o' the world.

Sic. This is clean kam 3.

Bru. Merely awry: When he did love his country,

It honour'd him.

Men. The fervice of the foot

Being once gangren'd, is not then respected
For what before it was ' ;-

Bru.

2 Towards ber deferved children-] Deferved, for deferving. So, de lighted for delighting, in Othello:

"If virtue no delighted beauty lack,"

MALONE.

3 This is clean kam.] i. e. Awry. So Cotgrave interprets, Tout va à contrepoil, Ali goes clean kam. Hence a kambrel for a crooked stick, er the bend in a horfe's hinder leg. WARBURTON.

The Weich word for crooked is kam; and in Lylly's Endymion, 1591, is the following paffage: "But timely, madam, crooks that tree that will be a camock, and young it pricks that will be a thorn."

Vulgar pronunciation has corrupted clean kam into kim kam, and this corruption is preferved in that great repofitory of ancient vulgarisms, Stanyhurst's translation of Virgil, 1582:

"Scinditur incertum ftudia in contraria vulgus."

"The wavering commons in kym kam sectes are haled.”

STEEVENS.

4 Merely awry :] Merely is abfolutely. See Vol. I. p. 7, n. 3.

is not then refpected

MALONE.

For what before it was ;-You alledge, fays Menenius, that being difeafed, he must be eut away. According then to your argument, the

foot

Bru. We'll hear no more:

Purfue him to his houfe, and pluck him thence;
Left his infection, being of catching nature,
Spread further.

Men. One word more, one word.

This tyger-footed rage, when it fhall find

The harm of unfcann'd fwiftness, will, too late,
Tie leaden pounds to his heels. Proceed by procefs;
Left parties (as he is belov'd) break out,

And lack great Rome with Romans.

Bru. If it were so,

Sic. What do ye talk?

Have ye not had a taste of his obedience?

Our ædiles fmote ? ourselves refifted ?-Come :—

Men. Confider this ;-He has been bred i' the wars Since he could draw a fword, and is ill school'd In boulted language; meal and bran together He throws without diftinction. Give me leave, I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him Where he fhall anfwer, by a lawful form, (In peace) to his utmost peril.

1. Sen. Noble tribunes,

It is the humane way: the other courfe
Will prove too bloody; and the end of it
Unknown to the beginning".

Sic. Noble Menenius,

Be you then as the people's officer:-
Mafters, lay down your weapons.

foot, being once gangrened, is not to be refpe&ted for what it was before it was gangrened." Is this juft?" Menenius would have added, if the tribune had not interrupted him: and indeed, without any fuch addition, from his ftate of the argument thefe words are understood.

MALONE.

6 -to bring bim-] In the old copy the words in peace are found at the end of this line. They probably were in the Mf. placed at the beginning of the next line, and caught by the tranfcriber's eye glancing on the line below. The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

the end of it

Unknown to the beginning.] So, in the Tempest, A&t II. fc. i:
"The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning."

STEEVENS.

Bru.

Bra. Go not home.

Sic. Meet on the market-place :-We'll attend you

there:

Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed

In our first way.

Men. I'll bring him to you:

Let me defire your company. [to the Senators.] He muft

come,

Or what is worst will follow.

1. Sen. Pray you, let's to him.

SCENE II.

A Room in Coriolanus's Houfe.

Enter CORIOLANUS, and Patricians.

[Exeunt,

Cor. Let them pull all about mine ears; prefent me Death on the wheel, or at wild horfes' heels;

Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,

That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of fight, yet will I ftill
Be thus to them.

Enter VOLUMNIA.

1. Pat. You do the nobler.

Cor. I mufe, my mother

Does not approve me further, who was wont
To call them woollen vassals, things created
To buy and fell with groats; to fhew bare heads
In congregations, to yawn, be ftill, and wonder,
When one but of my ordinance' stood up
To speak of peace, or war.
I talk of you;
Why did you wish me milder? Would you

[To Vol.

have me

.8 Death on the wheel, or at wild borfes' beels ;] Neither of these punishments was known at Rome. Shakspeare had probably read or heard in his youth that Balthazar de Gerrard, who aflaffinated William prince of Orange in 1584, was torn to pieces by wild horfes; as Nicholas de Salvedo had been not long before, for confpiring to take away the life of that gallant prince. MALONE.

9 I mufe,] That is, I wonder, I am at a loss. JOHNSON. See Vol. IV. p. 371, n. 8. MALONE.

my ordinance-] My rank. JOHNSON.

Falfe

Falfe to my nature? Rather say, I play

The man I am.

Vol. O, fir, fir, fir,

I would have had you put your power well on,
Before you had worn it out.

Cor. Let go.

Vol. You might have been enough the man you are, With ftriving lefs to be fo: Leffer had been

The thwartings of your difpofitions, if

You had not thew'd them how you were dispos'd

Ere they lack'd power to cross you,

Cor. Let them hang.

Vol. Ay, and burn too.

Enter MENENIUS, and Senators.

Men. Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough;

You must return, and mend it.

1. Sen. There's no remedy; Unless, by not fo doing, our good city Cleave in the midft, and perish.

Vol. Pray, be counsel'd:

I have a heart as little apt as yours,
But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger,
To better vantage.

Men. Well faid, noble woman:

Before he should thus ftoop to the herd3, but that
The violent fit o' the time craves it as phyfick
For the whole ftate, I would put mine armour on,

2 The thwartings of your difpofitions,] The folio reads-The things of your difpofition. The emendation was made by Mr. Theobald, whe improved on Mr. Rowe's correction

The things that thwart your difpofitions.

Some of the letters probably dropped out at the prefs, and the compofitor afterwards restored the word by conjecture, and produced things. MALONE.

3-floop to the herd,] The old copy has-to the beart. The emendation, which is certainly right, was made by Mr. Theobald. So before: "You thames of Rome! you berd of."

Again: "Are these your berd?"

Herd was anciently fpelt beard. Hence beart crept into the old copy.

MALONE.