From Rome all feafon'd office", and to wind For which, you are a traitor to the people. Men. Nay; temperately: Your promife. Cor. The fires i' the loweft hell fold in the people! Sic. Mark you this, people? Cit. To the rock, to the rock with him! We need not put new matter to his charge: Deferves the extremeft death. Bru. But fince he hath Serv'd well for Rome, Cor. What do you prate of fervice? Cor. You? Men. Is this the promise that you made your mother? Com. Know, I pray you,― Cor. I'll know no further: Let them pronounce the fteep Tarpeian death, Sic. For that he has 5 — feafon'd office,-] All office aftablished and fettled by time, and made familiar to the people by Tong ufe. JoHNSON. R 4 (As (As much as in him lies) from time to time From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates: I' the people's name, Cit. It shall be fo, it shall be so; let him away: Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends; Sic. He's fentenc'd: no more hearing. Com. Let me fpeak: I have been conful, and can fhew from Rome, My country's good, with a respect more tender, 6 Envy'd against the people.] i. e. behaved with figns of hatred to the people. STEEVENS. 7-as now at laft,] Read rather: has now at laft. JOHNSON. I am not certain but that as, in this inftance, has the power of at well as. The fame mode of expreffion I have met with among our ancient writers. STEEVENS. 8-not in the prefence] Not ftands again for not only. JOHNSON. It is thus used in the New Teftament, 1 Theff. iv. 8. "He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man but God, &c." STEEVENS. 9- and can fhew from Rome,-] He either means, that his wounds were got out of Rome, in the cause of his country, or that they mediately were derived from Rome, by his acting in conformity to the orders of the state. Mr. Theobald reads for Rome; and fupports his emendation by thefe paffages: "To banish him that struck more blows for Rome," &c. Again: "Good man! the wounds that he does bear for Rome,-." MALONE. My My dear wife's eftimate', her womb's increase, Sic. We know your drift: Speak what? Bru. There's no more to be faid, but he is banish'd, As enemy to the people, and his country: It shall be fo. Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so. Cor. You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate That do corrupt my air, I banish you3; Making My dear wife's estimate,] I love my country beyond the rate at which I value my dear wife. JOHNSON. 2 You common cry of curs !] Cry here fignifies a troop or pack. So, in a fubfequent scene in this play: You have made good work, "You, and your cry.” Again, in The Two Noble Kinfmen, by Fletcher, 1634: "I could have kept a hawk, and well have holla'd "To a deep cry of dogs." MALONE. 3 I banish you ;] So, in Lilly's Anatomy of Wit, 1580: "When it was caft in Diogenes' teeth that the Sinopenetes had banished him Pontus, yea, faid he, I them." MALONE. 4 - Have the power ftill To banish your defenders; till, at length, Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels,) &c.] Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your undifcerning folly, which can forefee no confequences, leave none in the city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own deftruction. It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed from this fpeech. The people, fays he, cannot fee, but they can feel. It is not much to the honour of the people, that they have the fame character of ftupidity from their enemy and their friend. Such was the power of our authour's Making not refervation of yourselves, That won you without blows! Despifing, [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENI Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone! Cit. Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo! [The people fhout, and throw up their caps. Sic. Go, fee him out at gates, and follow him, As he hath follow'd you, with all despight; authour's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private and civil. JOHNSON. "The people, (to ufe the comment of my friend Dr. Kearney, in his ingenious LECTURES ON HISTORY, quarto, 1776,) cannot nicely fcrutinise errors in government, but they are roused by galling oppreffion."-Coriolanus, however, means to speak ftill more contemptuously of their judgment. Your ignorance is fuch, that you cannot fee the mifchiefs likely to refult from your actions, till you actually experience the ill effects of them.-Inftead, however, of "Making but refervation of yourfelves," which is the reading of the old copy, and which Dr. Johnfon very rightly explains, leaving none in the city but yourselves, I have no doubt that we fhould read, as I have printed, "Making not reservation of yourselves," which agrees with the fubfequent words-" ftill your own foes," and with the general purport of the fpeech; which is, to thew that the folly of the people was fuch as was likely to destroy the whole of the republick without any refervation, not only others, but even themfelves, and to fubjugate them as abated captives to fome hoftile nation. If, according to the old copy, the people have the prudence to make refervation of themselves, while they are deftroying their country, they cannot with any propriety be faid to be in that respect “fill their own fees." Thefe words therefore decifively fupport the emendation now made. How often but and not have been confounded in these plays, has already been frequently obferved. In this very play but has been printed, in a former fcene, instead of not, and the latter word fubftituted in all the modern editions. Sea p. 208, n. 8. MALONE. 5 Abated captives.] Abated is dejected, subdued, depressed in spirits, So, in Crafus, 1604, by Lord Sterline: "To advance the humble, and abate the proud." i. e. Abated has the fame power as the French abatts. STEEVENS. Give him deferv'd vexation. Let a guard Attend us through the city. Cit. Come, come, let us fee him out at gates; come:The gods preferve our noble tribunes!-Come. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. The fame. Before a Gate of the City. Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and feveral young Patricians. Cor. Come, leave your tears; a brief farewel-the beast With many heads butts me away.-Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd To fay, extremities were the trier of fpirits; That common chances common men could bear; That, when the fea was calm, all boats alike Shew'd mastership in floating: fortune's blows, When moft ftruck home, being gentle wounded, craves A noble cunning: you were us'd to load me With precepts, that would make invincible The heart that conn'd them. Vir. O heavens! O heavens ! Cor. Nay, I pr'ythee, woman, Vol. Now the red peftilence ftrike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish! 6 Cor. What, what, what! - fortune's blows, When moft fruck home, being gentle wounded, craves A noble cunning:] This is the ancient and authentick reading. The modern editors have, for gentle wounded, filently fubftituted gently warded, and Dr. Warburton has explained gently by nobly. It is good to be fure of our authour's words before we go about to explain their meaning. The fenfe is, When Fortune ftrikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and yet continue calm, requires a generous policy. He calls this calmness cunning, because it is the effect of reflection and philofophy. Perhaps the first emotions of nature are nearly uniform,, and one man differs from another in the power of endurance, as he is better regulated by precept and inftruction. They bore as beroes, but they felt as men. JOHNSON. I fhall |