Not yet thou know'ft me, and fecing me, doft not Auf. What is thy name? [Servants retire. Gor. A name unmufical to the Volcians' ears, And harsh in found to thine. Auf. Say, what's thy name? Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn, Thou shew'ft a noble veffel: What's thy name? Cor. Prepare thy brow to frown: Know'ft thou me yet? Auf. I know thee not:-Thy name? Cor. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done To thee particularly, and to all the Volces, Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may My furname, Coriolanus: The painful fervice, The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood Shed for my thanklefs country, are requited But with that furname; a good memory", And witness of the malice and displeasure Which thou should't bear me : only that name remains; The cruelty and envy of the people, Permitted by our daftard nobles, who Have all forfook me, hath devour'd the rest; I had fear'd death, of all the men i' the world fight more valiantly, who know the force of their enemie, than fuch as haue neuer proued it. And if it be fo that thou dare not, and that thou art wearye to proue fortune any more, then am I alfo weary to liue any longer. And it were no wifdome in thee, to faue the life of him, who hath bene heretofore thy mortall enemic, and whofe feruice now can nothing helpe nor pleafure thee." STEEVENS. 5 a good memory,] The Oxford editor, not knowing that memory was ufed at that time for memorial, alters it to memorial. JOHNSON. See the preceding note, and Vol. III. p. 146, n. 7. MALONE. Το To be full quit of thofe my banishers, Stand I before thee here. Then if thou haft A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge Thine own particular wrongs, and ftop thofe maims As benefits to thee; for I will fight Against my canker'd country with the spleen Of all the under fiends. But if fo be Thou dar'ft not this, and that to prove more fortunes My throat to thee, and to thy ancient malice: It be to do thee service. Auf. O Marcius, Marcius, Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart A beart of wreak in thee,-] A heart of refentment. JOHNSON. Wreak is an ancient term for revenge. So, in Titus Andronicus: "Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude." Again, in Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, Lib. V. fol. 83: "She faith that hir felfe fhe fholde "Do wreche with hir owne honde." STEEVENS. 7- maims Offhame-] That is, disgraceful diminutions of territory. JOHNS. 8 with the spleen Of all the under fiends.] Shakspeare, by imputing a ftronger degree of inveteracy to fubordinate fiends, seems to intimate, and very justly, that malice of revenge is more predominant in the lower than the upper claffes of fociety. This circumftance is repeatedly exemplified in the conduct of Jack Cade and other heroes of the mob. STEEVENS. This appears to me to be refining too much. paffage does not mean, as I conceive, fiends fubordinate, or in an inferior ftation, but infernal fiends. So, in K. Henry VI. P. I. "Now, ye familiar fpirits, that are call'd Under fiends in this "Out of the powerful regions under earth," &c. In Shakspeare's time fome fiends were fuppofed to inhabit the air, others to dwell under ground, &c. MALONE. A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter Should from yon cloud fpeak divine things, and fay, Mine arms about that body, where against As hotly and as nobly with thy love, Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, Had 9 And fearr'd the moon- -] Thus the old copy, and, I believe, rightly. The modern editors read fear'd, that is, frightened; a reading to which the following line in K. Richard III. certainly adds fome fupport: "Amaze the welkin with your broken ftaves." MALONE. I never man Sigh'd truer breath;] The fame expreffion is found in our author's Venus and Adonis: "I'll figh celeftial breath, whofe gentle wind "Shall cool the heat of this defcending fun." Again, in The Two Noble Kinfmen, by Fletcher, 1634: Lover never yet made figh "Truer than I." MALONE. 2 -Thou haft beat me out Twelve feveral times,] Out here means, I believe, full, complete. MALONE. 3 And wak'd balf dead-] Unless the two preceding lines be condered as parenthetical, here is another inftance of our author's con cluding Had we no other quarrel elfe to Rome, but that Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in, Cor. You blefs me, Gods! Auf. Therefore, moft abfolute fir, if thou wilt have The leading of thine own revenges, take The one half of my commiffion; and fet down, As beft thou art experienc'd, fince thou know'st Thy country's ftrength and weakness,-thine own ways: Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, Or rudely visit them in parts remote, To fright them, ere deftroy. But come in: And more a friend than e'er an enemy; Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand! Moft welcome! [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, and AUFIDIUS. 1. Serv. [advancing.] Here's a ftrange alteration! 2. Serv. By my hand, I had thought to have ftrucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me, his clothes made a report of him. 1. Serv. What an arm he has! He turn'd me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would fet up a top. 2. Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was fomething in him: He had, fir, a kind of face, methought,I cannot tell how to term it. 1. Serv. He had fo; looking, as it were,-'Would I were hang'd, but I thought there was more in him than I could think. cluding a fentence, as if the former part had been conftructed differently. "We have been down," muft be confidered as if he had written-I have been down with you, in my fleep, and wak'd, &c. See p. 76, n. 8; and Vol. III. p. 356, n. 8, and p. 466, n. 9. MALONE. 2. Serv. z. Serv. So did I, I'll be fworn: He is fimply the rareft man i' the world. 1. Serv. I think, he is: but a greater foldier than he, you wot one. 2. Serv. Who? my master? 1. Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that. 2. Serv. Worth fix of him. 1. Serv. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the greater foldier. 2. Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to fay that: for the defence of a town, our general is excellent. 1. Serv. Ay, and for an affault too. Re-enter third Servant. 3. Serv. O, flaves, I can tell you news; news, you raf cals. 1. 2. Serv. What, what, what? let's partake. 3. Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemn'd man. 1. 2. Serv. Wherefore? wherefore? 3. Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Marcius. 1. Serv. Why do you fay, thwack our general? 3. Serv. I do not fay, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him. 2. Serv. Come, we are fellows, and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him fay fo himself. 1. Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to fay the troth on't: before Corioli, he fcotch'd him and notch'd him like a carbonado. 2. Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broil'd and eaten him too. 1. Serv. But, more of thy news? 3. Serv. Why, he is fo made on here within, as if he were fon and heir to Mars: fet at upper end o' the table: no question afk'd him by any of the fenators, but they ftand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mif 4-be might have broil'd and eaten bim too.] The old copy readsbild. The change was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. trefs |