Set down our hoft.-My partner in this action, I have borne this business". Auf. Only their ends You have refpected; ftopp'd your ears against Cor. This laft old man, Whom with a crack'd heart I have fent to Rome Enter in mourning habits, VIRGILIA, VOLUMNIA, Let it be virtuous, to be obftinate. What is that curt'fy worth? or those dove's eyes, 5- bow plainly I bave borne this business.] That is, bow openly, bow remotely from artifice or concealment. JOHNSON. thofe dove's eyes,] So, in the Canticles, v. 12. "➡his eyes are the eyes of doves." STEEVENS, In In fupplication nod: and my young boy Great nature cries, Deny not.-Let the Volces And knew no other kin. Virg. My lord and husband! Cor. Thefe eyes are not the fame I wore in Rome Virg. The forrow, that delivers us thus chang'd, Makes you think fo7. Cor. Like a dull actor now, I have forgot my part, and I am out, Hath virgin'd it e'er fince.-You gods! I prate', And the most noble mother of the world Leave unfaluted: Sink, my knee, i' the earth; Vol. O, ftand up blest! Whilft, with no fofter cushion than the flint, 7 The farrow, that delivers us thus chang'd, [kneels. Makes you think fo.] Virgilia makes a voluntary misinterpretation of her husband's words. He fays, Thefe eyes are not the fame, meaning, that he faw things with other eyes, or other difpofitions. She lays hold on the word eyes, to turn his attention on their prefent appearance. JOHNS. 8- - like a dull actor now, I bave forgot my part, and I am out, Even to a full disgrace.] So, in our author's 23d Sonnet: "As an unperfect actor on the stage, "Who with his fear is put befide bis part,-." MALONE. 9 Now by the jealous queen of heaven,] That is, by Juno, the guardian of marriage, and confequently the avenger of connubial perfidy. JOHNSON. I prate.] The old copy-I pray. The merit of the alteration is Theobald's. So. in Othello" prattle out of fashion." STEEVENS. 1 kneel I kneel before thee; and unproperly Cor. What is this? Your knees to me? to your corrected fon? Vol. Thou art my warrior; I holp to frame thee 3. Do you know this lady? The moon of Rome; chafte as the icicles, [kneels. And 2- on the hungry beach-] The beach hungry, or eager, for fhip wrecks. Such, I think, is the meaning. So, in Twelfth Night: "mine is all as bungry as the fea." I once idly conjectured that our authour wrote-the angry beach. Mr. Steevens is of opinion, that "the hungry beach" means the fterile, unprofitable beach. "Every writer on husbandry (he adds,) fpeaks of hungry foil, and hungry gravel, and what is more barren than the fands on the fea-fhore ?" He acknowledges, however, it may admit the explication already given. MALONE. 3 I holp to frame thee.] Old Copy-bope. Corrected by Mr. Pope. This is one of many inftances, in which corruptions have arifen from the tran fcriber's ear deceiving him. MALONE. 4 The noble fifter of Publicola,] Valeria, methinks, should not have been brought only to fill up the proceffion without fpeaking. JOHNSON. It is not improbable, but that the poet defigned the following words of Volumnia for Valeria. Names are not unfrequently confounded by the player-editors; and the lines that compofe this fpeech might be given to the fifter of Publicola without impropriety. It may be added, that though the fcheme to folicit Coriolanus was originally propofed by Valeria, yet Plutarch has allotted her no addrefs when he comes with his wife and mother on this occafion. STEEVENS. chafte as the icicle, &c.] I cannot forbear to quote the following beautiful paffage from Shirley's Gentleman of Venice, in which the praife of a lady's chastity is likewise attempted: 661 thou art chafte "As the white down of heaven, whofe feathers play Upon the wings of a cold winter's gale, "Trembling with fear to touch th' impurer earth." STEEVENS. Mr. Pope and all the fubfequent editors read curdled; but curdied is VOL, VII. U the And hangs on Dian's temple: Dear Valeria! Cor. The god of foldiers, With the confent of fupreme Jove, inform Thy thoughts with nobleness; that thou may'ft prove Like a great fea-mark, ftanding every flaw7, Vol. Your knee, firrah. Cor. That's my brave boy. Vol. Even he, your wife, this lady, and myself, Are fuitors to you. Cor. I beseech you, peace: Or, if you'd afk, remember this before; The things, I have forfworn to grant, may never my foldiers, or capitulate Difmifs my Again with Rome's mechanicks :-Tell me not To allay my rages and revenges, with Your colder reasons. Vol. O, no more, no more! You have faid, you will not grant us any thing; the reading of the old copy, and was the phrafcology of Shakspeare's time. So, in All's well that ends well."-"I am now, fir, muddied in for tune's mood." We should now write mudded, to express begrimed, polluted with mud. MALONE. 11 epitome of yours,] I read :-epitome of you. An epitome of you, which, enlarged by the commentaries of time, may equal you in magnitude. JOHNSON. Though Dr. Johnfon's reading is more elegant, I have not the leaft fufpicion here of any corruption. MALONE. 7 Like a great fea-mark, ftanding every flaw,] So, in our author's 116th Sonnet: "O no! it is an ever-fixed mark, "That looks on tempefts, and is never fhaken." MALONE. Every flaw, is every guft, every form. JOHNSON. That That, if you fail in our request, the blame We have led fince thy exile. Think with thyfelf, Are we come hither: fince that thy fight, which fhould 8 That, if you fail in our requeft,-] That is, if you fail to grant us Our request; if you are found failing or deficient in love to your country, and affection to your friends, when our request shall have been made to you, the blame, &c. Mt. Pope, who altered every phrase that was not conformable to modern phrafeology, changed you to we; and his alteration has been adopted in all the fubfequent editions. MALONE. 9 Should we be filent and not speak, our raiment, &c.] "The fpeeches copied from Plutarch in Coriolanus may (fays Mr. Pope) be as well made an instance of the learning of Shakspeare, as thofe copied from Cicero, in Cataline, of Ben Jonson's." Let us inquire into this matter, and tranfcribe a Speech for a fpecimen. Take the famous one of Volumnia; for our author has done little more, than throw the very words of North into blank verfe. "If we helde our peace (my fonne) and determined not to fpeake, the state of our poore bodies, and prefent fight of our rayment, would cafely bewray to thee what life we haue led at home, fince thy exile and abode abroad. But thinke now with thy felfe, howe much more unfortunately then all the women liuinge we are come hether, confidering that the fight which should be moft pleafaunt to all other to beholde, fpitefull fortune hath made most fearfull to us: making my felfe to fee my fonne, and my daughter here, her husband, befieging the walles of his natiue countrie. So as that which is the only comfort to all other in their adverfitie and miferie, to pray unto the goddes, and to call to them for aide, is the onely thinge which plongeth us into moft deep perplexitie. For we cannot (alas) together pray, both for victorie, for our countrie, and for fafety of thy life alfo: but a worlde of grievous curfes, yea more then any mortall enemie can heape uppon us, are forcibly wrapt up in our prayers. For the bitter foppe of moft harde choyce is offered thy wife and children, to forgoe the one of the two either to lofe the perfone of thy felfe, or the nurfe of their natiue countrie. For my felfe (my fonne) I am determined not to tarrie, For if I cantill fortune in my life doe make an ende of this warre. not perfuade thee, rather to doe good unto both parties, then to ouerthrowe and destroy: the one, preferring loue and nature before the malice and calamite of warres; thou shalt fee, my fonne, and truft unto it, thou shalt no foner marche forward to affault thy countrie, but thy foote fhall tread upon thy mother's wombe, that brought thee first into this world." FARMER. U 2 Make |