Imatges de pàgina
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But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs;
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle,
The one fide must have bale.+-Hail, noble Mar-
cius!

Enter CAIUS MARCIUS.

MAR. Thanks.-What's the matter, you diffentious rogues,

That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves fcabs ?

Again, in this play of Coriolanus, A&t IV. fc. v. "But when they fhall fee his creft up again, and the man in blood," &c.

Mr. M. Mafon judiciously obferves that blood, in all these pasfages, is applied to deer, for a lean deer is called a rafcal; and that "worft in blood," is leaft in vigour. STEEVENS.

Both rafcal and in blood are terms of the foreft. Rafcal meant a lean deer, and is here ufed equivocally. The phrafe in blood has been proved in a former note to be a phrafe of the foreft. See Vol. IX. p. 620, n. 2.

Our author feldom is careful that his comparisons fhould answer on both fides. He feems to mean here, thou, worthlefs fcoundrel, though, like a deer not in blood, thou art in the worst condition for running of all the herd of plebeians, takeft the lead in this tumult, in order to obtain fome private advantage to yourself. What advantage the foremost of a herd of deer could obtain, is not easy to point out, nor did Shakspeare, I believe, confider. Perhaps indeed he only ufes rafcal in its ordinary fenfe. So afterwards

"From rafcals worfe than they."

Dr. Johnfon's interpretation appears to me inadmiffible; as the term, though it is applicable both in its original and metaphorical fenfe to a man, cannot, I think, be applied to a dog; nor have I found any inftance of the term in blood being applied to the canine fpecies. MALONE.

+ The one fide must have bale.] Bale is an old Saxon word, for mifery or calamity:

"For light fhe hated as the deadly bale."

Spenfer's Faery Queen. Mr. M. Mafon obferves that "bale, as well as bane, fignified poiler in Shakspeare's days. STEEVENS.

This word was antiquated in Shak fpeare's time, being marked as cbfolete by Bullokar, in his English Expofitor, 1616. MALONE.

1. CIT.

We have ever your good word. MAR. He that will give good words to thee, will

flatter

Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, you

curs,

That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you,
The other makes you proud. He that trufts to you,
Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
Where foxes, geefe: You are no furer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,

Or hailstone in the fun. Your virtue is,

To make him worthy, whofe offence fubdues him, And curfe that juftice did it." Who deferves great

nefs,

Deferves your hate; and your affections are
A fick man's appetite, who defires most that
Which would increase his evil. He that depends
Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,

And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye?

With every minute you do change a mind;
And call him noble, that was now your hate,

Him vile, that was your garland. What's the matter,

That in these several places of the city

You cry against the noble fenate, who,

Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else

5 That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud.] Coriolanus does not use these two fentences confequentially, but firft reproaches them with unfteadiness, then with their other occafional vices. JOHNSON.

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To make him worthy, whofe offence fubdues him,

And curfe that juftice did it.] i. e. Your virtue is to speak well of him whom his own offences have fubjected to juftice; and to rail at thofe laws by which he whom you praife was punished.

STEEVENS.

Would feed on one another?-What's their feek

ing?"

MEN. For corn at their own rates; whereof, they

fay,

The city is well ftor'd.

MAR.

Hang 'em! They say?

They'll fit by the fire, and prefume to know What's done i' the Capitol: who's like to rife, Who thrives, and who declines: fide factions, and give out

Conjectural marriages; making parties strong, And feebling fuch as ftand not in their liking, Below their cobbled fhoes. They fay, there's grain enough?

Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,'

And let me use my fword, I'd make a quarry With thousands of these quarter'd flaves, as high

2

What's their feeking?] Seeking is here ufed fubftantively.The answer is, "Their feeking, or fuit, (to use the language of the time,) is for corn." MALONE.

8

who's like to rife,

Who thrives, and who declines :] The words-who thrives, which deftroy the metre, appear to be an evident and tasteless interpolation. They are omitted by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS.

9- their ruth,] i. e. their pity, compaffion. Fairfax and Spenfer often ufe the word. Hence the adjective-ruthless, which is ftill current. STEEVENS.

2

I'd make a quarry_

With thousands] Why a quarry? I fuppofe, not because he would pile them fquare, but because he would give them for carrion to the birds of prey. JOHNSON.

So, in The Miracles of Mofes, by Drayton:

"And like a quarry caft them on the land."

See Vol. VII. p. 540, n. 7. STEEVENS.

The word quarry occurs in Macbeth, where Rofs fays to Macduff,

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to ftate the manner,

"Were on the quarry of these murder'd deer

"To add the death of you."

VOL. XII.

C

As I could pick my lance.'

MEN. Nay, these are almost thoroughly perfuaded;

For though abundantly they lack difcretion,

Yet are they paffing cowardly. But, I beseech you, What fays the other troop?

MAR.

They are diffolv'd: Hang 'em! They faid, they were an-hungry; figh'd forth pro

verbs ;

That, hunger broke ftone walls; that, dogs must

eat;

That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods fent not

In a note on this laft paffage, Steevens afferts, that quarry means game purfued or killed, and fupports that opinion by a paffage in Maffinger's Guardian; and from thence I fuppofe the word was ufed to exprefs a heap of flaughtered perfons.

In the concluding fcene of Hamlet, when Fortinbras fees fo many lying dead, he fays

"This quarry cries, on havock!"

and in the laft fcene of A Wife for a Month, Valerio, in defcribing his own fictitious battle with the Turks, fays

"I faw the child of honour, for he was young,
"Deal fuch an alms among the fpiteful Pagans,
"And round about his reach, invade the Turks,
"He had intrench'd himself in his dead quarries."

M. MASON.

Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, fays that "a quarry among hunters fignifieth the reward given to hounds after they have hunted, or the venifon which is taken by hunting." This fufficiently explains the word of Coriolanus. MALONE.

2

pick my lance.] And fo the word [pitch] is ftill pro nounced in Staffordshire, where they fay-picke me fuch a thing, that is, pitch or throw any thing that the demander wants. TOLLET. So, in An Account of auntient cuftomes and games, &c. Mfs. Harl. 2057, fol. 10. b.

"To wrestle, play at ftrole-ball, [ftool-ball] or to runne, "To picke the barre, or to fhoot off a gun.'

The word is again ufed in King Henry VIII. with only a flight variation in the spelling: "I'll peck you o'er the pales elfe." See Vol. XI. p. 199, n. 9. MALONE.

Corn for the rich men only:-With these shreds They vented their complainings; which being an

fwer'd,

And a petition granted them, a strange one, (To break the heart of generosity,'

3

And make bold power look pale,) they threw their

caps

As they would hang them on the horns o'the moon,* Shouting their emulation."

ΜΕΝ.

What is granted them?

MAR. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wif

doms,

Of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus,
Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'s death!
The rabble should have first unroof'd the city,"
Ere fo prevail'd with me: it will in time

3 the heart of generofity,] To give the final blow to the nobles. Generofity is high birth. JOHNSON.

So, in Measure for Measure:

"The generous and graveft citizens -." See Vol. IV. p. 354, n. 5. STEEVENS.

4 hang them on the horns o' the moon,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon."

STEEVENS.

5 Shouting their emulation.] Each of them ftriving to fhout louder than the reft. MALONE.

Emulation, in the present instance, I believe, fignifies faction. Shouting their emulation, may mean, expreffing the triumph of their faction by fhouts.

Emulation, in our author, is fometimes ufed in an unfavourable fenfe, and not to imply an honeft conteft for fuperiour excellence. Thus in King Henry VI. P. I:

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the truft of England's honour

Keep off aloof with worthlefs emulation.”

Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

"While emulation in the army crept."

i. e. faction. STEEVENS.

6

unroof'd the city,] Old Copy--unrooft. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

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