Alarum, and exeunt Romans and Volces, fighting. The Romans are beaten back to their trenches. Reenter MARCIUS.4

MAR. All the contagion of the fouth light on

you,

You fhames of Rome! you herd of- Boils and

plagues s

Plafter you o'er; that you may be abhorr'd
Further than seen, and one infect another
Against the wind a mile? You fouls of geefe,
That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
From flaves that apes would beat? Pluto and hell!
All hurt behind; backs red, and faces pale

Re-enter Marcius.] The old copy reads-Enter Marcius curfing.
STEEVENS.

5 You fhames of Rome! you herd of-Boils and plagues &c.] This paffage, like almost every other abrupt fentence in these plays, was rendered unintelligible in the old copy by inaccurate punctuation. See Vol. IV. p. 518, n. 7; Vol. V. p. 106, n. 8, and p. 211, n. 8, and p. 433, n. 2. For the prefent regulation I am anfwerable. "You herd of cowards!" Marcius would fay, but his rage prevents him.

In a former paffage he is equally impetuous and abrupt: "-one's Junius Brutus,

"Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'sdeath,

"The rabble fhould have firft," &c.

Speaking of the people in a fubfequent scene, he uses the fame expreffion:

"Are thefe your herd?

"Muft these have voices," &c.

Again: "More of your converfation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beaftly plebeians."

In Mr. Rowe's edition herds was printed inftead of herd, the reading of the old copy; and the paffage has been exhibited thus in the modern editions:

"You fhames of Rome, you! Herds of boils and plagues "Plafter you o'er!" MALONE.“

With flight and agued fear! Mend, and charge home,

Or, by the fires of heaven, I'll leave the foe,
And make my wars on you; look to't: Come on;
If you'll stand fast, we'll beat them to their wives,
As they us to our trenches followed.

Another Alarum. The Volces and Romans re-enter, and the fight is renewed. The Volces retire into Corioli, and MARCIUS follows them to the gates. So, now the gates are ope:-Now prove good feconds:

'Tis for the followers fortune widens them, Not for the fliers: Mark me, and do the like.

[He enters the gates, and is shut in.

1. SOL. Fool-hardinefs; not I.

1. SOL. Following the fliers at the very heels,
With them he enters: who, upon the fudden,
Clapp'd-to their gates; he is himself alone,
To anfwer all the city.

O noble fellow!

LART.
Who, fenfible, outdares his fenfelefs fword,

s Who, fenfible, cutdares. -] The old editions read : Whe fenfibly out-dares

And, when it bows, ftands up! Thou art left, Mar

cius:

A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art,

Were not fo rich a jewel. Thou wast a soldier Even to Cato's wifh: not fierce and terrible Only in strokes; but, with thy grim looks, and

Thirlby reads:

Who, fenfible, outdoes his fenfelefs fword.

He is followed by the later editors, but I have taken only his correction. JOHNSON.

Senfible is here, having fenfation. So before: "I would, your cambrick were fenfible as your finger." Though Coriolanus has the feeling of pain like other men, he is more hardy in daring exploits than his fenfelefs fword, for after it is bent, he yet stands firm in the field. MALONE.

The thought feems to have been adopted from Sidney's Arcadia, edit. 1633, p. 293:

"Their very armour by piece-meale fell away from them: and yet their fleth abode the wounds conftantly, as though it were lesse fenfible of fmart than the fenfeleffe armour," &c. STEEVENS,

6 A carbuncle entire, &c.] So, in Othello:

7

"If heaven had made me fuch another woman,
"Of one entire and perfect chryfolite,

"I'd not have ta'en it for her."

Thou waft a foldier

MALONE.

Even to Cato's wifh: not fierce and terrible

Only in ftrokes ; &c.] In the old editions it was:

Calvus' wifb:

Plutarch, in the Life of Coriolanus, relates this as the opinion of Cato the Elder, that a great foldier fhould carry terrour in his looks and tone of voice; and the poet, hereby following the hiftorian, is fallen into a great chronological impropriety. THEOBALD.

"

The old copy reads-Calues with. The correction made by Theobald is fully juftified by the paffage in Plutarch, which Shakfpeare had in view: Martius, being there [before Corioli] at that time, ronning out of the campe with a fewe men with him, he flue the first enemies he met withall, and made the rest of them staye upon a fodaine; crying out to the Romaines that had turned their backes, and calling them againe to fight with a lowde voyce. For he was even fuch another as Cato would have a fouldier and a captaine to be; not only terrible and fierce to lay about him, but

The thunder-like percuffion of thy founds,
Thou mad'st thine enemies fhake, as if the world
Were feverous, and did tremble."

Re-enter MARCIUS, bleeding, affaulted by the enemy.

I. SOL.

LART.

Look, fir.

'Tis Marcius:

8

Let's fetch him off, or make remain alike. [They fight, and all enter the city.

to make the enemie afeard with the founde of his voyce and grimnes of his countenance." North's Tranflation of Plutarch, 1579, p. 240.

Mr. M. Mafon fupposes that Shakspeare, to avoid the chronological impropriety, put this faying of the elder Cato" into the mouth of a certain Calvus, who might have lived at any time." Had Shakspeare known that Cato was not contemporary with Coriolanus, (for there is nothing in the foregoing paffage to make him even fufpect that was the cafe,) and in confequence made this alteration, he would have attended in this particular instance to a point, of which almoft every page of his works fhows that he was totally negligent; a fuppofition which is fo improbable, that I have по doubt the correction that has been adopted by the modern editors, is right. In the first act of this play, we have Lucius and Marcius printed instead of Lartius, in the original and only authentick ancient copy. The fubftitution of Calues, inftead of Cato's, is eafily accounted for. Shakspeare wrote, according to the mode of his time, Catoes with; (So, in Beaumont's Mafque, 1613:

"And what will Junoes Iris do for her?")

omitting to draw a line acrofs the t, and writing the o inaccurately, the tranfcriber or printer gave us Calues. See a fubfequent paffage in Act II. fc. ult. in which our author has been led by another paffage in Plutarch into a fimilar anachronifm. MALONE.

- as if the world

Were feverous, and did tremble.] So, in Macbeth:

46

fome fay, the earth

"Was feverous, and did shake." STEEVENS.

make remain] is an old manner of speaking, which

means no more than remain. HANMER,

SCENE V.

Within the town. A Street.

Enter certain Romans, with Spoils.

1. Rom. This will I carry to Rome.

2. Roм. And I this.

3. Roм. A murrain on't! I took this for filver. [Alarum continues ftill afar off.

Enter MARCIUS, and TITUS LARTIUS, with a

trumpet.

MAR. See here these movers, that do prize their hours"

At a crack'd drachm! Cushions, leaden spoons, Irons of a doit, doublets that hangmen would Bury with those that wore them,' these base flaves,

9-prize their hours ] Mr. Pope arbitrarily changed the word hours to honours, and Dr. Johnfon, too haftily I think, approves of the alteration. Every page of Mr. Pope's edition abounds with fimilar innovations. MALONE.

A modern editor, who had made fuch an improvement, would have spent half a page in oftentation of his fagacity. JOHNSON.

Coriolanus blames the Roman foldiers only for wafting their time in packing up trifles of fuch small value. So, in Sir Thomas North's Tranflation of Plutarch: "Martius was marvellous angry with them, and cried out on them, that it was no time now to looke after fpoyle, and to ronne ftraggling here and there to enrich themselves, whilft the other conful and their fellow citizens peradventure were fighting with their enemies." STEEVENS. 2 doublets that hangmen would

Bury with those that wore them,] Inftead of taking them as their lawful perquifite. See Vol. IV. p. 325, n. 5. MALONE.