When blows have made me stay, I fled from words. You footh'd not, therefore hurt not: But, your people, I love them as they weigh. MEN. Pray now, fit down. COR. I had rather have one scratch my head i' the fun," When the alarum were ftruck, than idly fit To hear my nothings monfter'd. MEN. [Exit CORIOLANUS. Masters o' the people, Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter, (That's thousand to one good one,) when you now fee, He had rather venture all his limbs for honour, Than one of his ears to hear it?-Proceed, Comi nius. COM. I fhall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus The man I speak of cannot in the world You footh'd not, therefore hurt not :] You did not flatter me, and therefore did not offend me.-Hurt is commonly used by our author for burted. Mr. Pope, not perceiving this, for footh'd reads footh, which was adopted by the fubfequent editors. MALONE. 6 n. 2. - have one scratch my head i' the fun,] See Vol. IX. STEEVENS. P. 100, 7 how can be flatter,] The reafoning of Menenius is this: How can he be expected to practise flattery to others, who abhors it fo much, that he cannot hear it even when offered to himself? JOHNSON. 8 When Tarquin made a head for Rome,] When Tarquin who had been expelled, raised a power to recover Rome. JOHNSON. Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator, We learn from one of Cicero's letters, that the confular age in his time was forty three. If Coriolanus was but fixteen when Tarquin endeavoured to recover Rome, he could not now, A. U. C. 263, have been much more than twenty one years of age, and fhould therefore feem to be incapable of ftanding for the confulfhip. But perhaps the rule mentioned by Cicero, as fubfifting in his time, was not established at this early period of the republick. MALONE. - his Amazonian chin- -] i. e. his chin on which there was no beard. The players read, fhinne. STEEVENS. An o'er-prefs'd Roman,] This was an act of fingular friendship in our old English armies: [See Vol. VIII. p. 569, n. 9, and Vol. X. p. 203, n. 7.] but there is no proof that any fuch practice prevailed among the legionary foldiers of Rome, nor did our author give himfelf any trouble on that fubject. He was led into the error by North's tranflation of Plutarch, where he found thefe words: "The Roman fouldier being thrown unto the ground even hard by him, Martius fraight beftrid him, and flew the enemy." The tranflation ought to have been, "Martius haftened to his affiftance, and ftanding before him, flew his affailant." See the next note, where there is a fimilar inaccuracy. See alfo p. 83, n. 4. MALONE. Shakspeare may, on this occafion, be vindicated by higher authority than that of books. Is it probable than any Roman foldier was fo far divefted of humanity as not to protect his friend who had fallen in battle? Our author (if unacquainted with the Grecian Hyperafpifts) was too well read in the volume of nature to need any apology for the introduction of the prefent incident, which muft have been as familiar to Roman as to British warfare. STEEVENS. 3 And ftruck him on his knee:] This does not mean that he gave Tarquin a blow on the knee, but gave him fuch a blow as occafioned him to fall on his knee: ad terram duplicato poplite Turnus. STEEVENS. 4 When be might a& the woman in the scene,] It has been more He prov'd beft man i' the field, and for his meed Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age Man-enter'd thus, he waxed like a fea; And, in the brunt of seventeen battles fince, He lurch'd all fwords o' the garland. For this laft, Before and in Corioli, let me fay, I cannot speak him home: He stopp'd the fliers; than once mentioned, that the parts of women were, in Shakfpeare's time, reprefented by the moft fimooth-faced young men to be found among the players. STEEVENS. Here is a great anachronifm. There were no theatres at Rome for the exhibition of plays for above two hundred and fifty years after the death of Coriolanus. MALONE. 5 And, in the brunt of seventeen battles fince,] The number feventeen, for which there is no authority, was fuggefted to Shakspeare by North's tranflation of Plutarch: "Now Martius followed this cuftome, fhowed many woundes and cutts upon his bodie, which he had received in feventeene yeeres fervice at the warres, and in many fundry battells." So alfo the original Greek; but it is undoubtedly erroneous; for from Coriolanus's first campaign to his death, was only a period of eight years. MALONE. 6 He lurch'd all fwords o' the garland.] Ben Jonfon has the fame expreffion in The Silent Woman: " -you have lurch'd your friends of the better half of the garland," STEEVENS. To lurch is properly to purloin; hence Shakspeare uses it in the fenfe of to deprive. So, in Chrift's Tears over Jerufalem, by Tho. Nathe, 1594: "I fee others of them fharing halfe with the bawdes, their hofteffes, and laughing at the punies they had lurched.” I fufpect, however, I have not rightly traced the origin of this phrafe. To lurch in Shakspeare's time fignified to win a maiden fet at cards, &c. See Florio's Italian Dict. 1598: "Gioco marzo. A maiden fet, or lurch, at any game." See alfo Cole's Latin Dict. 1679: "A lurch, Duplex palma, facilis victoria.” "To lurch all fwords of the garland," therefore, was, to gain from all other warriors the wreath of victory, with ease, and incontestable superiority, MALONE. And fell below his stem: his fword (death's ftamp) 1 as waves before A veffel under fail, fo men obey'd, And fell below his ftem:] [First folio-weeds.] The editor of the fecond folio, for weeds fubftituted waves, and this capricious alteration has been adopted in all the fubfequent editions. In the fame page of that copy, which has been the fource of at leaft one half of the corruptions that have been introduced in our author's works, we find defamy for deftiny, fir Coriolanus, for fit, Coriolanus," trim'd for tim'd, and painting for panting: but luckily none of the latter fophiftications have found admiffion into any of the modern editions, except Mr. Rowe's. Rufbes falling below a veffel paffing over them is an image as expreffive of the prowefs of Coriolanus as well can be conceived. A kindred image is found in Troilus and Creffida: there the ftrawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, "Fall down before him, like the mower's fwath." MALONE. Waves, the reading of the fecond folio, I regard as no trivial evidence in favour of the copy from which it was printed. Weeds, inftead of falling below a veffel under fail, cling faft about the fem of it. The juftice of my remark every failor or waterman will confirm. But were not this the truth, by conflict with a mean adverfary, valour would be depreciated. The fubmerfion of weeds refembles a Frenchman's triumph over a foup aux herbes; but to rife above the threatening billow, or force a way through the watry bulwark, is a conqueft worthy of a fhip, and furnishes a comparison fuitable to the exploits of Coriolanus. Thus, in Troilus and Creffida: The ftrong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cuts, Bounding between the two moist elements, "Like Perfeus' horfe." If Shakspeare originally wrote weeds, on finding fuch an image iefs appofite and dignified than that of waves, he might have introduced the correction which Mr. Malone has excluded from his text. The flem is that end of the fhip which leads. From fem to fieru is an expreffion used by Dryden in his tranflation of Virgil: "Orontes' bark "From fem to fern by waves was overborne." STEEVENS. his fword &c.] Old copy 3 The mortal gate' o' the city, which he painted To ease his breast with panting. MEN. Worthy man! 1. SEN. He cannot but with measure fit the ho nours + His fword, death's ftamp, Where it did mark, it took from face to foot. This paffage fhould be pointed thus: His fword (death's ftamp) Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot He was a thing of blood, &c. TYRWHITT. I have followed the punctuation recommended. STEEVENS. every motion Was tim'd with dying cries.] The cries of the flaughter'd regularly followed his motion, as mufick and a dancer accompany each other. JOHNSON. 9 The mortal gate death. JOHNSON. -] The gate that was made the scene of 2 With unless deftiny ;] The fecond folio reads, whether by accident or choice: With fhunless defamy. Defamie is an old French word fignifying infamy. TYRWHITT. 3 - ftruck Coriali, like a planet :] So, in Timon of Athens: 66 Be as a planetary plague, when Jove "Will o'er fome high-vic'd city hang his poifon "In the fick air." STEEVENS. 4 He cannot but with measure fit the honours-] That is, no honour |