What custom wills in all things, should we do't,
The duft on antique time would lie unfwept,
And mountainous error be too highly heapt,
For truth to o'er-peer.-Rather than fool it fo,
Let the high office and the honour go

To one that would do thus.-I am half through;
The one part fuffer'd, the other will I do.

Three Citizens more.

Here come more voices.

Your voices for your voices I have fought,
Watch'd for your voices; for your voices, bear
Of wounds two dozen and odd: battles thrice fix
I've feen, and heard of: for your voices, have
Done many things, fome lefs, fome more:--your voices:-
Indeed, I would be conful.

1 Cit. He has done nobly, and cannot any honest man's voice.

go

without

2 Cit. Therefore let him be conful, the gods give him joy, and make him a good friend to the people.

All. Amen, Amen.

Cor. Worthy voices!

God fave thee, noble conful.

[Exeunt.

Enter Menenius, with Brutus and Sicinius.

Men. You've food your limitation: and the tribunes Endue you with the people's voice. Remains,

That in th' official marks invested, you

Anon do meet the Senate.

Cor. Is this done?

Sic. The custom of request you have discharg❜d: The people do admit you, and are fummon'd

To meet anon, upon your approbation.

Cor. Where? at the Senate-house ?

Sic. There, Coriolanus.

Cor. May I change thefe garments?

Sic. You may, Sir.

Cor. That I'll ftraight do: and knowing myself again, Repair to th' Senate-house.

Men. I'll keep you company. Will you along?

Bru

Bru. We ftay here for the people.

Sic. Fare you well.

[Exeunt Coriol. and Men.

He has it now, and by his looks, methinks,

'Tis warm at 's heart.

Bru. With a proud heart he wore

His humble weeds: will you difmifs the people?

Enter Plebeians.

Sic. How now, my masters, have you chose this man? 1 Git. He has our voices, Sir.

Bru. We pray the gods, he may deferve your loves! 2 Cit. Amen, Sir to my poor unworthy notice, He mock'd us, when he begg'd our voices.

3 Cit. Certainly, he flouted us down-right.

i Cit. No, 'tis his kind of speech, he did not mock us. 2 Cit. Not one amongst us, fave yourself, but fays, He us'd us fcornfully: he fhould have fhew'd us His marks of merit, wounds receiv'd for's country. Sic. Why, fo he did, I am fure.

All. No, no man faw 'em.

[private; 3 Cit. He faid, he'd wounds, which he could fhew in And with his cap, thus waving it in fcorn, I would be conful, fays he aged cuftom, But by your voices, will not fo permit me; Your voices therefore: when we granted that, Here was I thank you for your voices-thank youYour moft fweet voices-now you have left your voices, I have nothing further with you. Wa'n't this mockery? Sic. Why, either, were you ignorant to fee't? Or feeing it, of fuch childish friendliness

To yield your voices?

Bru. Could you not have told him,

As you were leffon'd; when he had no power,
But was a petty fervant to the ftate,
He was your enemy; ftill fpake against
Your liberties, and charters that you bear
I' th' body of the weal: and now arriving
At place of potency, and fway o' th' ftate,
If he should fill malignantly remain

- Faft foe to the plebeians, your voices might

Be

Be curfes to yourselves. You fould have faid,
That as his worthy deeds did claim no lefs
Than what he stood for; fo his gracious nature
Would think upon you for your voices, and
Tranflate his malice tow'rds you, into love,
Standing your friendly Lord.

Sic. Thus to have faid,

As you were fore-advis'd, had touch'd his fpirit,
And try'd his inclination; from him pluckt
Either his gracious promife, which you might,
As caufe had call'd you up, have held him to;
Or elfe it would have gall'd his furly nature;
Which easily endures not article,

Tying him to ought; fo, putting him to rage,
You should have ta'en th' advantage of his choler,
And pafs'd him unelected.

Bru. Did you perceive,

He did follicit you in free contempt,

When he did need your loves? and do you think, That his contempt fhall not be bruifing to you, When he hath power to cruth? why had your bodies No heart among you? or had you tongues, to cry Against the rectorship of judgment?

Sic. Have you,

Ere now, deny'd the asker? and, now again
On him that did not ask, but mock, befow
Your fu'd-for tongues?

3 Cit. He's not confirm'd, we may deny him yet. 2 Cit. And will deny him:

I'll have five hundred voices of that found.

1 Cit. I, twice five hundred, and their friends to piece 'em.

Bru. Get you hence inftantly, and tell thofe friends, They've chofe a confuthat will from them take Their liberties; make them of no more voice Than dogs that are as often beat for barking, As therefore kept to do so.

Sic. Let them affemble;

And on a fafer judgment all revoke

Your ignorant election: enforce his pride,

And

And his old hate to you: befides, forget not,
With what contempt he wore the humble weed;
How in his fuit he fcorn'd you: but your loves,
Thinking upon his fervices, took from you
The apprehenfion of his prefent portance;
Which gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion
After th' inveterate hate he bears to you.

Bru. Nay, lay a fault on us, your tribunes, that We labour'd (no impediment between)

But that you must caft your election on him.

Sic. Say, you chofe him, more after our commandment, Than guided by your own affections;

And that your minds, pre-occupied with what
You rather must do, than what you should do,
Made you against the grain to voice him conful.
Lay the fault on us.

Bru. Ay, fpare us not: fay, we read lectures to you, How youngly he began to ferve his country,

How long continued; and what ftock he springs of,
The noble houfe of Marcius; from whence came
That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's fon,
Who, after great Hoftilius, here was King:
Of the fame house Publius and Quintus were, (22)

That

(22) Of the fame boufe Publius-] I have taken notice, in the courfe of these notes, of many anachronisms knowingly committed by our author: I cannot help obferving, that he is guilty of more than one here, thro' an inadvertence, and defire of copying Plutarch at all hazards. This paffage, as Mr. Pope rightly informs us, is directly tranflated from that Greek biographer: but I'll tell Mr. Pope a piece of hiftory, which, I dare fay, he was no more aware of than our author was. Plutarch, in the entrance of Coriolanus's life, tracing the origin of the Marcian family, blends his account not only with the ancestors, but the defcendants of that great man: and Shakespeare in his hafte, (or perhaps, his inacquaintance with this particular point;) not attending to Plutarch's drift; but taking all the perfons named to be Coriolanus's ancestors; has ftrangely tripp'd in time, and made his tribune talk of perfons and things not then in being. For inftance, he is made to talk of cenfors: Now Coriolanus was kill'd in the year, after Rome built, 266: But no cenfors were ever created at Rome 'till 46 years after that period, in the year 312. Again; here is mention not only of a cenfor, but of Cenforinus. Now Caius Marcius Rutilus, when he came a fecond time to that office, on account of

the

That our best water brought by conduits hither..
And Cenforinus, darling of the people,

(And nobly nam'd fo for twice being cenfor)
Was his great ancestor.

Sic. One thus defcended,

That hath befide well in his perfon wrought,
To be fet high in place, we did commend
Το your remembrances; but you have found,
Scaling his prefent bearing with his past,
That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your fudden approbation.

Bru. Say, you ne'er had don't,

(Harp on that ftill) but by our putting on; And prefently, when you have drawn your number, Repair to th' capitol.

All. We will fo; almost all repent in their election..

Bru. Let them go on :

[Exeunt Plebeians.

This mutiny were better put in hazard,

Than ftay paft doubt for greater:

If, as his nature is, he fall in rage

With their refufal, both obferve and anfwer

The vantage of his anger.

Sic. To th' capitol, come;

We will be there before the stream o' th' people:
And this fhall feem, as partly 'tis, their own,
Which we have goaded onward.

[Exeunt.

the known law propounded by him, was dignified with that additional naine, in the year 487. But this was not 'till 220 years after Coriolanus's death. And then, again, here is mention of the Marcian waters being brought into Rome. But we have the pofitive teftimony of Julius Frontinus, that they had no aquæducts at Reme 'till the year 441; and that the Marcian water was not introduced 'till the year 613: So that the tribunes are made to talk of a fact 347 years later in time than the period of Coriolanus. I would not be fuppofed to found any merit on this difcovery; much lefs, to be defirous of convicting my author of fuch mistakes; but I thought it proper to decline a charge of ignorance, that might have been laid at my door, had I pafs'd this affair over in filence. Mr. Pope, 'tis plain, tho' he took the pains to add the conjectural line about Cenforinus, was not aware of this confufion in point of chronology, or of our author's innocent trefpafs. Non omnia poffumus cmnes.

ACT