Into our city with thy banners spread: By decimation, and a tithed death (If thy revenges hunger for that food, The Senators descend, and open the gates. Enter a Soldier Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead: Which nature loathes,) také thou the destin'd tenth; Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea: And by the hazard of the spotted die, Let die the spotted. 1 Sen. All have not offended: For those that were, it is not square,' to take, On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands, Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman, Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage: Spare thy Athenian cradle,2 and those kin, Which in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall With those that have offended: like a shepherd, Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth, But kill not all together. 2 Sen. What thou wilt, Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile, Than hew to't with thy sword. 1 Sen. Set but thy foot Against our rampir'd gates, and they shall ope; So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before, To say thou'lt enter friendly. 2 Sen. Throw thy glove; Or any token of thine honour else, That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress, And not as our confusion, all thy powers Shall make their harbour in our town, till we Have seal'd thy full desire. Alcib. Then there's my glove; Descend, and open your uncharged ports; Those enemies of Timon's and mine own, Whom you yourself shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more: and,-to atone1 your fears With my more noble meaning,-not a man Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But shall be remedied, to your public laws, At heaviest answer.5 Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken. Alcib. Descend, and keep your words. 1 i. e. not regular, not equitable. 2 Jovis incunabula Crete. Ovid Metam. viii. 99. 3 i. e. Unattacked gates. 4 i. e. to reconcile them to it. The general sense of his word in Shakspeare. Thus in Cymbeline:-1 was glad I did atone my countryman and you.' 5 All attempts to extract a meaning from this passage as it stands, must be vain. We should certainly read: 'But shall be remitted to your public laws it is evident that the context requires a word of this import: remanded might serve. The comma at remedied is not in the old copy. Remedied to, as Steevens ob And on his gravestone, this insculpture; which With wax I brought away, whose soft impression Interprets for my poor ignorance. Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, j wretched soul bereft : Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiff's left! Here lie I, Timon: who alive, all living men did hate. Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait. These well express in thee thy latter spirits: Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, Scorn'ast our brains' flow," and those our droplets THE play of Timon is a domestic tragedy, and there fore strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful warning against that ostentatious liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits; and buys flattery, but not friendship. In this tragedy are many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify or explain with due diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself that my endeavours shall be much applauded. JOHNSON. serves, is nonsense. Johnson's explanation will then serve, Not a soldier shall quit his station. or commit. any violence, but he shall answer it regularly to the law.' 6 This epitaph is formed out of two distinct epitaphs in North's Plutarch. The first couplet is there said to have been composed by Timon himself; the second by the poet Callimachus. The epithet cartiffs was probably suggested by another epitaph, to be found in Ken. dal's Flowers of Epigrammes, 1577, and in the Palace of Pleasure, vol. i. Nov. 28. 7 So in Drayton's Miracles of Moses : 'But he from rocks that fountains can command. Cannot yet stay the fountains of his brain' s Stop. 9 Physician. CORIOLANUS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. IN this play the narration of Plutarch, in the Life of Coriolanus, is very exactly followed; and it has Deen observed that the poet shows consummate skill in knowing how to seize the true poetical point of view of the historical circumstances, without changing them in the least degree. His noble Roman is indeed worthy of the name, and his mob such as a Roman mob doubtless were; such as every great city nas possessed from the time of the polished Athenians to that of modern Paris, where such scenes have been exhibited by a people collectively considered the politest on earth, as shows that the many-headed multitude' have the same turbulent spirit, when there is an exciting cause, in all ages. Shakspeare has extracted amusement from this popular humour, and with the aid of the pleasant satirical vein of Menenius has relieved the serious part of the play with some mirthful scenes, in which it is certain the people's folly is not spared. The character of Coriolanus, as drawn by Plutarch, was happily suited to the drama, and in the hands of Shakspeare could not fail of exciting the highest 11 terest and sympathy in the spectator. He is made of that stern unbending stuff which usually enters into the composition of a hero: accustomed to conquest and triumph, his inflexible spirit could not stoop to solicit by flattering condescension what it felt that its wor thy services ought to command: ne was A noble servant to them; but he could not Carry his honours even : -commanding peace Even with the same austerity and garb As he controll'd the war.' He hated flattery; and his sovereign contempt for the people arose from having witnessed their pussillani mity; though he loved the bubble reputation,' and would have grappled with fate for honour, he hated the breath of vulgar applause as the reek o' the rotter fens.' He knew that his actions must command the good opinion of men; but his modesty shrunk from their open declaration of it: he could not bear to hear his ] riolanus that I bear. For 1 ever hau other benefit of nothings monstered.' Pray you, no more; my mother, Who has a charter to extol her blood, When she does praise me, grieves me.' But yet his pride was his greatest characteristic: 'Which out of daily fortune ever taints The happy man.' This it was that made him seek distinction from the He bears himself more proudlier ; the true and painful service I have done, and the extreme dangers I have been in, but this surname: a good memory and witness of the malice and displeasure thou shouldest bear me. Indeed the name only remaineth with me; for the rest, the envy and cruelty of the people of Rome have taken from me, by the su ferance of the dastardly nobility and magistrates, who have forsaken me, and let me be banished by the peo ple. This extremity hath now driven me to come as a poor suitor, to take thy chimney-hearth, not of any hope I have to save my life thereby. For if I feared death, I would not have come hither to put myself in hazard but pricked forward with desire to be revenged of theni that have thus banished me, which now I do begin, by putting my person in the hands of their enemies Wherefore if thou hast any heart to be wreaked of the injuries thy enemies have done thee, speed thee now, and let my misery serve thy turn, and so use it as my service may be a benefit to the Volces; promising thee that I will fight with better good-will for all you, than I did when I was against you, knowing that they fight more valiantly who know the force of the enemy, than such as have never proved it. And if it be so that thou dare not, and that thou art weary to prove fortune any more, then am I also weary to any longer. And it were no wisdom in thee to save the live life of him who hath been heretofore thy mortal ene my, and whose service now can nothing help or plea. sure thee.'-Tullus, hearing what he said, was a mar vellous glad man, and, taking him by the hand, he said to him, "Stand up, O Martius, and be of good cheer, for in proffering thyself unto us, thou doest us great honour: and by this means thou mayest hope also of greater things at all Volces' hands." So he feasted him for that time, and entertained him in the honourablest manner he could, talking with him of no other matter at that present; but within a few days after they fell to consultation together in what sort they should begin their wars.' The closeness with which Shakspeare has followed his original, Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch, will be observed upon comparison of the following passage, with the parallel scene in the play, describing Coriolanus's flight to Antium, and his reception by Aufidius. It was even twilight when he entered the city of Antium, and many people met him in the streets, but no man knew him. So he went immediately to Tullus Aufidius' house; and when he came thither he got him up straight to the chimney hearth, and sat him down, and spake not a word to any man, his face all muffled over. They of the house spying him, wondered what he should be, and yet they furst not bid him rise. For ill-favouredly muffled and disguised as he was, yet there appeared a certain majesty in his countenance and in his silence; whereupon they went to Tullus, who was at supper, to tell him of the strange disguising of this man. Tullus rose presently from the board, and, coming towards him, asked him what he was, and wherefore he came. Then Martius unmuffled himself, and, after he had paused awhile, making no answer, he said unto himself, If thou knowest me not yet, Tullus, and seeing me, dost not perhaps believe me to be the man I am indeed, I must of necessity discover myself to be that I am. I am Caius Martius, who hath done to thyself particularly, and to all the Volces generally, great hurt and mischief, which I cannot deny for my surname of Co-year 1610. In the scene of the meeting of Coriolanus with his wife and mother, when they come to supplicate him to spare Rome, Shakspeare has adhered very closely to his original. He felt that it was sufficient to give it merely a dramatic form. The speech of Volumnia, as we have observed in a note, is almost in the very words of the old translator of Plutarch. The time comprehended in the play is about four years; commencing with the secession to the Mons Sacer, in the year of Rome 262, and ending with the death of Coriolanus, A. U. C. 266. Malone conjectures it to have been written in the PERSONS REPRESENTED. CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS, a noble Roman. MENENIUS AGRIPPA, Friend to Coriolanus. SICINIUS VELUTUS, & Tribunes of the People. Young MARCIUS, Son to Coriolanus. A Roman Herald. TULLUS AUFIDIUS, Genera. of the Volcians. Conspirators with Aufidius. A Citizen of Antium. enemy to the people. Cit. We know't, we know't. Two Volcian Guards. VOLUMNIA, Mother to Coriolanus. Roman and Volcian Senators, Patricians, Ædiles. SCENE-partly in Rome; and partly in the Ter ritories of the Volcians and Antiates. Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done: away, away. 2 Cit. One word, good citizens. 1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good: What authority surfeits on, would relieve us; If they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely; but they think, we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize thei abundance: our sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become 1 Good, in a commercial sense. As in Eastward Hoe : known good men, well monied 1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at Agair in the Merchant of Venice: our own price. Is't a verdict 'Antonio's a good man' rakes: for the gods know, I speak this in hunger | usury, to support usurers repeal daily any wholefor bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty. 2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country? 1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud. 2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienc❜d men can be content to say, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know, we have strong arms too. Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves? 1 Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at the heaven with your staves, as lift them Against the Roman state; whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder, than can ever Appear in your impediment:2 For the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it; and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. You are transported by calamity Thither where more attends you; and you slander The helms o' the state, who care for you like fathers, When you curse them as enemies. Alack, 1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for 1 It should be remembered that as lean as a ruke' is an old proverbial expression. There is, as Warburton observes, a miserable joke intended :- Let us now revenge this with forks, before we become rakes; a pike, or pike-fork, being the ancient term for a pitchfork. The origin of the proverb is doubtless as lean as a rache or ræcc,' (pronounced rake,) and signifying a greyhound. 2 Thus in Othello : some act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious. 1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace1 with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver. Men. There was a time, when all the body's members Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it .- I' the midst o' the body, idle and inactive, ments Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 1 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, 1 Cit. Well, what then? The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer? Men. I will tell you, you have little,) If you'll bestow a small (of what : ful version of the text. "Though some of you have heard the story, I will spread it yet wider, and diffuse it among the rest." There is nothing of this in Shakspeare; and indeed I cannot avoid looking upon the whole of his long note as a feeble attempt to justify a palpable error of the press, at the cost of taste and sense.'-Gifford's Massinger, vol. i. p. 204, ed. 1813 4 Disgraces are hardships, injuries. 5 Where for whereas. And so the belly, all this notwithstanding, laughen at their folly and sayed,' &c.—North's Plutarch. 11.e. exactly. 'I have made my way through more impediments Than twenty times your stop.' 3 The old copies have "scale't a little more ;" for The heart was anciently esteemed the seat of the un There has been which Theobald judiciously proposed stale. To this derranding. See the next note. Warburton objects petulantly enough, it must be con- strange confusion in the appropriation of some parts of fessed, because to scale signifies to weigh; so indeed it this dialogue in all editions, even to the last by Mr. Bosdoes, and many other things; none of which, however, well. Not to encumber the page, I must request the bear any relation to the text. Steevens too prefers scale, reader to compare this with the former editions, and which he proves from a variety of authorities to mean have no doubt he will approve the transposition of scatter, disperse, spread :' to make any of them, how-names which has been here made. ever, suit his purpose, he is obliged to give an unfaith- 9 Shakspeare uses seat for throne. I send it (savs And through the cranks' and offices of man, me, 1 Cit. Ay, sir; well, well. Though all at once cannot But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe? 2 Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost: Mar. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissen tious rogues, That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, flatter Beneath abhorring.—What would you have, you curs, That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, greatness, Deserves your hate: and your affections are Trust ye? With every minute you do change a mind; ACT 1. Men. For corn at their own rates; whereof, they say, The city is well stor❜d. Mar. They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know Conjectural marriages; making parties strong, And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry” Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly per- Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you, Mar. They said, they were an hungry; sigh'd forth proThey are dissolved: Hang 'em! verbs; That, hunger broke stone walls; that, dogs must eat; That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods sent not As they would hang them on the horns o' the moon, Mess. Where's Caius Marcius? the belly) through the blood, even to the royal resi- 3 Bale is evil or mischief, harm or injury. The word ience, the heart, in which the kingly-crowned under- is pure Saxon, and was becoming obsolete in Shak standing sits enthroned.' The poet, besides the rela-speare's time. ions in Plutarch, had seen a similar fable in Camden's 4 Coriolanus does not use these two sentences conseRemaines; Camden copied it from John of Salisbury, quentially; but first reproaches them with unsteadiness, De Nugis Curialium, b. vi. c. 24. Mr. Douce, in a very then with their other occasional vices. curious note, has shown the high antiquity of this apo- 5 'Your virtue is to speak well of him whom his own logue, which is to be found in several ancient collec-offences have subjected to justice; and to rail at those tions of sopian Fables:' there may be, therefore, as laws by which he whom you praise was punished' much reason for supposing it the invention of Esop, as there is for making him the parent of many others. 6 i. e. pity, compassion. 1 Cranks are windings; the meandering ducts of the human body. 2 Rascal and in blood are terms of the forest, both here used equivocally. The meaning seems to be, 'thou worthless scoundrel, though thou art in the worst plight for running of all this herd of plebeians, like a deer not in blood, thou takest the lead in this tumult in order to obtain some private advantage to thyself. 'Worst in blood' has a secondary meaning of lowest in condition. The modern editions have erroneously a comma at blood, which obscures the sense. kind, which was so denominated from being deposited 7 Quarry or querre signified slaughtered game of any in a square enclosed space in royal hunting. use. 8 Pick. peck, or picke, i. e. pitch; still in provincia The fact is, that, in ancient language, to pick was used for to cast, throw, or hurl; to pitch was to set or fix any thing in a particular spot: 9 Generosity, in the sense of its Latin original, r nobleness, high birth. Thus in Measure for Measure "The generous and gravest citizens.' 10 Emulation is factious contention 11 For insurgents to debate upon Mar. They have a leader, You have fought together. Mar. Were half to half the world by the ears, and he Upon my party, I'd revolt to make Only my wars with him: he is a lion 1 Sen. Bru. Come: Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius, Let's hence, and hear Attend upon Cominius to these wars. Sir, it is; No, Caius Marcius: Men. O, true bred! Let's along. [Exeunt Is it not yours 1 Sen. Your company to the Capitol; where, I What ever hath been thought on in this state, know, Our greatest friends attend us. Tit. Lead you on: Noble Lartius !3 [Exeunt Senators, Com. MAR. TIT. and Sic. When we were chosen tribunes for the Bru. Mark'd you his lip, and eyes? Nay, but his taunts. Bru. Being mov'd, he will not spare to girds the gods. Sic. Bemock the modest moon. ? 9 That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome Our army's in the field: It seem'd, appear'd to Rome. By the discovery, Bru. The present wars devour him: he is grown Should know we were afoot. 2 Sen. ney seɩ uown Deiore us, or the remove12 Auf. I i. e. immoveable in my resolution. So in Julius I have not promoted and preferred you to condign Cæsar : 6 The present wars' Shakspeare uses to express the pride of Coriolanus, grounded on his military prowess; which kind of pride, Brutus says, devours him. In Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 3. we have : He that's proud eats up himself.' Perhaps the meaning of the latter member of the senence is, 'He is grown too proud of being so valiant to be endured.' It is still a common expression to say, 'eat up with pride.' 7 Demerits and merits had anciently the same meaning -Put thyself into the trick of singularity. 9 The old copy reads: So in 'What have been ever thought on in this state." We must either suppose this an ellipsis for What things have,' &c. or read with Steevens, hath, as in the text. 10 i. e. ready; from the old French prest. Thus in the Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 1: say to me what I should do, That in your knowledge may by me be done, 11 To take in was formerly used as we now use to 12 'If the Romans besiege us, bring up your army to remove them |