Chapter 4

I.ix.72 (325,9) To the fairness of any power] [_Fairness_, for _utmost_. WARE.] I know not how _fairness_ can mean _utmost_. When two engage on _equal_ terms, we say it is _fair_; _fairness_ may therefore be _equality; in proportion equal to my power_.

I.ix.76 (325,1) The best] The _chief_ men of Corioli.

I.x.5 (326,3) Being a Volsce, be that I am] It may be just observed, that Shakespeare calls the _Volsci, Volsces_, which the modern editors have changed to the modern termination [Volscian]. I mention it here, because here the change has spoiled the measure. _Being a_ Volsce, _be that I am. Condition_. [Steevans restored _Volsce_ in the text.]

I.x.17 (326,2) My valour's poison'd,/With only suffering stain by him, for him/ Shall flie out of itself] To mischief him, my valour should _deviate from_ its own native generosity.

I.x.25 (327,4) At home, upon my brother's guard] In my own house, with my brother posted to protect him.

II.i.8 (328,5) Pray you, who does the wolf love?] When the tribune, in reply to Menenius's remark, on the people's hate of Coriolanus, had observed that even _beasts know their friends_, Menenius asks, _whom does the wolf love_? implying that there are beasts which love nobody, and that among those beasts are the people.

II.i.43 (329,6) towards the napes of your necks] With allusion to the fable, which says, that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind him, in which he stows his own.

II.i.56 (330,7) one that converses more with the buttock of the night, than with the forehead of the morning] Rather a late lier down than an early riser.

II.i.84 (330,1) set up the bloody flag against all patience] That is, declare war against patience. There is not wit enough in this satire to recompense its grossness.

II.i.105 (331,2) herdsmen of beastly Plebeians] As kings are called [Greek: poimenes laon].

II.i.115 (331,3) Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee] [W: cup] Shakespeare so often mentions throwing up caps in this play, that Menenius may be well enough supposed to throw up his cap in thanks to Jupiter.

II.i.146 (333,4) possest of this?] _Possest_, in our authour's language, is fully informed.

II.i.178 (334,6) Which being advanc'd, declines] Volumnia, in her boasting strain, says, that her son to kill his enemy, has nothing to do but to lift his hand up and let it fall.

II.i.232 (337,3) Commit the war of white and damask, in/Their nicely gawded cheeks] [W: wars] Has the commentator never heard of roses _contending_ with lilies for the empire of a lady's cheek? The _opposition_ of colours, though not the _commixture_, may be called a war.

II.i.235 (338,1) As if that whatsoever God] That is, _as if that God who leads him, whatsoever_ God he be.

II.i.241 (338,2) From where he should begin, and end] Perhaps it should be read,

_From where he should begin_ t'an _end_.--

II.i.247 (338,3) As he is proud to do't] [I should rather think the author wrote _prone_: because the common reading is scarce sense or English. WARBURTON.] _Proud to do_, is the same as, _proud of doing_, very plain sense, and very common English.

II.i.285 (340,4) carry with us ears and eyes] That is, let us observe what passes, but keep our hearts fixed on our design of crushing Coriolanus.

II.ii.19 (340,5) he wav'd indifferently] That is, _he would wave indifferently_.

II.ii.29 (341,6) supple and courteous to the people; bonnetted] The sense, I think, requires that we should read, _unbonnetted_. Who have risen only by _pulling off their hats_ to the people. _Bonnetted_ may relate to _people_, but not without harshness.

II.ii.57 (342,7) Your loving motion toward the common body] Your kind interposition with the common people.

II.ii.64 (342,9) That's off, that's off] That is, that is nothing to the purpose.

II.ii.82 (343,1) how can he flatter] The reasoning of Menenius is this: How can he be expected to practice flattery to others, who abhors it so much, that he cannot bear it even when offered to himself.

II.ii.92 (343,2) When Tarquin made a head for Rome] When Tarquin, who had been expelled, _raised a power_ to recover Rome.

II.ii.113 (344,6) every motion/Was tim'd with dying cries] The cries of the slaughter'd regularly followed his motions, as musick and a dancer accompany each ether.

II.ii.115 (345,7) The mortal gate] The gate that was made the scene of death.

II.ii.127 (345,8) He cannot but with measure fit the honours] That is, no honour will be too great far him; he will show a mind equal to any elevation.

II.ii.131 (345,1)

rewards His deeds with doing them; and is content To spend his time, to end it]

I know not whether my conceit will be approved, but I cannot forbear to think that our author wrote thus.

--he _rewards His deeds with doing them, and is content To spend his time, to spend it.

To do great acts, for the sake of doing them; to spend his life, for the sake of spending it.

II.iii.4 (348,2) We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do] [Warburton saw this as "a ridicule on the Augustine manner of defining _free-will_."] A ridicule may be intended, but the sense is clear enough. _Power_ first signifies _natural power_ or _force_, and then _moral power_ or _right_. Davies has used the same word with great variety of meaning.

_Use all thy_ powers _that heavenly_ power _to praise, That gave thee_ power _to do_.--

II.iii.18 (348,3) many-headed multitude] Hanmer reads, _many-headed_ monster, but without necessity. To be _many-headed_ includes _monstrousness_.

II.iii.115 (352,7) I will not seal your knowledge] I will not strengthen or compleat your knowledge. The seal is that which gives authenticity to a writing.

II.iii.122 (352,8)

Why in this woolvish tongue should I stand here To beg of Bob and Dick, that do appear, Their needless vouches?]

Why stand I here in this ragged apparel to beg of Bob and Dick, and such others as _make their appearance_ here, their _unnecessary votes_. I rather think we should read [instead of _voucher_], _Their needless_ vouches. But _voucher_ may serve, as it may perhaps signify either the act or the agent.

II.iii.122 (352) this woolvish gown] Signifies this _rough hirsute_ gown.

II.iii.182 (355,1) ignorant to see't?] [W: "ignorant" means "impotent"] That _ignorant_ at any time has, otherwise than consequentially, the same meaning with _impotent_, I do not know. It has no such meaning in this place. _Were you_ ignorant _to see it_, is, did you want knowledge to discern it.

II.iii.208 (356,2) free contempt] That is, with contempt open and unrestrained.

II.iii.227 (357,4) Enforce his pride] Object his pride, and enforce the objection.

II.iii.258 (358,7) Scaling his present bearing with his past] That is, _weighing_ his past and present behaviour.

II.iii.267 (359,8) observe and answer/The vantage of his anger] Mark, catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hasty anger will afford us.

III.i.23 (360,9) prank them in authority] _Plume, deck, dignify_ themselves.

III.i.58 (362,3) This paltring/Becomes not Rome] That is, this trick of dissimulation, this shuffling.

_Let these be no more believ'd That_ palter _with us in a double sense_. Macbeth.

III.i.60 (362,4) laid falsly] _Falsly_ for _treacherously_.

III.i.66 (362,5) Let them regard me, as I do not flatter, and/ Therein behold themselves] Let them look in the mirror which I hold up to them, a mirror which does not flatter, and see themselves.

III.i.89 (363,6) minnows] a _minnow_ is one of the smallest river fish, called in some counties a _pink_.

III.i.90 (364,6) 'Twas from the canon] Was contrary to the established role; it was a form of speech to which he has no right.

III.i.98 (364,9) Then vail your ignorance] [W: "ignorance" means "impotence."] Hanmer's transposition deserves notice

--_If they have power, Let them have cushions by you; if none, awake Your dang'rous lenity; if you are learned, Be not as commmon fools; if you are not, Then vail your ignorance. You are Plebeians_, &c.

I neither think the transposition of one editor right, nor the interpretation of the other. The sense is plain enough without supposing _ignorance_ to have any remote or consequential sense. _If this man has power, let the_ ignorance _that gave it him_ vail _or bow down before him._

III.i.101 (365,1) You are Plebeians, If they be Senators: and they are no less, When, both your voices blended, the greatest taste Most palates theirs]

These lines may, I think, be made more intelligible by a very slight correction.

--_they no less [than senators] When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste_ Must palate _theirs._

When the _taste_ of the _great_, the patricians, must _palate_, must _please_ [or must _try_] that of the plebeians.

III.i.124 (366,3) They would not thread the gates] That is, _pass_ them. We yet say, to _thread_ an alley.

III.i.129 (366,4) could never be the native] [_Native_ for natural birth. WARBURTON.] _Native_ is here not natural birth, but _natural parent_, or _cause of birth_. But I would read _motive_, which, without any distortion of its meaning, suits the speaker's purpose.

III.i.151 (367,7) That love the fundamental part of state/More than you doubt the change of't] To _doubt_ is to _fear_. The meaning is, You whose zeal predominates over your terrours; you who do not so much fear the danger of violent measures, as wish the good to which they are necessary, the preservation of the original constitution of our government.

III.i.158 (368,2) Mangles true judgment] _Judgment_ is _judgment_ in its common sense, or the faculty by which right is distinguished from wrong.

III.i.159 (368,3) that integrity which should become it] _Integrity_ is in this place _soundness_, uniformity, consistency, in the same sense as Dr. Warburton often uses it, when he mentions the _integrity_ of a metaphor. To _become_, is to _suit_, to _befit_.

III.i.221 (370,5) are very poisonous] I read, _are very_ poisons.

III.i.242 (371,7) One time will owe another] I know not whether to _owe_ in this place means to _possess by right_, or to _be indebted_. Either sense may be admitted. _One time_, in which the people are seditious, will _give us power_ in some other time; or, _this time_ of the people's predominance will _run them in debt_; that is, will lay them open to the law, and expose them hereafter to more servile subjection.

III.i.248 (372,8) Before the tag return] The lowest and most despicable of the populace are still denominated by those a little above them, _Tag, rag, and bobtail_. (1773)

III.ii.7 (376,4) I muse] That is, _I wonder. I am at a loss_.

III.ii.12 (376,5) my ordinance] My _rank_.

III.ii.51 (378,8) Why force you] Why _urge_ you.

III.ii.56 (378,9) bastards, and syllables/Of no allowance, to your bosom's truth] I read,

_Of no_ alliance,--

therefore _bastards_. Yet _allowance_ may well enough stand, as meaning _legal right, established rank_, or _settled authority_. (see 1765, VI, 566, 7)

III.ii.64 (379,1) I am in this/Your wife, your son] I rather think the meaning is, _I am in their_ condition, I am _at stake_, together with _your wife, your son_.

III.ii.66 (379,2) our general lowts] Our _common clowns_.

III.ii.69 (379,3) that want] The _want_ of their loves.

III.ii.71 (379,4) Not what] In this place _not_ seems to signify _not only_.

III.ii.77 (379,5) Waving thy head,/With often, thus, correcting thy stout heart] [W: thy hand,/Which soften thus] The correction is ingenious, yet I think it not right. _Head_ or _hand_ is indifferent. The _hand_ is _waved_ to gain attention; the _head_ is shaken in token of sorrow. The word _wave_ suits better to the hand, but in considering the authour's language, too much stress must not be laid on propriety against the copies. I would read thus,

--_waving thy head_, With _often, thus, correcting thy stout heart_.

That is, _shaking thy head_, and _striking_ thy breast. The alteration is slight, and the gesture recommended not improper.

III.ii.99 (381,6) my unbarb'd sconce?] The suppliants of the people used to present themselves to them in sordid and neglected dresses.

III.ii.113 (381,8) Which quired with my drum] Which played in concert with my drum.

III.ii.116 (382,1) Tent in my cheeks] To _tent_ is _to take up residence_.

III.ii.121 (382,2) honour mine own truth] [Greek: Panton de malis aischuneui sauton]. Pythagoras.

III.ii.125 (382,3) let/Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear/ Thy dangerous stoutness] This is obscure. Perhaps, she means, Go, _do thy worst; let me rather feel the_ utmost _extremity that thy pride can bring upon us, than live thus in fear of thy dangerous obstinacy_.

III.iii.17 (384,3)

Insisting on the old prerogative And power in' the truth o' the cause]

This is not very easily understood. We might read,

--o'er _the truth o' the cause_.

III.iii.26 (384,4) and to have his word/Of contradiction] _To have his word of contradiction_ is no more than, _he is used to contradict_; and _to have his word_, that is, _not to be opposed_. We still say of an obstinate disputant, _he will have the last word_.

III.iii.29 (384,5) which looks/With us to break his neck] To _look_ is to _wait_ or _expect_. The sense I believe is, _What he has in his heart_ is waiting there _to help us to break his neck_.

III.iii.57 (386,8) Rather than envy you] _Envy_ is here taken at large for _malignity_ or ill intention.

III.iii.64 (386,9) season'd office] All _office established_ and _settled_ by time, and made familiar to the people by long use.

III.iii.96 (387,1) has now at last] Read rather,

--has _now at last_ [instead of _as now at last_].

III.iii.97 (387,2) not in the presence] _Not_ stands again for _not only_.

III.iii.114 (388,3) My dear wife's estimate] I love my country beyond the rate at which I _value my dear wife_.

III.iii.127 (389,4)

Have the power still To banish your defenders'; till, at length, Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels)]

_Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own destruction._

It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed from this speech. _The people_, says he, _cannot see, but they can feel_. It is not much to the honour of the people, that they have the same character of stupidity from their enemy and their friend. Such was the power of our authour's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private and civil.

IV.i.7 (390,1) Fortune's blows,/When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves/A noble cunning] This it the ancient and authentick reading. The modern editors have, for _gentle wounded_, silently substituted _gently warded_, and Dr. Warburton has explained _gently_ by _nobly_. It is good to be sure of our authour's words before we go about to explain their meaning.

The sense is, When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and yet continue calm, requires a generous policy. He calls this calmness _cunning_, because it is the effect of reflection and philosophy. Perhaps the first emotions of nature are nearly uniform, and one man differs from another in the power of endurance, as he is better regulated by precept and instruction.

_They bore as heroes, but they felt as men_.

(see 1765, VI, 577, 9)

IV.i.33 (391,3) cautelous baits and practice] By artful and false tricks, and treason.

IV.ii.15 (393,6)

_Sic._ Are you mankind? _Vol._ Ay, fool; Is that a shame? Note but this fool. Was not a man my father?]

The word _mankind_ is used maliciously by the first speaker, and taken perversely by the second. A _mankind_ woman is a woman with the roughness of a man, and, in an aggravated sense, a woman ferocious, violent, and eager to shed blood. In this sense Sicinius asks Volumnia, if she be _mankind_. She takes _mankind_ for a _human creature_, and accordingly cries out,

--_Note but this, fool. Was not a man my father?_

IV.ii.18 (394,7) Hadst thou foxship] Hadst thou, fool as thou art, mean cunning enough to banish Coriolanus?

IV.iii.9 (395,7) but your favour is well appear'd by your tongue] [W: well appeal'd] I should read,

--_is well_ affear'd,

That is, _strengthened, attested,_ a word used by our authour.

_My title is_ affear'd. Macbeth.

To _repeal_ may be _to bring to remembrance_, but _appeal_ has another meaning.

IV.iii.48 (397,8) already in the entertainment] That is, tho' not actually encamped, yet already in _pay_. To _entertain_ an army is to take them into pay.

IV.iv.22 (398,1)

So, with me:-- My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon This enemy's town:--I'll enter: if he slay me]

He who reads this [My country have I and my lovers left;/This enemy's town I'll enter] would think that he was reading the lines of Shakespeare: except that Coriolanus, being already in the town, says, he _will enter it_. Yet the old edition exhibits it thus

--_So with me. My birth-place have I; and my loves upon This enemic towne; I'll enter if he slay me_, &c.

The intermediate line seems to be lost, in which, conformably to his former observation, he says, that _he has_ lost _his birth-place, and his loves upon_ a petty dispute, and is trying his chance in _this enemy town_, he then cries, turning to the house of Anfidius, _I'll enter if he slay me_.

I have preferred the common reading, because it is, though faulty, yet intelligible, and the original passage, for want of copies, cannot be restored.

IV.v.76 (403,3) a good memory] The Oxford editor, not knowing that _memory_ was used at that time for _memorial_, alters it to _memorial_.

IV.v.90 (403,4) A heart of wreak in thee] A heart of resentment.

IV.v.91 (403,5) maims/Of shame] That is, disgraceful diminutions of territory.

IV.v.207 (406,5) sanctifies himself with's hands] Alluding, improperly, to the act of _crossing_ upon any strange event.

IV.v.212 (407,6) He will go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears] That is, I suppose, drag him down by the ears into the dirt. _Souiller_, Fr.

IV.v.214 (407,7) his passage poll'd] That is, _bared, cleared_.

IV.v.238 (408,8) full of vent] Full of _rumour_, full of materials for _discourse_.

IV.vi.2 (408,1) His remedies are tame i' the present peace] The old reading is,

_His remedies are tame, the present peace_.

I do not understand either line, but fancy it should be read thus,

--_neither need we fear him; His remedies are ta'en, the present peace, And quietness o' the people_,--

The meaning, somewhat harshly expressed, according to our authour's custom, is this: _We need not fear him_, the proper _remedies_ against him _are taken_, by restoring _peace and quietness_.

IV.vi.32 (410,2) affecting one sole throne,/Without assistance] That is, without _assessors_; without any other suffrage.

IV.vi.51 (411,3) reason with the fellow] That is, have some _talk_ with him. In this sense Shakespeare often uses the word.

IV.vi.72 (412,4) can no more atone] To _atone_, in the active sense, is to _reconcile_, and is so used by our authour. To _atone_ here, is, in the neutral sense, to _come to reconciliation_. To _atone_ is to _unite_.

IV.vi.85 (412,5) burned in their cement] [W: "cement" for "cincture or inclosure"] _Cement_ has here its common signification.

IV.vi.98 (413,5) The breath of garlick-eaters!] To smell of garlick was once such a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara.

IV.vi.112 (414,7)

they charge him even As those should do that had deserv'd his hate, And therein shew'd like enemies]

Their _charge_ or injunction would shew them insensible of his wrongs, and make them _shew like enemies_. I read _shew_, not _shewed, like enemies_.

IV.vi.124 (414,8) They'll roar him in again] As they _hooted_ at his departure, they will _roar_ at his return; as he went out with scoffs, he will come back with lamentations.

IV.vii.37 (417,1)

whether pride, Which out of daily fortune ever taints The happy man; whether]

Ausidius assigns three probable reasons of the miscarriage of Coriolanus; pride, which easily follows an uninterrupted train of success; unskilfulness to regulate the consequences of his own victories; a stubborn uniformity of nature, which could not make the proper transition from the _casque_ or _helmet_ to the _cushion_ or _chair of civil authority_; but acted with the same despotism in peace as in war.

IV.vii.48 (418,2) he has a merit,/To choak it in the utterance] He has a merit, for no other purpose than to destroy it by boasting it.

IV.vii.55 (418,4) Right's by right fouler] [W: fouled] I believe _rights_, like _strengths_, is a plural noon. I read,

_Rights by rights_ founder, _strengths by strengths do fail_.

That is, by the exertion of one right another right is lamed.

V.i.20 (420,2) It was a bare petition] [_Bare_, for mean, beggarly. WARBURTON.] I believe rather, a petition unsupported, unaided by names that might give it influence.

V.i.63 (422,4) I tell you, he does sit in gold] He is inthroned in all the pomp and pride of imperial splendour.

[Greek: Chruzothronos Aerae]--Hom.

V.i.69 (422,5) Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions] This if apparently wrong. Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read,

_Bound with an oath_ not to _yield to_ new _conditions_.

They might have read more smoothly,

--_to yield no new conditions_.

But the whole speech is in confusion, and I suspect something left out. I should read,

--_What he would do, He sent in writing after; what he would not, Bound with an oath. To yield to his conditions_.

Here is, I think, a chasm. The speaker's purpose seems to be this: _To yield to his conditions_ is ruin, and better cannot be obtained, _so that all hope is vain_.

V.ii.10 (424,7) it is lots to blanks] A _lot_ here is a _prize_.

V.ii.17 (424,8)

For I have ever verify'd my friends, (Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity Would without lapsing suffer]

[W: narrified] [Hanmer: magnified] If the commentator had given any example of the word _narrify_, the correction would have been not only received, but applauded. Now, since the new word stands without authority, we must try what sense the old one will afford. To _verify_ is _to establish by testimony_. One may say with propriety, he brought false witnesses to verify his title. Shakespeare considered the word with his usual laxity, as importing rather _testimony_ than _truth_, and only meant to say, _I_ bore witness _to my friends with all the size that verity would suffer_.

V.ii.45 (426,1) the virginal palms of your daughters] [W: _pasmes_ or _pames_, French for "swooning fits." Warburton also quotes _Tarquin and Lucrece_, "To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs" and emends to "tarnish," from the French, meaning "to dry up," used of springs and rivers.] I have inserted this note, because it contains an apology for many others. It is not denied that many French words were mingled in the time of Elizabeth with our language, which have since been ejected, and that any which are known to have been then in use may be properly recalled when they will help the sense. But when a word is to be admitted, the first question should be, by whom was it ever received? in what book can it be shown? If it cannot be proved to have been in use, the reasons which can justify its reception must be stronger than any critick will often have to bring. Even in this certain emendation, the new word is very liable to contest. I should read,

--_and_ perish _springs_.

The verb _perish_ is commonly neutral, but in conversation is often used actively, and why not in the works of a writer negligent beyond all others of grammatical niceties?