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Cor.

Why force you this?

Vol. Because that now it lies you on to speak
To the people; not by your own instruction,
Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you to3,
But with such words that are but roted 9 in
Your tongue, though but bastards, and syllables
Of no allowance, to your bosom's truth 10.
Now, this no more dishonours you at all,
Than to take in 11 a town with gentle words,
Which else would put you to your fortune, and
The hazard of much blood.-

I would dissemble with my nature, where
My fortunes, and my friends, at stake, requir'd,
I should do so in honour: I am in this,

Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
And you will rather show our general lowts 12
How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon them,
For the inheritance of their loves, and safeguard'
Of what that want 13 might ruin.

76 Why urge you this?' So in King Henry VIII.:-
If you will now unite in your complaints,

And force them with a constancy.'

8 The word to, which is wanting in the first folio, was supplied in the second. Malone contends for the old reading, and Steevens says that we should perhaps read:

-

Nor by the matter which your heart prompts in you.' Without some additional syllable the line, as it stands in the first folio, is defective.

9 The old copy reads roated. Mr. Boswell says, perhaps it should be rooted: we have no example of roted for got by rote, but it is much in Shakspeare's manner of forming expressions. 10 'Of no allowance to your bosom's truth.'

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i. e. of no approbation. Allowance has no connection with the subsequent words, to your bosom's truth.' The construction is though but bastards to your bosom's truth, not the lawful issue of your heart.' The words and syllables of no allowance,' are put in opposition with bastards, and are as it were parenthetical. 11 See Act i. Sc. 2, note 3.

12 Common clowns.

13 i. e. the want of their loves.

Men.

Noble lady!

Come, go
with us; speak fair: you may salve so,
Not11 what is dangerous present, but the loss

Of what is past.

Vol.

I pr'ythee now, my son, Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand;

And thus far having stretch'd it (here be with them),

Thy knee bussing the stones (for in such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
More learned than the ears), waving thy head,
Which often, thus, correcting thy stout heart 15,
Now humble, as the ripest mulberry, ·

That will not hold the handling: Or, say to them,
Thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils,

14 Not seems here to signify not only.

15 It is probably from want of a more complete acquaintance with the rules of grammar which guided our ancestors, that the use they made of the pronouns appears to us anomalous. Which here, as Malone observes, is to be understood as if the poet had written' It often,' &c. Steevens pertinaciously insists upon attributing these seeming anomalies of ancient grammar to the incorrectness of ancient printers, whose presswork, he supposes, seldom received any correction; but those who are familiar with the manuscripts of Shakspeare's age will at once acquit the learned and useful body of typographers. I had marked two or three similar instances of the use of which that occurred to me among the Conway MSS. but have unfortunately mislaid my memoranda. Malone has adduced some passages of similar construction from Shakspeare, in which whom is used where we now should use him, and who where we should place they. The meaning of the text seems to be Go to the people (says Volumnia), and appear before them in a supplicating attitude-with thy bonnet in thy hand, thy knees on the ground (for in such cases action is eloquence, &c.), waving thy head thus, it by its frequent bendings subduing thy stout heart, which now should be as humble as the ripest mulberry: or if these silent gestures of supplication do not move them, add words, and say to them,' &c. Æschylus, in a fragment preserved by Athenæus, lib. ii. says of Hector, that he was softer than mulberries:

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̓Ανὴρ δ' ἐκεῖνος ἦν πεπαίτερος μόρων.

Hast not the soft way 16, which, thou dost confess,
Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,

In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame
Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far

As thou hast power, and person.

This but done,

Men. Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours: For they have pardons, being ask’d, as free

As words to little purpose.

Vol.

Pr'ythee now,

Go, and be rul'd: although, I know, thou hadst

rather

Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf,

Than flatter him in a bower 17. Here is Cominius.

Enter COMINIUS.

Com. I have been i' the market-place: and, sir, 'tis fit

You make strong party, or defend yourself
By calmness, or by absence; all's in anger.
Men. Only fair speech.

Com.

I think, 'twill serve, if he

He must, and will:

Can thereto frame his spirit.

Vol.

Pr'ythee, now, say, you will, and go about it.
Cor. Must I go show them my unbarb'd 18 sconce ?
Must I

16 Thus in Othello, folio ed. 1623 :-
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Rude am I in speech,

And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace;
And little of this great world can I speak,

More than pertains to feats of broils and battles.'

17 Bower was the ancient term for a chamber. Spenser, speaking of the Temple, Prothalamion, st. 8, says:—

'Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers.'

18 Unbarb'd is unarmed, unaccoutred, uncovered. Cotgrave says that a barbute was a ridinghood, or a montero or close hood, and

With my base tongue, give to my noble heart
A lie, that it must bear? Well, I will do't:
Yet were there but this single plot 19 to lose,

This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it,
And throw it against the wind.-To the market-

place :

You have put me now to such a part, which 20 never I shall discharge to the life.

Com.

Come, come, we'll prompt you. Vol. I pr'ythee now, sweet son; as thou hast said, My praises made thee first a soldier, so,

To have my praise for this, perform a part

Thou hast not done before.

Cor.

Well, I must do't:

Away, my disposition, and possess me

Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd,
Which quired 21 with my drum, into a pipe
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of knaves
Tent in my cheeks; and schoolboys' tears take
up
The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue

that it also signified the beaver of a helmet. It was probably used for any kind of covering that concealed the head and face. Thus in Chaucer, Troilus and Cressida, II. v. 110, Pandarus says to Cressida :

'Do way your barbe and show your face bare.' Where Speght explains barbe a mask or visard; Mr. Hawkins, a veil or covering; and Mr. Tyrwhitt, a hood or muffler. It should be remembered that a barbed steed was an accoutred steed, or one covered with trappings.

19 Plot is piece, portion, applied to a piece of earth, and here elegantly transferred to the body, carcass.

20 Some of the modern editors substituted as for which here. Malone has shown that this was Shakspeare's usual phraseology. And Horne Tooke tells us why as and which were convertible words. See note on Julius Cæsar, Act i. Sc. 2.

21 i. e. which played in concert with my drum.' So in The Merchant of Venice :

'Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubims.'

22 To tent is to dwell, to take up residence.

Make motion through my lips; and my arm'd knees,
Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath receiv'd an alms !-I will not do't:
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
And, by my body's action, teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.

Vol.
At thy choice then:
To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour,
Than thou of them. Come all to ruin; let
Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear
Thy dangerous stoutness 23; for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list.

Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me; But owe thy pride thyself.

Cor.

24

Pray, be content; Mother, I am going to the market-place;

Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves, Cog their hearts from them, and come home belov’d Of all the trades in Rome.

Commend me to my wife.

Look, I am going:
I'll return consul;

Or never trust to what my tongue can do
I' the way of flattery, further.

Vol.

Do your will. [Exit.

Com. Away, the tribunes do attend you: arm yourself

To answer mildly; for they are prepar'd
With accusations, as I hear, more strong
Than are upon you yet.

Cor. The word is, mildly:-Pray you, let us go;

Let them accuse me by invention, I

Will answer in mine honour.

Men.

Ay, but mildly.

Cor. Well, mildly be it then; mildly. [Exeunt.

23 The meaning appears to be, 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.'

24 i. e. own.

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