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My dear wife's estimate 12, her womb's increase,
And treasure of my loins; then if I would
Speak that-
Sic.

We know your drift: Speak what? Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is ba

nish'd,

As enemy to the people, and his country:

It shall be so.

Cit.

It shall be so, it shall be so.

Cor. You common cry 13 of curs! whose breath

I hate

As reek o' the rotten fens 14, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you 15;
And here remain with your uncertainty !
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till, at length,
Your ignorance (which finds not, till it feels),
Making but reservation of yourselves 16,

12 I love my country beyond the rate at which I value my dear wife,' &c.

13 Cry here signifies a pack. So in a subsequent scene :You have made good work,

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You and your cry.'

A cry of hounds was the old term for a pack.

14 So in The Tempest:

Seb. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones.
Ant. Or, as 'twere, perfum'd by a fen.'

15 When it was cast in Diogenes' teeth that the Sinopenetes had banished him Pontus; yea, said he, I them.'

We have the

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same thought in King Richard II. :

But thou the king.'

16 Thus in the old copy. Malone, following Capell's meddling, changed this line to

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Making not reservation of yourselves,' &c.

and attempted to defend his reading by a wordy argument, which shows that he did not understand the passage. Dr. John

(Still your own foes), deliver you, as most
Abated 17 captives, to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENE-
NIUS, Senators, and Patricians.

Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
Cit. Our enemy's banish'd! he is gone! Hoo!
hoo!

[The People shout, and throw up their Caps.
Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him,
As he hath follow'd you, with all despite;
Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard
Attend us through the city.

Cit. Come, come, let us see him out at gates;

come:

The gods preserve our noble tribunes!-Come.

[Exeunt.

son's explanation of the text is as correct as his subsequent remark upon it is judicious. Coriolanus imprecates upon the base plebeians that they may still retain the power of banishing their defenders, till their undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the city but themselves; so that for want of those capable of conducting their defence, they may fall an easy prey to some nation who may conquer them without a struggle. If we were to read as Malone would have us―

6

Making not reservation of yourselves,' it would imply that the people banished themselves, after having banished their defenders.

It is remarkable (says Johnson), that, among the political maxims of the speculative Harrington, there is one that he might have borrowed from this speech::-"The people 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 author's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private and civil.'

17 Abated is overthrown, depressed. To abate castles and houses, &c. is to overthrow them. See Blount's Glossography, in voce. To abate the courage of a man was to depress or dimi

nish it.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. The same. Before a Gate of the City. Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and several young Patricians.

Cor. Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell:the beast 1

With many heads butts me away.-Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd To say, extremity was the trier of spirits;

That common chances common men could bear; That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike Show'd mastership in floating: fortune's blows, When most struck home, being gentle wounded,

craves

A noble cunning 3: you were us'd to load me
With precepts, that would make invincible
The heart that conn'd them.

Vir. O heavens! O heavens !

Cor.

Nay, I pr'ythee, woman,

Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in

Rome,

And occupations perish!

Cor.

What, what, what!

I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother,

1 Horace, speaking of the Roman mob, says :

Bellua multorum est capitum.'

2 This is the reading of the second folio; the first folio reads, extremities was, &c.

3 When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and yet continue calm, requires a noble wisdom.' Cunning is often used in this sense by Shakspeare. Johnson reprehends Warburton for misinterpreting the poet's words, and has himself mistaken the meaning of this.

Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,
If you had been the wife of Hercules,
Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd
Your husband so much sweat.-Cominius,
Droop not; adieu :-Farewell, my wife! my mother!
I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,

And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime general,
I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hard'ning spectacles; tell these sad women,
'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,

As 'tis to laugh at them.-My mother, you wot well,
My hazards still have been your solace: and
Believe't not lightly (though I go alone
Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen

Makes fear'd, and talk'd of more than seen), your
Will, or exceed the common, or be caught
With cautelous 5 baits and practice.

Vol.

son®

My first son, Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius With thee a while: Determine on some course, More than a wild exposture to each chance That starts i'the way before thee.

Cor.

O the gods!

Com. I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee Where thou shalt rest, that thou may'st hear of us, And we of thee: so, if the time thrust forth A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send O'er the vast world, to seek a single man; And lose advantage, which doth ever cool I'the absence of the needer. Cor.

Fare ye

well;

5 Cautelous here means insidious.

6 i. e. noblest.

4 Foolish.

7 Exposure; for which it is probably a typographical error,

as we have no other instance of the word exposture.

Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full
Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one
That's yet unbruis'd: bring me but out at gate.—
Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
My friends of noble touch, when I am forth,
Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you, come.
While I remain above the ground, you shall
Hear from me still; and never of me aught
But what is like me formerly.

Men.

That's worthily

As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep.-
If I could shake off but one seven years

From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,
I'd with thee every foot.

Cor.

Come.

Give me thy hand :

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

The same. A Street near the Gate.

Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an Ædile.

Sic. Bid them all home: he's gone, and we'll no
further.-

The nobility are vex'd, who, we see, have sided
In his behalf.

Bru.

Now we have shown our power,

Let us seem humbler after it is done,
Than when it was a doing.

Sic.

Bid them home:

Say, their great enemy is gone, and they
Stand in their ancient strength.

Bru.

Dismiss them home.

[Exit Edile.

8 i. e. of true metal. The metaphor from the touchstone for

trying metals, is common in Shakspeare.

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