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As if he were his officer:-Desperation
Is all the policy, strength, and defence,
That Rome can make against them.

Enter a Troop of Citizens.

Here come the clusters.

you cast

Men.
And is Aufidius with him?-You are they
That made the air unwholesome, when
Your stinking, greasy caps, in hooting at
Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming;
And not a hair upon a soldier's head,

Which will not prove a whip: as many coxcombs,
As you threw caps up, will he tumble down,
And pay you for your voices. "Tis no matter;

If he could burn us all into one coal,

We have deserv'd it.

Cit. 'Faith, we hear fearful news.

1 Cit.

For mine own part,

When I said, banish him, I said, 'twas pity.

2 Cit. And so did I.

3 Cit. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very many of us; That we did, we did for the best and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.

Com. You are goodly things, you voices!
Men.

Good work, you and your cry

Capitol ?

Com. O, ay; what else?

You have made

13!-Shall us to the

[Exeunt Coм. and MEN.

Sic. Go, masters, get you home, be not dismay'd; These are a side, that would be glad to have This true, which they so seem to fear. Go home, And show no sign of fear.

13 Pack, alluding to a pack of hounds. See Act iii. Sc. 3, note 13.

1 Cit. The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let's home. I ever said, we were i' the wrong, when we banished him.

2 Cit. So did we all.

But come, let's home.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Bru. I do not like this news.

Sic. Nor I.

Bru. Let's to the Capitol:-Would,half my wealth Would buy this for a lie!

Sic.

Pray, let us go.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII.

A Cump; at a small distance from Rome.

Enter AUFIDIUS, and his Lieutenant.

Auf. Do they still fly to the Roman?

Lieu. I do not know what witchcraft's in him; but Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,

Their talk at table, and their thanks at end;

And you are darken'd in this action, sir,
Even by your own.

Auf.
I cannot help it now;
Unless, by using means, I lame the foot

Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier
Even to my person, than I thought he would,
When first I did embrace him: Yet his nature

In that's no changeling; and I must excuse
What cannot be amended.

Lieu.
Yet I wish, sir,
(I mean for your particular), you had not
Join'd in commission with him: but either
Had borne the action of yourself, or else
To him had left it solely.

Auf. I understand thee well; and be thou sure, When he shall come to his account, he knows not What I can urge against him. Although it seems,

And so he thinks, and is no less apparent
To the vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
And shows good husbandry for the Volcian state;
Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon

As draw his sword: yet he hath left undone
That, which shall break his neck, or hazard mine,
Whene'er we come to our account.

Lieu. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry
Rome?

Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down; And the nobility of Rome are his:

The senators, and patricians, love him too:
The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty

To expel him thence. I think, he'll be to Rome,
As is the osprey1 to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. First he was

A noble servant to them; but he could not
Carry his honours even: whether 'twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints
The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving
From the casque to the cushion, but commanding
peace

1 The following account of the osprey shows the justness and beauty of this simile :

:-

'I will provide thee with a princely osprey,
That as she flieth over fish in pools,

The fish shall turn their glitt'ring bellies up,
And thou shalt take thy liberal choice of all.'

Drayton mentions the same fascinating power of the osprey in
Polyolbion, Song XXV. The bird is described in Pennant's
British Zoology.

2 Aufidius assigns three probable reasons for 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

Even with the same austerity and garb
As he controll'd the war: but, one of these
(As he hath spices of them all, not all 3,

For I dare so far free him), made him fear'd,
So hated, and so banish'd: But he has a merit,
To choke it in the utterance*. So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time:

And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a hair

To extol what it hath done 5.

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail. Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine. [Exeunt.

not make the proper transition from the casque to the cushion, or chair of civil authority; but acted with the same despotism in peace as in war.-Johnson.

3 Not all in their full extent. So in the Winter's Tale :

for all

Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of it.

But such is his merit as ought to choke the utterance of his faults.

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Lie in the interpretation of the time;
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

To extol what it hath done.'

Thus the old copy. Well Steevens might exclaim that the passage and the comments upon it were equally intelligible. The whole speech is very incorrectly printed in the folio. Thus we have 'was for 'twas; detect for defect; virtue for virtues; and, evidently, chair for hair. What is the meaning of—

'Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair?"

A hair has some propriety, as used for a thing almost invisible. As in The Tempest:

not a hair perish'd.'

I take the meaning of the passage to be, So our virtues lie at the mercy of the time's interpretation, and power, which esteems itself while living so highly, hath not when defunct the least particle of praise allotted to it.'

6 Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail.' Malone reads founder, with a wordy but unsatisfactory argu

ACT V.

SCENE I. Rome. A publick Place. Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and Others.

Men. No, I'll not go: you hear, what he hath said, Which was sometime his general; who lov'd him In a most dear particular. He call'd me, father: But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him, A mile before his tent fall down, and kneel The way into his mercy: Nay, if he coy'd1 To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home. Com. He would not seem to know me.

Men.

Do you hear?
Com. Yet one time he did call me by my name :
I urg'd our old acquaintance, and the drops
That we have bled together. Coriolanus
He would not answer to: forbad all names;
He was a kind of nothing, titleless,

Till he had forg'd himself a name i' the fire
Of burning Rome.

Men. Why so you have made good work:
A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome,
To make coals cheap: A noble memory 3!

Com. I minded him, how royal 'twas to pardon When it was less expected: He replied,

ment in favour of his reading. I could wish to read, 'Rights by rights foiled,' &c. an easy and obvious emendation. Steevens has given the following explanation of the passage:-'What is already right, and is received as such, becomes less clear when supported by supernumerary proof.'

1 i. e. condescended unwillingly, with reserve, coldness. 2 Harassed by exactions.

3 Memorial.

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