Which we devife him.

COM.

Our spoils he kick'd at;
And look'd upon things precious, as they were
The common muck o'the world: he covets lefs
Than mifery itfelf would give ; rewards
His deeds with doing them; and is content
To spend the time, to end it.8

MEN. The fenate, Coriolanus, are well pleas'd To make thee conful.

COR.

My life, and fervices.

I do owe them still

6 He cannot but with measure fit the honours-] That is, no honour will be too great for him; he will show a mind equal to any elevation. JOHNSON.

7 Than mifery itself would give ;] Mifery for avarice; because a miser fignifies avaricious. WARBURTON.

To Spend the 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 fake of doing them; to spend his life, for the fake of fpending it. JOHNSON.

I think the words afford this meaning, without any alteration.

MALONE.

9 Call for Coriolanus.] I have fupplied the prepofition-for, to complete the measure. STEEVENS.

MEN.

It then remains,

That you do speak to the people.'

COR.

• I do befeech you,

Let me o'erleap that cuftom; for I cannot

Put on the gown, ftand naked, and entreat them, For my wounds' fake, to give their fuffrage: please

you,

That. I may pafs this doing.

SIC.

Sir, the people

Must have their voices; neither will they bate
One jot of ceremony.

MEN.

Put them not to't :

Pray you, go fit you to the custom; and
Take to you, as your predeceffors have,

It then remains,

That you do fpeak to the people.] Coriolanus was banifhed U. C. 262. But till the time of Manlius Torquatus, U. C. 393, the fenate chose both the confuls: And then the people, affifted by the feditious temper of the tribunes, got the choice of one. But if Shakspeare makes Rome a democracy, which at this time was a perfect ariftocracy; he fets the balance even in his Timon, and turns Athens, which was a perfect democracy, into an ariftocracy. But it would be unjust to attribute this entirely to his ignorance; it fometimes proceeded from the too powerful blaze of his imagination, which, when once lighted up, made all acquired knowledge fade and difappear before it. For fometimes again we find him, when occafion ferves, not only writing up to the truth of hiftory, but fitting his fentiments to the niceft manners of his peculiar fubject, as well to the dignity of his characters, or the dictates of nature in general. WARBURTON.

The inaccuracy is to be attributed, not to our author, but to Plutarch, who exprefsly fays, in his Life of Coriolanus, that "it was the cuftome of Rome at that time, that fuch as dyd fue for any office, fhould for certen dayes before be in the market-place, only with a poor gowne on their backes, and without any coate underneath, to praye the people to remember them at the day of election." North's translation, p. 244. MALONE.

It is a part

That I fhall blush in acting, and might well
Be taken from the people.

BRU.

Mark you that?

COR. To brag unto them,-Thus I did, and

thus;

Show them the unaking fears which I should hide, As if I had receiv'd them for the hire

Of their breath only :

MEN.

Do not ftand upon't.We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, Our purpose to them ;3-and to our noble conful With we all joy and honour.

SEN. To Coriolanus come all joy and honour! [Flourish. Then exeunt Senators. BRU. You see how he intends to use the people.

2 Your honour with your form.] I believe we fhould read— "Your honour with the form.”—That is, the usual form.

M. MASON. Your form, may mean the form which custom prescribes to you. STEEVENS.

• We recommend to you, tribunes of the people,

Our purpofe to them ;] We entreat you, tribunes of the people, to recommend and enforce to the plebeians, what we propofe to them for their approbation; namely the appointment of Coriolanus to the confulship. MALONE.

This paffage is rendered almost unintelligible by the false punc tuation. It should evidently be pointed thus, and then the sense will be clear:

We recommend to you, tribunes of the people,

Our purpofe ;-to them, and to our noble conful,
Wish we all joy and honour.

To them, means to the people, whom Menenius artfully joins to the conful, in the good wishes of the fenate. M. MASON.

SIC. May they perceive his intent! He that will require them,

As if he did contemn what he requested

Should be in them to give,

BRU.

Of our proceedings here: on the market-place,

Come, we'll inform them

[Exeunt.

I know, they do attend us.

SCENE III.

The fame. The Forum.

Enter feveral Citizens.

1 CIT. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny him.

2 CIT. We may, fir, if we will.

3 CIT. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do:5 for if

• Once,] Once here means the fame as when we fay, once for all. WARBURTON.

This ufe of the word once is found in The Supposes, by Gafcoigne :

"Once, twenty-four ducattes he coft me." FARMER. Again, in The Comedy of Errors:

"Once this, your long experience of her wisdom—." STEEVENS.

I doubt whether once here fignifies once for all. I believe, it means, "if he do but fo much as require our voices;" as in the following paffage in Holinfhed's Chronicle: " -they left many of their fervants and men of war behind them, and fome of them would not once ftay for their standards." MALONE.

5 We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do :] Power first fignifies natural power or

he fhow us his wounds, and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into thofe wounds, and speak for them; fo, if he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monftrous: and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude; of the which, we being members, should bring ourselves to be monftrous members.

1 CIT. And to make us no better thought of, a little help will ferve: for once, when we ftood up about the corn, he himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude."

3 CIT. We have been called fo of many; not that our heads are fome brown, fome black, fome auburn, fome bald, but that our wits are fo diverfly

force, and then moral power or right. Davies has used the same word with great variety of meaning:

6

"Ufe all thy powers that heavenly power to praise,
"That gave thee power to do."-

JOHNSON.

-for once, when we ftood up about the corn,] [Old copy -once we ftood up.] That is, as foon as ever we stood up. This word is ftill ufed in nearly the fame fenfe, in familiar or rather vulgar language, fuch as Shakspeare wifhed to allot to the Roman populace: "Once the will of the monarch is the only law, the conftitution is destroyed." Mr. Rowe and all the subsequent editors read-for once, when we stood up, &c. MALONE.

As no decifive evidence is brought to prove that the adverb once has at any time fignified-as foon as ever, I have not rejected the word introduced by Mr. Rowe, which, in my judgment, is neceffary to the speaker's meaning. STEEVENS.

7 many headed multitude.] Hanmer reads, many-headed monfter, but without neceffity. To be many-headed includes monftroufness. JOHNSON.

8 -fome auburn,] The folio reads, fome Abram. I fhould unwillingly fuppofe this to be the true reading; but we have aleady heard of Cain and Abram-coloured beards. STEEVENS. The emendation was made in the fourth folio. MALONE.