Deferves your

hate and your affections are A fick man's appetite, who defires most that Which would increase his evil. He that depends Upon your favours, fwims with fins of lead,

And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye?

With every minute you do change a mind;
And call him noble, that was now your hate,
Him vile, that was your garland. What's the mat-
ter,

That in these feveral places of the city

You cry against the noble senate, who,

Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else

Would feed on one another?-What's their feek

ing ?5

MEN. For corn at their own rates; whereof, they

say,

The city is well stor❜d.

MAR.

Hang 'em! They say?

They'll fit by the fire, and prefume to know

What's done i'the Capitol: who's like to rife,
Who thrives, and who declines:6 fide factions, and
give out

Conjectural marriages; making parties strong,
And feebling such as stand not in their liking,

well of him whom his own offences have fubjected to justice; and to rail at those laws by which he whom you praise was punifhed. STEEVENS.

5 What's their feeking ?] Seeking is here ufed fubftantively. The answer is, "Their feeking, or fuit, (to use the language of the time,) is for corn.' MALONE.

Who thrives, and who declines :] The words-who thrives, which deftroy the metre, appear to be an evident and tasteless interpolation. They are omitted by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS. VOL. XVI.

C

Below their cobbled fhoes. They say, there's grain

enough?

Would the nobility lay afide their ruth,”

8

And let me ufe my fword, I'd make a quarry
With thousands of these quarter'd flaves, as high
As I could pick my lance.

7 their ruth,] i. e. their pity, compaffion. Fairfax and Spenfer often use the word. Hence the adjective-ruthless,

I'd make a quarry

With thoufands] Why a quarry? I fuppofe, not because he would pile them fquare, but because he would give them for carrion to the birds of prey. JOHNSON.

So, in The Miracles of Mofes, by Drayton :

"And like a quarry caft them on the land." See Vol. X. p. 248, n. 4. STEEVENS.

The word quarry occurs in Macbeth, where Rofs fays to Macduff:

66 -to state the manner,

"Were on the quarry of these murder'd deer

"To add the death of you."

In a note on this laft paffage, Steevens afferts, that quarry means game pursued or killed, and fupports that opinion by a paffage in Maffinger's Guardian: and from thence I suppose the word was used to exprefs a heap of flaughtered perfons.

In the concluding fcene of Hamlet, where Fortinbras fees fo many lying dead, he says:

"This quarry cries, on havock!"

and in the laft fcene of A Wife for a Month, Valerio, in defcribing his own fictitious battle with the Turks, fays:

"I faw the child of honour, for he was young,
"Deal fuch an alms among the spiteful Pagans,
"And round about his reach, invade the Turks,
"He had intrench'd himself in his dead quarries."
M. MASON.

Bullokar, in his English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, fays that "a quarry among hunters fignifieth the reward given to hounds after they have hunted, or the venifon which is taken by hunting.” This fufficiently explains the word of Coriolanus. MALONE.

-pick my lance.] And fo the word [pitch] is ftill pro◄

MEN. Nay, thefe are almost thoroughly perfua

ded;

For though abundantly they lack discretion,
Yet are they paffing cowardly. But, I beseech you,
What fays the other troop?

MAR.
They are diffolved: Hang 'em!
They faid, they were an-hungry; figh'd forth pro-

verbs ;

That, hunger broke ftone walls; that, dogs muft

eat;

That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods

fent not

Corn for the rich men only :-With these shreds They vented their complainings; which being anfwer'd,

And a petition granted them, a ftrange one, (To break the heart of generofity,'

And make bold power look pale,) they threw their

caps

nounced in Staffordshire, where they fay-picke me fuch a thing, that is, pitch or throw any thing that the demander wants.

TOLLET.

Thus, in Froiffart's Chronicle, cap. C.lxiii. fo. lxxxii. b: "-and as he ftouped downe to take up his fwerde, the Frenche fquyer dyd pycke his fwerde at hym, and by hap ftrake hym through bothe the thyes." STEEVENS.

So, in An Account of auntient Customes and Games, &c. MSS. Harl. 2057, fol. 10, b:

"To wrestle, play at ftrole-ball, [ftool-ball] or to runne, "To picke the barre, or to fhoot off a gun."

The word is again used in King Henry VIII. with only a flight variation in the fpelling: "I'll peck you o'er the pales elfe." See Vol. XV. p. 210, n. 5.

I

MALONE.

the heart of generofity,] To give the final blow to the nobles. Generofity is high birth. JOHNSON.

So, in Measure for Meafure:

"The generous and graveft citizens-." See Vol. VI. p. 381, n. 2. STEEVENS.

As they would hang them on the horns o' the moon,2 Shouting their emulation.3

MEN.

What is granted them?

MAR. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wif

doms,

Of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus,
Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'Sdeath!
The rabble should have first unroof'd the city,4
Ere fo prevail'd with me: it will in time

Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes
For infurrection's arguing.5

2

MEN.

This is ftrange.

MAR. Go, get you home, you fragments!

hang them on the horns o' the moon,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

3

"Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon."

STEEVENS.

Shouting their emulation.] Each of them ftriving to shout louder than the reft. MALONE.

Emulation, in the present inftance, I believe, fignifies faction. Shouting their emulation, may mean, expreffing the triumph of their faction by Shouts.

Emulation, in our author, is sometimes used in an unfavourable sense, and not to imply an honest contest for superior excellence. Thus, in King Henry VI. P.I:

66

the truft of England's honour

Keep off aloof with worthlefs emulation."

Again, in Troilus and Creffida :

"While emulation in the army crept."

i. e. faction. STEEVENS.

4

Mr. Rowe.

unroof'd the city,] Old copy-unrooft. Corrected by MALONE.

5 For infurrection's arguing.] For infurgents to debate upon.

MALONE.

Enter a Meffenger.

MESS. Where's Caius Marcius?

MAR.

Here: What's the matter?

MESS. The news is, fir, the Volces are in arms.

MAR. I am glad on't; then we shall have means

to vent

Our musty superfluity :-See, our best elders.

Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators; JUNIUS BRUTUS, and SICINIUS VE

LUTUS.

1 SEN. Marcius, 'tis true, that you have lately told us;

The Volces are in arms."

MAR.

They have a leader,

Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to't.

I fin in envying his nobility:

And were I any thing but what I am,

I would with me only he.

Сом.

You have fought together.

MAR. Were half to half the world by the ears,

and he

Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make

Only my wars with him: he is a lion

That I am proud to hunt.

'tis true, that you have lately told us;

The Volces are in arms.] Coriolanus had been juft told himfelf that the Volces were in arms. The meaning is, The intelligence which you gave us fome little time ago of the defigns of the Volces is now verified; they are in arms. JOHNSON.