1 SEN. Attend upon Cominius to these wars. Then, worthy Marcius, Sir, it is ; Coм. It is your former promise. And I am conftant.7-Titus Lartius, thou TIT. MEN. O, true bred! 1 SEN. Your company to the Capitol; where, I know, Our greatest friends attend us. TIT. Lead you on: Follow, Cominius; we must follow you; Сом. 1 SEN. Hence! To your homes, be gone. Noble Lartius !9 [To the Citizens. Nay, let them follow: MAR. The Volces have much corn; take these rats thither, To gnaw their garners-Worfhipful mutineers, 7 conftant.] i. e. immoveable in my refolution. So, in Julius Cæfar: "But I am conftant as the northern ftar." Steevens. 8 Right worthy you priority.] You being right worthy of precedence. MALONE. Mr. M. Mafon would read-your priority. STEEVENS. Noble Lartins!] Old copy-Martius. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. I am not fure that the emendation is neceffary. Perhaps Lartius in the latter part of the preceding fpeech addreffes Marcius. Malone. Your valour puts well forth: pray, follow. [Exeunt Senators, Coм. MAR. TIT. and MENEN. Citizens fteal away. Sic. Was ever man fo proud as is this Marcius? BRU. He has no equal. SIC. When we were chosen tribunes for the peo ple, BRU. Mark'd you his lip, and eyes? SIC. Nay, but his taunts. BRU. Being mov'd, he will not spare to gird2 the gods. SIC. Be-mock the modeft moon. BRU. The present wars devour him he is grown Too proud to be fo valiant.3. Your valour puts well forth:] That is, You have in this mutiny shown fair bloffoms of valour. JOHNSON. So, in King Henry VIII: 2 "The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow bloffoms," &c. MALONE. to gird-] To fneer, to gibe. So Falftaff ufes the noun, when he says, every man has a gird at me. JOHNSON. Again, in The Taming of the Shrew; "I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio." Many inftances of the ufe of this word, might be added. STEEVENS. To gird, as an anonymous correfpondent observes to me," in fome parts of England means to push vehemently. So, when a ram pushes at any thing with his head, they fay he girds at it." To gird likewife fignified, to pluck or twinge. Hence probably it was metaphorically used in the sense of to taunt, or annoy by a Stroke of farcafm. Cotgrave makes gird, nip, and twinge, fynonymous. MALONE. 3 The prefent wars devour him: he is grown Too proud to be fo valiant.] Mr. Theobald fays, This is obfcurely expreffed, but that the poet's meaning muft certainly be, that Marcius is fo confcious of, and fo elate upon the notion of SIC. Such a nature, Tickled with good fuccefs, difdains the shadow BRU. Fame, at the which he aims, In whom already he is well grac'd,-cannot his own valour, that he is eaten up with pride, &c. According to this critick then, we must conclude, that when Shakspeare had a mind to say, A man was eaten up with pride, he was so great a blunderer in expreffion, as to fay, He was eaten up with war. But our poet wrote at another rate, and the blunder is his critick's. The prefent wars devour him, is an imprecation, and fhould be fo pointed. As much as to fay, May he fall in thofe wars! The reason of the curfe is fubjoined, for (fays the speaker) having fo much pride with fo much valour, his life, with increase of honours, is dangerous to the republick. WARBURTON. I am by no means convinced that Dr. Warburton's punctuation, or explanation, is right. The fsense may be, that the present wars annihilate his gentler qualities. To eat up, and confequently to devour, has this meaning. So, in The Second Part of King Henry IV. A&t IV. fc. iv: "But thou [the crown] most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd, "Haft eat thy bearer up." To be eat up with pride, is still a phrase in common and vulgar ufe. He is grown too proud to be fo valiant, may fignify, his pride is fuch as not to deserve the accompanyment of fo much valour. STEEVENS. I concur with Mr. Steevens. "The prefent wars," Shakspeare ufes to exprefs the pride of Coriolanus grounded on his military prowefs; which kind of pride Brutus fays devours him. So, in Troilus and Creffida, A&t II. fc. iii: 66 - He that's proud, eats up himself.” Perhaps the meaning of the latter member of the fentence is, "he is grown too proud of being fo valiant, to be endured." MALONE. Shall be the general's fault, though he perform Had borne the business! SIC. Befides, if things go well, Opinion, that fo fticks on Marcius, fhall Of his demerits rob Cominius.4 BRU. Come: Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius, Though Marcius earn'd them not; and all his faults To Marcius fhall be honours, though, indeed, In aught he merit not. SIC. Let's hence, and hear How the despatch is made; and in what fashion, More than in fingularity,5 he goes Upon his prefent action. BRU. Let's along. [Exeunt. 4 Of his demerits rob Cominius.] Merits and Demerits had anciently the fame meaning. So, in Othello: and my demerits May fpeak," &c. Again, in Stowe's Chronicle, Cardinal Wolfey says to his fervants: "I have not promoted, preferred, and advanced you all according to your demerits." Again, in P. Holland's tranflation of Pliny's Epistle to T. Vefpafian, 1600: "—his demerit. had been the greater to have continued his story." STEEVENS. Again, in Hall's Chronicle, Henry VI. fol. 69: "-this noble prince, for his demerits called the good duke of Gloucester,-." MALONE. 5 More than in fingularity, &c.] We will learn what he is to do, befides going himself; what are his powers, and what is his appointment. JOHNSON, Perhaps the word fingularity implies a farcafin on Coriolanus, and the speaker means to fay-after what fashion, befide that in which his own fingularity of difpofition invefts him, he goes into the field. So, in Twelfth-Night: "Put thyself into the trick of fingularity." STEEVENS. SCENE II. Corioli. The Senate-Houfe. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, and certain Senators. 1 SEN. So, your opinion is, Aufidius, That they of Rome are enter'd in our counsels, Is it not yours ? AUF. What ever hath been thought on in this ftate, That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome Had circumvention? 'Tis not four days gone,7 Since I heard thence; these are the words: I think, I have the letter here; yes, here it is: [Reads, They have prefs'd a power, but it is not known hath been thought on-] Old copy-have. Corrected by the second folio. STEEVENS. 7'Tis not four days gone,] i. e. four days paft. STEEVENS. 8 They have prefs'd a power,] Thus the modern editors. The old copy reads-They have preft a power; which may fignify, have a power ready; from pret. Fr. So, in The Merchant of Venice: "And I am preft unto it.' See note on this paffage, Act I. fc. i. STEEVENS. The fpelling of the old copy proves nothing, for participles were generally fo Spelt in Shakspeare's time: fo diftreft, bleft, &c. I believe prefs'd in its ufual fenfe is right. It appears to have been used in Shakspeare's time in the fenfe of imprefs'd. So, in Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus, tranflated by Sir T. North, 1579: the common people would not appeare when the confuls called their names by a bill, to press them for the warres." Again, in King Henry VI. P. III : -- "From London by the kingdom was I prefs'd forth." MALONE. |