MAR.

I do befeech you,

By all the battles wherein we have fought,

By the blood we have fhed together, by the vows We have made to endure friends, that you directly Set me against Aufidius, and his Antiates:

And that you not delay the prefent; but,

Filling the air with swords advanc'd,' and darts,
We prove this very hour.

Сом.

Though I could wish You were conducted to a gentle bath,

And balms applied to you, yet dare I never
Deny your afking; take your choice of those
That beft can aid your action.

MAR.

Those are they

That most are willing:-If any fuch be here,
(As it were fin to doubt,) that love this painting
Wherein you fee me smear'd; if any fear
Leffer his perfon than an ill report;8

thy defperate arm

"Hath almoft thruft quite through the heart of hope."

In King Henry IV. P. I. we have:

MALONE.

"The very bottom and the foul of hope." STEEVENS. And that you not delay the present ;] Delay, for let flip. WARBURTON.

7fwords advanc'd,] That is, fwords lifted high.

8

if any fear

JOHNSON.

Leffer his perfon than an ill report;] The old copy has leffen. If the prefent reading, which was introduced by Mr. Steevens, be right, his perfon muft mean his perfonal danger.If any one lefs fears perfonal danger, than an ill name, &c. If the fears of any man are lefs for his person, than they are from an apprehenfion of being efteemed a coward, &c. We have nearly the fame fentiment in Troilus and Creffida :

"If there be one among the fair'st of Greece,
"That holds his honour higher than his ease,—.'

12

If any think, brave death outweighs bad life,
And that his country's dearer than himself;
Let him, alone, or fo many, fo minded,

Wave thus, [Waving his Hand.] to exprefs his dif pofition,

And follow Marcius.

[They all fhout, and wave their Swords; take him up in their arms, and caft up their Caps. O me, alone! Make you a fword of me? If these fhows be not outward, which of you But is four Volces? None of you but is Able to bear against the great Aufidius A fhield as hard as his. A certain number, Though thanks to all, muft I felect: the reft Shall bear the business in fome other fight, As caufe will be obey'd. Please you to march ; And four fhall quickly draw out my command, Which men are best inclin'd.'

Again, in King Henry VI. P. III :

"But thou prefer'ft thy life before thine honour." In this play we have already had leffer for less." MALONE. Though thanks to all, I muft felect: the reft

Shall bear &c.] The old copy-I must felect from all. I have followed Sir Thomas Hanmer in the omiffion of words apparently needless and redundant. STEEVENS.

I

Pleafe you to march;

And four fhall quickly draw out my command,

Which men are beft inclin'd,] I cannot but fufpect this paffage of corruption. Why fhould they march, that four might felect thofe that were beft inclin'd? How would their inclinations be known? Who were the four that should select them? Perhaps we may read :

-Pleafe you to march;

And fear hall quickly draw out my command,
Which men are leaft inclin'd.

It is easy to conceive that, by a little negligence, fear might be changed to four, and leaft to beft. Let us march, and that fear which incites desertion will free my army from cowards.

JOHNSON.

COM.

March on, my fellows:

Make good this oftentation, and you fhall
Divide in all with us.

Exeunt.

SCENE VII.

The Gates of Corioli.

TITUS LARTIUs, having fet a Guard upon Corioli, going with a Drum and Trumpet toward COMINIUS and CAIUS MARCIUS, enters with a Lieutenant, a Party of Soldiers, and a Scout.

LART. So, let the ports 2 be guarded: keep your duties,

As I have fet them down. If I do fend, despatch

Mr. Heath thinks the poet wrote:

"And So I fhall quickly draw out," &c.

Some fenfe, however, may be extorted from the ancient reading. Coriolanus may mean, that as all the foldiers have offered to attend him on this expedition, and he wants only a part of them, he will fubmit the selection to four indifferent perfons, that he himself may escape the charge of partiality. If this be the drift of Shakspeare, he has expreffed it with uncommon obfcurity. The old tranflation of Plutarch only fays: Wherefore, with those that willingly offered themselves to followe him, he went out of the cittie." STEEVENS.

Coriolanus means only to fay, that he would appoint four per fons to select for his particular command or party, those who were beft inclined; and in order to fave time, he proposes to have this choice made, while the army is marching forward. They all march towards the enemy, and on the way he chooses those who are to go on that particular fervice. M. MASON.

2

the ports] i. e. the gates. So, in Timon of Athens: "Defcend, and open your uncharged ports." STEEVENS,

Those centuries 3 to our aid; the reft will ferve
For a fhort holding: If we lose the field,

We cannot keep the town.

LIEU.

Fear not our care, fir.

LART. Hence, and fhut your gates upon us. Our guider, come; to the Roman camp conduct us.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.

A Field of Battle between the Roman and the Volcian Camps.

Alarum. Enter MARCIUS and AUFIDIUS.

MAR. I'll fight with none but thee; for I do hate thee

Worfe than a promise-breaker.

AUF.

We hate alike;

Not Africk owns a ferpent, I abhor

More than thy fame and envy :4 Fix thy foot. MAR. Let the first budger die the other's flave,

3 Thofe centuries- i. e. companies confifting each of a hundred men. Our author fometimes ufes this word to express fimply a hundred; as in Cymbeline:

"And on it said a century of prayers." STEEVENS. 4thy fame and envy:] Envy here, as in many other places, means, malice. See Vol. XV. p. 64, n. 2. MALONE.

The phrafe-death and honour, being allowed, in our author's language, to fignify no more than-honourable death, fo fame and envy, may only mean-detefted or odious fame. The verb

-to envy, in ancient language, fignifies to hate. Or the conftruction may be-Not Africk owns a ferpent I more abhor and envy, than thy fame. STEEVENs.

And the gods doom him after !5

AUF.

Halloo me like a hare.

MAR.

If I fly, Marcius,

Within these three hours, Tullus,

Alone I fought in your Corioli walls,6

And made what work I pleas'd; 'Tis not my blood, Wherein thou feeft me mafk'd; for thy revenge, Wrench up thy power to the highest.

AUF.

Wert thou the Hector, That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny,' Thou should'st not fcape me here.

[They fight, and certain Volces come to the aid of AUFIDIUS.

Let the first budger die the other's flave,

And the gods doom him after !] So, in Macbeth:

"And damn'd be him who firft cries, Hold, Enough!"

Within these three hours, Tullus,

STEEVENS.

Alone I fought in your Corioli walls,] If the name of Tullus be omitted, the metre will become regular. STEEVENS.

7 Wert thou the Hector,

That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny,] The Romans boafted themselves defcended from the Trojans; how then was Hector the whip of their progeny? It must mean the whip with which the Trojans fcourged the Greeks, which cannot be but by a very unusual conftruction, or the author muft have forgotten the original of the Romans; unless whip has fome meaning which includes advantage or fuperiority, as we fay, he has the whip-hand, for he has the advantage. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson confiders this as a very unusual conftruction, but it appears to me only fuch as every page of these plays furnishes ; and the foregoing interpretation is in my opinion undoubtedly the true one. An anonymous correfpondent juftly observes, that the words mean, "the whip that your bragg'd progeny was possessed of." MALONE.

Whip might anciently be used, as crack is now, to denote any thing peculiarly boafted of; as-the crack house in the countythe crack boy of a fchool, &c. Modern phrafeology, perhaps, has only paffed from the whip, to the crack of it. STEEVENS.