VIR. I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers; but I cannot go thither. VOL. Why, I pray you? VIR. 'Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love. VAL. You would be another Penelope: yet, they say, all the yarn she spun, in Ulysses' absence, did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come; I would, your cambrick were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us. VIR. No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth. VAL. In truth, la, go with me; and I'll tell you excellent news of your husband. VIR. O, good madam, there can be none yet. VAL. Verily, I do not jest with you; there came news from him last night. VIR. Indeed, madam? VAL. In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is:-The Volces have an army forth; against whom Cominius the general is gone, with one part of our Roman power: your lord, and Titus Lartius, are set down before their city Corioli; they nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour; and so, I pray, go 'with us. VIR. Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in every thing hereafter. VOL. Let her alone, lady; as she is now, she will but disease our better mirth. you VAL. In troth, I think, she would :-Fare well then.-Come, good sweet lady.-Pr'ythee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o'door, and go along with us. VIR. No: at a word, madam; indeed, I must not. I wish you much mirth. VAL. Well, then farewell. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Before Corioli. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MARCIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, Officers, and Soldiers. To them a Messenger. MAR. Yonder comes news:-A wager, they have MAR. Say, has our general met the enemy? MESS. They lie in view; but have not spoke as yet. LART. So, the good horse is mine. MAR. I'll buy him of you. LART. No, I'll nor sell, nor give him: lend you him, I will, For half a hundred years.-Summon the town. MESS. Within this mile and half.s Within this mile and half.] The two last words, which dis MAR. Then shall we hear their 'larum, and they ours. Now, Mars, I pr'ythee, make us quick in work; That we with smoking swords may march from hence, To help our fielded friends!*-Come, blow thy blast. They sound a Parley. Enter, on the Walls, some Senators, and Others. Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls? 1 SEN. No, nor a man that fears you less than he, That's lesser than a little.5 Hark, our drums [Alarums afar off. p. 43, turb the measure, should be omitted; as we are told in that " 'Tis not a mile" between the two armies. STEEVENS. -fielded friends!] i. e. our friends who are in the field of battle. STEEVENS. 4 nor a man that fears you less than he, That's lesser than a little.] The sense requires it to be read: ―nor a man that fears you more than he ; Or, more probably: nor a man but fears you less than he, That's lesser than a little. See Vol. IX. The text, I am confident, is right, our author almost always entangling himself when he uses less and more. p. 293, n. 6. Lesser in the next line shows that less in that preceding was the author's word, and it is extremely improbable that he should have written-but fears you less, &c. MALONE. Dr. Johnson's note appears to me unnecessary, nor do I think with Mr. Malone that Shakspeare has here entangled himself; but on the contrary that he could not have expressed himself better. The sense is," however little Tullus Aufidius fears you, there is not a man within the walls that fears you less." DOUCE Are bringing forth our youth: We'll break our walls, Rather than they shall pound us up our gates, Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with rushes; They'll open of themselves. There is Aufidius; list, what MAR. Hark you, far off; [Other Alarums. work he makes O, they are at it! LART. Their noise be our instruction.-Ladders, ho! The Volces enter and pass over the Stage. MAR. They fear us not, but issue forth their city. Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight With hearts more proof than shields.—Advance, brave Titus: They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts, Which makes me sweat with wrath.-Come on, my fellows; He that retires, I'll take him for a Volce, Alarum, and exeunt Romans and Volces, fighting. The Romans are beaten back to their Trenches. Re-enter MARCIUS.6 6 MAR. All the contagion of the south light on you, © Re-enter Marcius.] The old copy reads Enter Marcius eursing. STEEVENS. You shames of Rome! you herd of Boils and plagues? Plaster you o'er; that you may be abhorr'd Further than seen, and one infect another Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese, That bear the shapes of men, how have you run From slaves that apes would beat? Pluto and hell! All hurt behind; backs red, and faces pale With flight and agued fear! Mend, and charge home, Or, by the fires of heaven, I'll leave the foe, 7 You shames of Rome! you herd of-Boils and plagues &c.] This passage, like almost every other abrupt sentence in these plays, was rendered unintelligible in the old copy by inaccurate punctuation. See Vol. VI. p. 140, n. 8; Vol. IV. p. 425, n. 4; Vol. VII. p. 37, n. 3; and p. 272, n. 2. For the present regulation I am answerable. "You herd of cowards !" Marcius would say, but his rage prevents him. In a former passage he is equally impetuous and abrupt : 66 one's Junius Brutus, "Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'sdeath, "The rabble should have first," &c. Speaking of the people in a subsequent scene, he uses the same expression: 66 Are these your herd? “Must these have voices," &c. Again: "More of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians." In Mr. Rowe's edition herds was printed instead of herd, the reading of the old copy; and the passage has been exhibited thus in the modern editions: "You shames of Rome, you! Herds of boils and plagues "Plaster you o'er !" MALONE. |