SCENE VI. Near the Camp of Cominius. Enter COMINIUS and Forces, retreating. COM. Breathe you, my friends; well fought: we are come off Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands, Enter a Messenger. May give you thankful sacrifice!-Thy news? Сом. Though thou speak'st truth, Methinks, thou speak'st not well. How long is't 7 since? MESS. Above an hour, my lord. COM. 'Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums: The Roman gods, Lead their successes as we wish our own;] i. e. May the Roman gods, &c. MALONE. 0 0 How could'st thou in a mile confound an hour, And bring thy news so late? MESS. Spies of the Volces Held me in chase, that I was forc'd to wheel Three or four miles about; else had I, sir, Half an hour since brought my report. Сом. Enter MARCIUS. Who's yonder, That does appear as he were flay'd? O gods! MAR. Come I too late? COM. The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor, More than I know the sound of Marcius' tongue From every meaner man's." 8 -confound an hour,] Confound is here used not in its common acceptation, but in the sense of-to expend. Conterere tempus. MALONE. So, in King Henry IV. P. I. Act I. sc. iii: "He did confound the best part of an hour," &c. STEEVENS. •] 9 From every meaner man's.] [Old copy-meaner man. That is, from that of every meaner man. This kind of phraseology is found in many places in these plays; and as the peculiarities of our author, or rather the language of his age, ought to be scrupulously attended to, Hanmer and the subsequent editors who read here-every meaner man's, ought not in my apprehension to be followed, though we should now write so. MALONE. When I am certified that this, and many corresponding offences against grammar, were common to the writers of our author's age, I shall not persevere in correcting them. But while I suspect (as in the present instance) that such irregularities were the gibberish of a theatre, or the blunders of a transcriber, I shall MAR. Come I too late? COM. Ay, if you come not in the blood of others, But mantled in your own. MAR. Сом. How is't with Titus Lartius? Flower of warriors, MAR. As with a man busied about decrees: Condemning some to death, and some to exile; Ransoming him, or pitying, threat'ning the other; Holding Corioli in the name of Rome, 2 Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, Сом. Where is that slave, Which told me they had beat you to your trenches? Where is he? Call him hither. MAR. Let him alone, He did inform the truth: But for our gentlemen, The common file, (A plague!-Tribunes for them!) forbear to set nonsense before my readers; especially when it can be avoided by the insertion of a single letter, which indeed might have dropped out at the press. STEEVENS. 1 to bedward.] So, in Albumazar, 1615: "Sweats hourly for a dry brown crust to bedward.” STEEVENS. Again, in Peacham's Complete Gentleman, 1627: "Leaping, upon a full stomach, or to bedward, is very dangerous." MALONE. Again, in The Legend of Cardinal Lorraine, 1577, sign. G. 1: They donsed also, lest so soon as their backs were turned to the courtward, and that they had given over the dealings in the affairs, there would come in infinite complaints." REED. Ransoming him, or pitying,] i. e. remitting his ransom. JOHNSON. The mouse ne'er shunn'd the cat, as they did budge From rascals worse than they. Сом. But how prevail'd you? MAR. Will the time serve to tell? I do not think Where is the enemy? Are you lords o' the field? If not, why cease you till Сом. you are so? Marcius, We have at disadvantage fought, and did MAR. How lies their battle? Know you on which side3 They have plac'd their men of trust? Сом. As I guess, Marcius, Their bands in the vaward are the Antiates,* Of their best trust: o'er them Aufidius, Their 3 very heart of hope.5 -on which side &c.] So, in the old translation of Plu tarch: "Martius asked him howe the order of the enemies battell was, and on which side they had placed their best fighting men. The consul made him aunswer that he thought the bandes which were in the vaward of their battell, were those of the Antiates, whom they esteemed to be the warlikest men, and which for valiant corage would geve no place to any of the hoste of their enemies. Then prayed Martius to be set directly against them. The consul graunted him, greatly praysing his corage." STEEVENS. Antiates,] The old copy reads-Antients, which might mean veterans; but a following line, as well as the previous quotation, seems to prove-Antiates to be the proper reading: "Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates.” Our author employs-Antiates as a trisyllable, as if it had been written-Antiats. STEEvens. Mr. Pope made the correction. MALONE. 5 Their very heart of hope.] The same expression is found in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion : MAR. I do beseech you, By all the battles wherein we have fought, Filling the air with swords advanc'd," and darts, Сом. Though I could wish You were conducted to a gentle bath, And balms applied to you, yet dare I never MAR. Those are they That most are willing:-If any such be here, (As it were sin to doubt,) that love this painting Wherein you see me smear'd; if any fear Lesser his person than an ill report;8 66 thy desperate arm "Hath almost thrust quite through the heart of hope." MALONE. In King Henry IV. P. I. we have: "The very bottom and the soul of hope." STEEVENS. • And that you not delay the present;] Delay, for let slip. 8 WARBURTON. ·swords advanc'd,] That is, swords lifted high. if any fear JOHNSON. Lesser his person than an ill report;] The old copy has lessen. If the present reading, which was introduced by Mr. Steevens, be right, his person must mean his personal danger. If any one less fears personal danger, than an ill name, &c. If the fears of any man are less for his person, than they are from an apprehension of being esteemed a coward, &c. We have nearly the same sentiment in Troilus and Cressida : "If there be one among the fair'st of Greece, |