CORIOLANUS.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

2 Cit. "Our business is not unknown to the Senate."

So it stands in the folio here and in the subsequent speeches; but as Malone rightly saw, it should be 1 Cit.

"But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture

To scale it a little more."

All attempts to make sense of 'scale' having been most complete failures, it only remains to read, with Theobald, stale.

"I'll not stale the jest

By my relation."

Massinger, Unnat. Comb. iv. 2.

"Our disgrace with a tale. But an't please you deliver it."

"Even to the court of the heart, to the seat of the brain."

So perhaps it were better to read.

"With every minutes you do change a mind."

The your, for 'a,' of Collier's folio seems preferable.

"Of their own choice. One's Junius Brutus, another."

"The present wars devour him! He is grown

Too proud to be so valiant."

Such also is the punctuation of Warburton. 'To be' to be in being. See Introd. p. [70].

Sc. 2.

"What ever have been thought on in this state."

We should either read hath for 'have,' or we for 'been.'

Sc. 3.

"At Grecian sword contenning ..."

So the folio reads; an evident misprint for contemning. The aposiopesis removes all need of alteration. The usual reading is contending, that of 2nd folio.

"Catched it again; or whether his fall enraged him."

The usual substitution of or for and.

Sc. 4.

"No, nor a man that fears you less than he,

That's lesser than a little."

I read, with Johnson, but for 'nor.'

"Fool-hardiness! not I.—Nor I.—Nor I."

"And, when it bows, stands up. Thou art left, Marcius ...

A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art,

Were not so rich a jewel."

A line at least has, I think, been left out after the first; or there may be an aposiopesis.

Sc. 6.

"The Roman gods

Lead their successes," etc.

It is evident from the context that the poet wrote Ye, not 'The,' as in Ant. and Cleop. v. 2. They were written alike.

"The mouse ne'er shunn'd the cat as they did budge

From rascals worse than they."

'Budge' in its present sense seems to be a very feeble term; but in Cole's Dictionary we have "To budge, pedem referre;" and in 3 Hen. VI. i. 4,

"With that we charg'd again; but out, alas!

We bodg'd again."

There seems to be an allusion to deer in 'rascals.' We had the same allusion above in

"Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,

Leadest first to win some vantage."

"And four shall quickly draw out my command

Which men are best inclined."

I read forth for 'four'; 'command' is the nom. to 'draw.'

Sc. 7.

"Hence, then, and shut your gates upon us."

Sc. 8.

"That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny."

Here 'bragg'd' is, bragged of, that you brag of; 'progeny' progenitors, and 'whip' the implement with which they scourged their foes. Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii.) terms Hector the "Grekis yerd."

Sc. 9.

"When steel grows

Smooth as the parasite's silk, let him be made

An overture for the wars."

By 'him' in the second line can only be meant the parasite, and what is the meaning of his being an 'overture for the wars'? I feel convinced that it is a printer's error for a noun; and I read pipes, which might be thus mistaken. The meaning then would be, when things are so, let pipes and tabors, not trumpets and drums, be used in our armies, grown thus effeminate.

"My throat of war be turn'd,

Which quired with my drum, into a pipe

Small as a eunuch's," etc.—iii. 2.

"At a poor man's house; he used me very kindly."

Sc. 10.

"Where I find him, were it

At home, upon my brother's guard, even there,

Against the hospitable canon, would I

Wash my fierce hand in his heart."

With the fullest conviction I read for 'brother's guard' household hearth; for that was the very place where he did find him. "He got him up straight to the chimney hearth, and sate him down" (North's Plutarch, p. 232). Besides, we never hear that Aufidius had a brother; and it should be under, not upon, the guard; a man is, or stands, on his own not on another's guard. In Rich. II. iv. 1 we have "under his household roof;" and household hearth occurs in Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming, iii. 17.

Act II.

Sc. 1.

"What harm can your beesome conspectuities glean out of this character?"

Regarding 'beesome' as a corruption, the editors have all adopted Theobald's reading, bisson, which occurs in Hamlet (ii. 2) in the sense of blinding. Mr. Singer, however, quotes from Huloet's Dictionary "Blynde or Beasomborne, cæcigenus," which proves the text to be right.

"For these in honour follows Coriolanus."

"I have lived

To see inherited my very wishes,

And the buildings of my fancy * * *"

We might supply turn'd to sense.

"Whiles she chats of him. The kitchen malkin pins."

"At some time when his soaring influence

Shall teach the people."

There is perhaps an aposiopesis here; otherwise I should incline to read touch, as Mr. Knight and Collier's folio also read.

"The blind to hear him speak. Matrons flung their gloves."

Sc. 2.

"We met here, both to thank and to remember."

Editors in general read meet. I read 'We are met.'

"We shall be blest to do, if he remember."

Collier's folio read prest, i.e. ready; but no change is needed. "And then we shall be bless'd To do your pleasure" (King John iii. 1). It is the same as happy of the present day.

"Alone he entered

The mortal gate of the city, which he painted

With shunless destiny."

I do not see the meaning of 'painted' here. Perhaps the right word is parted, i.e. burst open, as it had been closed on him, i. 5. In Rom. and Jul. ii. 5 we have the same change of ar to ain.

Sc. 3.

"Some brown, some black, some auburn."

For 'auburn' the folio has abraham.

"The price of it is to ask it kindly.—Kindly?"

"Why in this woolvish tongue should I stand here."

As, in Othello (i. 1), the folio reads "tongued consuls" for "toged consuls" of the 4to, editors here properly read toge for 'tongue'; the 2nd folio has gown. As 'woolvish' offers very little sense, we should, with Collier's folio, read woolless; for it has been already (ii. 1) termed "the napless vesture of humility."

"I have seen and heard of; for your voices I

Have done many things, some less, some more. Your voices."

"That our best water brought by conduits hither,

And nobly nam'd so, twïce being Censor."

That a line has been lost here is beyond doubt. Pope, who is generally followed, added, "And Censorinus, darling of the people." But as the words in North's Plutarch are "so surnamed because the people had chosen him censor twice," it might be better to read "And Censorinus, he that was so nam'd."

Act III.

Sc. 1.

Com. "You are like to do such business."

With Malone I read Cor., to whom it is better suited. The names are often given wrong in this play.

"Which we disdain'd should tetter us."

"O good, but most unwise Patricians!"

The folio reads 'O God!' the judicious alteration is Theobald's, as usual. See on Ham. ii. 2.

"They know the corn

Was not our recompense, resting well assured

They ne'er did service for 't."

For 'our' Southern read their, which seems to have been the poet's word.

"Could never be the native

Of our so frank donation."

As I have never met with 'native' in the sense of origin, source, I think, and so did Mason, that the right word is motive.

"How shall this bosom multiplied digest

The senate's courtesy."

I do not think that the text is, in any place in these plays, more certainly correct than it is here; yet some late editors adopt without hesitation bisson multitude, the reading of Collier's folio. By 'bosom multiplied' the poet means the union or complex of the bosoms, i.e. hearts, affections, of the people. In his next speech Cor. uses in a similar manner "multitudinous tongue;" and in ii. 2 we meet "multiplying spawn." In Lear (v. 3) we have "the common bosom;" and in our poet's Lover's Complaint "That he did in the general bosom reign."

"To jump a body with a dangerous physic."

For 'Jump' Pope read vamp, Singer imp. 'Jump' is risk, hazard, and the verb seems, like so many others, to be here causative.

"Go call the people; in whose name I myself."

2. Sen. "Weapons, weapons," etc.

So the speech is given in the folio. In the Globe Shakespeare it is given Senators, etc., and what follows as the discordant cries of the various parties, which certainly seems to be more effective.

"Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me do."

"Lay hands upon him.—Help Marcius, help, help!"

Com. "Stand fast

We have as many friends as enemies."

I think this should be Cor., and I have so given it.

Cor. "Come, sir, along with us."

This speech evidently belongs to Com.

"Leave us to cure this cause.—For 'tis a sore upon us,

You cannot tent yourself."

I think we should either omit 'upon us,' or for 'us' read you.

Cor. "I would they were barbarians, as they are,

Though in Rome litter'd, not Romans, as they are not,

Though calv'd in the porch o' the Capitol!...

Men. Begone,

Put not your worthy rage into your tongue."

So, I think judiciously, Tyrwhitt arranges, and he has been generally and properly followed. The folio gives the whole to Menenius, to whom it is not at all suited.

"Or Jove for 's power to thunder. His heart 's his mouth."

I would read 'in his mouth.' "My voice is in my sword" (Macb. v. 7). "He wears his tongue in his arms" (Tr. and Cress. iii. 3).

"To eject him hence

Were but one danger, and to keep him here

Our certain death."

I read our for 'one,' as Theobald also proposed. In Ant. and Cleop. (i. 4) we have "One great competitor," where the sense demands our; and in Son. xcix. "Our blushing shame," where editors read, as sense requires, One.

"Form [in peace] to his utmost peril."

I omit 'in peace,' as it had just occurred, is needless, and disturbs the metre.

Sc. 2.

"I talk of you."

Here Collier's folio places the entrance of Volumnia, and I think rightly.

"O sir, sir, sir!"

The son, son, son! of Collier's folio is much better. She never elsewhere says Sir to him. See on Meas. for Meas. iii. 1.

"The thwartings of your dispositions."

'Thwartings' is the emendation of Theobald for things of the folio.

"I have a heart as little apt as yours,

But yet a brain," etc.

There is, I think, either an aposiopesis at the end of the first line; or a line is lost, as Volumnia is speaking quite calmly; or, to stoop, to yield, or something of that sort is omitted.

"Before he should thus stoop to the heart."

Here again Theobald emended, herd for 'heart.'

"You are too absolute;

Though therein you can never be too noble.

But when extremities speak ... I have heard you say."

So I think we should point to make sense.

"Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you with."

The metre requires a syllable; the 2nd folio reads to.

"But with such words that are but roated in."

'Roated' is probably roted; but no such verb occurs elsewhere as rote. Boswell proposed rooted.

"Not only what is dangerous present but

The loss of what is past."

There can be little doubt that only was the word omitted.

"Often thus; which correcting thy stout heart,

Now humble as the ripest mulberry,

That will not hold the handling, [or] say to them."

By these slight corrections this place gains sense—a thing it never had before. All through the speech, it may be observed, Volumnia acts the part she would have her son perform. The transposition he had made in the first line—where the folio has 'Which often thus'—having perplexed the printer, he took 'humble' for a verb, and so introduced 'or' to try to make sense. (Introd. p. [67].) Mr. Dyce says "the passage now stands as Shakespeare wrote it." Why, then, has he not given us the sense of it?

"Even as she speaks, why all their hearts were yours."

"Must I with my base tongue give to my noble heart."

It might be better to omit the first 'my' and 'to.'

"Well, mildly be it then; mildly be it then."

For an exactly similar effacement at the end of a scene see on Temp. iii. 1.

Sc. 3.

"He has been used

Ever to conquer and to have his worth

Of contradiction."

I do not well understand 'worth' here. Rowe read word; but I cannot approve of it; wreak would seem better. We have "a heart of wreak" (iv. 5); also Tit. And. iv. 3, 4. See on M. for M. ii. 1.

"Rather than envy to you.—Well, well, no more."

"Given hostile strokes, and that not only in the present."

"I have been consul, and can show from Rome

Her enemies' marks upon me."

The preposition should be 'fore, for, or to.

"That won you without blows! Despising for you

The City, thus I turn my back upon it.

There is a world elsewhere."

Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"You were used

To say extremities was the trier of spirits."

The 2nd folio reads 'extremity,' and it is usually followed, and is perhaps right; yet the text is not wrong. See Introd. p. [72].

"That Fortune's blows,

When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves

A noble cunning."

Though this may seem devoid of sense, it is, I think, what the poet wrote. If so, we must take 'wounded' actively, like "Under my burden groan'd" (Temp. i. 2). "It is twice blessed" (M. of Ven. v. 1) etc.; and then 'gentle' will denote that the blows were open and honourable ones. (See the parallel passage in Tr. and Cress, i. 3.) If this should not satisfy, we might perhaps read in the gentle-minded. Pope read 'gentle-warded.' 'Cunning' here is skill taken in a good sense, as in "May my right-hand forget her cunning" (Ps. cxxxvii).

"Like to a lonely dragon that his fen

Makes feared."

Perhaps the right reading would be den.

"Will or not exceed the common, or be caught."

The negative seems required to make sense.

"My first son,

Whither wilt thou go?"

She had, according to herself, no other son (see i. 3); and again she says of herself (v. 3), "While she, poor hen, fond of no second brood." I have never met with 'first' in the sense of noblest, that given it here by the critics. I would therefore read fairest. In Tr. and Cr. we have "fair Lord Æneas"(i. 3); "fair Prince" (iii. 1, v. 1); "fair Diomed" (iv. 1); fair beholders (Prol.).

"More than a wild exposture to each chance."

Southern read exposure, which probably the poet wrote.

Cor. "Oh, the gods!"

I give this speech to Vir., to whom it is better suited. Her only other speech in this scene is "O Heavens! O Heavens!"

Sc. 3.

"But your favour is well appeared by your tongue."

Steevens read approved, Singer appayed. The poet probably wrote has, pronounced as, of which the printer made 'is.'

Sc. 4.

"My birth-place have I, and my love's upon."

With Steevens, I read hate for 'have.' This change of adjacent letters is a common error with printers.

Sc. 5.

"All-noble Marcius. Let me entwine

Mine arms about that body."

"Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,

And waked half-dead with nothing."

A line is apparently lost here; or there is an aposiopesis.

"Like a bold flood o'erbear her. O! come, go in."

"To fright 'em ere destroy 'em. But come in."

"This peace is good for nothing but to rust iron."

Steevens, without being aware of the metric requirement, made the same addition.

"than War's a destroyer of men.—'Tis so, and as

War in some sort may be said to be a ravisher," etc.

Sc. 6.

"If he had gone forth Consul, have found it so."

"And who resist

Are mocked for their valiant ignorance."

Sc. 7.

"Which he was lord of; or whether nature in him."

"And Power, unto itself most commendable,

Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

To extol what it hath done."

I agree with Steevens in regarding this passage and the comments on it as being equally unintelligible. The meaning seems to be one which Shakespeare frequently expresses (see Tr. and Cr. i. 3, ii. 3, iii. 3)—self-praise is no praise. 'Unto itself commendable' is, then, standing high in the possessor's estimation. The sense yielded by 'tomb' and 'chair' is most trivial, and I would therefore venture to propose

"Hath not a tongue so evident as a charmer's."

Charms and spells, we know, were murmured or muttered in a low tone ("wizards that peep and that mutter" Is. viii. 19); and if the final letters of charmer's had been effaced—like in him a few lines higher—and only char left, the printer might easily have taken it for 'chair,' and so have made 'tomb' to correspond. For 'chair' Singer reads hair; Collier's folio cheer. Charmer occurs in Oth. iii. 4, and the poet had met with it in his Bible. I have introduced it again in Ant. and Cl. iv. 8.

"One fire drives out one fire; one nail one nail;

Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail."

For 'fouler' Dyce reads faulter, Singer foil'd are. We might also conjecture fall, and; the final d in this last not being sounded. Fall and fail come thus together in "Fall Greeks, fail fame; honour or go or stay" (Tr. and Cr. v. 1). It seems, however, safest to read, with Malone, as I have done, founder. We have "All his tricks founder" (H. VIII. iii. 2). What is said of fire in the first line is a favourite idea with our poet. We have it again in Two Gent. ii. 4, K. John, iii. 1. It is an allusion to the homœopathic mode of curing a burn by holding it to the fire. By the fires, etc., he means Coriolanus and himself.

Act V.

Sc. 1.

"It was a bare petition of a State

To one whom they had punish'd."

I do not well understand 'bare' here. Mason read base, which is not quite satisfactory.

"Pray you, go to him.—What should I do there?"

"Unheard, what then? * * *

But as a discontented friend, grief-shot."

I would supply How, then, should I return?

"Good faith, I'll prove him.

Speed how it will, I shall ere long have knowledge

Of my success."

This is also the punctuation of Delius.

"I tell you he does sit in gold."

For 'in gold' we might read a god: "He sits 'mongst men, like a descended god" (Cymb. i. 7). But it may be his chair of state that is meant.

"What he would do

He sent in writing after me; what he would not

· · · ·

Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions."

A line is lost between the two last lines.

Sc. 2.

"For I have ever verified my friends—

Of whom he's chief—with all the size that verity

Would without lapsing suffer."

As 'verified' would seem to have been suggested by the following 'verity,' we might read, with Hanmer, magnified, or perhaps repeat 'amplified.'

"Out of your gates with sighs."

As 'your' seems utterly unsuitable here, we might read our or yon.

Sc. 3.

"That, if you fail in our request, the blame

May hang upon your hardness."

Pope also saw that 'you' should be we.

Sc. 4.

"For the plebeians have got your fellow-tribune."

Sc. 5.

"Holp to reap the fame

Which he did end all his."

For 'end' Rowe read make; Collier's folio ear; Singer, after a writer in Notes and Queries, reads ear for 'reap,' and reap for 'end.' I would read inn for 'end.' "Give me leave to inn the crop" (All's Well, i. 3). "All was inned at last into the King's barn" (Bacon).

"Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli."

I think Malone was right in reading Volsces, and I have followed him. Volscians is rarely a subst. in this play.