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ED.

I shall inform them.

BRU. And when such time they have begun to

cry,

Let them not cease, but with a din confus'd
Enforce the present execution

Of what we chance to sentence.

ED.

Very well.

SIC. Make them be strong, and ready for this

hint,

When we shall hap to give't them.

BRU.

Go about it.

[Exit Edile.

Put him to choler straight: He hath been us❜d Ever to conquer, and to have his worth

3

Of contradiction: Being once chaf'd, he cannot Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks What's in his heart; and that is there, which looks With us to break his neck."

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Of contradiction:] The modern editors substituted word; but the old copy reads worth, which is certainly right. He has been used to have his worth, or (as we should now say) his pennyworth of contradiction; his full quota or proportion. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

66

You take your pennyworth [of sleep] now."

MALONE.

3 Be rein'd again to temperance;] Our poet seems to have taken several of his images from the old pageants. In the new edition of Leland's Collectanea, Vol. IV. p. 190, the virtue temperance is represented "holding in hyr haund a bitt of an horse."

TOLLET.

Mr. Tollet might have added, that both in painting and sculpture the bit is the established symbol of this virtue. HENLEY. which looks

With us to break his neck.] To look is to wait or expect. The sense I believe is, What he has in heart is waiting there to help us to break his neck. JOHNSON.

The tribune rather seems to mean-The sentiments of Coriola

Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMINIUS,
Senators, and Patricians.

SIC. Well, here he comes.

MEN.

Calmly, I do beseech you.

COR. Ay, as an ostler, that for the poorest piece Will bear the knave by the volume.—The honour'd

gods

Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice Supplied with worthy men! plant love among us! Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, And not our streets with war!6

1 SEN.

MEN. A noble wish.

Amen, amen!

nus's heart are our coadjutors, and look to have their share in promoting his destruction. STEEVENS.

5 Will bear the knave by the volume.] i. e. would bear being called a knave as often as would fill out a volume. STEEVENS.

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Throng our large temples with the shows of peace,

And not our streets with war!] [The old copy-Through.] We should read:

Throng our large temples

The other is rank nonsense.

WARBURTON.

The emendation was made by Mr. Theobald.

The shows of peace are multitudes of people peaceably assembled, either to hear the determination of causes, or for other purposes of civil government. MALONE.

The real shows of peace among the Romans, were the olivebranch and the caduceus; but I question if our author, on the present occasion, had any determinate idea annexed to his words. Mr. Malone's supposition, however, can hardly be right; because the "temples" (i. e. those of the gods,) were never used for the determination of civil causes, &c. To such purposes the Senate and the Forum were appropriated. The temples indeed might be thronged with people who met to thank the gods for a return of peace. STEEVENS.

Re-enter Edile, with Citizens.

SIC. Draw near, ye people.

ÆDI. List to your tribunes; audience: Peace,

I say.

COR. First, hear me speak.

BOTH TRI.

Well, say.-Peace, ho."

COR. Shall I be charg'd no further than this

present?

Must all determine here?

I do demand,

SIC.
If you submit you to the people's voices,
Allow their officers, and are content
To suffer lawful censure for such faults
As shall be prov'd upon you?

COR.

I am content.

MEN. Lo, citizens, he says, he is content: The warlike service he has done, consider; Think on the wounds his body bears, which show Like graves i' the holy churchyard.

COR.

Scars to move laughter only.

MEN.

Scratches with briars,

Consider further,

That when he speaks not like a citizen,

You find him like a soldier: Do not take
His rougher accents for malicious sounds,

8

"Well, say-Peace, ho.] As the metre is here defective, we might suppose our author to have written:

Well, sir; say on.-Peace, ho. STEEVENS.

His rougher accents-] The old copy reads-actions. Mr. Theobald made the change. STEEVENS

His rougher accents are the harsh terms that he uses.

MALONE.

But, as I say, such as become a soldier,

Rather than envy you.

Сом.

9

Well, well, no more.

COR. What is the matter,

That being pass'd for consul with full voice,
I am so dishonour'd, that the very hour
You take it off again?

7. SIC.

Answer to us.

COR. Say then: 'tis true, I ought so.

SIC. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to

take

From Rome all season'd office,' and to wind
Yourself into a power tyrannical;

For which, you are a traitor to the people.
COR. HOW! Traitor?

MEN. Nay; temperately: Your promise. COR. The fires i' the lowest hell fold in the people!

Call me their traitor!-Thou injurious tribune! Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, In thy hands clutch'd' as many millions, in

9 Rather than envy you.] Envy is here taken at large for malignity or ill intention. JOHNSON.

According to the construction of the sentence, envy is evidently used as a verb, and signifies to injure. In this sense it is used by Julietta in The Pilgrim:

"If I make a lie

"To gain your love, and envy my best mistress,
"Pin me up against a wall," &c. M. MASON.

Rather than envy you.] Rather than import ill will to you. See p. 155, n. 8; and Vol. XV. p. 64, n. 2. MALONE.

1

season'd office,] All office established and settled by time, and made familiar to the people by long use. JOHNSON. clutch'd-] i. e. grasp'd. So Macbeth, in his address to the "air-drawn dagger:"

2

"Come, let me clutch thee." STEEVENS.

Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say,
Thou liest, unto thee, with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods.

SIC.

Mark you this, people?

CIT. To the rock with him; to the rock with

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We need not put new matter to his charge:
What you have seen him do, and heard him speak,
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,
Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
Those whose great power must try him; even this,
So criminal, and in such capital kind,

Deserves the extremest death.

BRU.

Serv'd well for Rome,

COR.

But since he hath

BRU. I talk of that, that know it.

What do you prate of service?

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Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying; Pent to linger
But with a grain a day, I would not buy

To the rock &c.] The first folio reads:

To th' rock, to th' rock with him.

The second only:

To th' rock with him.

The present reading is therefore formed out of the two copies.

STEEVENS.

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