Mar. May these same instruments, which you

profane,

Never sound more! When drums and trumpets shall
I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be
Made all of false-fac'd soothing: When steel grows
Soft as the parasite's silk, let him be made

An overture for the wars! No more, I say;
For that I have not wash'd my nose that bled,
Or foil'd some debile7 wretch,-which, without note,
Here's many else have done, you shout me forth
In acclamations hyperbolical;

As if I lov'd my little should be dieted
In praises sauc'd with lies.

Com.
Too modest are you;
More cruel to your good report, than grateful
To us that give you truly: by your patience,
If 'gainst yourself you be incens'd, we'll put you
(Like one that means his proper harm) in manacles,
Then reason safely with you.-Therefore, be it
known,

As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius Wears this war's garland: in token of the which My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him, With all his trim belonging; and, from this time, For what he did before Corioli, call him,

With all the applause and clamour of the host,

When steel grows

Soft as silk, let him be made

An overture for the wars!'

I think with Mr. Tyrwhitt that we should read a coverture. The personal pronoun him is not unfrequently used by old writers instead of it, the neuter. The sense of the passage will then be complete and apt :-' When steel grows soft as silk, let armour be made of silk instead of steel.' Notwithstanding Malone's ingenious argument, it is impossible to extract sense from the word overture, which anciently, as now, meant 'a motion, or offer made, an opening, or entrance.'

7 Weak, feeble.

CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS.

Bear the addition nobly ever!

[Flourish. Trumpets sound, and Drums.

All. Caius Marcius Coriolanus!

Cor. I will go wash;

And when my face is fair, you shall perceive Whether I blush, or no: Howbeit, I thank you :I mean to stride your steed; and, at all times, To undercrest your good addition 8,

To the fairness of my power.

Com.

So, to our tent:
Where, ere we do repose us, we will write

To Rome of our success.-You, Titus Lartius,
Must to Corioli back: send us to Rome

The best with whom we may articulate9

For their own good, and ours.

Lart.

I shall, my lord.

Cor. The gods begin to mock me. I that now Refus'd most princely gifts, am bound to beg Of my lord general.

Com.

Take it 'tis yours.—What is't?

Cor. I sometime lay, here in Corioli,

At a poor

man's house; he us'd me kindly:

He cried to me; I saw him prisoner;

But then Aufidius was within my view,

And wrath o'erwhelm'd my pity: I request you
To give my poor host freedom.

8

Com.

O, well begg'd!

To undercrest your good addition,

To the fairness of my power'

appears to mean, he will endeavour to support the honourable distinction conferred upon him to the fair extent of his power.'

9 i. e. the chief men of Corioli, with whom we may enter into articles. Bullokar has the word 'articulate, to set down articles, or conditions of agreement.' We still retain the word capitulate, which anciently had nearly the same meaning, viz. To article or agree upon articles.'

Were he the butcher of my son, he should
Be free, as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus.
Lart. Marcius, his name?

Cor.

By Jupiter, forgot:

I am weary; yea, my memory is tir'd.

Have we no wine here?

Com.

Go we to our tent:

The blood upon your visage dries: 'tis time
It should be look'd to: come.

[Exeunt.

SCENE X. The Camp of the Volces.

A Flourish.

Cornets. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS,

bloody, with two or three Soldiers.

Auf. The town is taʼen!

1 Sol. "Twill be deliver'd back on good condition.
Auf. Condition ?-

I would, I were a Roman; for I cannot,
Being a Volce1, be that I am.-Condition!-
What good condition can a treaty find

I' the part that is at mercy? Five times, Marcius,
I have fought with thee; so often hast thou beat me;
And would'st do so, I think, should we encounter
As often as we eat.-By the elements,

If e'er again I meet him beard to beard,

He is mine, or I am his: Mine emulation

Hath not that honour in't, it had; for where 2

I thought to crush him in an equal force

3

(True sword to sword), I'll potch at him some way; Or wrath, or craft, may get him.

1 The Volsci are called Volsces throughout the old translation of Plutarch, which Shakspeare followed.

2 Where for whereas, as in other places before noticed.

3 To potch is to thrust at with a sharp pointed instrument. Thus in Carew's Survey of Cornewal, p. 31:-' They use to poche them [i.e. fish] with an instrument somewhat like a salmon-speare. It is from the Fr. pocher.

1 Sol.

He's the devil.

Auf. Bolder, though not so subtle: My valour's
poison'd*,

With only suffering stain by him; for him
Shall fly out of itself: nor sleep, nor sanctuary,
Being naked, sick: nor fane, nor Capitol,
The prayers of priests, nor times of sacrifice,
Embarquements 5 all of fury, shall lift up
Their rotten privilege and custom 'gainst
My hate to Marcius: where I find him, were
At home, upon my brother's guard®, even there
Against the hospitable canon, would I

it

Wash my fierce hand in his heart. Go you to the city; Learn, how 'tis held; and what they are that must Be hostages for Rome.

1 Sol.

Will not you go?

Auf. I am attended at the cypress grove:

I pray you

("Tis south the city mills 8), bring me word thither How the world goes; that to the pace of it

I may spur on my journey.

1 Sol.

I shall, sir. [Exeunt.

4 Mr. Tyrwhitt proposed to read :

'My valour poison'd,' &c.

And the context seems to require this emendation. To mischief him my valour should deviate from its native generosity.'

5 Embarquements, as appears from Cotgrave and Sherwood, meant not only an embarkation, but an embargoing; which is evidently the sense of the word in this passage. Thus Sherwood: To imbark, to imbargue. Embarquer. An imbarking, an imbarguing. Embarquement. In Cole's English Dictionary, 1701, the word is given imbarge or embarge.

6 i. e. in my own house, with my brother posted to protect him. 7 Attended is waited for. So in Twelfth Night :

Thy intercepter attends thee at the orchard end.'

8 Malone observes that Shakspeare often introduces these minute local descriptions, probably to give an air of truth to his pieces. The poet attended not to the anachronism of mills near Antium. Lydgate has placed corn-mills near to Troy.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Rome. A Publick Place.

Enter MENENIUS, SICINIUS, and BRUTUS.

Men. The augurer tells me, we shall have news to-night.

Bru. Good or bad?

Men. Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love not Marcius.

Sic. Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.
Men. Pray you, who does the wolf love 1?
Sic. The lamb.

Men. Ay, to devour him; as the hungry plebeians would the noble Marcius.

Bru. He's a lamb indeed, that baes like a bear. Men. He's a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two are old men; tell me one thing that I shall ask you.

་

Both Trib. Well, sir.

Men. In what enormity is Marcius poor in, that you two have not in abundance ?

1 When the tribune, in reply to Menenius's remark on the people's hate to Coriolanus, had observed that 'even beasts know their friends,' Menenius asks, whom does the wolf love?' implying that there are beasts which love nobody, and that among those beasts are the people.

2 It has been already observed that pleonasms of this kind were by no means unfrequent in Shakspeare's age. Thus in As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7:-'The scene wherein we play in Malone has cited several instances, one of which from a Letter of Lord Burghley to the Earl of Shrewsbury, among the Weymouth MSS. is to our present purpose:- I did earnestly enqre of hym in what estate he stood in for discharge of his former. debts.' See vol. ii. p. 148, note 20.