Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness

To yield your voices?

BRU.

Could you not have told him, As you were lesson'd,-When he had no power, But was a petty servant to the state,

He was your enemy; ever spake against
Your liberties, and the charters that you bear
I' the body of the weal: and now, arriving
A place of potency, and sway o' the state,
If he should still malignantly remain
Fast foe to the plebeii, your voices might
Be curses to yourselves? You should have said,
That, as his worthy deeds did claim no less
Than what he stood for; so his gracious nature
Would think upon you for your voices, and
Translate his malice towards you into love,
Standing your friendly lord.

8

SIC.
Thus to have said,
As you were fore-advis'd, had touch'd his spirit,
And try'd his inclination; from him pluck'd
Either his gracious promise, which you might,
As cause had call'd you up, have held him to;
Or else it would have gall'd his surly nature,
Which easily endures not article

Tying him to aught; so, putting him to rage,
You should have ta'en the advantage of his choler,
And pass'd him unelected.

BRU.

He did solicit you in free contempt 9,

Did you perceive,

8 Would think upon you —] brance of you, &c. MALONE.

7

arriving

A place of potency,]

Thus the old copy, and rightly. So, in The Third Part of King Henry VI. Act V. Sc. III. : those powers that the queen "Hath rais'd in Gallia,

66

have arriv'd our coast.”

STEEVENS. Would retain a grateful remem

When he did need your loves; and do you think, That his contempt shall not be bruising to you, When he hath power to crush? Why, had your

bodies

No heart among you? Or had you tongues, to cry
Against the rectorship of judgment?
Have you,

SIC.

Ere now, deny'd the asker? and, now again,
On him', that did not ask, but mock, bestow
Your su'd-for tongues 2?

3 CIT. He's not confirm'd, we may deny him yet. 2 CIT. And will deny him:

I'll have five hundred voices of that sound.

1 CIT. I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece 'em.

BRU. Get you hence instantly; and tell those friends,

They have chose a consul, that will from them take
Their liberties; make them of no more voice
Than dogs, that are as often beat for barking,
As therefore kept to do so.

SIC. Let them assemble; And, on a safer judgment, all revoke Your ignorant election: Enforce his pride3,

9— free contempt,] That is, with contempt open and unrestrained. JOHNSON.

I ON him,] Old copy-of him. STEEVENS

2 Your su'd-for TONGUES?] Your voices that hitherto have been solicited. STEEVENS.

-

Your voices, not solicited, by verbal application, but sued-for by this man's merely standing forth as a candidate. Your suedfor tongues, however, may mean, your voices, to obtain which so many make suit to you; and perhaps the latter is the more just interpretation. MALONE.

66

3- Enforce his pride,] Object his pride, and enforce the ob'ection. JOHNSON.

So afterwards:

Enforce him with his envy to the people—."

STEEVENS.

And his old hate unto you: besides, forget not
With what contempt he wore the humble weed;
How in his suit he scorn'd you: but your loves,
Thinking upon his services, took from you
The apprehension of his present portance*,
Which most gibingly 5, ungravely he did fashion
After the inveterate hate he bears you.

BRU.

Lay
A fault on us, your tribunes; that we labour'd
(No impediment between) but that you must
Cast your election on him.

SIC.
Say, you chose him
More after our commandment, than as guided
By your own true affections: and that, your minds
Pre-occupy'd with what you rather must do

Than what you should, made you against the grain
To voice him consul: Lay the fault on us.

BRU. Ay, spare us not. Say, we read lectures
to you,

How youngly he began to serve his country,
How long continued: and what stock he springs of,
The noble house o' the Marcians; from whence

came

That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's son,
Who, after great Hostilius, here was king:
Of the same house Publius and Quintus were,
That our best water brought by conduits hither;
And Censorinus, darling of the people",

4

his present PORTANCE,]

i. e. carriage. So, in Othello : "And portance in my travels' history." STEEVENS. 5 Which gibingly,] The old copy, redundantly:

"Which most gibingly," &c. STEEVENS.

6 And Censorinus, darling of the people,] This verse I have supplied; a line having been certainly left out in this place, as will appear to any one who consults the beginning of Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus, from whence this passage is directly translated, POPE.

The passage in North's translation, 1579, runs thus: "The

And nobly nam'd so, being twice censor 7,
Was his great ancestor 3.

8

SIC.

One thus descended,
That hath beside well in his person wrought
To be set high in place, we did commend

house of the Martians at Rome was of the number of the patricians, out of which hath sprong many noble personages: whereof Ancus Martius was one, king Numaes daughter's sonne, who was king of Rome after Tullus Hostilius. Of the same house were Publius and Quintus, who brought to Rome their best water they had by conduits. Censorinus also came of that familie, that was so surnamed because the people had chosen him censor twice."Publius and Quintus and Censorinus were not the ancestors of Coriolanus, but his descendants. Caius Martius Rutilius did not obtain the name of Censorinus till the year of Rome 487; and the Marcian waters were not brought to that city by aqueducts till the year 613, near 350 years after the death of Coriolanus.

Can it be supposed, that he who would disregard such anachronisms, or rather he to whom they were not known, should have changed Cato, which he found in his Plutarch, to Calves, from a regard to chronology? See a former note, p. 35. MALONE.

7 And nobly nam'd so, being CENSOR TWICE,] The old copy reads:-being twice censor; but for the sake of harmony, I have arranged these words as they stand in our author's original,-Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch: the people had chosen him censor twice." STEEVENS.

66

-

8 And Censorinus

:

Was his great ancestor.] Now the first censor was created U. C. 314, and Coriolanus was banished U. C. 262. The truth is this the passage, as Mr. Pope observes above, was taken from Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus; who, speaking of the house of Coriolanus, takes notice both of his ancestors and of his posterity, which our author's haste not giving him leave to observe, has here confounded one with the other. Another instance of his inadvertency, from the same cause, we have in The First Part of King Henry IV. where an account is given of the prisoners taken on the plains of Holmedon :

"Mordake the earl of Fife, and eldest son
"To beaten Douglas.

But the Earl of Fife was not son to Douglas, but to Robert Duke of Albany, Governor of Scotland. He took his account from Holinshed, whose words are "And of prisoners amongst others were these, Mordack earl of Fife, son to the governor Arkimbald, earl Douglas," &c. And he imagined that the Governor and Earl Douglas were one and the same person. WARBURTON.

To your remembrances: but you have found,
Scaling his present bearing with his past,
That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your sudden approbation.

BRU.

Say, you ne'er had don't,
(Harp on that still,) but by our putting on ':
And presently, when you have drawn your number,
Repair to the Capitol.

CIT. We will so: almost all [Several speak.
Repent in their election. [Exeunt Citizens,
Let them go on;

BRU.
This mutiny were better put in hazard,
Than stay, past doubt, for greater:
If, as his nature is, he fall in rage
With their refusal, both observe and answer
The vantage of his anger 2.

SIC.

To the Capitol:

Come; we'll be there before the stream o' the

people;

And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own,
Which we have goaded onward.

9 Scaling his present bearing with his past,] his past and present behaviour. JOHNSON.

1

2

by our PUTTING ON :] i. e. incitation.
you protect this course,

66

3

"And put it on by your allowance." STEEVENS. So, in King Henry VIII.:

66

as putter on "Of these exactionsobserve and answer

-." MALONE.

The vantage of his anger.] Mark, catch, and improve the opportunity, which his hasty anger will afford us. JOHNSON. the STREAM of the people ;] So, in King Henry VIII. : The rich stream

66

[Exeunt.

That is, weighing

So, in K. Lear:

"Of lords and ladies having brought the queen

"To a prepar'd place in the choir," &c. MALONE.