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VIR. No, good madam; I will not out of doors. VAL. Not out of doors!

FOL. She shall, she shall.

VIR. Indeed, no, by your patience: I will not over the threshold, till my lord return from the

wars.

VAL. Fye, you confine yourself most unreason. ably; Come, you must go visit the good lady that lies in.

VIR. I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers; but I cannot go thither. VOL. Why, I pray you?

VIR. 'Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love.

VAL. You would be another Penelope: yet, they say, all the yarn she spun, in Ulysses' absence, did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come; I would, your cambrick were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us.

VIR. No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth.

VAL. In truth, la, go with me; and I'll tell you excellent news of your husband.

VIR. O, good madam, there can be none yet. VAL. Verily, I do not jest with you; there came news from him last night.

VIR. Indeed, madam ?

VAL. In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is :-The Volces have an army forth; against whom Cominius the general is gone, with one part of our Roman power: your lord, and Titus Lartius, are set down before their city Corioli; they nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us.

VIR. Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in every thing hereafter.

VOL. Let her alone, lady; as she is now, she will but disease our better mirth.

VAL. In troth, I think, she would:-Fare you well then.-Come, good sweet lady.-Pr'ythee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o' door, and go along with us.

VIR. No: at a word, madam; indeed, I must not. I wish you much mirth. VAL. Well, then farewell.

SCENE IV.

Before Corioli.

[Exeunt.

Enter, with Drum and Colours, MARCIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, Officers, and Soldiers. To them a Messenger.

MAR. Yonder comes news:-A wager, they have

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MAR. Say, has our general met the enemy? MESS. They lie in view; but have not spoke as

yet.

LART. So, the good horse is mine.

MAR.

I'll buy him of you.

LART. No, I'll nor sell, nor give him: lend you him, I will,

For half a hundred years.-Summon the town.
MAR. How far off lie these armies?

MESS.

Within this mile and half3.

3 Within this mile AND HALF.] The two last words, which disturb the measure, should be omitted; as we are that-"'Tis not a mile" between the two armies.

told in p. 39, STEEVENS.

MAR. Then shall we hear their 'larum, and they

ours.

Now, Mars, I pr'ythee, make us quick in work; That we with smoking swords may march from hence,

To help our fielded friends!-Come, blow thy

blast.

They sound a Parley.

Enter, on the Walls, some

Senators, and Others.

Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls?

1 SEN. No, nor a man that fears you less than

he,

That's lesser than a little 5. Hark, our drums

[Alarums afar off. Are bringing forth our youth: We'll break our

walls,

Rather than they shall pound us up: our gates, Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with

rushes;

They'll open of themselves.

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O, they are at it!

There is Aufidius; list, what work he makes

Amongst your cloven army.

4

MAR.

FIELDED friends!] i. e. our friends who are in the field of battle. STEEVENS.

5

nor a man that fears you LESS than he,

That's lesser than a little.] The sense requires it to be read: nor a man that fears you more than he ;

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Or, more probably :

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nor a man but fears you less than he,
"That's lesser than a little- " JOHNSON.

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The text, I am confident, is right, our author almost always entangling himself when he uses less and more.

See vol. x.

p. 118, n. 4. Lesser in the next line shows that less in that preceding was the author's word, and it is extremely improbable that he should have written-but fears you less, &c. MALONE.

LART. Their noise be our instruction.-Ladders,

ho!

The Volces enter and pass over the Stage.

MAR. They fear us not, but issue forth their city. Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight With hearts more proof than shields.-Advance, brave Titus:

They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts, Which makes me sweat with wrath.-Come, on my fellows;

He that retires, I'll take him for a Volce,
And he shall feel mine edge.

Alarum, and exeunt Romans and Volces, fighting.
The Romans are beaten back to their Trenches.
Re-enter MARCIUS.

MAR. All the contagion of the south light on

you,

You shames of Rome! you herd of-Boils and plagues'

• Re-enter Marcius.] The old copy reads-Enter Marcius cursing. STEEvens.

7 You shames of Rome! you herd of-Boils and plagues, &c.] This passage, like almost every other abrupt sentence in these plays, was rendered unintelligible in the old copy by inaccurate punctuation. See vol. iv. p. 309, n. 6; vol. vii. p. 125, n. 8. For the present regulation I am answerable. "You herd of cowards!" Marcius would say, but his rage prevents him. In a former passage he is equally impetuous and abrupt : one's Junius, Brutus,

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"Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'sdeath,

"The rabble should have first," &c.

Speaking of the people in a subsequent scene, he uses the same expression:

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Are these your herd?

"Must these have voices," &c.

Again: "More of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians."

In Mr. Rowe's edition herds was printed instead of herd, the VOL. XIV.

D

Plaster you o'er; that you may be abhorr'd
Further than seen, and one infect another
Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese,
That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
From slaves that apes would beat? Pluto and hell!
All hurt behind; backs red, and faces pale
With flight and agued fear! Mend, and charge
home,

Or, by the fires of heaven, I'll leave the foe,
And make my wars on you: look to't: Come on;
If you'll stand fast, we'll beat them to their wives,
As they us to our trenches followed.

Another Alarum. The Volces and Romans re-enter, and the Fight is renewed. The Volces retire into Corioli, and MARCIUS follows them to the Gates.

So, now the gates are ope:-Now prove good seconds:

"Tis for the followers fortune widens them,

Not for the fliers: mark me, and do the like.

[He enters the Gates, and is shut in.

1 Soz. Fool-hardiness; not I.

2 SOL.

3 Soz. See, they have shut him in.

ALL.

Nor I.

[Alarum continues.

To the pot I warrant him.

Enter TITUS LARTIUS.

LART. What is become of Marcius?

ALL.

Slain, sir, doubtless.

1 SOL. Following the fliers at the very heels, With them he enters: who, upon the sudden,

reading of the old copy; and the passage has been exhibited thus in the modern editions:

"You shames of Rome, you! Herds of boils and plagues "Plaster you o'er!" MALONE.

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