6

COR.

Stand fast";

The gods forbid !

We have as many friends as enemies.
MEN. Shall it be put to that?

1 SEN.

I pr'ythee, noble friend, home to thy house;
Leave us to cure this cause.

MEN.
For 'tis a sore upon us,
You cannot tent yourself: Begone, 'beseech you.
COM. Come, sir, along with us.

COR. I would they were barbarians, (as they are, Though in Rome litter'd,) not Romans, (as they are

not,

Though calv'd i' the porch o' the Capitol,)—

MEN.

8

Be gone ;

Put not your worthy rage into your tongue;
One time will owe another 9.

6 Stand fast; &c.] [Old copy-Com. Stand fast, &c.] This speech certainly should be given to Coriolanus; for all his friends persuade him to retire. So, Cominius presently after :

Come, sir, along with us."

WARBURTON.

7 For, 'tis a sore UPON US,] The two last impertinent words, which destroy the measure, are an apparent interpolation.

STEEVENS.

8 Cor. I would they were barbarians (as they are,
Though in Rome litter'd,) not Romans, (as they are not,
Though calv'd i' the porch o' the Capitol,)-

Be gone; &c.] The beginning of this speech [attributed in the old copy to Menenius], I am persuaded, should be given to Coriolanus. The latter part only belongs to Menenius :

"Be gone;

"Put not your worthy rage," &c. TYRWHITT.

I have divided this speech according to Mr. Tyrwhitt's direction.

STEEVENS. The word begone, certainly belongs to Menenius, who was very anxious to get Coriolanus away.—In the preceding page he

says:

66

'Go, get you to your house; begone, away,—” And in a few lines after, he repeats the same request :

66

Pray you, be gone;

"I'll try whether my old wit be in request

"With those that have but little." M. MASON.

• One time will owe another.] I know not whether to owe in

COR.

On fair ground,

I could myself

I could beat forty of them.

MEN.

Take up a brace of the best of them; yea, the two tribunes.

Coм. But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetick; And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands Against a falling fabrick.-Will you hence, Before the tag return1? whose rage doth rend Like interrupted waters, and o'erbear

What they are used to bear.

MEN.

gone:

Pray you, be I'll try whether my old wit be in request With those that have but little; this must be patch'd With cloth of any colour. COM.

Nay, come away.

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, and Others.

1 PAT. This man has marr'd his fortune. MEN. His nature is too noble for the world: He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for his power to thunder. His heart's his mouth :

What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent;

this place means to possess by right or to be indebted. Either sense may be admitted. One time, in which the people are seditious, will give us power in some other time: or, this time of the people's predominance will run them in debt: that is, will lay them open to the law, and expose them hereafter to more servile subjection. JOHNSON.

I believe Menenius means, This time will owe us one more fortunate.' It is a common expression to say, 'This day is yours, the next may be mine.' M. MASON.

The meaning seems to be, One time will compensate for another. Our time of triumph will come hereafter: time will be in our debt, will owe us a good turn, for our present disgrace. Let us trust to futurity.' MALONE.

1 Before the TAG return?] The lowest and most despicable of the populace are still denominated by those a little above them, Tag, rag, and bobtail. JOHNSON.

And, being angry, does forget that ever

He heard the name of death.

Here's goodly work!

2 PAT.

[A noise within.

I would they were a-bed!

MEN. I would they were in Tyber!-What, the

vengeance,

Could he not speak them fair?

Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, with the Rabble.

SIC.

Where is this viper,

That would depopulate the city, and
Be every man himself?

MEN.

You worthy tribunes,

SIC. He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock With rigorous hands; he hath resisted law,

And therefore law shall scorn him further trial

Than the severity of the publick power,

Which he so sets at nought.

1 CIT.

He shall well know,

The noble tribunes are the people's mouths,

And we their hands.

CIT. He shall, sure on't'.

MEN. Sir, sir,—

SIC. Peace.

[Several speak together.

MEN. Do not cry, havock, where you should

but hunt

With modest warrant.

2 He shall, sure ON'T.] Perhaps our author wrote-with reference to the foregoing speech:

"He shall, be sure on't."

i. e. be assured that he shall be taught the respect due to both the tribunes and the people. STEEVENS.

3 Sir,] Old copy, redundantly-Sir, sir.

STEEvens.

4 Do not CRY, HAVOCK, where you should but hunt

With modest warrant.] i. e. Do not give the signal for un

limited slaughter, &c. STEEVENS.

SIC.

Sir, how comes it, that you

Have holp to make this rescue ?

MEN.

Hear me speak

As I do know the consul's worthiness,

So can I name his faults:

SIC.

Consul!-what consul?

MEN. The consul Coriolanus.
BRU.

CIT. No, no, no, no, no.

He a consul!

MEN. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good

people,

I may be heard, I'd crave a word or two;

5

The which shall turn you to no further harm,
Than so much loss of time.

"To cry havock" was, I believe, originally a sporting phrase, from hafoc, which in Saxon signifies a hawk. It was afterwards used in war. So, in King John :

"Cry havock, kings."

And in Julius Cæsar:

66

Cry havock, and let slip the dogs of war."

It seems to have been the signal for general slaughter, and is expressly forbid in The Ordinances des Battailles, 9 R. ii. art. 10: "Item, que nul soit si hardy de crier havok sur peine d'avoir la test coupe."

The second article of the same Ordinances seems to have been fatal to Bardolph. It was death even to touch the pix of little price:

Item, que nul soit si hardy de toucher le corps de nostre Seigneur, ni le vessel en quel il est, sur peyne d'estre trainez et pendu, et le teste avoir coupe." MS. Cotton. Nero D. VI.

TYRWHITT.

Again: "For them that crye hauoke. Also that noo man be so hardy to crye hauoke, vpon payne of hym that so is founde begynner, to dye therfore, and the remenaunt to be emprysoned, and theyr bodyes to be punysshed at the kynges wyll." Certayne Statutes and Ordenaunces of Warre made &c. by Henry the VIII. bl. 1. 4to. emprynted by R. Pynson, 1513. TODD.

5 shall TURN YOU to-] This singular expression occurs also in The Tempest:

66

my heart bleeds

"To think o'the teen that I have turn'd you to."

STEEVENS.

SIC.

Speak briefly then ;

For we are peremptory, to despatch

This viperous traitor: to eject him hence,

Were but one danger; and, to keep him here,
Our certain death; therefore it is decreed,

He dies to-night.

6

MEN.
Now the good gods forbid,
That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!

SIC. He's a disease, that must be cut away.
MEN. O, he's a limb, that has but a disease;
Mortal, to cut it off; to cure it, easy.

What has he done to Rome, that's worthy death? Killing our enemies? The blood he hath lost, (Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he

hath,

By many an ounce,) he dropp'd it for his country: And, what is left, to lose it by his country,

Were to us all, that do't, and suffer it,

A brand to the end o' the world.

SIC.

This is clean kam".

"Towards her DESERVED children-] Deserved, for deserving. So, delighted for delighting. So, in Othello:

If virtue no delighted beauty lack—." MALONE.

7 This is clean KAM.] i. e. Awry. So Cotgrave interprets, Tout va à contrepoil. All goes clean kam. Hence a cambrel for a crooked stick, or the bend in a horse's hinder leg.

WARBURTON.

The Welsh word for crooked is kam; and in Lyly's Endymion, 1591, is the following passage: "But timely, madam, crooks that tree that will be a camock, and young it pricks that will be a thorn."

Again, in Sappho and Phao, 1591:

"Camocks must be bowed with sleight, not strength." Vulgar pronunciation has corrupted clean kam into kim kam, and this corruption is preserved in that great repository of ancient vulgarisms, Stanyhurst's Translation of Virgil, 1582: