Making not reservation of yourselves,
(Still your own foes) deliver you, as most
Abated captives,5 to some nation

That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

[Exeunt COR. COM. MEN. Senators, and Patricians. Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone!

Cit. Our enemy 's banish'd! he is gone! Hoo! hoo! [The People shout, and throw up their Caps. Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, As he hath follow'd you, with all despite ;

reservation of yourselves," which agrees with the subsequent words "still your own foes," and with the general purport of the speech; which is, to show that the folly of the people was such as was likely to destroy the whole of the republick without any reservation, not only others, but even themselves, and to subjugate them as abated captives to some hostile nation. If, according to the old copy, the people have the prudence to make reservation of themselves, while they are destroying their country, they cannot with any propriety be said to be in that respect "still their own foes." These words therefore decisively support

the emendation now made.

How often but and not have been confounded in these plays, has already been frequently observed. In this very play but has been printed, in a former scene, instead of not, and the latter word substituted in all the modern editions. See p. 75, n. 5.

Mr. Capell reads:

Making not reservation of your selves. Steevens.

Malone.

5 Abated captives,] Abated is dejected, subdued, depressed in spirit.

So, in Crasus, 1604, by Lord Sterline :

"To advance the humble, and abate the proud."

i. e. Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos.

Again, in Arthur Hall's translation of the 7th Iliad:

"Th' abated mindes, the cowardize, and faintnesse of my pheeres."

Randle Holme, however, informs us that "an abatement is a mark added or annexed to a coat [of arms] by reason of some dishonourable act whereby the dignity of the coat is abased," &c. See the Academy of Armory and Blazon, p. 71.

Abated has the same power as the French abattu. See Vol. V, p. 195, n. 8. Steevens.

6 Despising,] As this line is imperfect, perhaps our_author originally gave it

Despising therefore,

For you, the city, &c. Steevens.

Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard

Attend us through the city.

Cit. Come, come, let us see him out at gates; come:— The gods preserve our noble tribunes!-Come. [Exeunt.

ACT IV..... SCENE I.

The same. Before a Gate of the City.

Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and several young Patricians.

Cor.Come, leave your tears; a brief farewel:-the beast
With many heads? butts me away.-Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd
To say, extremity was the trier of spirits;

That common chances common men could bear;
That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating: fortune's blows,

When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
A noble cunning:9 you were us'd to load me

7

the beast

With many heads] Thus also, Horace, speaking of the Roman mob:

8

Bellua multorum est capitum. Steevens.

•You were us'd

To say, extremity was the trier of spirits;

That common chances common men could bear;

That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike

Show'd mastership in floating:] Thus the second folio. The first reads:

"To say, extremities was the trier of spirits."

Extremity, in the singular number, is used by our author in The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors, Troilus and Cressida, &c.

The general thought of this passage has already occurred in Troilus and Cressida.

9

66 In the reproof of chance

"Lies the true proof of men: The sea being smooth,

"How many shallow bauble boats dare sail

"Upon her patient breast, making their way

"With those of nobler bulk?" Steevens.

fortune's blows,

When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves

A noble cunning:] This is the ancient and authentick reading.

The modern editors have, for gentle wounded, silently substituted

With precepts, that would make invincible

The heart that conn'd them.

Vir. O heavens! O heavens!

Cor.

Nay, I pr'ythee, woman,

Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish!

Cor.

What, what, what!

I shall be lov'd, when I am lack'd. Nay, mother,
Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,
If you had been the wife of Hercules,
Six of his labours you 'd have done, and sav'd
Your husband so much sweat.-Cominius,
Droop not; adieu:-
:-Farewel, my wife! my
I'll do well yet.-Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,

mother!

And venemous to thine eyes.-My sometime general
I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hard'ning spectacles; tell these sad women,
'Tis fond' to wail inevitable strokes,

As 'tis to laugh at them.-My mother, you wot well,
My hazards still have been your solace: and

Believe 't not lightly, (though I go alone,

Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen

Makes fear'd, and talk'd of more than seen,) your son Will, or exceed the common, or be caught

With cautelous baits and practice.2

Vol.

My first son,

gentle warded, and Dr. Warburton has explained gently by nobly. It is good to be sure of our author's words before we go to explain their meaning.

The sense is, When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded and yet continue calm, requires a generous policy. He calls this calmness cunning, because it is the effect of reflection and philosophy. Perhaps the first emotions of nature are nearly uniform, and one man differs from another in the power of endurance, as he is better regulated by precept and instruction.

"They bore as heroes, but they felt as men." Johnson. 1'Tis fond-] i. e. 'tis foolish. See our author, passim. Steevens. 2 cautelous baits and practice.] By artful and false tricks, and treason. Johnson.

Cautelous, in the present instance, signifies-insidious. In the sense of cautious it occurs in Julius Cæsar:

"Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous." Steevens. 3 My first son,] First, i. e. noblest, and most eminent of men. Warburton.

Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius
With thee a while: determine on some course,
More than a wild exposture to each chance
That starts i' the way before thee.4

Cor.

O the gods!

Com. I'll follow thee a month, devise with thee
Where thou shalt rest, that thou may'st hear of us,
And we of thee: so, if the time thrust forth
A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send
O'er the vast world, to seek a single man;
And lose advantage, which doth ever cool
I' the absence of the needer.

Fare ye well:

Cor.
Thou hast years upon thee; and thou art too full
Of the wars' surfeits, to go rove with one
That's yet unbruis'd: bring me but out at gate.
Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and
My friends of noble touch, when I am forth,
Bid me farewel, and smile. I pray you, come.
While I remain above the ground, you shall
Hear from me still; and never of me aught
But what is like me formerly.

That's worthily

Men.
As any ear can hear.-Come, let 's not weep.-
If I could shake off but one seven years
From these old arms and legs, by the good gods,
I'd with thee every foot.

4 More than a wild exposture to each chance

That starts the way before thee.] I know not whether the word exposture be found in any other author. If not, I should incline to read exposure. Malone.

We should certainly read-exposure. So, in Macbeth: "And when we have our naked frailties hid

"That suffer in exposure,

Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

"To weaken and discredit our exposure

-.

Exposture is, I believe, no more than a typographical error.

Steevens.

5 My friends of noble touch,] i. e. of true metal unalloyed. Metaphor from trying gold on the touchstone. Warburton.

SCENE II.

The same. A Street near the Gate.

Enter SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and an Edile.

Sic. Bid them all home; he 's gone, and we 'll no further.

The nobility are vex'd, who, we see, have sided

In his behalf.

Bru.

Now we have shown our power,

Let us seem humbler after it is done,
Than when it was a doing.

Bid them home:

Sic.
Say, their great enemy is gone, and they
Stand in their ancient strength.

Keep on your way.

Vol. O, you 're well met: the hoarded plague o' the

gods

Requite your love!

Men. Peace, peace; be not so loud. Vol. If that I could for weeping, you should hear,Nay, and you shall hear some.—Will you be gone?

[To BRU. Vir. You shall stay too: [to SICIN.] I would, I had the power husband.

To say so to my
Sic.

Are you mankind?

Vol. Ay, fool; Is that a shame?-Note but this fool.Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship?

6 Sic. Are you mankind?

Vol. Ay, fool; Is that a shame?-Note but this fool.-

Was not a man my father?] The word mankind is used maliciously by the first speaker, and taken perversely by the second. A mankind woman is a woman with the roughness of a man, and, in an aggravated sense, a woman ferocious, violent, and ca