Vol. He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five wounds upon him.

Men. Now it's twenty-seven; every gash was an enemy's grave: [A Shout, and Flourish.] Hark! the trum

pets.

Vol. These are the ushers of Marcius: before him He carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears; Death, that dark spirit, in 's nervy arm doth lie; Which being advanc'd, declines; and then men die. A Sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter COMINIUS and TITUS LARTIUS; between them, CORIOLANUS, crowned with an oaken Garland; with Captains, Soldiers, anda Herald. Her. Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did fight Within Corioli gates: where he hath won, With fame, a name to Caius Marcius; these In honour follows, Coriolanus:3Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!

[Flourish,

All. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus! Cor. No more of this, it does offend my heart; Pray now, no more.

[Kneels.

You have, I know, petition'd all the gods

For my prosperity.

Vol.

Nay, my good soldier, up;

My gentle Marcius, worthy Caius, and

By deed-achieving honour newly nam'd,
What is it? Coriolanus, must I call thee?
But O, thy wife

easy for a negligent transcriber to omit the second one, as a needless repetition of the first, and to make a numeral word of too. Warburton.

The old man, agreeable to his character, is minutely particular: Seven wounds? let me see; one in the neck, two in the thigh—Nay, I am sure there are more; there are nine that I know of. Upton.

2 Which being advanc'd, declines;] Volumnia, in her boasting strain, says, that her sou to kill his enemy, has nothing to do but to lift his hand up and let it fall. Johnson.

3 Coriolanus:] The old copy-Martius Caius Coriolanus.

Steevens.

The compositor, it is highly probable, caught the words Martius Caius from the preceding line, where also in the old copy the original names of Coriolanus are accidently transposed. The correction in the former line was made by Mr. Rowe; in the latter by Mr. Steevens. Malone.

Cor.

My gracious silence, hail!4 Would'st thou have laugh'd, had I come coffin'd home, That weep'st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear,

Such eyes the widows in Corioli wear,

And mothers that lack sons.

Men.

Now the gods crown thee! Cor. And live you yet?-O my sweet lady, pardon.

[To VAL. Vol. I know not where to turn:-O welcome home; And welcome, general;-And you are welcome all.

Men. A hundred thousand welcomes: I could weep, And I could laugh; I am light, and heavy: Welcome: A curse begin at very root of his heart,

That is not glad to see thec!-You are three,

My gracious silence, hail!] The epithet to silence shows it not to proceed from reserve or sullenness, but to be the effect of a virtuous mind possessing itself in peace. The expression is extremely sublime; and the sense of it conveys the finest praise that can be given to a good woman. Warburton.

By my gracious silence, I believe, the poet meant, thou whose silent tears are more eloquent and grateful to me, than the clamorous applause of the rest! So, Crashaw:

"Sententious show'rs! O! let them fall!

"Their cadence is rhetorical."

Again, in Love's Cure, or the Martial Maid of Beaumont and Fletcher:

"A lady's tears are silent orators,

"Or should be so at least, to move beyond
"The honey-tongued rhetorician.”

Again, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1599:
"Ah beauty, syren, fair enchanting good!

"Sweet silent rhetorick of persuading eyes!

"Dumb eloquence, whose power doth move the blood, "More than the words, or wisdom of the wise!"

Again, in Every Man out of his Humour:

"You shall see sweet silent rhetorick, and dumb eloquence speaking in her eye." Steevens.

I believe, "My gracious silence," only means "My beauteous silence," or 66 my silent Grace." Gracious seems to have had the same meaning formerly that graceful has at this day. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

"But being season'd with a gracious voice."

Again, in King John:

"There was not such a gracious creature born."

Again, in Marston's Malcontent, 1604:--" he is the most exCrisite in forging of veines, spright'ning of eyes, dying of haire, sleeking of skinnes, blushing of cheekes, &c. that ever made an old lady gracious by torchlight." Malone.

That Rome should dote on: yet, by the faith of men,
We have some old crab-trees here at home, that will not
Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors:
We call a nettle, but a nettle; and

The faults of fools, but folly.

Com.

Cor. Menenius, ever, ever.5

Ever right.

Her. Give way there, and go on.

Cor.

Your hand, and yours:

[To his Wife and Mother.

Ere in our own house I do shade my head,
The good patricians must be visited;

From whom I have receiv'd not only greetings,
But with them change of honours.

Vol.

To see inherited my very wishes,

I have lived

And the buildings of my fancy: only there
Is one thing wanting, which I doubt not, but
Our Rome will cast upon thee.

Cor.

Know, good mother,

I had rather be their servant in my way,
Than sway with them in theirs.

Com.

On, to the Capitol. [Flourish. Cornets. Exeunt in state, as before. The Tribunes remain.

Cominius means to say, that-Menenius is always the same; -retains his old humour. So, in Julius Cæsar, Act V, sc. i, upon a speech from Cassius, Antony only says-Old Cassius still. Tyrwhitt.

By these words, as they stand in the old copy, I believe, Coriolanus means to say-Menenius is still the same affectionate friend as formerly. So, in Julius Cæsar: "—for always I am Cesar." Malone.

6 But with them change of honours.] So all the editions read. But Mr. Theobald has ventured (as he expresses it) to substitute charge. For change, he thinks, is a very poor expression, and communicates but a very poor idea. He had better have told the plain truth, and confessed that it communicated none at all to him. However, it has a very good one in itself; and signifies variety of honours; as change of rayment, among the writers of that time, signified variety of rayment. Warburton.

Bru. All tongues speak of him, and the bleared

sights

Are spectacled to see him: Your pratling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry,

Whileslile chats him: the kitchen malkin3 pins

Change of raiment is a phrase that occurs not unfrequently in the Old Testament. Steevens.

7 Into a rapture-] Rapture, a common term at that time used før a fit, simply. So, to be rap'd, signified, to be in a fit.

Warburton.

If the explanation of Bishop Warburton be allowed, a rapture means a fit; but it does not appear from the note where the word is used in that sense. The right word is in all probability rupture, to which children are liable from excessive fits of crying. This emendation was the property of a very ingenious scholar long before I had any claim to it. S. W.

That a child will "cry itself into fits," is still a common phrase among nurses.

That the words fit and rapture, were once synonymous, may be inferred from the following passage in The Hospital for Londons' Follies, 1602, where Gossip Luce says: "Your darling wil weep itself into a Rapture, if you take not good heed. Steevens. In Troilus and Cressida, raptures significs ravings:

- her brainsick raptures

"Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel."

I have not met with the word rapture in the sense of a fit in any book of our author's age, nor found it in any Dictionary previous to Cole's Latin Dictionary, 1679. He renders the word by the Latin ecstasis, which he interprets a trance. However, the rule-de non apparentibus et de non existentibus eadem est ratio certainly does not hold, when applied to the use of words. Had we all the books of our author's age, and had we read them all, it then might be urged.-Drayton, speaking of Marlowe, says his raptures were "all air and fire." Malone.

8

the kitchen malkin—) A maukin, or malkin, is a kind of mop made of clouts for the use of sweeping ovens: thence a frightful figure of clouts dressed up: thence a dirty wench.

Hanmer. Maukin in some parts of England signifies a figure of clouts set up to fright birds in gardens: a scare-crow. P.

Malkin is properly the diminutive of Mal (Mary); as Wilkin, Tomkin, &c. In Scotland, pronounced Maukin, it signifies a hare. Grey malkin (corruptly grimalkin) is a cat. The kitchen malkin is just the same as the kitchen Madge or Bess: the scullion. Ritson.

Minsheu gives the same explanation of this term, as Sir T. Hanmer has done, calling it "an instrument to clean an oven,now made of old clowtes." The etymology which Dr. Johnson has given in his Dictionary" MALKIN, from Mal or Mary, and kin, the diminutive termination,”-is, I apprehend, errone

Her richest lockram' 'bout her reechy neck,1

Clambering the walls to eye him: Stalls, bulks, win

dows,

Are smother'd up, leads fill'd, and ridges hors'd
With variable complexions; all agreeing

In earnestness to see him: seld-shown flamens
Do press among the popular throngs, and puff
To win a vulgar station:3 our veil'd dames

ous. The kitchen-wench very naturally takes her name from this word, a scullion; another of her titles, is in like manner derived from escouillon, the French term for the utensil called a malkin. Malone.

After the morris-dance degenerated into a piece of coarse buffoonery, and Maid Marian was personated by a clown, this once elegant Queen of May obtained the name of Malkin. To this Beaumont and Fletcher allude in Monsieur Thomas:

"Put on the shape of order and humanity, "Or you must marry Malkyn, the May-Lady.” Maux, a corruption of malkin, is a low term, stil! current in several counties, and always indicative of a coarse vulgar wench. Steevens.

9 Her richest lockram &c.] Lockram was some kind of cheap linen. Greene, in his Vision, describing the dress of a man, says: "His ruffe was of fine lockeram, stitched very faire with Coventry blue."

Again, in The Spanish Curate of Beaumont and Fletcher, Diego says:

"I give per annum two hundred ells of lockram, "That there be no strait dealings in their linnens." Again, in Glapthorne's Wit in a Constable, 1639:

1

let: "

"Thou thought'st, because I did wear lockram shirts, "I had no wit." Steevens.

her reechy neck,] Reechy is greasy, sweaty. So, in Hama pair of reechy kisses." Laneham, speaking of "three pretty puzels” in a morris-dance, says they were az bright az a breast of bacon," that is, bacon hung in the chimney: and hence reechy, which in its primitive signification is smoky, came to imply greasy. Ritson.

2 seld-shown flamens-] i. e. priests who seldom exhibit themselves to publick view. The word is used in Humour out of Breath, a comedy, by John Day, 1607:

"O seld-seen metamorphosis."

The same adverb likewise occurs in the old play of Hieronimo: "Why is not this a strange and seld-seen thing?"

Seld is often used by ancient writers for seldom. Steevens.

3 -a vulgar station:] A station among the rabble. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

"A vulgar comment will be made of it." Malone.