3 As reek o'the rotten fens, whose loves I prize * As reek o'the rotten fens,] So, in The Tempest: "Seb. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones. "Ant. Or, as 'twere perfum'd by a fen." STEEVENS. : * I banish you;] So, in Lyly's Anatomy of Wit, 1580: " When it was cast in Diogenes' teeth that the Sinopenetes had banished him Pontus, yea, said he, I them." Our poet has again the same thought in King Richard II: "Think not, the king did banish thee, " But thou the king." MALONE. • Have the power still To banish your defenders; till, at length, Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels,) &c.] Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own destruction. It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative Harrington, there is one which he hich he might have borrowed from this speech. The people, says he, cannot see, but they can feel. It is not much to the honour of the people, that they have the same character of stupidity from their enemy and their friend. Such was the power of our author's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private and civil. Johnson. "The people (to use the comment of my friend Dr. Kearney, in his ingenious LECTURES ON HISTORY, quarto, 1776,) cannot nicely scrutinise errors in government, but they are roused by galling oppression." - Coriolanus, however, means to speak still more contemptuously of their judgment. Your ignorance is such, that you cannot see the mischiefs likely to result from your actions, till you actually experience the ill effects of them.-In $ Making not reservation of yourselves, That won you without blows! Despising, stead, however, of "Making but reservation of yourselves," which is the reading of the old copy, and which Dr. Johnson very rightly explains, leaving none in the city but yourselves, I have no doubt that we should read, as I have printed, " Making not 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. 102, n. 4. Mr. Capell reads: MALONE. STEEVENS. Making not reservation of your selves. * Abated captives,] Abated is dejected, subdued, depressed in spirit. So, in Cræsus, 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. VIII. p. 254, n. 8. STEEVENS. For you, the city, thus I turn my back: [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, MENE- ÆD. 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; 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. Despising,] As this line is imperfect, perhaps our author originally gave it Despising therefore, : 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 farewell :the beast With many heads butts me away.--Nay, mother, 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, when the sea was calm, all boats alike Show'd mastership in floating:] Thus the second folio. The first reads: "To say, extreamities 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. See Vol. XV. p. 261 : 66 - In the reproof of chance "Lies the true proof of men: The sea being smooth, A noble cunning: you were us'd to load me 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! What, what, what! I shall be lov'd, when I am lack'd. Nay, mother, ther! I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius, neral I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld "How many shallow bauble boats dare sail -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 gently 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, |