Lie in the interpretation of the time: To extol what it hath done.s One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail. • And power, unto itself most commendable, Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair To extol what it hath done. This is a common thought, but miserably ill expressed. The sense is, the virtue which delights to commend itself, will find the surest tomb in that chair wherein it holds forth its own commendations: 66 unto itself most commendable." i. e. which hath a very high opinion of itself. WARBURTON. If our author meant to place Coriolanus in this chair, he must have forgot his character, for, as Mr. M. Mason has justly observed, he has already been described as one who was so far from being a boaster, that he could not endure to hear "his nothings monster'd." But I rather believe, " in the utterance" alludes not to Coriolanus himself, but to the high encomiums pronounced on him by his friends; and then the lines of Horace, quoted in p. 201, may serve as a comment on the passage before us. A passage in Troilus and Cressida, however, may be urged in support of Dr. Warburton's interpretation: "The worthiness of praise distains his worth, " If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth." Yet I still think that our poet did not mean to represent Coriolanus as his own eulogist. MALONE. A sentiment of a similar nature is expressed by Adam, in the second scene of the second Act of As you like it, where he says to Orlando: " Your praise is come too swiftly home before you. "No more do yours; your virtues, gentle master, " Are sanctified and holy traitors to you." M. MASON. The passage before us, and the comments upon it, are, to me at least, equally unintelligible. STEEVENS. • Rights by rights fouler,] Thus the old copy. Modern editors, with less obscurity-Right's by right fouler, &c. i. e. What Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine. [Exeunt. is already right, and is received as such, becomes less clear when supported by supernumerary proofs. Such appears to me to be the meaning of this passage, which may be applied with too much justice to many of my own comments on Shakspeare. Dr. Warburton would read-fouled, from fouler, Fr. to trample under foot. There is undoubtedly such a word in Sidney's Arcadia, edit. 1633, p. 441; but it is not easily applicable to our present subject: " Thy all-beholding eye foul'd with the sight." The same word likewise occurs in the following proverbYork doth foul Sutton-i. e. exceeds it on comparison, and makes it appear mean and poor. STEEVENS. Right's by right fouler, may well mean, "That one right or title, when produced, makes another less fair." All the short sentences in this speech of Aufidius are obscure, and some of them nonsensical. M. MASON. I am of Dr. Warburton's opinion that this is nonsense; and would read, with the slightest possible variation from the old copies : Rights by rights foul are, strengths &c. RITSON. Rights by rights fouler, &c.] These words which are exhibited exactly as they appear in the old copy, relate, I apprehend, to the rivalship subsisting between Aufidius and Coriolanus, not to the preceding observation concerning the ill effect of extravagant encomiums. As one nail, says Aufidius, drives out another, so the strength of Coriolanus shall be subdued by my strength, and his pretensions yield to others, less fair perhaps, but more powerful. Aufidius has already declared that he will either break the neck of Coriolanus, or his own; and now adds, that jure vel injuria he will destroy him. I suspect that the words, "Come let's away," originally completed the preceding hemistich, "To extol what it hath done:" and that Shakspeare in the course of composition, regardless of his original train of thought, afterwards moved the words-Come let's away, to their present situation, to complete the rhyming couplet with which the scene concludes. Were these words replaced in what perhaps was their original situation, the passage would at once exhibit the meaning already given. MALONE. ACT V. SCENE I. Rome. A publick Place. Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and Others. MEN. No, I'll not go: you hear, what he hath said, Which was sometime his general; who lov'd him In a most dear particular. He call'd me, father: But what o'that? Go, you that banish'd him, A mile before his tent fall down, and kneel The way into his mercy: Nay, if he coy'd1 To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home. Сом. Не would not seem to know me. MEN. Do you hear? Сом. Yet one time he did call me by my name: I urg'd our old acquaintance, and the drops That we have bled together. Coriolanus He would not answer to: forbad all names; He was a kind of nothing, titleless, Till he had forg'd himself a name i' the fire Of burning Rome. MEN. Why, so; you have made good work: A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome, coy'd] i. e. condescended unwillingly, with reserve, coldness. dness STEEVENS. that have rack'd for Rome,] To rack means to harrass by exactions, and in this sense the poet uses it in other places: "The commons hast thou rack'd; the clergy's bags " Are lank and lean with thy extortions." P2 To make coals cheap: A noble memory !3 When it was less expected: He replied, MEN. Could he say less ? Very well: CoM. I offer'd to awaken his regard For his private friends: His answer to me was, He could not stay to pick them in a pile Of noisome, musty chaff: He said, 'twas folly, For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt, And still to nose the offence. MEN. For one poor grain Or two? I am one of those; his mother, wife, His child, and this brave fellow too, we are the grains: I believe it here means in general, You that have been such good stewards for the Roman people, as to get their houses burned over their heads, to save them the expence of coals. 3 -memory!] for memorial. See p. 184, n. 4. STEEVENS. STEEVENS. • It was a bare petition - A bare petition, I believe, means only a mere petition. Coriolanus weighs the consequence of verbal supplication against that of actual punishment. See Vol. IV. p. 251, n. 5. STEEVENS. I have no doubt but we should read : It was a base petition &c. meaning that it was unworthy the dignity of a state, to petition a man whom they had banished. M. MASON. In King Henry IV. P. I. and in Timon of Athens, the word bare is used in the sense of thin, easily seen through; having only a slight superficial covering. Yet, I confess, this interpretation will hardly apply here. In the former of the passages alluded to, the editor of the first folio substituted base for bare, improperly. In the passage before us perhaps base was the author's word. MALONE. You are the musty chaff; and you are smelt SIC. Nay, pray, be patient: If you refuse your aid In this so never-heeded help, yet do not Might stop our countryman. BRU. Only make trial what your love can do For Rome, towards Marcius. MEN. Well, and say that Marcius Return me, as Cominius is return'd, But as a discontented friend, grief-shot With his unkindness? Say't be so? Yet to bite his lip, And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me. He was not taken well; he had not din'd:6 5 * I pray you, &c.] The pronoun personal-I, is wanting in the old copy. STEEVENS. * He was not taken well; he had not din'd: &c.] This observation is not only from nature, and finely expressed, but admirably befits the mouth of one, who in the beginning of the play had told us, that he loved convivial doings. WARBURTON. |