Cor. I'll know no further: Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, Sic. Even, from this instant banish him our city; From off the rock Tarpeian, never more To enter our Rome gates: I' the people's name, Cit. It shall be so, It shall be so; let him away: he's banish'd, And so it shall be. Com. Hear me, my masters, and my common friends; Sic. He's sentenc'd; no more hearing. Com. Let me speak: I have been consul, and can show from Rome, Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love My country's good, with a respect more tender, More holy, and profound, than mine own life, My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase, And treasure of my loins; then if I would 4 › Envied against the people,] i. e. behaved with signs of hatred to the people. 4 My dear wife's estimate,] I love my country beyond the rate at which I value my dear wife. Speak that We know your drift: Speak what? Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is ba nish'd, As enemy to the people, and his country: It shall be so. Cit. It shall be so, it shall be so. Cor. You common cry of curs!5 whose breath I hate As reek o'the rotten fens, whose loves I prize That won you without blows! Despising, 5 You common cry of curs!] Cry here signifies a troop or pack. 6 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 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. 7 Abated captives,] Abated is dejected, subdued, depressed in spirit. There is a world elsewhere. [Exeunt CORIOLANUS, COMINIUS, Mene- Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone! 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; Cit. Come, come, let us see him out at gates; 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, That common chances common men could bear; craves A noble cunning: you were us'd to load me 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, Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime general As 'tis to laugh at them.-My mother, you wot well, 8 - 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 powers of endu rance, as he is better regulated by precept and instruction. "They bore as heroes, but they felt as men." ''Tis fond-] i. e. 'tis foolish. JOHNSON. 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 My first son,2 Vol. 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 farewell, 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. Men. 4 That's worthily 2 Cautelous, in the present instance, signi My first son,] First, i. e. noblest, and most eminent of men. 3 More than a wild exposture-] I know not whether the word exposture be found in any other author. If not, I should incline to read exposure. MALONE. 4 My friends of noble touch,] i. e. of true metal unallayed. Metaphor from trying gold on the touchstone. |