Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

From me receive that natural competency

Whereby they live: And though that all at once, You, my good friends, (this says the belly,) mark

me,

1 CIT. Ay, sir; well, well.

Though all at once cannot

that all

MEN. See what I do deliver out to each; Yet I can make my audit up, From me do back receive the flower of all, And leave me but the bran. What What say you to't? 1 CIT. It was an answer: How apply you this? MEN. The senators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members: For examine Their counsels, and their cares; digest things

rightly,

Touching the weal o'the common; you shall find,
No publick benefit which you receive,

But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you,
And no way from yourselves.-What do you think?
You, the great toe of this assembly?—

1 CIT. I the great toe? Why the great toe? MEN. For that being one o'the lowest, basest, poorest,

Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost: Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to run

Again, in Othello:

"Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne." See also a passage in King Henry V. where seat is used in the same sense as here; Vol. XII. p. 310, n. 7. Malone.

9

the cranks and offices of man,] Cranks are the meandrous ducts of the human body. STEEVENS.

Cranks are windings. So, in Venus and Adonis :

"He cranks and crosses, with a thousand doubles."

MALONE.

Lead'st first, to win some vantage.'

But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs;
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle,
The one side must have bale.-Hail, noble Mar-
cius!

1 Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to run

Lead'st first, to win some vantage.] I think, we may better read, by an easy change:

Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to ruin
Lead'st first, to win &c.

Thou that art the meanest by birth, art the foremost to lead thy fellows to ruin, in hope of some advantage. The meaning, however, is perhaps only this, Thou that art a hound, or running dog of the lowest breed, lead'st the pack, when any thing is to be gotten. JOHNSON.

Worst in blood may be the true reading. In King Henry VI, P. I:

"If we be English deer, be then in blood."

i. e. high spirits, in vigour.

Again, in this play of Coriolanus, Act IV. sc. v: "But when they shall see his crest up again, and the man in blood," &c.

Mr. M. Mason judiciously observes that blood, in all these passages, is applied to deer, for a lean deer is called a rascal; and that "worst in blood," is least in vigour. STEEVENS.

Both rascal and in blood are terms of the forest. Rascal meant a lean deer, and is here used equivocally. The phrase in blood has been proved in a former note to be a phrase of the forest. See Vol. XII. p. 126, n. 7.

Our author seldom is careful that his comparisons should answer on both sides. He seems to mean here, thou, worthless scoundrel, though, like a deer not in blood, thou art in the worst condition for running of all the herd of plebeians, takest the lead in this tumult, in order to obtain some private advantage to yourself. What advantage the foremost of a herd of deer could obtain, is not easy to point out, nor did Shakspeare, I believe, consider. Perhaps indeed he only uses rascal in its ordinary So afterwards

sense.

"From rascals worse than they."

Dr. Johnson's interpretation appears to me inadmissible; as the term, though it is applicable both in its original and metaphorical sense to a man, cannot, I think, be applied to a dog; nor have I found any instance of the term in blood being applied to the canine species. MALONE.

From me receive that natural competency

Whereby they live: And though that all at once, You, my good friends, (this says the belly,) mark

me,

1 CIT. Ay, sir; well, well.

MEN.

Though all at once cannot

See what I do deliver out to each;

Yet I can make my audit up, that all

From me do back receive the flower of all,
And leave me but the bran. What say you to't?
1 CIT. It was an answer: How apply you this?
MEN. The senators of Rome are this good belly,
And you the mutinous members: For examine
Their counsels, and their cares; digest things

rightly,

Touching the weal o'the common; you shall find, No publick benefit which you receive,

But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, And no way from yourselves.-What do you think? You, the great toe of this assembly?—

1 CIT. I the great toe? Why the great toe?

MEN. For that being one o'the lowest, basest, poorest,

Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost: Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to run

Again, in Othello :

"Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne." See also a passage in King Henry V. where seat is used in the same sense as here; Vol. XII. p. 310, n. 7. MALone.

9

the cranks and offices of man,] Cranks are the meandrous ducts of the human body. STEEVENS.

Cranks are windings. So, in Venus and Adonis:

"He cranks and crosses, with a thousand doubles."

MALONE.

Lead'st first, to win some vantage.1

But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs;
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle,
The one side must have bale.2-Hail, noble Mar-
cius !

1 Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to run

Lead'st first, to win some vantage.] I think, we may better read, by an easy change:

Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to ruin

Lead'st first, to win &c.

Thou that art the meanest by birth, art the foremost to lead thy fellows to ruin, in hope of some advantage. The meaning, however, is perhaps only this, Thou that art a hound, or running dog of the lowest breed, lead'st the pack, when any thing is to be gotten. JOHNSON.

Worst in blood may be the true reading. In King Henry VI, P. I:

"If we be English deer, be then in blood."

i. e. high spirits, in vigour.

Again, in this play of Coriolanus, Act IV. sc. v: "But when they shall see his crest up again, and the man in blood," &c. Mr. M. Mason judiciously observes that blood, in all these passages, is applied to deer, for a lean deer is called a rascal; that worst in blood,” is least in vigour. STEEVEns.

and

Both rascal and in blood are terms of the forest. Rascal meant a lean deer, and is here used equivocally. The phrase in blood has been proved in a former note to be a phrase of the forest. See Vol. XII. p. 126, n. 7.

Our author seldom is careful that his comparisons should answer on both sides. He seems to mean here, thou, worthless scoundrel, though, like a deer not in blood, thou art in the worst condition for running of all the herd of plebeians, takest the lead in this tumult, in order to obtain some private advantage to yourself. What advantage the foremost of a herd of deer could obtain, is not easy to point out, nor did Shakspeare, I believe, consider. Perhaps indeed he only uses rascal in its ordinary

sense.

So afterwards

"From rascals worse than they."

Dr. Johnson's interpretation appears to me inadmissible; as the term, though it is applicable both in its original and metaphorical sense to a man, cannot, I think, be applied to a dog; nor have I found any instance of the term in blood being applied to the canine species. MALONE.

Enter CAIUS MARCIUS.

MAR. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,

That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs?

1 CIT.

We have ever your good word. MAR. He that will give good words to thee, will flatter

Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, you

curs,

That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you,
The other makes you proud. He that trusts you,
Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
Where foxes, geese: You are no surer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,

Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is,

To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him, And curse that justice did it. Who deserves great

ness,

* The one side must have bale.] Bale is an old Saxon word, for misery or calamity:

"For light she hated as the deadly bale."

Spenser's Fairy Queen. Mr. M. Mason observes that " bale, as well as bane, signified poison in Shakspeare's days. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers."

STEEVENS.

This word was antiquated in Shakspeare's time, being marked as obsolete by Bullokar, in his English Expositor, 1616.

MALONE.

That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud.] Coriolanus does not use these two sentences consequentially, but first reproaches them with unsteadiness, then with their other occasional vices. JOHNSON.

[blocks in formation]

To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him,

And curse that justice did it.] i. e. Your virtue is to speak

« VorigeDoorgaan »