Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more for

tunes

Thou art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am
Longer to live most weary, and present
My throat to thee, and to thy ancient malice:
Which not to cut, would show thee but a fool;
Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,
Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,
And cannot live but to thy shame, unless
It be to do thee service.

AUF.

O Marcius, Marcius, Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart

A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yon cloud speak divine things, and

say,

'Tis true; I'd not believe them more than thee,
All noble Marcius.-O, let me twine
Mine arms about that body, where against
My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,
And scar'd the moon' with splinters! Here I clip

As Shakspeare uses the word under-skinker, to express the lowest rank of waiter, I do not find myself disposed to give up my explanation of under fiends. Instances, however, of " too much refinement" are not peculiar to me. STEEVENS.

? And scar'd the moon-] [Old copy-scarr'd,] I believe, rightly. The modern editors read scar'd, that is, frightened; a reading to which the following line in King Richard III. certainly adds some support:

"Amaze the welkin with your broken staves.”

MALONE.

I read with the modern editors, rejecting the Chrononhotonthological idea of scarifying the moon. The verb to scare is again written scarr, in the old copy of The Winter's Tale : They have scarr'd away two of my best sheep."

66

STEEVENS.

The anvil of my sword;' and do contest
As hotly and as nobly with thy love,
As ever in ambitious strength I did
Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
I loved the maid I married; never man
Sighed truer breath; but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart,
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell

thee,

We have a power on foot; and I had purpose Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn, Or lose mine arm for't: Thou hast beat me out

1

Here I clip

The anvil of my sword;] To clip is to embrace. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Enter the city, clip your wives-."

Aufidius styles Coriolanus the anvil of his sword, because he had formerly laid as heavy blows on him, as a smith strikes on his anvil. So, in Hamlet:

2

"And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall

"On Mars's armour

"With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
"Now falls on Priam."

STEEVENS.

·never man

Sigh'd truer breath;] The same expression is found in our author's Venus and Adonis :

"I'll sigh celestial breath, whose gentle wind "Shall cool the heat of this descending sun." Again, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Shakspeare and Fletcher, 1634:

"Lover never yet made sigh
"Truer than I." MALone.

3 Bestride my threshold.] Shakspeare was unaware that a Roman bride, on her entry into her husband's house, was prohibited from bestriding his threshold; and that, lest she should even touch it, she was always lifted over it. Thus, Lucan, L. II. 359:

Tralata vetuit contingere limina planta.

STEEVENS.

Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Mar-
cius,

Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that'
Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in,
And take our friendly senators by the hands;
Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

COR.

You bless me, Gods!

Thou hast beat me out

Twelve several times,] Out here means, I believe, full, complete. MALONE.

And wak'd half dead-] Unless the two preceding lines be considered as parenthetical, here is another instance of our author's concluding a sentence, as if the former part had been constructed differently. "We have been down," must be considered as if he had written-I have been down with you, in my sleep, and wak'd, &c. See Vol. XV. p. 115, n. 6; and Vol. VIII. p. 208, n. 8, and p. 392, n. 7. MALONE.

6

• Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that-] The old copy, redundantly, and unnecessarily :

"Had we no other quarrel else” &c. STEEVENS.

Like a bold flood o'er-beat.] Though this is intelligible, and the reading of the old copy, perhaps our author wrote-o'er-bear. So, in Othello:

"Is of such flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature-."

STEEVENS.

AUF. Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have

The leading of thine own revenges, take
The one half of my commission; and set down,—
As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st
Thy country's strength and weakness,-thine own

ways:

Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
Or rudely visit them in parts remote,
To fright them, ere destroy. But come in:
Let me commend thee first to those, that shall
Say, yea, to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
And more a friend than e'er an enemy;

Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand! Most welcome!

[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS.

1 SERV. [Advancing.] Here's a strange alteration!

2 SERV. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me, his clothes made a false report of him.

1 SERV. What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

2 SERV. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: He had, sir, a kind of face, methought, I cannot tell how to term it.

1 SERV. He had so; looking as it were,'Would I were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

2 SERV. So did I, I'll be sworn: He is simply the rarest man i' the world.

1 SERV. I think, he is: but a greater soldier than he, you wot one.

4

Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Mar-
cius,

Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that'
Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in,
And take our friendly senators by the hands;
Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

COR.

You bless me,

4

Thou hast beat me out

Twelve several times,] Out here means, I believe, full, complete. MALONE.

So, in The Tempest:

66 - for then thou wast not

"Out three years old." STEEvens.

Gods!

And wak'd half dead-] Unless the two preceding lines be considered as parenthetical, here is another instance of our author's concluding a sentence, as if the former part had been constructed differently. "We have been down," must be considered as if he had written-I have been down with you, in my sleep, and wak'd, &c. See Vol. XV. p. 115, n. 6; and Vol. VIII. p. 208, n. 8, and p. 392, n. 7. MALONE.

6 Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that-] The old copy, redundantly, and unnecessarily :

"Had we no other quarrel else" &c. STEEVENS.

8 Like a bold flood o'er-beat.] Though this is intelligible, and the reading of the old copy, perhaps our author wrote-o'er-bear. So, in Othello:

"Is of such flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature.”

STEEVENS.