Thou❜lt not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it, That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours, Yet cam'st thou to a morsel of this feast, Enter TITUS LARTIUS, with his Power, from the LART. pursuit. O general, Here is the steed, we the caparison: 2 MAR. Pray now, no more: my mother, sides this great honorable offer he had made him, he gaue him in testimonie that he had wonne that daye the price of prowes above all other, a goodly horse with a capparison, and all furniture to him: which the whole armie beholding, dyd marvelously praise and commend. But Martius stepying forth, told the consul, he most thanckefully accepted the gifte of his horse, and was a glad man besides, that his seruice had deserued his generalls commendation: and as for his other offer, which was rather a mercenary reward, than an honourable recompence, he would none of it, but was contented to haue his equall parte with other souldiers." STEEVENS. 1 And, gladly quak'd,] i. e. thrown into grateful trepidation. To quake is used likewise as a verb active by T. Heywood, in his Silver Age, 1613: "We'll quake them at that bar "Where all souls wait for sentence." STEEVENS. ? Here is the steed, we the caparison:] This is an odd encomium. The meaning is, this man performed the action, and we only filled up the show. JOHNSON. Who has a charter to extol3 her blood, When she does praise me, grieves me. I have done, As you have done; that's what I can; induc'd As you have been; that's for my country:* He, that has but effected his good will, Hath overta'en mine act. 5 You shall not be Сом. The grave of your deserving; Rome must know The value of her own: 'twere a concealment Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement, To hide your doings; and to silence that, Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch'd, Would seem but modest: Therefore, I beseech you, (In sign of what you are, not to reward What you have done,6) before our army hear me. MAR. I have some wounds upon me, and they smart To hear themselves remember'd. 3 son. Сом. Should they not," —— a charter to extol-] A privilege to praise her own JOHNSON. that's for my country:] The latter word is used here, as in other places, as a trisyllable. See Vol. IV. p. 201, n. 5. MALONE. He, that hath but effected his good will, Hath overta'en mine act.] That is, has done as much as I have done, inasmuch as my ardour to serve the state is such that I have never been able to effect all that I wish'd. 6 So, in Macbeth : "The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, not to reward MALONE. What you have done,)] So, in Macbeth: thee." STEEVENS. "Should they not,] That is, not be remembered. JOHNSON. Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude, And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses, (Whereof we have ta'en good, and good store,) of all The treasure, in this field achiev'd, and city, Your only choice. MAR. [A long Flourish. They all MAR. May these same instruments, which you profane, Never sound more! When drums and trumpets shall 8 66 When drums and trumpets shall &c.] In the old copy: "I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be "When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk, "Let him be made an overture for the wars :". All here is miserably corrupt and disjointed. We should read the whole thus: when drums and trumpets shall I' th' field prove flatterers, let camps, as cities, An overture for the wars! The thought is this, If one thing changes its usual nature to a thing most opposite, there is no reason but that all the rest which depend on it should do so too. [If drums and trumpets prove flatterers, let the camp bear the false face of the city.] And if another changes its usual nature, that its opposite should do so too. |