Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more for tunes Thou art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am 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 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. 9 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 Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, thee, Why, thou Mars! I tell 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 : 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. 4. Twelve several times, and I have nightly since Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that' Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in, COR. You bless me, Gods! 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. 5 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. • 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, To fright them, ere destroy. But come in: 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 Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that' Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in, COR. You bless me, Gods! 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. 5 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. |