And shows good husbandry for the Volscian

state,

Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon
As draw his sword, yet he hath left undone
That which shall break his neck or hazard mine,
Whene'er we come to our account.

Lieu. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry
Rome?

Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down;
And the nobility of Rome are his:

30

The senators and patricians love him too:
The tribunes are no soldiers; and their people
Will be as rash in the repeal, as hasty
To expel him thence. I think he 'll be to Rome
As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature. First he was
A noble servant to them; but he could not
Carry his honors even: whether 'twas pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints
The happy man; whether defect of judgment,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of; or whether nature,

Not to be other than one thing, not moving

40

34. "as is the osprey"; referring to the power of fascination formerly attributed to the osprey. This fine allusion is well explained by the following from Drayton's Poly-Olbion, Song_xxv.:

"The ospray oft here seen, though seldom here it breeds,
Which over them the fish no sooner do espy,
But (betwixt him and them by an antipathy)
Turning their bellies up as though their death they saw,
They at his pleasure lie, to stuff his glutt'nous maw.”

-H. N. H. 41. “nature, not to be other,” etc.; his unbending temperament.— C. H. H.

42-43. “not moving from the casque to the cushion”; Aufidius as

From the casque to the cushion, but command

ing peace

Even with the same austerity and garb

As he controll'd the war; but one of these—
As he hath spices of them all, not all,

For I dare so far free him-made him fear'd,
So hated, and so banish'd: but he has a merit,
To choke it in the utterance. So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time;
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

To extol what it hath done.

50

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths

do fail.

signs three probable reasons for the miscarriage of Coriolanus; pride, which easily follows an uninterrupted train of success; unskillfulness to regulate the consequences of his own victories; a stubborn uniformity of nature, which could not make the proper transition from the casque to the cushion, or chair of civil authority; but acted with the same despotism in peace as in war (Johnson).— H. N. H.

46. "not all"; in their full extent.-H. N. H.

49. "to choke it in the utterance"; but such is his merit as ought to choke the utterance of his faults.-H. N. H.

49-53. The sense of the lines should be to this effect-"Power is in itself most commendable, but the orator's chair, from which a man's past actions are extolled, is the inevitable tomb of his power." The passage is crude, and many suggestions have been advanced.I. G.

"our virtues lie," etc.; our reputation for virtue is in the hands of our contemporaries; and power, confident of its own merits, has no more obvious road to ruin than by proclaiming them. This I think the clear sense. But some commentators prefer to understand the whole as a tribute to Coriolanus, taking "tomb" in the sense of "monument."-C. H. H.

55. "fouler"; Dyce's ingenious reading, "falter," is the best conjectural emendation of the line.-I. G.

Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine

Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine.

[Exeunt.

ACT FIFTH

SCENE I

Rome. A public place.

Enter Menenius, Cominius, Sicinius and Brutus, the two Tribunes, with others.

Men. No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said Which was sometime his general, who loved him In a most dear particular. He call'd me father:

But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him;
A mile before his tent fall down, and knee
The way into his mercy: nay, if he coy'd
To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home.
Com. He would not seem to know me.

Men.
Do you hear?
Com. Yet one time he did call me by my name:
I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops 10
That we have bled together. Coriolanus
He would not answer to: forbade all names;
He was a kind of nothing, titleless,

Till he had forged himself a name o' the fire
Of burning Rome.

5. "knee"; so in the original. Modern editions generally have demented the expression by turning knee into kneel. Of course, to knee one's way is to go on one's knees, as to foot one's way is to go on one's feet.-H. N. H.

Men.

Why, so: you have made good work! A pair of tribunes that have rack'd for Rome, To make coals cheap: a noble memory! Com. I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon When it was less expected: he replied, It was a bare petition of a state

To one whom they had banish'd.

Men.

Could he say less?

Very well:

Com. I offer'd to awaken his regard

For's private friends: his answer to me was,
He could not stay to pick them in a pile
Of noisome musty chaff: he said, 'twas folly,
For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt,
And still to nose the offense.

Men.

20

For one poor grain or two! I am one of those; his mother, wife, his child, And this brave fellow too, we are the grains: 30 You are the musty chaff, and you are smelt Above the moon: we must be burnt for you. Sic. Nay, pray, be patient: if you refuse your aid In this so never-needed help, yet do not

Upbraid's with our distress. But sure, if you
Would be your country's pleader, your good
tongue,

More than the instant army we can make,
Might stop our countryman.

16-17. That is, destroyed a noble memorial of Rome by expatriating the great fame and services of Coriolanus. The original gives the passage thus, precisely:

"A paire of Tribunes, that have wrack'd for Rome,

To make Coales cheape: A Noble memory."-H. N. H.