A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter Should from yon cloud speak divine things, and say, Mine arms about that body, where against 5 And scar'd the moon -] That is, frightened. But Mr. Malone reads scarr'd. 6 7 Here I clip] To clip is, to embrace. Thou hast beat me out Twelve several times,] Out here means, full, complete. no other quarrel❞— MALONE. Who am prepar'd against your territories, Cor. You bless me, gods! 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 Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, To fright them, ere destroy. But come in: Most wel come! [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. 2 Serv. Who? my master? 1 Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that. 2 Serv. Worth six of him. 1 Serv. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the greater soldier. 2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that for the defence of a town, our general is excellent. 1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too. : Re-enter third Servant. 3 Serv. O, slaves, I can tell you news; news, you rascals. 1. 2. Serv. What, what, what? let's partake. 3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemned man. 1. 2. Serv. Wherefore? wherefore? 3 Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,-Caius Marcius. but he was 1 Serv. Why do you say, thwack our general? 3 Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; always good enough for him. 2 Serv. Come, we are fellows, and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself. 1 Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on't before Corioli, he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado. 2 Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too. 1 Serv. But, more of thy news? 3 Serv. Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o'the table: no question asked him by any of the senators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctifies himself with's hands, and turns up the white o'the eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i'the middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday; for the sanctifies himself with's hand,] Perhaps the allusion is (however out of place) to the degree of sanctity anciently supposed to be derived from touching the corporal relick of a saint or a martyr. other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears': He will mow down all before him, and leave his passage polled'. 2 Serv. And he's as like to do't, as any man I can imagine. 3 Serv. Do't? he will do't: For, look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies: which friends, sir, (as it were,) durst not (look you, sir,) show themselves (as we term it,) his friends, whilst he's in directitude. 1 Serv. Directitude! what's that? 3 Serv. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows like conies after rain, and revel all with him. 1 Serv. But when goes this forward? 3 Serv. To-morrow; to-day; presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips. 2 Serv. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing, but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers. 1 Serv. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace, as far as day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent'. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled', deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children, than wars a destroyer of men. 2 Serv. 'Tis so: and as wars, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher; so it cannot be denied, but peace is a great maker of cuckolds. 1 Serv. Ay, and it makes men hate one another. 9 He'll-sowle the -] Skinner says this word is derived from sow, i. e. to take hold of a person by the cars, as a dog seizes one of these animals. 1 his passage polled.] That is, bared, cleared. 2 course. 3 -full of vent.] Full of rumour, full of materials for dis mulled,] i. e. softened and dispirited, as wine is when burnt and sweetened. 3 Serv. Reason; because they then less need one another. The wars, for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. They are rising, they are rising. All. In, in, in, in. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Rome. A publick Place. Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS. Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him ; His remedies are tame i'the present peace' And quietness o'the people, which before Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends Enter MENENIUS. Bru. We stood to't in good time. Is this Menenius ? Sic. 'Tis he, 'tis he: O, he is grown most kind Of late. Hail, sir! Men. Hail to you both! Sic. Your Coriolanus, sir, is not + much miss'd, But with his friends; the common-wealth doth stand; And so would do, were he more angry at it. Men. All's well; and might have been much better, if He could have temporiz'd. His remedies are tame i'the present peace] i. e. ineffectual in times of peace like these. +"Coriolanus is not," &c.-MALONE. |