Cor. Say, then: 'tis true, I ought so.

Sic. We charge you, that you have contriv'd to take From Rome all season'd office, and to wind

Yourself into a power tyrannical;

For which you are a traitor to the people.

Cor. How! traitor!

Men.

Nay, temperately; your promise.

Cor. The fires i' the lowest hell fold-in the people!
Call me their traitor!-Thou injurious tribune!
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
In thy hands clutch'd as many millions, in
Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say
"Thou liest" unto thee with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods.

Sic.

Mark you this, people? Citizens. To the rock, to the rock with him!(155) Sic.

We need not put new matter to his charge:

What you have seen him do, and heard him speak,
Beating your officers, cursing yourselves,

Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying
Those whose great power must try him; even this,
So criminal, and in such capital kind,

Deserves th' extremest death.

Bru.

Serv'd well for Rome,

Cor.

But since he hath

Peace!

What do you prate of service?

Bru. I talk of that that know it.

Cor. You?

Men. Is this the promise that you made your mother? Com. Know, I pray you,

Cor.

I'll know no further:(156)

(155) To the rock, to the rock with him!] Here the metre is defective. (The second folio has only “To th' rock with him.”)

(166) Men. Is this the promise that you made your mother?

Com. Know, I pray you,—

Cor.

I'll know no further :]

Here again the metre halts; nor is it perfected if we adopt the modern arrangement:

Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger
But with a grain a day,—I would not buy
Their mercy at the price of one fair word;

Nor check my courage (157) for what they can give,
To have't with saying "Good morrow."

For that he has,

Sic.
As much as in him lies, from time to time
Envied against the people,(158) seeking means
To pluck away their power; as now at last
Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence
Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers

That do distribute it;—in the name o' the people,
And in the power of us the tribunes, we,
Even from this instant, banish him our city;
In peril of precipitation

From off the rock Tarpeian, never more

(157) Nor check my courage] Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads "Nor check my carriage ;" and Mr. Collier adds, "It is most inconsistent with the noble character of the hero to represent him in this way vaunting his own courage.' Carriage is, of course, deportment; and the very same misprint has been pointed out, and remedied in the same way, in Henry VI. Part III." Mr. Singer, too (Shakespeare Vindicated, &c., p. 221), commends this alteration, which is countenanced by his own Ms. Corrector.-But they forget that "courage" was formerly often used in the sense of-heart, spirit, mind: see note 56 on The Third Purt of King Henry VI.

1865. As the Ms. Corrector has corrupted the passage of Coriolanus and the passage of King Henry VI. by changing "courage" to "carriage," so Mr. Collier corrupts the following passage of Beaumont and Fletcher's Island Princess, act ii. sc. 7, by changing "carriage" to "courage;"

"Count me a heavy sleepy fool, a coward,

A coward past recovery, a confirm'd coward,
One without carriage or common sense."

Would the Governor of Ternata, after three times proclaiming himself a coward, immediately add that he was one without courage"? Nobody, I believe, except Mr. Collier, would suppose so, or would fail to see that 66 one without carriage" means one without conduct-management." (168) Envied against the people,] i.e., says Steevens, "behaved with signs of hatred to the people." But qy. "Inveigh'd against the people”?

To enter our Rome gates: i' the people's name,

It shall be so; let him away: he's banish'd,

And it shall be so.

Com. Hear me, my masters and my common friends,-
Sic. He's sentenc'd; no more hearing.

Com.
Let me speak:
I have been consul, and can show for(159) Rome
Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love
My country's good with a respect more tender,
More holy, and profound, than mine own life,
My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase,
And treasure of my loins; then if I would
Speak that,
Sic.

We know your drift:-speak what?
Bru. There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd,
As enemy to the people and his country:

It shall be so.

Citizens. It shall be so, it shall be so.

Cor. You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate

As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize

As the dead carcasses (160) of unburied men

That do corrupt my air,-I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty?
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till at length
Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
Making not (161) reservation of yourselves,
Still your own foes, deliver you, as most
Abated (162)
captives, to some nation

(159) for] The folio has "from."

(190) carcasses] Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c., p. 246) would print the contracted form "carcass'."

(161) not] Capell's correction; and so Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector.The folio has "but" (which Mr. Staunton and Mr. W. N. Lettsom think right).

(16) Abated] Walker (Crit. Exam., &c., vol. iii. p. 34) proposes

That won you without blows! Despising, then,(169)
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:

There is a world elsewhere.

[Exeunt Coriolanus, Cominius, Menenius,
Senators, and Patricians.

Ed. The people's enemy is gone, is gone!
Citizens. Our enemy is banish'd! he is gone!

Hoo! hoo!

[Shouting, and throwing up their caps.

Sic. Go, see him out at gates, and follow him, As he hath follow'd you, with all despite;

Give him deserv'd vexation.

Let a guard

Attend us through the city.

Citizens. Come, come, let's see him out at gates; come,

come:(164)

The gods preserve our noble tribunes!—come.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. Rome. Before a gate of the city.

Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, and several young Patricians.

Cor. Come, leave your tears: a brief farewell:—the beast With many heads butts me away.-Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd

To say extremity was the trier of spirits (165)

66

Abased,"-wrongly, I think.-"Abated' here carries the sense of sunk and diminished in spirit and courage." HANMER.-To the passages cited by Steevens ad l. may be added

"Those markes of pride shall be abated downe," &c.

The Warres of Cyrus King of Persia, &c., 1594, the concluding speech.

(163) then] This modern addition is in all probability the missing word; for that a word is wanting here who can doubt?

(164) come:-] Not in the folio.

(165) To say extremity was the trier of spirits ;] So the second folio.The first folio has "To say, Extreamities was," &c.; to which reading Malone adhered in defence of the plural here, he cited from an earlier

That common chances common men could bear;
That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike

Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows,

When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves (166) A noble cunning: you were us'd to load me

With precepts that would make invincible

The heart that conn'd them.

Vir. O heavens! O heavens !

Cor.

Nay, I prithee, woman,—

Vol. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, And occupations perish!

Cor.

What, what, what!

I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother,
Resume that spirit, when you were wont to say,
If you had been the wife of Hercules,

Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd
Your husband so much sweat.-Cominius,

Droop not; adieu.-Farewell, my wife,―my mother:
I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius,
Thy tears are salter than a younger man's,

And venomous to thine eyes.-My sometime general,
I've seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld
Heart-hardening spectacles; tell these sad women,
'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes,

As 'tis to laugh at 'em.-My mother, you wot well
My hazards still have been your solace and

:

Believe't not lightly, though I go alone,

Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen

Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen,—your son

Will or exceed the common, or be caught

scene, p. 208, "But when extremities speak :" to which, however, we may oppose what afterwards occurs, p. 229;

"Now, this extremity

Hath brought me to thy hearth."

(166) being gentle wounded, craves] Pope printed "being gently warded, craves;" Hanmer, "being greatly warded, crave;" and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "being gentle-minded, craves." The old text (which scarcely can be right) is thus explained by Johnson; "When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded and yet continue calm requires a generous policy."