First Serv. Ay, and it makes men hate one another. Third 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 Three. In, in, in, in!

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI. Rome. A public place.

Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

Sic. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him;
His remedies are tame i' the present peace (198)
And quietness of the people, which before
Were in wild hurry. Here do we make his friends
Blush that the world goes well; who rather had,
Though they themselves did suffer by't, behold
Dissentious numbers pestering streets, than see
Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going
About their functions friendly.

Bru. We stood to't in good time. Is this Menenius?
Sic. 'Tis he, 'tis he: O, he is grown most kind

Sic. Your Coriolanus, sir,(200) is not much miss'd

are

(198) His remedies are tame i' the present peace] So Theobald.-The folio has ". tame, the present peace."-Mason would read ". lame the," &c.-Mr. Staunton observes; "Omission, however, is not perhaps the only defect in the line; the word 'remedies' is very equivocal." Hanmer gave the passage thus;

"His remedies are tame: the present peace
And quietness of the people, which before
Were in wild hurry here, do make his friends
Blush that the world goes well," &c.

(199) Bru. Hail, sir!] An addition by Capell, which both the reply of Menenius and the metre prove to have been accidentally omitted in the folio.

(200) sir,] Added by Capell.-Compare what precedes.

But with his friends: the commonwealth 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.

Sic.

Where is he, hear you?

Men. Nay, I hear nothing: his mother, and his wife Hear nothing from him.

Enter three or four Citizens.

Citizens. The gods preserve you both!

Sic.

God-den, our neighbours.

Bru. God-den to you all, god-den to you all.

First Cit. Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our

knees,

Are bound to pray for you both.(201)

Sic.

Live, and thrive!

Bru. Farewell, kind neighbours: we wish'd Coriolanus Had lov'd you as we did.

Citizens.

Now the gods keep you!

Both Tri. Farewell, farewell.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Sic. This is a happier and more comely time Than when these fellows ran about the streets Crying confusion.

A worthy officer i' the war; but insolent,

O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking,
Self-loving,-

Sic.

And affecting one sole throne,

Without assistance.

Men.

I think not so.(202)

Sic. We should by this, to all our lamentation, If he had gone forth consul, found it so.

(201) you both.] Qy. "both you"?

(202)

Without assistan...

Men.

I think not so.]

"Read assistance' ['assistancy']." Walker's Crit. Exam., &c., vol. ii. p. 48.-The earlier attempt to perfect the metre here was by printing "Nay, I think not so.'

Bru. The gods have well prevented it, and Rome Sits safe and still without him.

Ed.

Enter an Edile.

Worthy tribunes,

There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,
Reports, the Volsces with two several powers
Are enter'd in the Roman territories,

And with the deepest malice of the war
Destroy what lies before 'em.

Men.

'Tis Aufidius,

Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment,

Thrusts forth his horns again into the world;

Which were inshell'd when Marcius stood for Rome,
And durst not once peep out.

Sic.

Of Marcius?

Come, what talk you

Bru. Go see this rumourer whipp'd.—It cannot be The Volsces dare break with us.

Men.

Cannot be !
We have record that very well it can;
And three examples of the like have been
Within my age.
But reason with the fellow,
Before you punish him, where he heard this;

Lest you shall chance to whip your information,
And beat the messenger who bids beware

Of what is to be dreaded.

Mess. The nobles in great earnestness are going All to the senate-house: some news is come

That turns their countenances.(203)

The folio has "

some newes is comming," &c.; which Mr. Knight

Sic.

'Tis this slave;

Go whip him 'fore the people's eyes:-his raising;

The slave's report is seconded; and more,
More fearful, is deliver'd.

Sic.

What more fearful?

Mess. It is spoke freely out of many mouthsHow probable I do not know that Marcius, Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome, And vows revenge as spacious as between

The young'st and oldest thing.

Sic.

This is most likely!

Bru. Rais'd only, that the weaker sort may wish Good Marcius (204) home again.

Sic.

Men. This is unlikely:

The very trick on't.

He and Aufidius can no more atone

Than violentest contrariety.(205)

retains (because "the reader will remember Mr. Campbell's fine image,

'Coming events throw [cast] their shadows before ;'"

the Roman nobles, of course, being gifted, like Campbell's wizard, with the second sight!); and which in most of the recent editions is altered to " some news is come in," &c. (Boswell defending that alteration in a note about "redundant terminations," &c.)-Now it is quite evident that the mistake of "comming" for "come" was occasioned by the transcriber's or compositor's eye having caught the word immediately above, "going." (So in The Tempest, act ii. sc. 2, the folio has

"No more dams I'le make for fish,

Nor fetch in firing, at requiring,

Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish," &c. ;

where the error "trenchering” originated in the preceding “firing” and "requiring.")

(204) Good Marcius] In my former edition I too hastily adopted the reading of Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector, "God Marcius;" and I have now to regret that I should have been partly the cause of Mr. Grant White's adopting that erroneous reading.

(205) Than violentest contrariety.] "The folio has ‘violent'st,' the true reading. It is a line of three feet and a half,

"Than violent'st contrariety.""

Walker's Shakespeare's Versification, &c., p. 170.-Hanmer printed "Than violentest contrarieties."

Enter a second Messenger.

Sec. Mess. You are sent for to the senate:

A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius.

Associated with Aufidius, rages

Upon our territories; and have already

O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire, and took
What lay before them.

Enter COMINIUS.

Com. O, you have made good work!

Men.

What news? what news?

Com. You've holp to ravish your own daughters, and

To melt the city leads upon your pates;

To see your wives dishonour'd to your noses,

Men. What's the news? what's the news?

Com. Your temples burnèd in their cement; and Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd

Into an auger's bore.

Men.

Pray now, your news ?—

You've made fair work, I fear me.-Pray, your news?—
If Marcius should be join'd with Volscians,-

Com.

He is their god: he leads them like a thing
Made by some other deity than nature,

That shapes man better; and they follow him,
Against us brats, with no less confidence

Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,
Or butchers killing flies.(206)

Men.

If!

You've made good work,

You and your apron-men; you that stood so much

(206) Than boys pursuing summer butterflies,
Or butchers killing flies.]

"Write, or at least pronounce, 'butterflees' [on account of "flies" in the next line]. Drayton, Muses' Elysium, viii. ;

'Of lilies shall the pillows be,

With down stuft of the butterflee.""

Walker's Crit, Exam., &c., vol. iii. p. 212.