ACT V.

SCENE I. Rome. A public place.

Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and others.

Men. No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said
Which was sometime his general; who lov'd 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 urg'd our old acquaintance, and the drops

That we have bled together. Coriolanus
He would not answer to: forbad all names;
He was a kind of nothing, titleless,

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

Men.
Why, so, you've made good work!
A pair of tribunes that have wreck'd fair Rome (217)
To make coals cheap,-a noble memory!

suffer," &c., and "Rights by rights foil'd are," &c.-That a verb es concealed under the corruption "fouler" is indubitable. As to the word which I have introduced, it was frequently spelt "faulter" (so in Shelton's Don Quixote, Part First, p. 372, ed. 4to, "who when they perceiue their Ladies to faulter," &c.), and therefore might easily have been mistaken for "fouler."

(217) that have wreck'd fair Rome, &c.] The folio has "that have wrack'd for Rome," &c.—Hanmer printed "that have sack'd fair Rome," &c.-I give the passage with the additional emendation of the late Mr. W. W. Williams, who (not aware that Hanmer had altered "for" to "fair") writes thus; "We meet elsewhere in Shakspeare with 'fair Athens,' 'fair Milan,' and 'fair Verona :' and why not fair Rome-that 'urbs pulcherrima'? Menenius exclaims ironically that the tribunes have earned for themselves a noble memorial by obtaining cheap charcoal for the populace at the cost of the conflagration of their beautiful city--a humorous explosion of indignation, in perfect keeping with his character." The Parthenon for May 3d, 1862, p. 19.

Com. I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon When it was least (218) expected: he replied,

It was a rare petition (219) of a state

To one whom they had punish'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 th' offence.

Men.
For one poor grain or two!
I'm one of those; his mother, wife, his child,
And this brave fellow too, we are the grains :
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.

Men.

No, I'll not meddle.

What should I do?

Sic. Pray you now, go to him.(220)

Men.

Bru. Only make trial what your love can do

For Rome, towards Marcius.

The folio has "lesse expected."

(219) a rare petition] i.e. a strange, an extraordinary petition.-The folio has " a bare petition."—Corrected by the late Mr. W. W. Williams in The Parthenon for May 3d, 1862, p. 19: he compares "And a petition granted them, a strange one," act i. sc. 1.

(220) Pray you now, go to him.] The "now" is not in the folio. (Compare, ante, p. 209,

Men.

Well, and say that Marcius (221)

Return me, as Cominius is return'd,
Unheard; what then?

But as a discontented friend, grief-shot

With his unkindness? say't be so?

Sic.
Yet your good will
Must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure

As you intended well.

Men.

I think he'll hear me.

I'll undertake't:

Yet, to bite his lip

And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me.
He was not taken well; he had not din'd:
The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then
We pout upon the morning, are unapt
To give or to forgive; but when we've stuff'd
These pipes and these conveyances of our blood
With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls

Than in our priest-like fasts: therefore I'll watch him
Till he be dieted to my request,

And then I'll set upon him.

Bru. You know the very road into his kindness, And cannot lose your way.

Men.

Good faith, I'll prove him.

Speed how it will, you (222) shall ere long have knowledge Of my success.

Com.
Sic.

He'll never hear him.

Not?

[Exit.

(221) Well, and say that Marcius, &c.] There is evidently something wrong in this passage. Hanmer altered it in one way; Capell in another and Dr. Badham (Cambridge Essays, vol. for 1856, pp. 280-1) would read

"Well, and say that Marcius

Return me, as Cominius is return'd,

Unheard; what then? or not unheard, but as

A discontented friend, grief-shot with his
Unkindness.

Sic.

Say't be so, yet your good will," &c.

(222) you] So Mason and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector.-The folio has "I;" a misprint occasioned by the "I'll" in the preceding line.-With the old reading, and point the speech how we will, Menenius makes a silly remark; "there could be no doubt," as Mason observes, "but Menenius himself would soon have knowledge of his own success."

Com. I tell you, he does sit in gold, his eye
Red as 'twould burn Rome; and his injury
The gaoler to his pity.
I kneel'd before him;
'Twas very faintly he said "Rise;" dismiss'd me
Thus, with his speechless hand: what he would do,
He sent in writing after me; what he would not,
Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions:
So that all hope is vain,

Unless in's noble mother and his wife; (224)

Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him

(223)

For mercy to his country.

Therefore let's hence,

And with our fair entreaties haste them on.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. An outpost of the Volscian camp before Rome. The Sentinels at their stations.

"Bound with an oath, not yield to new conditions.”

Malone says, "I believe two half lines have been lost; that 'Bound with an oath' was the beginning of one line, and 'to yield to his conditions' the conclusion of the next."-Mr. Staunton proposes

"Bound with an oath to yield to no conditions."

Not without reason Mr. Grant White observes, "This passage is incomprehensible."" Professor Solly suggested to me, as a new reading, 'hold' for ‘yield.'" LEO.

(224) So that all hope is vain,

Unless in's noble mother and his wife,]

In my former edition I retained the reading of the folio, "unlesse his Noble Mother," &c.; ie., says Malone, "So that we have now no other hope, nothing to rely upon, but his mother and his wife, who, as I am told, mean, &c. Unless is here used for except." But I now think it impossible that Shakespeare could have used such phraseology; and I adopt the lection which some one suggested to Steevens," Unless in's noble mother," &c. : in the present play contractions of that kind are frequent.-Hanmer substituted "from's" for "his."

(225) Stand, and go back.] "This defective measure might be completed by reading 'Stand, and go back again."" STEEVENS.

Men. You guard like men; 'tis well: but, by your

leave,

I am an officer of state, and come

To speak with Coriolanus.

First S.
Men.

From whence ?

From Rome.

First S. You may not pass, you must return: our general Will no more hear from thence.

Sec. S. You'll see your Rome embrac'd with fire, before You'll speak with Coriolanus.

Men.

Good my friends,

If you have heard your general talk of Rome,

And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks
My name hath touch'd your ears: it is Menenius.

First S. Be't so; go back: the virtue of your name
Is not here passable.

Men.

I tell thee, fellow,
Thy general is my lover: I have been

The book of his good acts, whence men have read
His fame unparallel'd, haply amplified ;

For I have ever magnified (226) my friends

Of whom he's chief-with all the size that verity
Would without lapsing suffer: nay, sometimes,
Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground,

I've tumbled past the throw; and in his praise
Have almost stamp'd the leasing: therefore, fellow,
I must have leave to pass.

First S. Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf as you have uttered words in your own, you should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous to lie as to live chastely. Therefore, go back.

Men. Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always factionary on the party of your general.

Sec. S. Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you

(226) magnified] So Hanmer and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector.-The folio has "verified;" which perhaps crept into the text in consequence of the transcriber's or compositor's eye having rested on the word "verity" in the next line.-Mr. W. N. Lettsom asks "Why not repeat 'amplified'?"-Leo proposes "glorified."