Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more fortunes
Thou'rt tir'd, then, in a word, I also am
Longer to live most weary, and present
My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice;
Which not to cut would show thee but a fool,
Since I have ever follow'd thee with hate,

Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast,
And cannot live but to thy shame, unless

It be to do thee service.

Auf.

O Marcius, Marcius!

Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart
A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yond cloud speak divine things,
And say ""Tis true," I'd not believe them more
Than thee, all-noble Marcius.(183) Let me twine
Mine arms about that body, where against
My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,
And scar'd the moon with splinters: (184) here I clip
The anvil of my sword; and do contest

As hotly and as nobly with thy love
As ever in ambitious strength I did

Contend against thy valour.

Know thou first

(183) A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter

Should from yond cloud speak divine things,
And say "'Tis true," I'd not believe them more
Than thee, all-noble Marcius.]

So the lines are arranged in the folio; and, I believe, rightly, though a different arrangement has been attempted. But the second line is certainly mutilated.-Pope gave

Qy.

"Should from yon cloud speak to me things divine."—

"Should from out yonder cloud speak divine things” f

(In Hamlet, act iii. sc. 2, we have "yonder cloud.")-In the third line Walker (Crit. Exam., &c., vol. iii. p. 209) would read “believe him more." (184) And scard the moon with splinters;] The folio (with its old spelling) has "And scarr'd the Moone," &c.; which is retained by Malone and Mr. Collier (the former innocently remarking that a line in Richard III.,

"Amaze the welkin with your broken staves,"

"certainly adds some support" to the reading "scar'd”!).—1865. Mr. Collier now gives, with his Ms. Corrector, "scar'd."

I lov'd the maid I married; never man

Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee,
We have a power on foot; and I had purpose
Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
Or lose mine arm for't: thou hast beat me out
Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius,
Had we no quarrel else (185) to Rome, but that
Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
From twelve to seventy; and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,
Like a bold flood o'er-bear.(186) O, come, go in,
And take our friendly senators by the hands;
Who now are here taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

Cor.

You bless me, gods!

Auf. Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have The leading of thine own revenges, take

Th' one half of my commission; and set down

As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st

Thy country's strength and weakness-thine own ways; Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,

Or rudely visit them in parts remote,

To fright them, ere destroy. But come in: (187)
Let me commend thee first to those that shall

(185) no quarrel else] So the third folio.-The earlier folios have "no other quarrell else."

(186) o'er-bear.] So some copies of the folio: other copies have erroneously "o're-beate."-Mr. Grant White adopts Jackson's reading, "o'erbeart."-"The pronoun, I think, can scarcely be dispensed with here, but it should be 'her.'" W. N. LETTSOM.

(187) But come in:] Mr. W. N. Lettsom suggests " But now come in.” -The usual alteration is "But come, come in.”

Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes !

And more a friend than e'er an enemy;

Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand: most welcome! [Exeunt Coriolanus and Aufidius.—The two Servants come forward.

First Serv. Here's a strange alteration!

Sec. 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.

First Serv. What an arm he has he turned me about with his finger and his thumb as one would set up a top.

Sec. 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.

First Serv. He had so; looking as it were,-Would I were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

Sec. Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: he is simply the rarest man i' the world.

First Serv. I think he is but a greater soldier than he you wot on.(188)

Sec. Serv. Who, my master?

First Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that.

Sec. Serv. Worth six on him.

First Serv. Nay, not so neither: but I take him to be the greater soldier.

Sec. Serv. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that for the defence of a town our general is excellent. First Serv. Ay, and for an assault too.

Re-enter third Servant.

Third Serv. O slaves, I can tell you news,-news, you rascals!

First and Sec. Serv. What, what, what? let's partake. Third Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lief be a condemned man.

First and Sec. Serv. Wherefore? wherefore ?

(188) wot on.] The folio has "wot one."

Third Serv. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general,-Caius Marcius.

First Serv. Why do you say "thwack our general"?

Third Serv. I do not say "thwack our general;" but he was always good enough for him.

Sec. Serv. Come, we are fellows and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

First Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth on't before Corioli he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.

Sec. Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled (189) and eaten him too.

First Serv. But, more of thy news?

Third 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 hand, 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 other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by the ears: he will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled.

Sec. Serv. And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine.

Third 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.(190)

First Serv. Directitude! what's that?

(189) broiled] The folio has "boyld."

(190) directitude.] "I suspect the author wrote 'discreditude;' a made word instead of 'discredit.' He intended, I suppose, to put an uncommon word into the mouth of this servant, which had some resemblance to sense; but could hardly have meant that he should talk absolute nonsense." MALONE.-Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes "dejectitude." -Mr. Singer (Shakespeare Vindicated, &c., p. 223) says, much too confidently, "There can be no doubt that the Servant is intended to blunder in the use of 'directitude,' which he mistakes for discredi tude."

Third 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.

First Serv. But when goes this forward?

Third 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.

Sec. Serv. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing,(191) but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

First Serv. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it's spritely, waking,(192) audible, and full of vent.(193) Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; .(194) mulled,(195) deaf, sleepy, (196) insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's (197) a destroyer of men.

Sec. Serv. 'Tis so: and as war, in some sort, may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

(191) This peace is nothing,] The sentence being perhaps mutilated, Capell printed "This peace is good for nothing:" the earlier insertion was "worth."

(192) spritely, waking,] The folio has "sprightly walking;" which Mr. Staunton retains, and explains "quick moving or marching."

(193) full of vent.] i.e. "full of rumour, full of materials for discourse." JOHNSON.-Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads "full of vaunt."

(194) lethargy;] Walker (Crit. Exam., &c., vol. i. p. 92) queries “a lethargy."

(196) mulled,] i.e., according to Hanmer, "softened and dispirited, as wine is when burnt and sweetened. Lat. mollitus."-Walker would substitute "mute" see his Crit. Exam., &c., vol. i. pp. 92, 188, vol. ii. p. 49.

(196) sleepy,] The folio has “ sleepe."-Corrected in the third

folio.

(197) war's] The folio has "warres" both here and in the next speech. "I should have persisted in adherence to the reading of Mr. Pope ["war's"] had not a similar irregularity in speech occurred in All's well that ends well, act ii. sc. 1, where the Second Lord says, 'O, 'tis brave wars!' as we have here' wars may be said to be a ravisher.'" STEEVENS. -But the two passages are not similar; and besides, though our author frequently uses "wars" for "war," the first words of the present speech, "Let me have war" (the folio "Warre"), prove that in the concluding portion of it he employed the singular. "In our passage War is personified and is opposed to Peace. It is surely impossible that, under such circumstances, Shakespeare would have used the plural, particularly when he had begun with the singular." W. N. LETTSOM.