SCENE IV.

Character of Coriolanus.

His nature is too noble for this world:

(4) He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,

Or Jove for's power to thunder: his heart's his mouth;

What his breast forges that his tongue must vent,
And, being angry, does forget that ever
He heard the name of death.

SCENE V. Honour and Policy.
I've heard you fay,

Honour and policy, like unfever'd friends,
I'th' war do grow together; grant that, and tell me
In peace, what each of them by th' other loses,
That they combine not there.

The Method to gain Popular Favour.

Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand, And thus far having ftretch'd it, (here be with them) Thy knee buffing the ftones: (for in fuch bufiness Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th' ignorant

More

(4) He, &c.] Thomfon, who hath written a tragedy on this subject, tho' with little fuccefs, his dramatic genius being utterly incapable of treading in the steps of Shakespear, puts this character of Coriolanus into the mouth of Galefus;

Spite of my love to Marcius I must own it,
The vigorous foil whence his heroic virtues
Luxuriant rife, if not with careful hand
Severely weeded, teems with imperfections.
His lofty fpirit brooks no opposition:

His rage, if once offended, knows no bounds,
He deems plebeians, with patrician blood
Compar'd, the creatures of a lower species,

Mere menial hands by nature meant to serve him.

A&t 2. Sc. ra

The reader will be agreeably entertained by reading the life of this hero, written by Plutarch, which will add many beauties to this compofition of Shakespear.

More learned than the ears;) (5) waving thy head,
Which often thus correcting thy ftout heart,
Now humble as the ripeft mulberry,

That wilt not hold the handling; [or] fay to them.
Thou art their foldier, and being bred in broils,
(6) Haft not the soft way, which, thou dost confess,
Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim,

In asking their loves; but thou wilt frame

Thyfelf

(5) Waving thy head, &c.] Mr. Warburton and Sir Thomas Hanmer after him, thinking this paffage corrupt and abfurd, alter it thus ;

Waving thy band,

Which foften thus correcting, &c.

We have nothing more to do than explain the paffage, to fhew their mistake the mother defires her fon to go to the populace with all tokens of humility, "with his bonnet in his band, which he was to ftretch forth, and to buss the stones with his knee, and to wave his head in token of contrition (a most common and daily-obfervable method) which [or the doing of which] often thus correcting his ftout heart [by thus waving, in fign of fubmiffion, correcting and chastifing that pride, and fubduing that erroneous obftinacy by this humiliation, he confeffes to punish and bring under, &c.] then, fhe adds, fay, fo and fo, &c. We may fuppofe, often thus, is fpoken danTixws, as the rhetoricians fay, the herself, while speaking, being supposed to wave her head, in the manner fhe would have Coriolanus do it. Mr. Warburton aiks" Where is the fenfe or grammar of, Which often thus, c." I would answer one queftion by another-Where is the fenfe or grammar of, Waving thy hand, which foften thus? ..

-The reader may obferve, hand and foft, are both used in the fpeech, not far from this place, which is fome objection to the critic's emendation.

The fecond line is a proof she uses that action fhe would recom mend to her fon: the reader will obferve, or, in the 8th line is quite unneceffary, the verfe and fenfe being compleat without it; for which reason 1 have put it in crotchets, as a perplexing and idle expletive.

(6) Haft not, &c.] So Othello tells the fenate of Venice;

Rude am I in my fpeech,

And little blefs'd with the foft phrafe of peace, &c.
See Act. 1. Sc.

Thyfelf (forfooth) hereafter theirs fo far,
As thou haft power and perfon.

Coriolanus, his Abhorrence of Flattery.
Well, I must do't:
Away, my difpofition, and poffefs me

Some harlot's fpirit! my throat of war be turn'd,
Which quired with my drum, into a pipe,
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin's voice
That babies lulls afleep! the fmiles of knaves
Tent in my cheeks, and fchool-boys tears take up
The glaffes of my fight! a beggar's tongue
Make motion thro' my lips, and my arm'd knees,
Which bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath received an alms-I will not do't-
Left I furceafe to honour my own truth,
And by my body's action, teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.

His Mother's Refolution on his stubborn Pride.

(7) At thy choice then;

To beg of thee, it is my more difhonour,

Than thou of them.

Come all to ruin, let

Thy

(7) At thy, &c.]

Daughter rife,

Let us no more before the Volfcian people
Expofe ourselves a fpectacle of fhame.

It is in vain we try to melt a breast,
That to the best affections nature gives us,

Prefers the worst. Hear me, proud man, I have
A heart as ftout as thine. I came not hither,
To be fent back, rejected, baffled, fham'd,
Hateful to Rome, because I am thy mother:
A Roman matron knows, in fuch extremes,
What part to take, and thus I came provided.

[Drawing from a robe a dagger.
Go, barbarous fon, go, double parricide!
Ruth o'er my corfe to thy belov'd revenge.

Tread

Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear
Thy dang'rous floutnefs: for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou. Do, as thou lift;
Thy valiantnefs was mine, thou fuck'dft it from me :
But own thy pride thyself.

SCENE VI. His Deteftation of the Vulgar.

You common cry of curs whofe breath I hate,
As reek o'th' rotten fens; whofe loves I prize,
As the dead carcafes of unburied men

That do currupt 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 defpair: have the power still
To banish your defenders, till at length,
Your ignorance (which finds not, till it feels;
Making but refervation of yourselves
Still your own enemies) deliver you,
As most abated captives, to fome nation
That won you without blows.

ACT VI. SCENE I.

Precepts against Ill-fortune.

You were us'd

To fay, extremity was the trier of fpirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike
Shew'd mastership in floating. Fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gently warded, craves
A noble cunning. You were us'd to load me

Tread on the bleeding breast of her to whom

Thou ow'ft thy life.

With

Thomson's Coriolanus, A&t 5. Sc. I.

See the page following.

With precepts, that wou'd make invincible
The heart that conn'd them.

SCENE III. On common Friendships.

Oh world, thy flippery turns! Friends now fast
fworn,

Whofe double bofoms feem to wear one heart,
Whofe hours, whose bed, whofe meal, and exercise
Are still together, who twine, as 'twere, in love
Unfeperable, fhall within this hour,

(8) On a diffenffion of a doit, break out,
To bitter enmity. So, felleft foes,

Whofe paffions and whofe plots have broke their fleep To take the one the other, by fome chance,

Some

(8) On a diffenfion, &c.] This is a beautiful picture of the trivial accidents that break and contract common friendships: I remember a paffage in a poem called, An Effay on Conver fation, (which is written, if I am not miftaken, by Mr. Stillingfleet, and may be found in Dodley's Mifcellany,) where he excellently fets forth the little follies that occafion fatal breaches in friendship, than which, as Manilius long fince obferved, nothing in nature is more noble, and nothing in nature more

rare.

Nihil ex femet natura creavit

Pectore amicitiae majus, nec rarius unquam.

I have not the poem by me, but fo far as I can recollect the paffage, will give it my reader.

Panthus and Euclio link'd in friendship's tye,

Liv'd each for each, as each for each wou'd die:
Like objects pleas'd them, and like objects pain'd
'Twas but one foul, that in two bodies reign'd!
One night, as usual 'twas their nights to pafs,
They ply'd the focial, but ftill temperate glafs :
When lo! a doubt was rais'd about a word-
A doubt that must be ended by the fword!
One falls a victim: mark, O man, thy fhame!
Because their gloffaries were not the fame.

I believe the ingenious author ufes this example with a different defign from that for which I have quoted it; however, it will ferve very well to cast a light on the prefent topic.