Lead'ft firft to win fome vantage.' But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; 1 Thou rafcal, that art worst in blood, to run Lead ft firft, to win fome vantage.] I think, we may better read, by an eafy change: Thou rafcal, thou art worst in blood, to ruin Lead ft firft, to win &c. Thou that art the meaneft by birth, art the foremost to lead thy fellows to ruin, in hope of fome advantage. The meaning, however, is perhaps only this, Thou that art a hound, or running dog of the loweft breed, lead'ft the pack, when any thing is to be gotten. JOHNSON. Worst in blood may be the true reading. In King Henry VI. P. I: "If we be English deer, be then in blood." i. e. high fpirits, in vigour. Again, in this play of Coriolanus, A& IV. fc. v: "But when they shall fee his creft up again, and the man in blood," &c. Mr. M. Mafon judicioufly obferves that blood, in all these paffages, is applied to deer, for a lean deer is called a rascal; and that "worst in blood," is least in vigour. STEEVENS. Both rafcal and in blood are terms of the foreft. Rascal meant a lean deer, and is here used equivocally. The phrafe in blood has been proved in a former note to be a phrase of the forest. See Vol. XII. p. 126, n. 7. Our author feldom is careful that his comparisons should answer on both fides. He feems to mean here, thou, worthless fcoundrel, though, like a deer not in blood, thou art in the worst condition for running of all the herd of plebeians, takeft the lead in this tumult, in order to obtain fome private advantage to yourself. What advantage the foremost of a herd of deer could obtain, is not easy to point out, nor did Shakspeare, I believe, confider. Perhaps indeed he only ufes rafcal in its ordinary fense. So afterwards "From rafcals worfe than they." Dr. Johnson's interpretation appears to me inadmiffible; as the term, though it is applicable both in its original and metaphorical fenfe to a man, cannot, I think, be applied to a dog; nor have I found any inftance of the term in blood being applied to the canine fpecies. MALONE. Enter CAIUS MARCIUS. MAR. Thanks.-What's the matter, you diffen tious rogues, That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, 1 CIT. We have ever your good word. MAR. He that will give good words to thee, will flatter Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, you curs, That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, Or hailstone in the fun. Your virtue is, To make him worthy, whofe offence fubdues him, And curfe that juftice did it.4 Who deserves great nefs, 2 The one fide must have bale.] Bale is an old Saxon word, for mifery or calamity: "For light the hated as the deadly bale." Spenfer's Fairy Queen. Mr. M. Mafon obferves that " bale, as well as bane, fignified poison in Shakspeare's days. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers.” STEEVENS. This word was antiquated in Shakspeare's time, being marked as obfolete by Bullokar, in his English Expofitor, 1616. MALONE. 3 That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud.] Coriolanus does not use these two fentences confequentially, but firft reproaches them with unfteadiness, then with their other occafional vices. JOHNSON. Your virtue is, To make him worthy, whofe offence fubdues him, And curfe that justice did it.] i. e. Your virtue is to speak Deferves your hate: and your affections are And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye? With every minute you do change a mind; That in these several places of the city You cry against the noble fenate, who, Under the gods, keep you in awe, which elfe Would feed on one another?-What's their feeking ?5 MEN. For corn at their own rates; whereof, they fay, The city is well stor❜d. MAR. > Hang 'em! They say? They'll fit by the fire, and prefume to know What's done i'the Capitol: who's like to rise, Conjectural marriages; making parties ftrong, well of him whom his own offences have subjected to justice; and to rail at those laws by which he whom you praise was punifhed. STEEVENS. 5 What's their feeking ?] Seeking is here ufed fubftantively. -The answer is," Their feeking, or fuit, (to use the language of the time,) is for corn." MALONE. 6 who's like to rife, Who thrives, and who declines :] The words-who thrives, which destroy the metre, appear to be an evident and tastelefs interpolation. They are omitted by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS. Below their cobbled fhoes. They fay, there's grain enough? Would the nobility lay afide their ruth,? 8 And let me ufe my fword, I'd make a quarry ? — their ruth,] i. e. their pity, compaffion. Fairfax and Spenfer often ufe the word. Hence the adjective-ruthless, which is ftill current. STEEVENS. 8 I'd make a quarry With thoufands] Why a quarry? I fuppofe, not because he would pile them fquare, but because he would give them for carrion to the birds of prey. JOHNSON. So, in The Miracles of Mofes, by Drayton: "And like a quarry caft them on the land." See Vol. X. p. 248, n. 4. STEEVENS. The word quarry occurs in Macbeth, where Rofs fays to Macduff: "Were on the quarry of thefe murder'd deer In a note on this laft paffage, Steevens afferts, that quarry means game pursued or killed, and fupports that opinion by a paffage in Maflinger's Guardian: and from thence I suppose the word was used to exprefs a heap of flaughtered perfons. In the concluding fcene of Hamlet, where Fortinbras fees fo many lying dead, he fays: "This quarry cries, on havock!" and in the laft fcene of A Wife for a Month, Valerio, in defcribing his own fictitious battle with the Turks, fays: "I faw the child of honour, for he was young, Bullokar, in his English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, fays that "a quarry among hunters fignifieth the reward given to hounds after they have hunted, or the venifon which is taken by hunting." This fufficiently explains the word of Coriolanus. MALONE. 9-pick my lance.] And fo the word [pitch] is ftill pro MEN. Nay, thefe are almost thoroughly perfua ded ; For though abundantly they lack discretion, MAR. They are diffolved: Hang 'em! They faid, they were an-hungry; figh'd forth pro verbs ; That, hunger broke ftone walls; that, dogs must eat; That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods fent not Corn for the rich men only :-With these shreds They vented their complainings; which being anfwer'd, And a petition granted them, a ftrange one, (To break the heart of generofity,' And make bold power look pale,) they threw their caps nounced in Staffordshire, where they fay-picke me fuch a thing, that is, pitch or throw any thing that the demander wants. TOLLET. Thus, in Froiffart's Chronicle, cap. C.lxiii. fo. lxxxii. b: "—and as he ftouped downe to take up his fwerde, the Frenche fquyer dyd pycke his fwerde at hym, and by hap ftrake hym through bothe the thyes." STEEVENS. So, in An Account of auntient Customes and Games, &c. MSS. Harl. 2057, fol. 10, b: "To wrestle, play at ftrole-ball, [ftool-ball] or to runne, "To picke the barre, or to fhoot off a gun." The word is again used in King Henry VIII. with only a flight variation in the fpelling: "I'll peck you o'er the pales elfe." See Vol. XV. p. 210, n. 5. I MALONE. the heart of generofity,] To give the final blow to the nobles. Generofity is high birth. JOHNSON. So, in Measure for Measure: "The generous and graveft citizens-," STEEVENS. See Vol. VI. p. 381, n. 2. |