VAL. O' my word, the father's fon: I'll fwear, 'tis a very pretty boy.. O' my troth, I looked upon him o' Wednesday half an hour together: he has fuch a confirmed countenance. I faw him run after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it, he let it go again; and after it again; and over and over he comes, and up again; catched it again : or whether his fall enraged him, or how 'twas, he did fo fet his teeth, and tear it; O, I warrant, how he mammocked it !! VOL. One of his father's moods. VAL. Indeed la, 'tis a noble child. VAL. Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play the idle huswife with me this afternoon. VIR. No, good madam; I will not out of doors. VAL. Not out of doors! VOL. She fhall, she shall. VIR. Indeed, no, by your patience: I will not over the threshold, till my lord return from the wars. VAL. Fye, you confine yourself most unreasonably; Come, you must go vifit the good lady that lies in. I mammocked it !] To mammock is to cut in pieces, or to tear. So, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: 66 "That he were chopt in mammocks, I could eat him." A crack, madam.] Thus in Cynthia's Revels by Ben Jonfon: act freely, carelefly, and capriciously." Again, in The Four Prentices of London, 1615 : "A notable, diffembling lad, a crack." Crack fignifies a boy child. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note on The Second Part of King Henry IV. Vol. XII. p. 129, n. 8. STEEVENS. VIR. I will with her speedy ftrength, and vifit her with my prayers; but I cannot go thither. VOL. Why, I pray you? VIR. 'Tis not to fave labour, nor that I want love. VAL. You would be another Penelope : yet, they say, all the yarn she spun, in Ulyffes' abfence, did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come; I would, your cambrick were fenfible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you fhall go with us. VIR. No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth. VAL. In truth, la, go with me; and I'll tell you excellent news of your husband. VIR. O, good madam, there can be none yet. VAL. Verily, I do not jeft with you; there came news from him last night. VIR. Indeed, madam ? VAL. In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is:-The Volces have an army forth; against whom Cominius the general is gone, with one part of our Roman power: your lord, and Titus Lartius, are fet down before their city Corioli; they nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour; and fo, I pray, go with us. VIR. Give me excufe, good madam; I will obey you in every thing hereafter. VOL. Let her alone, lady; as fhe is now, fhe will but disease our better mirth. VAL. In troth, I think, fhe would :-Fare you well then.-Come, good fweet lady.-Pr'ythee, Virgilia, turn thy folemness out o'door, and go along with us. VIR. No: at a word, madam; indeed, I must not. I wish you much mirth. VAL. Well, then farewell. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Before Corioli. Enter, with Drum and Colours, MARCIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, Officers, and Soldiers. Meffenger. To them a MAR. Yonder comes news:-A wager, they have MAR. Say, has our general met the MESS. They lie in view; but have not spoke as yet. LART. So, the good horfe is mine. MAR. I'll buy him of you. LART. No, I'll nor fell, nor give him: lend you For half a hundred years.-Summon the town. MESS. Within this mile and half.3 3 Within this mile and half.] The two last words, which dis MAR. Then fhall we hear their 'larum, and they ours. Now, Mars, I pr'ythee, make us quick in work; That we with fmoking fwords may march from hence, To help our fielded friends !4-Come, blow thy blast. They found a Parley. Enter, on the Walls, fome Senators, and Others. Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls? 1 SEN. No, nor a man that fears you lefs than he, That's leffer than a little.5 Hark, our drums [Alarums afar off. turb the measure, fhould be omitted; as we are told in p. 43, that" "Tis not a mile" between the two armies. STEEVENS. fielded friends!] i, e. our friends who are in the field STEEVENS. 4 of battle. nor a man that fears you less than he, That's leffer than a little.] The sense requires it to be read: nor a man that fears you more than he; Or, more probably : nor a man but fears you lefs than he, That's leffer than a little. JOHNSON. The text, I am confident, is right, our author almost always entangling himself when he uses lefs and more. See Vol. IX. p. 293, n. 6. Leffer in the next line shows that less in that preceding was the author's word, and it is extremely improbable that he should have written-but fears you lefs, &c. MALONE. Dr. Johnson's note appears to me unneceffary, nor do I think with Mr. Malone that Shakspeare has here entangled himself; but on the contrary that he could not have expreffed himself better. The fenfe is "however little Tullus Aufidius fears you, there is not a man within the walls that fears you less." DOUCE. Are bringing forth our youth: We'll break our walls, Rather than they fhall pound us up our gates, Which yet feem fhut, we have but pinn'd with rushes ; They'll open of themselves. Hark you, far off; [Other Alarums. There is Aufidius; lift, what work he makes MAR. O, they are at it! LART. Their noise be our instruction.—Ladders, ho! The Volces enter and pass over the Stage. MAR. They fear us not, but iffue forth their city. Now put your fhields before your hearts, and fight With hearts more proof than shields.-Advance, brave Titus : They do difdain us much beyond our thoughts, Which makes me fweat with wrath.-Come, on my fellows; He that retires, I'll take him for a Volce, Alarum, and exeunt Romans and Volces, fighting. The Romans are beaten back to their Trenches. Re-enter MARCIUS.6 MAR. All the contagion of the fouth light on you, • Re-enter Marcius.] The old copy reads-Enter Marcius curfing. STEEVens. |