Ere yet the fight be done, pack up :-Down with them. And hark, what noife the general makes !-To him : There is the man of my foul's hate, Aufidius, Piercing our Romans: Then, valiant Titus, take Convenient numbers to make good the city; Whilft I, with those that have the fpirit, will hafte To help Cominius. LART. Worthy fir, thou bleed'st; Thy exercise hath been too violent for MAR. Sir, praife me not: My work hath yet not warm'd me: Fare you well. The blood I drop is rather phyfical Than dangerous to me: To Aufidius thus I will appear, and fight. LART. Now the fair goddefs, Fortune," Fall deep in love with thee; and her great charms Mifguide thy opposers' swords! Bold gentleman, Profperity be thy page! MAR. Thy friend no less Than those the placeth highest! So, farewell. [Exit MARCIUS. Go, found thy trumpet in the market-place; ⚫ Than dangerous to me: To Aufidius thus I will appear, and fight. [Exeunt. Lart. Now the fair goddefs, Fortune,] The metre being here violated, I think we might safely read with Sir T. Hanmer (omitting the words to me :) Than dangerous: To Aufidius thus will I Appear, and fight. Now the fair goddefs, Fortune. STEEVENS. SCENE VI. Near the Camp of Cominius. Enter COMINIUS and Forces, retreating. COM. Breathe you, my friends; well fought: we are come off Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands, That both our powers, with smiling fronts encountering, Enter a Meffenger. May give you thankful facrifice!-Thy news? Сом. Though thou fpeak'st truth, Methinks, thou speak'ft not well. How long is't 7 fince? MESS. Above an hour, my lord. Coм. 'Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums: →The Roman gods, Lead their fucceffès as we wish our own ;] i. e. May the Roman gods, &c. MALONE. How could'ft thou in a mile confound an hour, And bring thy news fo late? MESS. Spies of the Volces Held me in chafe, that I was forc'd to wheel Three or four miles about; else had I, fir, Half an hour fince brought my report. Сом. Enter MARCIUS. Who's yonder, That does appear as he were flay'd? O gods! MAR. Come I too late? Cом. The fhepherd knows not thunder from a tabor, More than I know the found of Marcius' tongue From every meaner man's.9 confound an hour,] Confound is here used not in its common acceptation, but in the fenfe of-to expend. Conterere tempus. MALONE. So, in King Henry IV. P. I. A&t I. fc. iii: "He did confound the best part of an hour," &c. STEEVENS. From every meaner man's.] [Old copy-meaner man.] That is, from that of every meaner man. This kind of phrafeology is found in many places in these plays; and as the peculiarities of our author, or rather the language of his age, ought to be fcrupulously attended to, Hanmer and the subsequent editors who read here every meaner man's, ought not in my apprehenfion to be followed, though we should now write fo. MALONE. When I am certified that this, and many correfponding offences againft grammar, were common to the writers of our author's age, I fhall not perfevere in correcting them. But while I fufpect (as in the prefent inftance) that fuch irregularities were the gibberish of a theatre, or the blunders of a transcriber, I fhall MAR. Come I too late? COм. Ay, if you come not in the blood of others, But mantled in your own. MAR. O! let me clip you In arms as found, as when I woo'd; in heart As merry, as when our nuptial day was done, And tapers burn'd to bedward.1 Сом. How is't with Titus Lartius? Flower of warriors, MAR. As with a man bufied about decrees: 24 Condemning fome to death, and fome to exile; Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, Сом. Where is that flave, Which told me they had beat you to your trenches? Where is he? Call him hither. MAR. Let him alone, He did inform the truth: But for our gentlemen, The common file, (A plague !-Tribunes for them!) forbear to fet nonsense before my readers; especially when it can be avoided by the infertion of a fingle letter, which indeed might have dropped out at the prefs. STEEVENS. I to bedward.] So, in Albumazar, 1615: "Sweats hourly for a dry brown cruft to bedward." STEEVENS. Again, in Peacham's Complete Gentleman, 1627: "Leaping, upon a full ftomach, or to bedward, is very dangerous." MALONE. Again, in The Legend of Cardinal Lorraine, 1577, fign. G. 1 : "They donfed also, left so soon as their backs were turned to the courtward, and that they had given over the dealings in the affairs, there would come in infinite complaints." REED. 2 Ranfoming him, or pitying,] i. e. remitting his ransom. JOHNSON. The mouse ne'er fhunn'd the cat, as they did budge From rafcals worse than they. COM. But how prevail'd you? MAR. Will the time ferve to tell? I do not think Where is the enemy? Are you lords o' the field? If not, why cease you till you are fo? Сом. Marcius, We have at difadvantage fought, and did Retire, to win our purpose. MAR. How lies their battle? Know you on which fide 3 They have plac'd their men of truft? Сом. As I guess, Marcius, Their bands in the vaward are the Antiates,4 Of their best trust: o'er them Aufidius, Their very heart of hope.5 3 on which fide &c.] So, in the old translation of Plu tarch : "Martius afked him howe the order of the enemies battell was, and on which fide they had placed their best fighting men. The conful made him aunswer that he thought the bandes which were in the vaward of their battell, were thofe of the Antiates, whom they esteemed to be the warlikest men, and which for valiant corage would geve no place to any of the hoste of their enemies. Then prayed Martius to be fet directly against them. The conful graunted him, greatly prayfing his corage." 4 STEEVENS. Antiates,] The old copy reads-Antients, which might mean veterans; but a following line, as well as the previous quotation, seems to prove-Antiates to be the proper reading : "Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates.” Our author employs-Antiates as a trifyllable, as if it had been written-Antiats. STEEVENS. Mr. Pope made the correction. MALONE. 5 Their very heart of hope.] The fame expreffion is found in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion: |