They have not prepar❜d for us.

AUF.

O, doubt not that;

2

I speak from certainties. Nay, more,
Some parcels of their powers are forth already,
And only hitherward. I leave
I leave your honours.
If we and Caius Marcius chance to meet,
'Tis sworn between us, we shall never strike
Till one can do no more.

us, bring up your army to remove them. If any change should be made, I would read:

The remove and their remove are so near in sound, that the transcriber's ear might easily have deceived him. But it is always dangerous to let conjecture loose where there is no difficulty. MALONE.

2 I speak from certainties. Nay, more,] mer completes this line by reading:

Sir Thomas Han

I speak from very certainties. &c. STEEVENS.

SCENE III. ·

Rome. An Apartment in Marcius' House.

Enter VOLUMNIA, and VIRGILIA: They sit down on two low Stools, and sew.

VOL. I pray you, daughter, sing; or express yourself in a more comfortable sort: If my son. were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour, than in the embracements of his bed, where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of my womb; when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way; when, for a day of kings' entreaties, a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding; I,-considering how honour would become such a person; that it was no better than picture-like to hang by the wall, if renown made it not stir,-was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter,I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child, than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.

VIR. But had he died in the business, madam? how then?

3

}

—when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way;] i. e. attracted the attention of every one towards him. DOUCE.

4

brows bound with oak.] The crown given by the RoCitizen, which was accounted JOHNSON.

mans to him that saved the life of a more honourable than any other.

VOL. Then his good report should have been my I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely:-Had I a dozen sons,—each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius,-I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country, than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.

Enter a Gentlewoman.

GENT. Madam, the lady Valeria is come to visit you.

VIR. 'Beseech you, give me leave to retire myself.5

VOL. Indeed, you shall not.

Methinks, I hear hither your husband's drum ;
See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair;
As children from a bear, the Volces shunning him:
Methinks, I see him stamp thus, and call thus,—
Come on, you cowards, you were got in fear,
Though you were born in Rome: His bloody brow
With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes;
Like to a harvest-man, that's task'd to mow
Or all, or lose his hire.

5

VIR. His bloody brow! O, Jupiter, no blood! VOL. Away, you fool! it more becomes a man,

to retire myself.] This verb active (signifying to withdraw) has already occurred in The Tempest:

66

I will thence

"Retire me to my Milan-."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

"I have retir'd me to a wasteful cock,-." STEEVENS. See Vol. XI. p. 67, n. 4. MALONE.

• With his mail'd hand then wiping,] i. e. his hand cover'd or arm'd with mail. DoUCE.

Than gilt his trophy: The breasts of Hecuba,
When she did suckle Hector, look'd not lovelier
Than Hector's forehead, when it spit forth blood
At Grecian swords' contending.-Tell Valeria,
We are fit to bid her welcome.
[Exit Gent.
VIR. Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!
VOL. He'll beat Aufidius' head below his knee,
And tread upon his neck.

Re-enter Gentlewoman, with VALERIA and her Usher.

VAL. My ladies both, good day to you.
VOL. Sweet madam,

VIR. I am glad to see your ladyship.

VAL. How do you both? you are manifest housekeepers. What, are you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith.-How does your little

son?

VIR. I thank your ladyship; well, good madam. VOL. He had rather see the swords, and hear a drum, than look upon his school-master.

7 Than gilt his trophy:] Gilt means a superficial display of gold, a word now obsolete. So, in King Henry V: "Our gayness and our gilt, are all besmirch'd."

STEEVENS.

• At Grecian swords' contendingTell Valeria,] The accuracy of the first folio may be ascertained from the manner in which this line is printed:

9

At Grecian sword. Contenning, tell Valeria.

STEEVENS,

A fine spot,] This expression (whatever may be the precise meaning of it,) is still in use among the vulgar: "You have made a fine spot of work of it," being a common phrase of reproach to those who have brought themselves into a scrape.

STEEVENS.

VAL. O' my word, the father's son: I'll swear, 'tis a very pretty boy. O' my troth, I looked upon him o' Wednesday half an hour together: he has such a confirmed countenance. I saw 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 so set 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.
VIR. A crack, madam.2

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 shall, 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 visit the good lady that lies in.

1

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.”
STEEVENS.

A crack, madam.] Thus in Cynthia's Revels by Ben Jonson :
Since we are turn'd cracks, let's study to be like cracks,

act freely, carelesly, and capriciously."

Again, in The Four Prentices of London, 1615:

"A notable, dissembling lad, a crack."

Crack signifies a boy child. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note on The

Second Part of King Henry IV. Vol. XII. p. 129, n. 8.

STEEVENS.