Even with the same austerity and garb To choke it in the utterance.1 So our virtues Lie in the interpretation of the time; And power, unto itself most commendable, To extol what it hath done.2 One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; [Exeunt. 1 But such is his merit as ought to choke the utterance of his faults. Thus the old copy. Well Steevens might exclaim that the passage and the comments upon it were equally intelligible. The whole speech is very incorrectly printed in the folio. Thus we have 'was for 'twas: detect for defect; virtue for virtues; and, evidently, chair for hair. What is the meaning of "Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair?" A hair has some propriety, as used for a thing almost invisible. As in The Tempest: 66 not a hair perished." I take the meaning of the passage to be, "So our virtues lie at the mercy of the time's interpretation; and power, which esteems itself while living so highly, hath not, when defunct, the least particle of praise allotted to it.” -Singer. 3 "Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail." Malone reads founder, with a worthy but unsatisfactory argument in favor of his reading. Singer would read "Rights by rights foiled," &c., an easy and obvious emendation. Steevens has given the following explanation of the passage:-"What is already right, and is received as such, becomes less clear when supported by supernumerary proof." ACT V. SCENE I. Rome. A public Place. Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, and others. Men. No, I'll not go. You hear what he hath said, Which was sometime his general; who loved him In a most dear particular. He called me father; But what o'that? Go, you that banished him, A mile before his tent fall down, and kneel The way into his mercy. Nay, if he coyed1 To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home. Com. He would not seem to know me. Men. Till he had forged himself a name i'the fire 2 Men. Why, so; you have made good work; A pair of tribunes that have racked for Rome, To make coals cheap. A noble memory! 3 Com. I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon When it was less expected. He replied, It was a bare petition of a state To one whom they had punished. Men. Could he say less? Very well; Com. I offered to awaken his regard For his private friends. His answer to me was, He could not stay to pick Of noisome, musty chaff. 1 i. e. condescended unwillingly. 2 Harassed by exactions. them in a pile He said 'twas folly, 3 Memorial. 4 Bare may mean palpable, evident; but perhaps we should read base For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt, Men. For one poor grain Or two? I am one of those; his mother, wife, His child, and this brave fellow too, we are the grains. Upbraid us with our distress. But, sure, if you Men. Sic. Pray you, go to him. Men. No; I'll not meddle. What should I do? Bru. Only make trial what your love can do For Rome, towards Marcius. Men. Well, and say that Marcius Return me, as Cominius is returned, But as a discontented friend, grief-shot Sic. Yet your good will Must have that thanks from Rome, after the measure As you intended well. Men. I think he'll hear me. I'll undertake it; Yet to bite his lip, And hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me. He was not taken well; he had not dined. To give or to forgive; but when we have stuffed And then I'll set upon him. Bru. You know the very road into his kindness, And cannot lose your way. Men. Good faith, I'll prove him, Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge Of my success. Com. He'll never hear him. [Exit. Com. I tell you he does sit in gold,' his eye Unless his noble mother, and his wife;3 2 For mercy to his country. Therefore, let's hence, [Exeunt. SCENE II. An advanced post of the Volcian Camp before Rome. The Guard at their stations. Enter to them, MENENIUS. 1 Guard. Stay; whence are you? 2 G. Stand, and go back. Men. You guard like men; 'tis well. But, by your leave, 1 Pope was, perhaps, indebted to Shakspeare in the translation of the passage:: "Th' eternal Thunderer sat throned in gold." 2 Perhaps we might read, "To yield to no conditions." The sense of the passage would then be, "What he would do, he sent in writing after me; the things he would not do, he bound himself with an oath to yield to no conditions that might be proposed." It afterwards appears what these were: "The things I have forsworn to grant may never Be held by you denials. Do not bid me Dismiss my soldiers, or capitulate Again with Rome's mechanics." 3 To satisfy modern notions of construction, this line must be read as if written VOL. V. "Unless in his noble mother and his wife." 70 I am an officer of state, and come To speak with Coriolanus. 1 G. Men. From whence? From Rome. 1 G. You may not pass; you must return; our general Will no more hear from thence. 2 G. You'll see your Rome embraced with fire, before You'll speak with Coriolanus. If Men. Good my friends, you have heard your general talk of Rome, And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks,' My name hath touched your ears; it is Menenius. Men. The book of his good acts, whence men have read For I have ever verified3 my friends, (Of whom he's chief,) with all the size that verity I have tumbled past the throw; and in his praise 1 G. 'Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf, as you have uttered words in your own, you should not pass here; no, though it were as virtuous to lie, as to live chastely. Therefore, go back. Men. Pr'ythee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always factionary on the party of your general. 6 1 Lots to blanks is chances to nothing. 2 i. e. friend. 3 Verified must here be used for displayed or testified, if it be not a corruption of the text for notified, or some other word. Mr. Edwards proposed to read varnished, which was anciently written vernished. 4 Subtle here means smooth, level. 5 i. e. have almost given the lie such a sanction as to render it current. 6 Factionary is adherent, partisan. |