And, through the cranks and offices of man,"
The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins,

Even to the court, the heart, to the feat, the brain. He uses feat for throne, the royal feat, which the first editors probably not apprehending, corrupted the paffage. It is thus ufed in Richard II. A& III. fc. iv:

"Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills

"Against thy feat."

It should be observed too, that one of the Citizens had just before characterized these principal parts of the human fabrick by fimilar metaphors:

"The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,

"The counfellor heart,. TYRWHITT.

I have too great refpect for even the conjectures of my refpectable and very judicious friend, to fupprefs his note, though it appears to me erroneous. In the prefent inftance I have not the fmalleft doubt, being clearly of opinion that the text is right. Brain is here ufed for reafon or understanding. Shakspeare feems to have had Camden as well as Plutarch before him; the former of whom has told a fimilar ftory in his Remains, 1605, and has likewife made the heart the feat of the brain, or underftanding: "Hereupon they all agreed to pine away their lafie and publike enemy. One day paffed over, the fecond followed very tedious, but the third day was fo grievous to them, that they called a common counfel. The eyes waxed dimme, the feete could not fupport the body, the armes waxed lazie, the tongue faltered, and could not lay open the matter. Therefore they all with one accord defired the advice of the heart. There REASON laid open before them," &c. Remains, p. 109. See An Attempt to afcertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. II. in which a circumftance is noticed, that fhows our author had read Camden as well as Plutarch.

I agree, however, entirely with Mr. Tyrwhitt, in thinking that feat means here the royal feat, the throne. The feat of the brain, is put in oppofition with the heart, and is defcriptive of it. "I fend it, (fays the belly,) through the blood, even to the royal refidence, the heart, in which the kingly-crowned understanding fits enthroned.

So, in King Henry VI. P. II:

"The rightful heir to England's royal feat."

In like manner in Twelfth-Night our author has erected the throne of love in the heart:

"It gives a very echo to the feat

"Where love is throned."

From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live: And though that all at once,
You, my good friends, (this fays the belly,) mark

me,

1 CIT. Ay, fir; well, well.

MEN.

Though all at once cannot

See what I do deliver out to each;

Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the flower of all,
And leave me but the bran.

What fay you to't?

1 CIT. It was an answer: How apply you this? MEN. The fenators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members: For examine Their counfels, and their cares; digeft things

rightly,

Touching the weal o'the common; you fhall find,
No publick benefit which you receive,

But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you,
And no way from yourselves.-What do you think?
You, the great toe of this affembly?-

1 CIT. I the great toe? Why the great toe? MEN. For that being one o'the loweft, bafeft, pooreft,

Of this moft wife rebellion, thou go'ft foremost : Thou rafcal, that art worft in blood, to run

Again, in Othello :

"Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne." See alfo a paffage in King Henry V. where feat is used in the fame fenfe as here; Vol. XII. p. 310, n. 7. Malone.

9

the cranks and offices of man,] Cranks are the meandrous ducts of the human body. STEEVENS.

Cranks are windings. So, in Venus and Adonis:

"He cranks and croffes, with a thousand doubles."

MALONE.

Lead'ft firft to win fome vantage.'

But make you ready your ftiff bats and clubs;
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle,
The one fide must have bale.-Hail, noble Mar-
cius !

Thou rafcal, that art worst in blood, to run

Lead ft first, 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 first, 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 spirits, in vigour.

Again, in this play of Coriolanus, A&t IV. fc. v: "But when they fhall fee his creft up again, and the man in blood," &c.

Mr. M. Mafon judiciously obferves that blood, in all these paffages, is applied to deer, for a lean deer is called a rafcal; and that" worst in blood," is least in vigour. STEEVENS.

Both rafcal and in blood are terms of the foreft. Rafcal meant a lean deer, and is here ufed equivocally. The phrafe in blood has been proved in a former note to be a phrafe 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, worthlefs fcoundrel, though, like a deer not in blood, thou art in the worst condition for running of all the herd of plebeians, takest the lead in this tumult, in order to obtain fome private advantage to yourfelf. 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 fenfe. So afterwards

"From rafcals worse 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 diffentious rogues,

That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves fcabs ?

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,
The other makes you proud.3 He that trufts you,
Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
Where foxes, geefe: You are no furer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,

Or hailftone in the fun. Your virtue is,

To make him worthy, whofe offence fubdues him, And curfe that justice did it.4 Who deferves 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 poifon 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.

To make him worthy, whofe offence fubdues him,

And curse that justice did it.] i. e. Your virtue is to speak

Deferves your hate: and your affections are
A fick man's appetite, who defires most that
Which would increase his evil. He that depends
Upon your favours, fwims with fins of lead,
And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Truft
ye?

With every minute you do change a mind;
And call him noble, that was now your hate,
Him vile, that was your garland. What's the mat-

ter,

That in these feveral 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 ftor'd.

MAR.

Hang 'em! They say?

They'll fit by the fire, and presume to know
What's done i'the Capitol who's like to rife,
Who thrives, and who declines:6 fide factions, and
give out

Conjectural marriages; making parties ftrong,
And feebling such as stand not in their liking,

well of him whom his own offences have fubjected to justice; and to rail at those laws by which he whom you praise was punished. STEEVENS.

5 What's their feeking ?] Seeking is here ufed fubftantively. -The answer is, "Their feeking, or fuit, (to ufe the language of the time,) is for corn." MALONE.

Who thrives, and who declines :] The words-who thrives, which deftroy the metre, appear to be an evident and tafteless interpolation. They are omitted by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS. VOL. XVI.