But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; cius! Enter CAIUS MARCIUS. MAR. Thanks.-What's the matter, you diffen tious rogues, That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, Again, in this play of Coriolanus, A& IV. fc. v. "But when they shall fee his creft up again, and the man in blood," &c. Mr. M. Mafon judiciously observes that blood, in all thefe palfages, is applied to deer, for a lean deer is called a rafcal; and that worft 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 used equivocally. The phrafe in blood has been proved in a former note to be a phrafe of the foreft. Vol. XIV. p. 120, n. 2. See 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 worft condition for running of all the herd of plebeians, takeft the lead in this tué mult, in order to obtain some private advantage to yourself. 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 iuftauce of the term in blood being applied to the canine fpecies. MALONE. 4 The one fide must have bale.] Bale is an old Saxon word, for mifery or calamity: "For light fhe hated as the deadly bale:” Spenfer's Faery Queen. Mr. M. Mafon obferves that "bale, as well as bane, fignified poifon in Shakspeare's days. STEEVENS. being marked This word was antiquated in Shakspeare's time, as obsolete by Bullokar, in his English Expofitor, 1616. MALONE. 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, 5 That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, Or hailftone in the fun. Your virtue is, To make him worthy, whofe offence fubdues him, And curfe that juftice did it. Who deferves great nefs, Deferves your hate and your affections are With every minute you do change a mind; And call him noble, that was now your hate, Him vile, that was your garland. matter, That in these several places of the city You cry against the noble fenate, who, What's the Under the gods, keep you in awe, which elfe 5 That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, 1 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. 6 Your virtue is, To make him worthy, whofe offence fubdues him, And curfe that juftice did it. ] i. e. Your virtue is to fpeak well of him whom his own offences have fubjected to juftice; and to rail at thofe laws by which he whom you praise was punished. STEEVENS, Would feed on one another? What's their feek ing ?2 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: fide factions, and give out Conjectural marriages; making parties ftrong, Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,9 And let me ufe my fword, I'd make a quarry With thousands of these quarter'd flaves, as high ? What's their feaking?] Seeking is here ufed fubftantively. The answer is, "Their feeking, or fuit, (to use 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 taftelefs interpolation. They are omitted by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS. 2 their ruth,] i.. e. their pity, compaffion. Fairfax and Spenser often use the word. Hence the adjective-ruthlefs, which is ftill current. STEEVENS. I'd make a quarry 2 With thousands Why a quarry? I suppose, not because he would pile them fquare, but because he would give them for carrion to the birds of prey. JOHNSON. So, in The Miracles of Mofes, by Drayton : "And like a quarry caft them on the land." See Vol. XI. p. 222, n. 7. STEEVENS. The word quarry occurs in Macbeth, where Rofs fays to Macduff, to ftate the manner, "Were on the quarry of thefe murder'd deer As I could pick my lance.* MEN. Nay, these are almoft thoroughly perfua- For though abundantly they lack difcretion, MAR. They are diffolv'd: Hang 'em! They faid, they were an-hungry; figh'd forth pro That, hunger broke ftone walls; that, dogs must eat; That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods fent not In a note on this laft paffage, Steevens afferts, that quarry_means game pursued or killed, and fupports that opinion by a paffage in Maffinger's Guardian; and from thence I fuppofe the word was ufed to exprefs a heap of flaughtered perfons. In the concluding scene of Hamlet, when Fortinbras fees fo many lying dead, he fays "This quarry cries, on havock!" and in the laft fcene of A Wife for a Month, Valerio, in defcribing his own fictitious battle with the Turks, fays "I faw the child of honour, for he was young, M. MASON. Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, fays that "a quarry among hunters fignifieth the reward given to hounds after they have hunted, or the venison which is taken by hunting." This sufficiently explains the word of Coriolanus. MALONE. 2 pick my lance. ] And fo the word [pitch] is ftill pronounced in Staffordshire, where they fay-picke me fuch a thing, that is, pitch or throw any thing that the demander wants. TOLLET. So, in An Account of auntient cuftomes and games, &c. Mfs. Harl. 2057, fol. 10. b. འ "To wreftle, play at ftrole-ball, [ftool-ball ] or to runne, "To picke the barre, or to shoot off a gun.", The word is again ufed in King Henry VIII. with only a flight variation in the spelling: "I'll ́ peck you o'er the pales elfe." See Vol. XVI. p. 199, n. 9. MALONE. Corn for the rich men only:-With these shreds They vented their complainings; which being anfwer'd, And a petition granted them, a ftrange one, (To break the heart of generofity," 3 And make bold power look pale,) they threw their caps' 5 As they would hang them on the horns o'the moon, What is granted them? MAR. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wif doms, Of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus, 6 3 the heart of generofity,] To give the final blow to the nobles. Generofity is high birth. JOHNSON. So, in Measure for Measure: "The generous and graveft citizens See Vol. VI. p. 180, n. 5. 4 Cleopatra: -. 19 STEEVENS. hang them on the horns o' the moon,] Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o'the moon." STEEVENS. 5 Shouting their emulation.] Each of them ftriving to fhout louder than the reft. MALONE. Emulation, in the prefent iuftance, I believe, fignifies faction. Shout ing their emulation, may mean, expressing the triumph of their fadion by shouts. Emulation, in our author, is fometimes ufed in an unfavourable fenfe, and not to imply an honeft conteft for fuperiour excellence. Thus in King Henry VI. P. I: the truft of England's honour "Keep off aloof with worthless emulation." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "While emulation in the army crept." i. e. faction. STEEVENS. Mr. Rowe. unroof'd the city,] Old Copy -unrooft. Corrected by MALONE. |