Ere yet

the fight be done, pack up: - Down with

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 spirit, will haste To help Cominius.

LART.

Worthy fir, thou bleed'st;

Thy exercife hath been too violent for
A fecond courfe of fight.

MAR.

Sir, praise 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 oppofers' fwords! Bold gentleman, Profperity be thy page!

MAR.

Thy friend no lefs

Than thofe fhe placeth higheft! So, farewell.
LART. Thou worthieft Marcius! -

[Exit MARCIUS. Go, found thy trumpet in the market-place; Call thither all the officers of the town,

Where they fhall know our mind: Away.

I will appear, and fight.

Lart. Now the fain goddess, Fortune,] The metre being here violated, I think we might fafely read with Sir T. Haumer (omitting the words to me):

Than dangerous: To Aufidius thus will I
Appiar, and fight.

Now the fair goddess, Fortune,

STELVENS.

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 ftands,
Nor cowardly in retire: believe me, firs,
We shall be charg'd again. Whiles we have ftruck,
By interims, and conveying gufts, we have heard
The charges of our friends: The Roman gods,
Lead their fucceffes as we wifh our own;

That both our powers, with fmiling fronts encoun t'ring,

1

Enter a Meffenger.

May give you thankful facrifice!-Thy news?
MES. The citizens of Corioli have iffaed,
And given to Lartins and to Marcius battle:
I faw our party to their trenches driven,
And then I came away.

Though thou fpeak'st truth,

COM.
Methinks, thou speak'ft not well.

fince?

MES. Above an hour, my lord.

How long is't

COм. 'Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums:

Lead their fucceffes as we wish our own; ] i. c. May the Roman

gods, &c.

MALONE.

1

How could't thou in a mile confound an hour,

And bring thy news fo late?

MES. Spies of the Volces Held me in chafe, that I was forc'd to wheel Three or four miles about; elfe had I, fir, Half an hour fince brought my report.

COM.

Enter MARCIUS.

Who's yonder,

That does appear as he were flay'd? O gods!
He has the ftamp of Marcius; and I have
Before-time feen him thus.

MAR.

Come I too late?

COм. The fhepherd knows not thunder from a

tabor,

More than I know the found of Marcius' tongue From every meaner man's.

5

MAR.

Come I too late?

4 confound an hour,] Confound is here used not in its common acceptation, but in the fenfe of

1

to expend. Conterere tempus. MALONE.

A&. I. fc. iii:

So, in King Henry IV P. 1. He did confound the best part of an hour," &c. STEEVENS. 5 From every meaner mau's.] [Old copy-meaner man. ] That is, from that of every meaner man. This kind of phraseology 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 fcrupu loully attended to, Hanmer and the fubfequent editors who read here every meaner man's, ought not in my apprehenfion to be followed, though we fhould now write fo. MALONE.

When I am certified that this, and many correfponding offences againit grammar, were common to the writers of our author's age, I thail not perfevere in correcting them. But while I fufpe& (as in the prefent inftance) that fuch irregularities were the gibberish of a theatre, or the blunders of a tranfcriber, I thall forbear to set nousense before my readers; especially when it can be avoided by the infertion of a fiugle letter, which indeed might have drop. ped out at the prefs. SELEVENS.

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."

Сом.

How is't with Titus Lartius?

Flower of warriors,

MAR. As with a man bufied about decrees: Condemning fome to death, and fome to exile; Ransoming him, or pitying,' threat'ning the other; Holding Corioli in the name of Rome,

Even like a fawning greyhound in the leafh,
To let him flip at will.

COM.

Where is that flave,

Which told me they had beat you to your trenches? Where is he? Call him hither.

Let him alone,

MAR. He did inform the truth: But for our gentlemen, The common file, (A plague! -Tribunes for them!) 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

to bedward.] So, in Albumazar, 1615:

"Sweats hourly for a dry brown cruft to bedward." STEEVEXS.

Again, iu 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 alfo, left fo foon 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. 7 Ranfoming him, or pitying, i, e. remitting his ranfom.

REFD.

JOHNSON.

Where is the enemy? Are you lords o' the field? If not, why ceafe you till you are fo?

COM. Marcius, We have at difadvantage fought and did Retire, to win our purpose.

MAR. How lies their battle? Know you on

which fide

8

They have plac'd their men of truft?

As I guefs, Marcius,

COM.
Their bands i' the vaward are the Antiates,9
Of their beft truft: o'er them Aufidius,

Their very heart of hope."

MAR.

I do befeech you,

By all the battles wherein we have fought,

By the blood we have fhed together, by the vows We have made to endure friends, that you directly

8

on which fide &c.] So, in the old tranflation of Plutarch: "Martius afked him howe the order of the enemies battell was, and on which fide they had placed their beft fighting men. The conful made him auufwer that he thought the bandes which were in the vaward of their battell, were thofe of the Antiates, whom they esteemed to be the warlikeft men, and which for valiant corage would geve no place to any of the hofte of their enemies. prayed Martius to be fet directly against them. The conful graunted him, greatly prayling his corage. STEEVENS.

9

Then

Antiates, ] The old copy reads — Antients, which might mean veterans; but a following line, as well as the previous quotation, feems to prove Antiates to be the proper reading:

"Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates.".

Our author employs — Antiates as a trisyllable, as if it had been written Antiats.

STEEVENS.

Mr. Pope made the correction. MALONE..

Their very heart of hope. ] The fame expreffion is found in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion:

thy defperate arm

"Hath almost thruft quite through the heart of hope.

In King Henry IV. P. I. we have

MALONE.

"The very bottom and the foul of hope.

10 STEEVENS.