Puslapio vaizdai
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As therefore kept to do fo.

Sic. Let them assemble;

And on a fafer Judgment all revoke
Your ignorant election: enforce his Pride,
And his old hate to you: befides, forget not,
With what contempt he wore the humble Weed;
How in his fuit he fcorn'd you: but your loves,
Thinking upon his fervices, took from you
The apprehenfion of his prefent portance;
Which gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion
After th' inveterate hate he bears to you.
Bru. Nay, lay a fault on us, your Tribunes, that
We labour'd (no impediment between)

But that you muft caft your election on him.

Sic. Say, you chofe him, more after our command+ ment,

Than guided by your own affections;

And that your minds, pre-occupied with what
You rather muft do, than what you fhould do,
Made you against the grain to voice him Conful.
Lay the fault on us.

Bru. Ay, spare us not: fay, we read lectures to you,

How youngly he began to ferve his Country,

How long continued; and what stock he springs of,
The noble House of Marcius; from whence came
That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's fon,
Who, after great Hoftilius, here was King:
Of the fame house Publius and Quintus were, (22)

That

(22) Of the fame houfe Publius] I have taken notice, in the Course of these Notes, of many Anachronisms knowingly committed by our Author: I cannot help obferving, that He is guilty of more than One here, thro' an Inadvertence, and Defire of copying Plutarch at all Hazards. This Paffage, as Mr. Pope rightly informs us, is directly tranflated from that Greek Biographer: but I'll tell Mr. Pope a piece of Hiftory, which, I dare fay, he was no more aware of than our Author was. Plutarch, in the Entrance of Coriolanus's Life, tracing the Origin of the Marcian Family, blends his Account not only with the Ancestors, but the Defcendants of that Great Man and Shakespeare in his hafte, (or perhaps, his Inacquaintance with this particular Point;) not attending to Plutarch's Drift; but taking all the Perfons

named

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That our best water brought by conduits hither.
And Cenforinus, darling of the people,
(And nobly nam'd fo for twice being Cenfor)
Was his great Ancestor.

Sic. One thus defcended,

That hath befide well in his person wrought,
To be fet high in place, we did commend
Το your remembrances; but you have found,
Scaling his prefent Bearing with his past,
That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your fudden approbation.

Bru. Say, you ne'er had don't,

(Harp on that still) but by our putting on; And prefently, when you have drawn your number, Repair to th' Capitol.

All. We will fo; almost all repent in their election.

Bru. Let them go on:

[Exeunt Plebeians.

This mutiny were better put in hazard,
Than stay past doubt for greater:

If, as his nature is, he fall in rage

named to be Coriolanus's Ancestors; has ftrangely tripp'd in Time, and made his Tribune talk of Persons and Things not then in Being. For Inftance, he is made to talk of Cenfors: Now Coriolanus was kill'd in the Year, after Rome built, 266: But no Cenfors were ever created at Rome 'till 46 Years after that Period, in the Year 312. Again; here is Mention not only of a Cenfor, but of Cenforinus. Now Caius Marcius Rutilus, when he came a fecond time to that Office, on Account of the known Law propounded by him, was dignified with that additional Name, in the Year 487. But This was not till 220 Years after Coriolanus's Death. And then, again, here is mention of the Marcian Waters being brought into Rome. But we have the positive Teftimony of Julius Frontinus, that they had no Aqueducts at Rome till the Year 441; and that the Marcian Water was not introduced till the Year 613 So that the Tribunes are made to talk of a Fact 347 Years later in Time than the Period of Coriolanus. I would not be fuppofed to found any Mefit on this Difcovery; much less, to be defirous of convicting my Author of fuch Miftakes; but I thought it proper to decline a Charge of Ignorance, that might have been laid at my Door, had I pass'd this Affair over in Silence. Mr. Pope, 'tis plain, tho' he took the Pains to add the Conjectural Line about Cenforinus, was not aware of this Confufion in Point of Chronology, or of our Author's innocent Trespass. Non omnia poffumus omnes.

With their refufal, both observe and answer
The vantage of his anger.

Sic. To th' Capitol, come;

We will be there before the ftream o'th' people :
And this fhall feem, as partly 'tis, their own,
Which we have goaded onward.

[Exeunt.

A CT III.

SCENE, a publick Street in Rome.

Cornets. Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, Cominius, Titus Lartius, and other Senators.

T

CORIOLANUS.

Ullus Aufidius then had made new head?
Lart. He had, my Lord; and that it was,
which caus'd

Our swifter compofition.

Cor. So then the Volfcians ftand but as at first, Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road Upon's again.

Com. They're worn, Lord Conful, fo,

That we shall hardly in our ages fee

Their Banners wave again.

Cor. Saw you Aufidius?

Lart. On fafe-guard he came to me, and did curse

Against the Volfcians, for they had fo vilely

Yielded the Town; he is retir'd to Antium.

Cor. Spoke he of me?

Lart. He did, my Lord.

Cor. How?what?

Lart. How often he had met you, fword to fword: That of all things upon the earth he hated

Your perfon moft: that he would pawn his fortunes

Το

To hopeless reftitution, so he might
Be call'd your vanquisher.

Gor. At Antium lives he?

Lart. At Antium.

Cor. I with, I had a cause to seek him there, To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home. [To Lartius. Behold! these are the Tribunes of the people,

Enter Sicinius and Brutus.

The tongues o'th' common mouth: I do defpife them; For they do prank them in authority

Against all noble fufferance.

Sic. Pafs no further.

Cor. Hah! what is that!

Bru. It will be dangerous to go on no further.
Cor. What makes this change?

Men. The matter?

Com. Hath he not pafs'd the Nobles and the Commons?

Bru. Cominius, no,

Cor. Have I had childrens voices?

Sen. Tribunes, give way; he fhall to th' market place,

Bru. The people are incens'd against him.

Sic. Stop,

Or all will fall in broil.

Cor Are these your herd?

Must these have voices, that can yield them now,
And ftraight difclaim their tongues? what are your

offices?

You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? Have you not fet them on?

Men. Be calm, be calm.

Cor. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot,
To curb the will of the Nobility:

Suffer't, and live with fuch as cannot rule,
Nor ever will be rul'd.

Bru. Call't not a plot ;

The people cry, you mock'd them; and, of late,
When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd;

Scandal'd

Scandal'd the fuppliants for the people; call'd them Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to Nobleness.

Cor. Why, this was known before,

Bru. Not to them all..

Cor. Have you inform'd them fince?
Bru. How! I inform them!

Cor. You are like to do fuch business.

Bru. Not unlike, each way, to better yours. Cor. Why then should I be Conful? by yond clouds, Let me deserve fo ill as you, and make me

Your Fellow-Tribune.

Sic. You fhew too much of That,

For which the people ftir; if you will pafs
To where you're bound, you must enquire your way
Which you are out of, with a gentler fpirit,

Or never be fo noble as a Conful,

Nor yoke with him for Tribune.
Men. Let's be calm.

Com. The people are abus'd.
paltring (23)

Becomes not Rome: nor has Coriolanus

Set ons

this

Deferv'd this fo difhonour'd Rub, laid falfly
I'th' plain way of his merit.

Cor. Tell me of corn!

This was my speech, and I will speak't again
Men. Not now, not now.

Sen. Not in this heat, Sir, now.

Cor. Now as I live, I will

As for my nobler friends, I crave their pardons:
But for the mutable rank-fcented Many,
Let them regard me, as I do not flatter,
And there behold themselves: I fay again,
In foothing them, we nourish 'gainst our Senate

(23) The People are abus'd, fet on;] This is pointed, as if the Senfe were, the People are fet on by the Tribunes: but I don't take That to be the Poet's Meaning. Cominius makes a fingle Reflection, and then bids the Train fet forward, as again afterwards;

Well, On to th' Market place.

And fo in Julius Cæfar;

Set on, and leave no Ceremony out.

The

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