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Should from yon cloud speak divine things, and say,
'Tis true; I'd not believe them more than thee,
All noble Marcius.—O, let me twine

Mine arms about that body, where against
My grained ash an hundred times hath broke,
And scar'd the moon' with splinters! Here I clip
The anvil of my sword;1 and do contest
As hotly and as nobly with thy love,
As ever in ambitious strength I did
Contend against thy valour. Know thou first,
I loved the maid I married; never man
Sigh'd truer breath;2 but that I see thee here,
Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart,
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Bestride my
threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee,
We have a power on foot; and I had purpose

And scar'd the moon-] [Old copy-scarr'd,] I believe, rightly. The modern editors read scar'd, that is, frightened; a reading to which the following line in King Richard III, certainly adds some support:

"Amaze the welkin with your broken staves." Malone.

I read with the modern editors, rejecting the Chrononhotonthological idea of scarifying the moon. The verb to scare is again written scarr, in the old copy of The Winter's Tale: "They have scarr'd away two of my best sheep." Steevens.

1 Here I clip

The anvil of my sword;] To clip is to embrace. So, in Autony and Cleopatra:

"Enter the city, clip your wives-"

Aufidius styles Coriolanus the anvil of his sword, because he had formerly laid as heavy blows on him, as a smith strikes on his anvil. So, in Hamlet:

2

“And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall

"On Mars's armour

"With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
"Now falls on Priam." Steevens.

never man

Sigh'd truer breath;] The same expression is found in our author's Venus and Adonis :

"I'll sigh celestial breath, whose gentle wind

"Shall cool the heat of this descending sun." Again, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Shakspeare and Fletcher, 1634:

"Lover never yet made sigh

"Truer than I." Malone.

3 Bestride my threshold.] Shakspeare was unaware that a Ro man bride, on her entry into her husband's house, was prohibited

Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn,
Or lose mine arm for 't: Thou hast beat me out
Twelve several times, and I have nightly since
Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me;
We have been down together in my sleep,
Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat,
And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius,
Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that
Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all
From twelve to seventy;* and, pouring war
Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome,

Like a bold flood o'er-beat. O, come, go in,
And take our friendly senators by the hands;
Who now are here, taking their leaves of me,
Who am prepar'd against your territories,
Though not for Rome itself.

Cor.

You bless me, Gods!

Auf. Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have The leading of thine own revenges, take

from bestriding his threshold; and that, lest she should even touch it, she was always lifted over it. Thus, Lucan, L. II, 359 : Tralata vetuit contingere limina planta. Steevens.

Thou hast beat me out

Twelve several times,] Out here means, I believe, full, complete. Malone.

So, in The Tempest:

66 - for then thou wast not

"Out three years old." Steevens.

5 And wak'd half dead - Unless the two preceding lines be considered as parenthetical, here is another instance of our author's concluding a sentence, as if the former part had been constructed differently. "We have been down," must be considered as if he had written-I have been down with you, in my sleep, and wak'd, &c. See Vol. XI, p. 279, n. 4; and Vol. V, p. 159, n. and p. 298, n. 8. Malone.

8;

6 Had we no quarrel else to Rome, but that-] The old copy, redundantly, and unnecessarily :

"Had we no other quarrel else" &c. Steevens.

we would muster all

From twelve to seventy;] i. e. all the males from the age of twelve to seventy years would be mustered, to form the invading force. Am. Ed.

7 Like a bold flood o'er-beat.] Though this is intelligible, and the reading of the old copy, perhaps our author wrote-o'er-bear. So, in Othello:

"Is of such flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature -" Steevens.

The one half of my commission; and set down,—
As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st
Thy country's strength and weakness,-thine own ways:
Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,

Or rudely visit them in parts remote,

To fright them, ere destroy. But come in:
Let me commend thee first to those, that shall
Say, yea, to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
And more a friend than e'er an enemy;

Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand! Most welcome! [Exeunt COR. and AUF.

1 Serv. [advancing] Here's a strange alteration! 2 Serv. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me, his clothes made a false report of him.

1 Serv. What an arm he has! He turned me about with his finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top.

2 Serv. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in him: He had, sir, a kind of face, methought,I cannot tell how to term it.

1 Serv. He had so; looking, as it were,-Would I were hanged, but I thought there was more in him than I could think.

2 Serv. So did I, I'll be sworn: He is simply the rarest man i' the world.

1 Serv. I think, he is: but a greater soldier than he, you wot one.

2 Serv. Who? my master?

1 Serv. Nay, it's no matter for that.

2 Serv. Worth six of him.

1 Serv. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the greater soldier.

2 Serv. 'Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that: for the defence of a town, our general is excellent. 1 Serv. Ay, and for an assault too.

Re-enter third Servant.

3 Serv. O, slaves, I can tell you news; news, you rascals.

1. 2. Serv. What, what, what? let 's partake.

3 Serv. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; I had as lieve be a condemned man.

1. 2. Serv. Wherefore? wherefore?

3 Serv. Why, here 's he that was wont to thwack our general, Caius Marcius.

1 Serv. Why do you say, thwack our general? 3 Serv. I do not say, thwack our general; but he was always good enough for him.

2 Serv. Come, we are fellows, and friends: he was ever too hard for him; I have heard him say so himself.

1 Serv. He was too hard for him directly, to say the truth on 't: before Corioli, he scotched him and notched him like a carbonado.

2 Serv. An he had been cannibally given, he might have broiled and eaten him too.

1 Serv. But, more of thy news?

3 Serv. Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were son and heir to Mars: set at upper end o' the table: no question asked him by any of the senators, but they stand bald before him: Our general himself makes a mistress of him; sanctifies himself with 's hand, and turns up the white o' the eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' the middle, and but one half of what he was yesterday; for the other has half, by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears: He will mow down all before him, and leave his passage polled.2

8 he might have broiled and eaten him too.] The old copy reads-boiled. The change was made by Mr. Pope. Malone.

9 — sanctifies himself with 's hand,] Alluding, improperly, to the act of crossing upon any strange event. Johnson.

I rather imagine the meaning is, considers the touch of his hand as holy; clasps it with the same reverence as a lover would clasp the hand of his mistress. If there be any religious allusion, I should rather suppose it to be the imposition of the hand in confirmation. Malone.

Perhaps the allusion is (however out of place) to the degree of sanctity anciently supposed to be derived from touching the corporal relick of a saint or a martyr. Steevens.

1 He'll- - sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears:] That is, I suppose, drag him down by the ears into the dirt. Souiller, Fr. Johnson.

Dr. Johnson's supposition, though not his derivation, is just. Skinner says the word is derived from sow, i. e. to take hold of a person by the ears, as a dog seizes one of these animals. So, Heywood, in a comedy called Love's Mistress, 1636:

"Venus will sowle me by the ears for this."

Perhaps Shakspeare's allusion is to Hercules dragging out Cerberus. Steevens.

Whatever the etymology of soule may be, it appears to have

2 Serv. And he 's as like to do 't, as any man I can imagine.

3 Serv. Do 't? he will do 't: For, look you, sir, he has as many friends as enemies: which friends, sir, (as it were) durst not (look you, sir,) show themselves, (as we term it) his friends, whilst he's in directitude.3

1 Serv. Directitude! what's that?

3 Serv. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again, and the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies after rain, and revel all with him.

1 Serv. But when goes this forward?

3 Serv. To-morrow; to-day; presently. You shall have the drum struck up this afternoon: 'tis, as it were, a parcel of their feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips.

been a familiar word in the last century. Lord Strafford's correspondent, Mr. Garrard, uses it, as Shakspeare does. Straff. Lett. Vol. II, p. 149: "A lieutenant soled him well by the ears, and drew him by the hair about the room." Lord Strafford himself uses it in another sense, Vol. II, p. 138: "It is ever a hopeful throw, where the caster soles his bowl well." In this passage to sole seems to signify what, I believe, is usually called to ground a bowl. Tyrwhitt.

Cole, in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, renders it, aurem summa vi vellere. Malone.

To sowle is still in use for pulling, dragging, and lugging, in the West of England. S. W.

2

his passage polled.] That is, bared, cleared. Johnson. To poll a person anciently meant to cut off his hair. So, in Dametas Madrigall in Praise of his Daphnis, by J. Wooton, published in England's Helicon, quarto, 1600:

"Like Nisus golden hair that Scilla pol'd."

It likewise signified to cut off the head. So, in the ancient metrical history of the battle of Floddon Field:

66

"But now we will withstand his grace,

"Or thousand heads shall there be poll'd." Steevens.

So, in Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, by Thomas Nashe, 1594: the winning love of neighbours round about, if haply their houses should be environed, or any in them prove untruly, being pilled and poul'd too unconscionably."-Poul'd is the spelling of the old copy of Coriolanus also. Malone.

3whilst he's in directitude.] I suspect the author wrote: -whilst he 's in discreditude; a made word, instead of discredit. He intended, I suppose, to put an uncommon word into the mouth of this servant, which had some resemblance to sense: but could hardly have meant that he should talk absolute nonsense. Malone. in blood,] See p. 10, n. 2. Malone.

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