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Both Trib. Why, how are we censured?

Men. Because you talk of pride now,-Will you not be angry?

Both Trib. Well, well, sir, well.

Men. Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience: give your disposition the reins, and be angry at your pleasures; at the least, if you take it as a pleasure to you, in being so. You blame Marcius for being proud?

Bru. We do it not alone, sir.

Men. I know, you can do very little alone; for your helps are many; or else your actions would grow wondrous single: your abilities are too infant-like, for doing much alone. You talk of pride: O, that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but one interior survey of your good selves! O, that you could!

Bru. What then, sir?

Men. Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, (alias, fools,) as any in Rome.3

Sic. Menenius, you are known well enough too.

Men. I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tyberin 't; said to be something imperfect, in favouring the first complaint: hasty, and tinder-like, upon too trivial motion: one that converses more with the buttock of the night,5 than with the forehead of the morning. What I

2 towards the napes of your necks,] With allusion to the fable, which says, that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind him, in which he stows his own. Johnson.

3 a brace of unmeriting,magistrates,- -as any in Rome.] This was the phraseology of Shakspeare's age, of which I have met with many instances in the books of that time. Mr. Pope, as usual, reduced the passage to the modern standard, by reading-a brace of as unmeriting, &c. as any in Rome: and all the subsequent editors have adopted his emendation. Malone.

with not a drop of allaying Tyber in 't;] Lovelace, in his Verses to Althea from Prison, has borrowed this expression: "When flowing cups run swiftly round

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"With no allaying Thames," &c.

See Dr. Percy's Reliques &c. Vol. II, p. 324, 3d edit. Steevens, one that converses more &c.] Rather alate lier down than an early riser. Johnson,

think, I utter; and spend my malice in my breath: Meeting two such weals-men as you are, (I cannot call you Lycurguses) if the drink you give me, touch my palate adversely, I make a crooked face at it. I cannot say, your worships have delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in compound with the major part of your syllables: and though I must be content to bear with those that say you are reverend grave men; yet they lie deadly, that tell, you have good faces. If you see this in the map of my microcosm, follows it, that I am known well enough too? What harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be known well enough too?

Bru. Come, sir, come, we know you well enough. Men. You know neither me, yourselves, nor any thing. You are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs; you wear out a good wholesome forenoon,' in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and a fosset-seller; and then rejourn the controversy of three-pence to a second day of audience. When you are hearing a matter between party and party, if you chance to be pinched with the cholick, you make faces like mummers; set up the bloody

So, in Love's Labour's Lost: "It is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the princess at her pavilion, in the posteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call, the afternoon." Again, in King Henry IV, P. II:

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66 Thou art a summer bird,

"Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
"The lifting up of day." Malone.

I cannot say,] Not, which appears to have been omitted

in the old copy, by negligence, was inserted by Mr. Theobald.

7 •my microcosm,] So, in King Lear:

"Strives, in his little world of man

Malone.

Microcosmos is the title of a poem by John Davies, of Hereford, 4to. 1605. Steevens.

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-bisson conspectuities,] Biscon, blind, in the old copies, is beesome, restored by Mr. Theobald. Johnson.

So, in Hamlet:

"Ran barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames,
"With bisson rheum." Malone.

9 —for poor knaves' caps and legs:] That is, for their obeisance showed by bowing to you. See Vol. VIII, p. 242, n. 5.

Malone.

1 you wear out a good &c.] It appears from this whole speech that Shakspeare mistook the office of præfectus urbis for the tribune's office. Warburton.

Aag against all patience;2 and, in roaring for a chamberpot, dismiss the controversy bleeding, the more entangled by your hearing: all the peace you make in their cause, is, calling both the parties knaves: You are a pair of strange ones.

Bru. Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber for the table, than a necessary bencher in the Capitol.

Men. Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are.3 When you speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the wagging of your beards; and your beards deserve not so honourable a grave, as to stuff a botcher's cushion, or to be entombed in an ass's pack-saddle. Yet you must be saying, Marcius is proud; who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors, since Deucalion; though, peradventure, some of the best of them were hereditary hangmen. Good e'en to your worships; more of your conversation would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly plebeians: I will be bold to take my leave of [BRU. and Sic. retire to the back of the Scene.

you.

Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, and VALERIA, &c. How now, my as fair as noble ladies, (and the moon, were she earthly, no nobler,) whither do you follow your eyes so fast?

Vol. Honourabie Menenius, my boy Marcius approaches; for the love of Juno, let 's

Men. Ha! Marcius coming home?

go.

Vol. Ay, worthy Menenius; and with most prosperous approbation.

Men. Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee:5-Hoo! Marcius coming home!

2 set up the bloody flag against all patience;] That is, declare war against patience. There is not wit enough in this satire to recompense its grossness. Johnson.

3 Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are.] So, in Much Ado about Nothing: Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence." Steevens.

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herdsmen of-plebeians:] As kings are called roiμEVES ráar. Johnson.

5 Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee:] Dr. Warburton proposed to read-Take my cup, Jupiter.

VOL. XIII,

F

Reed.

Two Ladies. Nay, 'tis true.

Vol. Look, here's a letter from him; the state hath another, his wife another; and, I think, there's one at home for you.

Men. I will make my very house reel to-night:-A letter for me?

Vir. Yes, certain, there's a letter for you; I saw it. Men. A letter for me? It gives me an estate of seven years' health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician: the most sovereign prescription in Galen, is but empiricutick, and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he not wounded? he was wont to come home wounded.

Vir. O, no, no, no.

Vol. O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for 't.

Men. So do I too, if it be not too much:-Brings 'a victory in his pocket?-The wounds become him.

Vol. On's brows, Menenius: he comes the third time home with the oaken garland.

Shakspeare so often mentions throwing up caps in this play, that Menenius may be well enough supposed to throw up his cap in thanks to Jupiter. Johnson.

6 in Galen] An anachronism of near 650 years. Menenius flourished Anno U. C. 260, about 492 years before the birth of our Saviour.-Galen was born in the year of our Lord 130, flourished about the year 155 or 160, and lived to the year 200.

Grey.

"The

7 empiricutick,] The old copies-empirickqutique. most sovereign prescription in Galen (says Menenius) is to this news but empiricutick: an adjective evidently formed by the author from empiric (empirique, Fr.) a quack." Ritson.

8 On's brows, Menenius:] Mr. M. Mason proposes that there should be a comma placed after Menenius; On 's brows, Mene. nius, he comes the third time home with the oaken garland, "for," says the commentator, "it was the oaken garland, not the wounds, that Volumnia says he had on his brows." In Julius Cesar we find a dialogue exactly similar:

"Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate

"To our attempts.-Am I not staid for, Cinna?
"Cin. I am glad on 't."

i. e. I am glad that Casca is incorporate, &c.

But he appears to me to have misapprehended the passage. Volumnia answers Menenius, without taking notice of his last words,-"The wounds become him." Menenius had askedBrings he victory in his pocket? He brings it, says Volumnia, on his brows, for he comes the third time home brow-bound with the oaken garland, the emblem of victory. So, afterwards:

Men. Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly?

Vol. Titus Lartius writes,-they fought together, but Aufidius got off.

Men. And 'twas time for him too, I'll warrant him that: an he had staid by him, I would not have been so fidius'd for all the chests in Corioli, and the gold that's in them. Is the senate possessed of this?9

Vol. Good ladies, let 's go:-Yes, yes, yes: the senate has letters from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole name of the war: he hath in this action outdone his former deeds doubly.

Val. In troth, there 's wondrous things spoke of him. Men. Wondrous? ay, I warrant you, and not without his true purchasing.

Vir. The gods grant them true!

Vol. True? pow, wow.

Men. True? I'll be sworn they are true:-Where is he wounded?-God save your good worships! [To the Tribunes, who come forward.] Marcius is coming home: he has more cause to be proud. Where is he wounded?

Vol. I' the shoulder, and i' the left arm: There will be large cicatrices to show the people, when he shall stand for his place. He received in the repulse of Tarquin, seven hurts i' the body.

Men. One in the neck, and two in the thigh, there's nine that I know.1

"He prov'd best man o' the field, and for his meed,
"Was brow-bound with the oak."

If these words did not admit of 50 clear an explanation, (in which the conceit is truly Shakspearian) the arrangement proposed by Mr. M. Mason might perhaps be admitted, though it is extremely harsh, and the inversion of the natural order of the words not much in our author's manner in his prose writings.

Malone.

9 possessed of this?] Possessed, in our author's language, is fully informed. Johnson. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

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"I have possess'd your grace of what I purpose

Steevens.

seven hurts &c.] Old copy-seven hurts i' the body. Men. One i' the neck, and two i' the thigh;-there's nine that I know. Seven,-one,-and two, and these make but nine? Surely, we may safely assist Menenius in his arithmetick. This is a stupid blunder; but wherever we can account by a probable reaon for the cause of it, that directs the emendation. Here it was

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