Or feeing it, of fuch childish friendlinefs
To yield your voices?

Bru. Could you not have told him,
As you were leffoned; when he had no power,
But was a petty fervant to the state,
He was your enemy; still spake against
Your liberties, and charters that you bear
I' th' body of the weal: and now arriving
At place of potency and fway o' th' ftate,
If he fhould ftill malignantly remain
Faft foe to the plebeians, your voices might
Be curfes to yourfelves. You fhould have faid,
That as his worthy deeds did claim no less
Than what he ftood for; fo his gracious nature
Would think upon you for your voices, and
Tranflate his malace tow'rds you, into love,
Standing your friendly Lord.

Sic. Thus to have faid,

As you were fore-advifed, had touched his fpirit, And tried his inclination; from him pluck'd Either his gracious promife, which you might, As caufe had called him up, have held him to; Or elfe it would have galled his furly nature, Which eafily endures not article

Tying him to ought; fo, putting him to rage, You fhould have ta'en the advantage of his choler, And pafs'd him unelected.

Bru. Did you perceive,

He did folicit you in free contémpt,

When he did need your loves? and do you think, That his contempt fhall not be bruifing to you, When he hath power to crufh? why had your bo

dies

No heart among you? or had you tongues, to cry, Against the rectorthip of judgment?

Sic. Have you,

Ere now, denyed the afker? and, now again

On him that did not ask, but mock, bestow
Your fued-for tongues?

3

Cit. He's not confirmed, we may deny him yet. 2 Cit. And will deny him:

I'll have five hundred voices of that found.

1 Cit. Ay, twice five hundred, and their friends to piece 'em.

Bru. Get you hence inftantly, and tell thofe friends, They've chose a conful that will from them take Their liberties; make them of no more voice Than dogs that are as often beat for barking, 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 fcorned you: but your loves,
Thinking upon his fervices, took from you
The apprehenfion of his prefent portance;
Which gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion
After the inveterate hate he bears to you.

Bru. Nay, lay a fault on us, your tribunes, that
We laboured (no impediment between)
But that you must caft your election on him.

Sic. Say, you chofe him more after our comThan guided by your own affections; [mandment, And that your minds, pre-occupied with what You rather muft de, than what you fhould do, Made you against the grain to voice him Conful. Lay the fault on us. [you,

Bru. Ay, fpare us not: fay, we read lectures to How youngly he began to ferve his country,

How long continued; and what ftock he fprings of,
The noble houfe of Marcius; from whence came
That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's fon,
VOL. XI.

Who, after great Hoftilius, here was King:
Of the fame houfe Publius and Quintus were, (22)
That our beft water brought by conduits hither.

(22) Of the fame house Publius-] I have taken notice, in the courfe of these notes, of many anachroniíms knowingly committed by our Author: I cannot help obferving, that he is guilty of more than one here, through 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 history, which, I dare fay, he was no more aware of than cur Author was. Plutarch, in the entrance of CorioJanus'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 haste, (or perhaps, his inacquaintance with this particular point) not attending to Plutarch's drift, but taking all the perfons named to be Coriolanus's ancestors, has ftrangely tripped in time, and made his tribune talk of perfons and things not then in being. For inftance, he is made to talk of cenfors : Now Coriolanus was killed 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 pofitive teftimony of Julius Frontinus, that they had no aquaducts at Rome till the year 441; and that the Marcian water was not introduced till the year 613 fo 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 merit on this discovery; much lefs, to be defirous of convicting my Author of fuch mistakes; but I thought it proper to decline a charge of ignorance, that might have been laid at my door, had I paffed this affair over in filence. Pope, 'tis plain, though he took the pains to add the conjedural, line about Cenforinus, was not aware of this confufion in point of chronology, or of our Author's innocent trefpafs. Non om ia poffumus omnes.

Mr

And Cenforinus, darling of the people,

(And nobly named fo for twice being Cenfor) Was his great ancestor.

Sic. One thus defcended,

That hath befide well in his perfon wrought,
To be fet high in place, we did commend
To 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 done't,

(Harp on that fill) but by our putting on; And prefently, when you have drawn your number, Repair to the capitol.

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

tion.

Bru. Let them go on:

[Exeunt Plebeians.

This mutiny were better put in hazard,

Than stay paft doubt for greater:

If, as his nature is, he fall in rage

With their refufal, both obferve and answer

The vantage of his anger.

Sic. To the capitol, come;

We will be there before the fiream o' th' people:

And this fhall feem, as partly 'tis, their own,
Which we have goaded onward.

ACT III.

SCENE, a public Street in Rome.

[Exeunt.

Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, COMI NIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators.

TULL

CORIOLANUS.

ULLUS Aufidius then had made new head? Lart. He had, my Lord; and that it was, Our fwifter compofition. [which caufed

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

Com. They're worn, Lord Conful, fo, That we fhall hardly in our ages fee Their banners wave again.

Cor. Saw you Aufidius?

Lart. On fafe-guard he came to me, and did Against the Volfcians, for they had fo vilely [curfe Yielded the town; he is retired to Antium.

Cor. Spoke he of me?
Lart. He did, my Lord.

Cor. How?--what ?--

Lart. How often he had met you sword to fword: That of all things upon the earth he hated Your perfon moft: that he would pawn his fortunes To hopeless reftitution, fo he might

Be called your vanquisher.

Cor. At Antium lives he?

Lart. At Antium.

Cor. I wish I had a caufe to feek him there, To oppofe his hatred fully.---Welcome home.

[To Lartius.

Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

Behold thefe are the tribunes of the people,

The tongues o' th' common mouth. I do despise For they do prank them in authority

Against all noble fufferance.

Sic. Pafs no farther.

Cor. Hah!---what is that !--

[them;

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

Men. The matter?

Com. Hath he not paffed the Nobles and the Commons?