a man-child, than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.

VIR. But had he died in the business, madam,— how then?

VOL. Then his good report should have been my son; I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely, had I a dozen sons,-each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius,-I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country, than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.

Enter a Gentlewoman.

GENT. Madam, the lady Valeria is come to visit you.

VIR. Beseech you, give me leave to retire

myself.

VOL. Indeed, you shall not.

a At Grecian swords' contending.] "Contending" is the word in the second folio; the first reads,

"At Grecian sword. Contenning, tell Valeria," &c.

Mr. Collier's annotator proposes,

Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum;
See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair;
As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him:
Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus,-
Come on, you cowards! you were got in fear,
Though you were born in Rome: his bloody brow
With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes,
Like to a harvest-man, that's task'd to mow
Or all, or lose his hire.

VIR. His bloody brow! O, Jupiter, no blood!
VOL. Away, you fool! it more becomes a man
Than gilt his trophy: the breasts of Hecuba,
When she did suckle Hector, look'd not lovelier
Than Hector's forehead when it spit forth blood
At Grecian swords' contending."-Tell Valeria,
We are fit to bid her welcome. [Exit Gent.
VIR. Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!
VOL. He'll beat Aufidius' head below his
knee,
upon

And tread

his neck.

"At Grecian swords contemning," &c.;

and Mr. W. N. Lettsom,

"As Grecian swords contemning."

Enter VALERIA, attended by an Usher, and a Gentlewoman.

VAL. My ladies both, good day to you.
VOL. Sweet madam.

VIR. I am glad to see your ladyship.

VAL. How do you both? you are manifest house-keepers. What are you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith.-How does your little son?

VIR. I thank your ladyship; well, good madam. VOL. He had rather see the swords, and hear a drum, than look upon his school-master.

VAL. O' my word, the father's son: I'll swear, 'tis a very pretty boy. O' my troth, I looked upon him o' Wednesday half an hour together: h'as such a confirmed countenance. I saw him run after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it, he let it go again; and after it again; and over and over he comes, and up again: catched it again or whether his fall enraged him, or how 'twas, he did so set his teeth, and tear it; O, I warrant, how he mammocked it.

VOL. One of his father's moods.

VAL. Indeed la, 'tis a noble child.

b

VIR. A crack, madam.

VAL. Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play the idle huswife with me this afternoon.

VAL. In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it. Thus it is :---The Volsces have an army forth; against whom Cominius the general is gone, with one part of our Roman power: your lord and Titus Lartius are set down before their city Corioli; they nothing doubt prevailing, and to make it brief wars. This is true, on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us.

VIR. Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in every thing hereafter.

VOL. Let her alone, lady; as she is now, she will but disease our better mirth.

VAL. In troth, I think, she would.-Fare you well then.-Come, good sweet lady.-Pr'ythee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o'door, and go along with us.

VIR. No, at a word, madam; indeed, I must

VAL. Not out of doors!

VOL. She shall, she shall.

VIR. Indeed, no, by your patience; I'll not over the threshold till my lord return from the

wars.

VAL. Fie, you confine yourself most unreasonably come, you must go visit the good lady that lies in.

VIR. I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my prayers; but I cannot go thither. VOL. Why, I pray you?

VIR. 'Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love.

VAL. You would be another Penelope: yet, they say, all the yarn she spun in Ulysses' absence, did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Come; I would your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall with us.

go

VIR. No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth.

VAL. In truth la, go with me; and I'll tell you excellent news of your husband.

(*) Old text, Athica.

a or whether his fall enraged him,-] Or, here, is probably a misprint for and.

LARTIUS, Officers and Soldiers.

a To the pot, I warrant him.] Mr. Collier's annotator reads,"To the port, I warrant him," and Mr. Collier defends the substitution in this wise,-"In the folio, 1623, the letter r had dropped out in 'port,' and it was always ridiculously misprinted pot,To the pot, I warrant him.' To what pot? To go to pot,' is certainly an old vulgarism, but here it is not to pot,' butto the pot,' as if some particular pot were intended." This is strange oblivion. "To the pot," as Mr. Collier, better than anyone else, ought to know, was one of the most familiar expressions in our early dramatists. Take only the following examples, from plays which that gentleman must be familiar with:"Thou mightest sweare, if I could, I would bring them to the pot.""New Custome," Act II. Sc. 3. "For goes this wretch, this traitor, to the pot." G. PEELB'S" Edward I." DYCE's ed. p. 115, Vol. I. 64 they go to the pot for 't."

b

WEBSTER'S "White Devil," &c. DYCE's ed. p. 117, Vol. I.
Who, sensible, outdares his senseless sword,
And, when it bows, stands up!]

The old text has,

In the old text, "Even to Calues wish;" the correction, Theobald's, is established by the relative passage in North's Plutarch: -"But Martius being there [before Corioli] at that time, ronning out of the campe with a fewe men with him, he slue the first enemies he met withall, and made the rest of them staye upon a sodaine, crying out to the Romaines that had turned their backes, and calling them againe to fight with a lowde voice. For he was even such another, as Cato would have a souldier and a captaine to be not only terrible and fierce to laye about him, but to make the enemie afeard with the sounde of his voyce, and grimnes of his countenaunce."

dthat do prize their hours-] Pope changed the word "hours" to honours, but, as Steevens pointed out, Shakespeare followed his authority, Plutarch.-"The cittie being taken in this sorte, the most parte of the souldiers beganne incontinently to spoyle, to carie away, and to looke up the bootie they had wonne. But Martius was marvelous angry with them, and cried out on them, that it was no time now to looke after spoyle, and to ronne stragling here and there to enriche themselves."

Now the fair goddess, Fortune, Fall deep in love with thee; and her great charms

SCENE VI.-Near the Camp of Cominius.

Enter COMINIUS and Forces, retreating.

COм. Breathe you, my friends: well fought;

we are come off

Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands,
Nor cowardly in retire: believe me, sirs,
We shall be charg'd again. Whiles we have
struck,

By interims and conveying gusts we have heard
The charges of our friends.-Ye" Roman gods,
Lead their successes as we wish our own,
That both

our powers, with smiling fronts encountering,

Prosperity be thy page!

MAR. Thy friend no less, Than those she placeth highest! So, farewell. LART. Thou worthiest Marcius!

-Ye Roman gods,-] "The word 'you' in the last line," Mr. Dyce remarks, "shows that the Roman gods' of the old text, is wrong."