(436,3) the fine strains] The niceties, the refinements.
V.iii.159 (436,5) he lets me prate,/Like one i' the stocks] Keep me in a state of ignominy talking to no purpose.
V.iii.176 (437,6) Does reason our petition] Does argue for us and our petition.
V.iii.201 (438,7) I'll work/Myself a former fortune] I will take advantage of this concession to restore myself to my former credit and power.
V.iii.206 (438,8) Come, enter with us,—Ladies, you deserve] [Warburton proposed to give the speech beginning "Ladies, you deserve" to Aufidius] The speech suits Aufidius justly enough, if it had been written for him; but it may, without impropriety, be spoken by Coriolanus: and since the copies give it to him, why should we dispossess him?
V.iv.22 (439,1) He sits in state as a thing made for Alexander] In a foregoing note he was said to sit in gold. The phrase, as a thing made for Alexander, means, as one made to resemble Alexander.
V.vi.39 (443,2) He wag'd me with his countenance] This is obscure. The meaning, I think, is, he prescribed to me vith an air of authority, and gave me his countenance for my wages; thought me sufficiently rewarded with good looks.
V.vi.44 (443,3) For which my sinews shall be stretch'd upon him] This is the point on which I will attack him with my utmost abilities.
V.vi.66 (444,4) answering us/With our own charge] That is, rewarding us with our own expences; making the cost of the war its recompence.
V.vi.125 (446,5) his fame folds in/This orbe o' th' earth] His fame overspreads the world.
(447) General Observation. The tragedy of Coriolanus is one of the most amusing of our author's performances. The old man's merriment in Menenius; the lofty lady's dignity in Volumnia; the bridal modesty in Virgilia; the patrician and military haughtiness in Coriolanus; the plebeian malignity and tribunitian insolence in Brutus and Sicinius, make a very pleasing and interesting variety: and the various revolutions of the hero's fortune fill the mind with anxious curiosity. There is, perhaps, too much bustle in the first act, and too little in the last.
Vol. VIII
JULIUS CAESAR
I.i.20 (4,2) Mar. What meanest thou by that?] [Theobald gave this speech to Flavius] I have replaced Marullus, who might properly enough reply to a saucy sentence directed to his colleague, and to whom the speech was probably given, that he might not stand too long unemployed upon the stage.
I.ii.25 (7,5) [Sennet. Exeunt Caesar and Train] I have here inserted the word Sennet, from the original edition, that I may have an opportunity of retracting a hasty conjecture in one of the marginal directions in Henry VIII. Sennet appears to be a particular tune or mode of martial musick.
I.ii.35 (8,6) You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand] Strange, is alien, unfamiliar, such as might become a stranger.
I.ii.39 (8,7) Vexed I am,/Of late, with passions of some difference] With a fluctation of discordant opinions and desires.
I.ii.73 (9,9) To stale with ordinary oaths my love/To every new protester] To invite every new protestor to my affection by the stale or allurement of customary oaths.
I.ii.87 (10,1) And I will look on both indifferently] Dr. Warburton has a long note on this occasion, which is very trifling. When Brutus first names honour and death, he calmly declares them indifferent; but as the image kindles in his mind, he sets honour above life. Is not this natural?
I.ii.160 (12,6) eternal devil] I should think that our author wrote rather, infernal devil.
I.ii.171 (13,7) chew upon this] Consider this at leisure; ruminate on this.
I.ii.186 (13,8) Looks with such ferret, and such fiery eyes] A ferret has red eyes.
I.ii.268 (16,2) a man of any occupation] Had I been a mechanick, one of the Plebeians to whom he offered his threat.
I.ii.313 (17,3) Thy honourable metal may be wrought/From what it is dispos'd] The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original constitution.
I.ii.318 (17,4) If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,/He should not humour me] The meaning, I think, is this, Caesar loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places, his love should not humour me, should not take hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my principles.
I.iii.1 (18,5) brought you Caesar home?] Did you attend Caesar home?
I.iii.3 (18,6) sway of earth] The whole weight or momentum of this globe.
I.iii.21 (19,7) Who glar'd upon me] The first edition reads,
Who glaz'd upon me,—
Perhaps, Who gaz'd upon me.
I.iii.64 (20,8) Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind] That is, Why they deviate from quality and nature. This line might perhaps be more properly placed after the next line.
Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind;
Why all these things change from their ordinance.
I.iii.65 (20,9) and children calculate] [Shakespeare, with his usual liberty, employs the species [calculate] for the genus foretel]. WARB.] Shakespeare found the liberty established. To calculate a nativity, is the technical term.
I.iii.l14 (22,2) My answer must be made] I shall be called to account, and must answer as for seditious words.
I.iii.117 (22,3) Hold my hand] Is the same as, Here's my hand.
I.iii.118 (22,4) Be factious for redress] Factious seems here to mean active.
I.iii.129 (23,5) It favours, like the work] The old edition reads,
It favours, like the work—
I think we should read,
In favour's, like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.
Favour is look, countenance, appearance. (rev. 1778, VIII, 25, 7)
II.i.19 (25,6) Remorse from power] [Remorse, for mercy. WARB.] Remorse (says the Author of the Ravisal) signifies the conscious uneasiness arising from a sense of having done wrong; to extinguish which feeling, nothing hath so great a tendency as absolute uncontrouled power.
I think Warbuton right. (1773)
II.i.21 (25,7) common proof] Common experiment.
II.i.26 (25,8) base degrees] Low steps.
II.i.33 (26,9) as his kind] According to his nature.
II.i.63 (27,3)
Between the acting of a dreadful thing,
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
The genius, and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection]
The [Greek: deinon] of the Greek critics does not, I think, mean sentiments which raise fear, more than wonder, or any other of the tumultuous passions; [Greek: to deinon] is that which strikes, which astonishes, with the idea either of some great subject, or of the author's abilities.
Dr. Warburton'a pompous criticism might well have been shortened. The genius is not the genius of a kingdom, nor are the instruments, conspirators. Shakespeare is describing what passes in a single bosom, the insurrection which a conspirator feels agitating the little kingdom of his own mind; when the Genius, or power that watches for his protection, and the mortal instruments, the