Theobald's emendation, stale 't, I believe, is right: continue the trite repetition. In the same sense the word occurs in Julius Cæsar: "Were I a common laugher, or did use "To stale, with ordinary oaths, my love "To every new protestor.' Mr. Steevens says, that "to scale," is to disperse; but, besides that dispersion implies a separation of parts, (a sense incompatible with the context) how can repeating a story to those who have heard it before, be called dispersing it? 11. "Like labour with the rest; where the other instruments "Did see," &c. I am not sure that "where," in this place, is put for whereas, as Dr. Johnson says; it may mean no more than in which state of compari son. "They are not such as you." Your belly's answer: What !" How the word "what" came in here, or why it is suffered so stupidly to burthen the measure, I am unable to discover. I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you Patience," &c. "A small of patience" is a mode of speech, I believe, unsupported by any example. I suppose the author wrote: "If you'll bestow a little (of what you've little,) "Patience," &c. 1 I send it through the rivers of your blood, "Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o'the brain.' I am clearly of Mr. Malone's opinion, that the text is right; and, thinking so, am persuaded that the poet makes an obvious distinction between "the heart" and the "seat of the brain," which Mr. Malone would explain as synonymous. The seat of the brain cannot, surely, be any thing but the head. The reasoning faculty might, doubtless, be imagined by Shakspeare, as well as others, to reside in the heart, but that hypothesis had no tendency to remove the brain from its natural repository. Those who use brain figuratively, to express reason, consider reason as the result of the brain's operation, and would never so apply the word if they supposed the heart to be the region of intellect; accordingly, Camden, in the instance produced by Mr. Malone, ascribes to the heart advice and reason, but does not say a syllable about brains. 14. "Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to run "Lead'st first to win some vantage. I do not think there is in this place any allusion to deer, either fat or lean; but that "blood" refers to running horses; and that "rascal" means only, according to its common usage, a base fellow. Thou rascal, the most ignoble of the whole troop, that hast not blood or spirit to run fairly, dost meanly take the start of all, in order, by such advantage, to repair thy natural inferiority. 16. "Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, you curs ?" The word "have," here, which overloads the line, might be spared. "To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him, "And curse that justice did it.”— I am inclined to Mr. Steevens's explanation of this passage; but it will admit of a different construction, taking "that" for the conjunction, not the pronoun, and understanding "curse" as the verb neuter. Ye extol him whose offence subjected him to punishment, and then rail, that justice exercised her function on him. What would you have, you curs." The corruption of using, thus, the plural accusative of thou, for the nominative ye, as well as for the nominative and accusative singular of that pronoun, has become so general and inveterate, as not to admit of reformation; but while this can only be lamented, we are not bound to submit to the inversion of the impropriety, and take ye for you, in the accusative plural, as here. Which can only stand imperatively. We should read: Hang ye! Trust you?" i. e. Go hang yourselves! Trust you, indeed! What's their seeking ?" Seeking" is, here, as Mr. Malone observes, a substantive; but there is a want of congruity in the terms of the question and answer. We might read : What's their seeking?" Men. "Corn at their own rates; whereof, they VOL I. do say," &c. GG -Who's like to rise, "Who thrives, and who declines: side factions, and give out "Conjectural marriages." The hypermeter here, I have no doubt, was interpolation; but I cannot, with Mr. Steevens, call it tasteless; on the contrary, I think that this excess was a correction by Shakspeare himself, who carelessly omitted to expunge the words he had superseded. Supposing them all, as I do, to be the words of our poet, we ought to retain those which are the best; and I would read : "Who's like to rise, "Who thrives, declines: side factions, and give 18. Below their cobbled shoes. They say, there's grain enough?" Of this line," enough" may well be spared, to preserve the metre: "Below their cobbled shoes. They say, there's grain!" This surely is enough, and Coriolanus would have scorned to give the rabble a grain more. As high "As I could pick my lance." Pitch is certainly, at this day, in Yorkshire, and other places, pronounced as pick; though, perhaps, we ought rather to write it pich. The hemistic inclines one to suppose some words have been lost-perhaps like these: "As I could pich my lance. Away, ye knaves." 19. "For though abundantly they lack discretion, "Yet are they passing cowardly." This is admirably expressed. Courage is naturally inconsiderate and imprudent; but these fellows, though too stupid to be capable of prudential regards, are yet absolute cowards. "Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you." The line might be restored to metre thus: "Yet are they passing, coward. I beseech you." This phraseology, to the readers of Shakspeare, and his contemporaries, needs no illustration. A petition granted them, a strange one, (To break the heart of generosity.)" I am not satisfied that Dr. Johnson's explanation of this passage is right, or that generosity is high birth: I rather think the sense is, to destroy the vital principle of generosity, or bounty, by such an abuse of it. 20. "Go, get you home, you fragments!" A fragment is wanting here; perhaps, "hence, begone.' 21. "Where's Caius Marcius ?" Mar. " Here: What's the matter?" The elision in "what's" ought to be removed, or some other word added to make up the measure. Here: What is the matter?" 66 |