Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies. Samuel Johnson

sconce?] The suppliants of the people used to present themselves to them in sordid and neglected dresses.

      III.ii.113 (381,8) Which quired with my drum] Which played in concert with my drum.

      III.ii.116 (382,1) Tent in my cheeks] To tent is to take up residence.

      III.ii.121 (382,2) honour mine own truth] [Greek: Panton de malis aischuneui sauton]. Pythagoras.

      III.ii.125 (382,3) let/Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than fear/ Thy dangerous stoutness] This is obscure. Perhaps, she means, Go, do thy worst; let me rather feel the utmost extremity that thy pride can bring upon us, than live thus in fear of thy dangerous obstinacy.

      III.iii.17 (384,3)

      Insisting on the old prerogative

      And power in' the truth o' the cause]

      This is not very easily understood. We might read,

      —o'er the truth o' the cause.

      III.iii.26 (384,4) and to have his word/Of contradiction] To have his word of contradiction is no more than, he is used to contradict; and to have his word, that is, not to be opposed. We still say of an obstinate disputant, he will have the last word.

      III.iii.29 (384,5) which looks/With us to break his neck] To look is to wait or expect. The sense I believe is, What he has in his heart is waiting there to help us to break his neck.

      III.iii.57 (386,8) Rather than envy you] Envy is here taken at large for malignity or ill intention.

      III.iii.64 (386,9) season'd office] All office established and settled by time, and made familiar to the people by long use.

      III.iii.96 (387,1) has now at last] Read rather,

      —has now at last [instead of as now at last].

      III.iii.97 (387,2) not in the presence] Not stands again for not only.

      III.iii.114 (388,3) My dear wife's estimate] I love my country beyond the rate at which I value my dear wife.

      III.iii.127 (389,4)

      Have the power still

      To banish your defenders'; till, at length,

      Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels)]

      Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your undiscerning folly, which can foresee no consequences, leave none in the city but yourselves, who are always labouring your own destruction.

      It is remarkable, that, among the political maxims of the speculative Harrington, there is one which he might have borrowed from this speech. The people, says he, cannot see, but they can feel. It is not much to the honour of the people, that they have the same character of stupidity from their enemy and their friend. Such was the power of our authour's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private and civil.

      IV.i.7 (390,1) Fortune's blows,/When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves/A noble cunning] This it the ancient and authentick reading. The modern editors have, for gentle wounded, silently substituted gently warded, and Dr. Warburton has explained gently by nobly. It is good to be sure of our authour's words before we go about to explain their meaning.

      The sense is, When Fortune strikes her hardest blows, to be wounded, and yet continue calm, requires a generous policy. He calls this calmness cunning, because it is the effect of reflection and philosophy. Perhaps the first emotions of nature are nearly uniform, and one man differs from another in the power of endurance, as he is better regulated by precept and instruction.

      They bore as heroes, but they felt as men.

      (see 1765, VI, 577, 9)

      IV.i.33 (391,3) cautelous baits and practice] By artful and false tricks, and treason.

      IV.ii.15 (393,6)

      Sic. Are you mankind?

      Vol. Ay, fool; Is that a shame? Note but this fool.

      Was not a man my father?]

      The word mankind is used maliciously by the first speaker, and taken perversely by the second. A mankind woman is a woman with the roughness of a man, and, in an aggravated sense, a woman ferocious, violent, and eager to shed blood. In this sense Sicinius asks Volumnia, if she be mankind. She takes mankind for a human creature, and accordingly cries out,

      —Note but this, fool.

      Was not a man my father?

      IV.ii.18 (394,7) Hadst thou foxship] Hadst thou, fool as thou art, mean cunning enough to banish Coriolanus?

      IV.iii.9 (395,7) but your favour is well appear'd by your tongue] [W: well appeal'd] I should read,

      —is well affear'd,

      That is, strengthened, attested, a word used by our authour.

      My title is affear'd. Macbeth.

      To repeal may be to bring to remembrance, but appeal has another meaning.

      IV.iii.48 (397,8) already in the entertainment] That is, tho' not actually encamped, yet already in pay. To entertain an army is to take them into pay.

      IV.iv.22 (398,1)

      So, with me:—

      My birth-place hate I, and my love's upon

      This enemy's town:—I'll enter: if he slay me]

      He who reads this [My country have I and my lovers left;/This enemy's town I'll enter] would think that he was reading the lines of Shakespeare: except that Coriolanus, being already in the town, says, he will enter it. Yet the old edition exhibits it thus

      —So with me.

      My birth-place have I; and my loves upon

      This enemic towne; I'll enter if he slay me, &c.

      The intermediate line seems to be lost, in which, conformably to his former observation, he says, that he has lost his birth-place, and his loves upon a petty dispute, and is trying his chance in this enemy town, he then cries, turning to the house of Anfidius, I'll enter if he slay me.

      I have preferred the common reading, because it is, though faulty, yet intelligible, and the original passage, for want of copies, cannot be restored.

      IV.v.76 (403,3) a good memory] The Oxford editor, not knowing that memory was used at that time for memorial, alters it to memorial.

      IV.v.90 (403,4) A heart of wreak in thee] A heart of resentment.

      IV.v.91 (403,5) maims/Of shame] That is, disgraceful diminutions of territory.

      IV.v.207 (406,5) sanctifies himself with's hands] Alluding, improperly, to the act of crossing upon any strange event.

      IV.v.212 (407,6) He will go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears] That is, I suppose, drag him down by the ears into the dirt. Souiller, Fr.

      IV.v.214 (407,7) his passage poll'd] That is, bared, cleared.

      IV.v.238 (408,8) full of vent] Full of rumour, full of materials for discourse.

      IV.vi.2 (408,1) His remedies are tame i' the present peace] The old reading is,

      His remedies are tame, the present peace.

      I do not understand either line, but fancy it should be read thus,

      —neither need we fear him;

      His remedies are ta'en, the present peace,

      And quietness o' the people,—

      The