clares his contempt of death, rather than consent to purchase life by submission to the people : "I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word, Nor check my courage for what they can give, It is most inconsistent with the noble character of the hero to represent him in this way vaunting his own "courage:" the old corrector writes carriage for "courage," an easy mistake, the setting right of which is surely an improvement: "Nor check my carriage for what they can give," &c. Carriage is, of course, deportment; and the very same misprint has been pointed out, and remedied in the same way, in Henry VI., Part III., p. 292 of this volume. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 222. The commentators have clearly not understood part of Coriolanus' address to his mother: "Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage? you were us'd That common chances common men could bear; Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows, When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves Some editors have inserted warded for "wounded:" Johnson, on the other hand, insisted upon the text of the folios; but a slight change, which presupposes that the printer again mistook m and w, is vastly for the better. Coriolanus is distinguishing between the modes in which common men, and those of nobler faculties bear misfortunes; and, when his language is truly given, observes,— "Fortune's blows When most struck home, being gentle-minded craves A noble cunning." That is, it requires a noble cunning for a man to be gentleminded, when fortune's blows are most struck home. In the next scene (p. 225), Volumnia, in the old copies, is made to call the Roman rabble "cats," but the old corrector tells us that her word was curs, consistently with the term Coriolanus had previously applied to them. Curs might easily be misprinted or mis-written "cats.” SCENE III. P. 226. The suggestion of Steevens that, in the speech of the Volsce," appeared" should be approved, is supported by the testimony of the old corrector, who also warrants the change, by the same commentator, on p. 229, of "my birthplace have I" to "my birth-place hate I." In a previous line of the same speech, "Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise," the old corrector has, "Whose house, whose bed," &c., with some apparent fitness. The literal errors are here abundant in both folios, but they are considerably multiplied in that of 1632. SCENE V. P. 236. Perhaps the following may be held to belong to that class it is where the third Servant is speaking of the friends of Coriolanus, who do not dare to show themselves so "whilst he's in directitude." The first Servant naturally asks, what is the meaning of "directitude?" and receives no answer, excepting by implication, derived from the supposition that Coriolanus will soon be again in prosperity, and surrounded by his supporters. "Directitude" is clearly a misprint for dejectitude,-a rather fine word, used by the third Servant to denote the disastrous condition of the affairs of Coriolanus, which might be just as unintelligible to the first Servant as "directitude." The blunder must have been produced by the scribe having written deiectitude, with an i instead of a j. It has remained, however, "directitude," from the earliest times to the present. P. 237. The first Servant, stating his preference of war to peace, says that war is "sprightly, waking (walking in the folios), audible, and full of vent." Johnson tells us that "full of vent" means "full of rumour, full of materials for discourse." "Full of vaunt," says the old corrector, with much greater plausibility, full of deeds deserving to be vaunted. SCENE VI. P. 237. Theobald's emendation in the second line of the first speech of Sicinius appears to be wrong: the old corrector gives the line thus: "His remedies are tamed by th' present peace ;" but "tame i' the present peace we still think reads better, and the change is hardly advisable. P. 240. On p. 201 we have seen god misprinted for "good ;" and, in what follows, a marginal correction in the folio, 1632, shows that "good" has been misprinted for god. Brutus could hardly intend to call Marcius "good," when adverting to his reported return; but he applies the word "god" to him in derision, as if Coriolanus were in a manner worshipped by a certain class of his admirers: Brutus asserts that the rumour of his return has been "Rais'd only, that the weaker sort may wish Such is the emendation, which adds vastly to the force of the passage, and is most accordant with the character of the speaker; "good Marcius" is comparatively flat and unmeaning. Cominius, soon afterwards, talking of Coriolanus, says, "He is their god," &c. P. 242. After converting "regions" into legions, the emendator shows us that the point of another passage has been sacrificed to an error, where Menenius says to the Tribunes,"You have made fair hands, You and your crafts; you have crafted fair." We ought unquestionably to read handycrafts for "crafts," and to print the lines as follows, both on account of the sense and the metre: "You have made fair hands; You and your handycrafts have crafted fair." This change completes the defective line, and shows that Menenius uses the introductory expression, "You have made fair hands," in order that he may follow it up by the contemptuous mention of handycrafts. SCENE VII. P. 245. The conclusion of the speech of Aufidius, where he is adverting to the manner in which high merits may be obscured, and even extinguished by the character and conduct of the possessor, has excited much comment. We print it first as the passage appears in the folio, 1623 :— "So our virtue Lie in th' interpretation of the time, T' extol what it hath done. One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail." The only difference between the folio, 1623, and that of 1632, is, that the latter corrects a grammatical blunder by printing "virtue" in the plural; but, besides this trifle, there appear to be several other mistakes of more consequence, and we subjoin the text as amended in manuscript : "So our virtues Live in the interpretation of the time, T'extol what it hath done. One fire drives out one fire, one nail, one nail; Rights by rights suffer, strengths by strengths do fail." Most editors have seen that "Rights by rights fouler” must be wrong, and have proposed various changes, though none so acceptable as that above given. However, the main difficulty has arisen out of the word "chair," which the old corrector informs us should be cheer, in reference to the popular applause which follows great actions; and, by extolling what has been done, confounds the doer. The change of "lie" to live, in a preceding line, is countenanced by the word "tomb," afterwards used; and the whole passage means, that virtues depend upon the construction put upon them by contemporaries, and that power, though praiseworthy, may be buried by the very applause that is heaped upon it, &c. The last couplet requires no elucidation, when suffer is substituted for "fouler," an error that may, in part, have been occasioned by the letter f having been employed instead of the long s. It is difficult to say how far some independent authority may, or may not, have been used in this emendation. ACT V. SCENE I. This Act begins as follows in old and modern editions::"No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said Which was sometime his general." This must be wrong, and we are instructed to read, "To one sometime his general," which is precisely the alteration required. SCENE II. P. 250. In order to induce the guard to admit him to an interview with Coriolanus, Menenius says, as the lines have always been given,— "For I have ever verified my friends (Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity This surely is little better than nonsense, the compositor having printed "verified" in the first line from his eye having caught "verity" in the second: we are, therefore, told to read thus: "For I have ever magnified my friends," &c.; and Menenius goes on to say, that he had magnified them to the utmost "size" that truth would allow. Lower down, in the 1 Guard's speech, we have "queasy groans of old women" for "easy groans," &c.; and "decayed dotard" for "decayed dotant." SCENE III. P. 254. Another instance in which the annotator of the folio, 1632, preferred the active to the passive participle occurs here, and where the one seems, to our ears, to answer the purpose quite as well as the other: it is in Volumnia's speech to her son, |