They'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius,
The fecond name of men, obeys his points
As if he were his officer: Desperation
Is all the policy, ftrength, and defence,
That Rome can make against them.

Enter a troop of Citizens.

Men. Here come the clusters.

And is Aufidius with him?---You are they,
That made the air unwholfome, when you caft
Your tinking, greafy caps, in hooting at
Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming,

And not a hair upon a foldier's head,
Which will not prove a whip: as many coxcombs,
As you threw caps up, will he tumble down,
And pay you for your voices. 'Tis no matter.

If he should burn us all into one coal,
We have deserved it.

Omnes. Faith, we hear fearful news.
1 Cit. For mine own part,

When I faid, banifh him, I faid, 'twas pity. 2 Cit. And fo did I.

3

Cit. And fo did I; and, to fay the truth, fo did very many of us; that we did, we did for the best? and though we willingly confented to his banifhment, yet it was againft our will.

Com. Y'are goodly things; you voices!
Men. You have made good work,

You and your cry. Skall's to the capitol?
Com. Oh, ay, what else?

[Exeunt.

Sic. Go, malters, get you home, be not difmayed. These are a fide that would be glad to have This true, which they fo feem to fear. Go home, And fhew no fign of fear.

1 Cit. The gods be good to us: come, mafters, let's home. I ever faid, we were i' th' wrong when we banished him.

2 Cit. So did we all; but come, let's home.

Bru. I do not like this news.

Sic. Nor I.

[Exeunt Citizens.

Bru. Let's to the capitol; would half my wealth

Would buy this for a lie !

Sic. Pray, let us go.

[Exeunt Tribunes.

SCENE, a Camp, at a small diftance from Rome.

Enter AUFIDIUS, with his Lieutenant.

Auf. Do they still fly to the Roman ?

Lieu. I do not know what witchcraft's in him; Your foldiers ufe him as the grace 'fore meat, [but Their talk at table, and their thanks at end: And you are darkened in this action, Sir,

Even by your own.

Auf. I cannot help it now,

Unless, by ufing means, I lame the foot

Of our defign. He bears himself more proudly
Even to my perfon, than, I thought, he would
When first I did embrace him. Yet his nature
In that's no changling, and I must excuse
What cannot be amended.

Lieu. Yet I with, Sir,

(I mean for your particular) you had not Joined in commiffion with him; but had borne The action of yourself, or else to him

Had left it folely.

uf. I understand thee well; and be thou fure, When he fhall come to his account, he knows not What I can urge against him; though it seems, And fo he thinks, and is no lefs apparent

To th' vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly,
And fhews good husbandry for the Volfcian ftate,
Fights dragon-like, and does atchieve as foon
VOL. XI.

S

As draw his fword: yet he hath left undone That which fhall break his neck or hazard mine, Whene'er we come to our account.

Lieu. Sir, I befeech, think you, he'll carry Rome? Auf. All places yield to him ere he fits down, And the nobility of Rome are his :

The fenators and patricians love him too :
The tribunes are no foldiers; and their people
Will be as rafh in the repeal, as hasty

Toexpel him thence. (35) I think, he'll be to Rome

(35)

-I think, he'll be to Rome

As is the afpray to the fish, who takes it
By fovereignty of nature.]

Though one's fearch might have been very vain to find any fuch word as afpray, yet I eafily imagined, fomething must be couched under the corruption, in its nature deftructive to fish, and that made a prey of them. And this fufpicion led ue to the discovery. The ofprey is a fpecies of the eagle, of a ftrong make, that haunts the fea and lakes for its food, and altogether preys on fifh. It is called the axials, or equila marina, as alfo avis offifraga; thence contracted first, Ferhaps, into afphrey, and then, with regard to the cafe of pronunciation, ofprey. Pliny gives us this defeription of its acute fight, and eagerness after its prey. Haliætus, clariffima eculorum acie, librans ex alto jefe, wifo-in mari pifce, praceps in mare ruens, et difcuffis pectore aquis, rapiens. It may not be difagrecable to go a little farther to explain the propriety of the Poet's allufion. Why will Coriolanus be to Rome, as the oprey to the fish?

-he'll take it

By fovereignty of nature.

Shakespeare, 'tis well known, has a peculiarity in thinking, and wherever he is acquainted with nature, is fure to allude to her most uncommon effects and operations. I am very apt to imagine, therefore, that the Poet meant Coriolanus would take Rome by the very opinion and terror of his name, as fish are taken by the osprey, through an instinctive fear they have of him. "The fishermen, (fays our old naturalift William Turner) are used to anoint their baits with oprey's fat, thinking thereby to make them the more efficacious; because when that bird is hovering in the air, all the

As is the Ofprey to the fifh, who takes it
By fovereignty of nature. First, he was
A noble fervant to them, but he could not
Carry his honours even; whether pride,
(Which out of daily fortune ever taints
The happy man) whether defect of judgment,
(To fail in the difpofing of thofe chances.
Whereof he was the Lord) or whether nature,
(Not to be other than one thing; not moving
From the cafk to the cuthion; but commanding peace
Even with the fame aufterity and garb

As he controlled the war;) but one of these,
(As he hath fpices of them all) not all,
For I dare fo far free him, made him feared,
So hated, and fo banifhed; but he has merit
To choak it in the utterance: fo our virtues
Ly in th' interpretation of the time;
And power, unto itfelf moft commendable, (36)

fifh that are beneath him, (the nature of the eagle, as it is believed, compelling them to it) turn up their bellies, and as it were, give him his choice which he will take of them." Gefner goes a little farther in fupport of this odd inftinct, telling us, "that while this bird flutters in the air, and fometime, as it were, feems fufpended there, he drops a certain quantity of his fat, by the influence whereof the fish are fo affrighted and confounded, that they immediately tura themfelves belly upwards; upon which he fowfes down perpendicularly like a ftone, and feizes them in his talons."To this I dare fay Shakespeare alludes in this expreffion of the fovereignty of nature This very thought is again touched by Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Two Noble Kinfmen; a play in which there is a tradition of our Author having been jointly concerned:

-But, oh Jove! your actions,

Soon as they move, as ajprays to the fiih,
Subdue before they touch.

For here again we must read ofpreys.

(36) Ana power, unto it felf maft commendable, Halb not a tomb fo evident, as a chair

Hath not a tomb fo evident, as a chair
T' extol what it hath done.

One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail;
Right's by right fouler, ftrengths by ftrengths do

fail,

Come, let's away; when, Caius, Rome is thine, Thou'rt pooreft of all, then fhortly art thou mine. [Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE, a public place in Rome.

Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS, BRUTUS, with others.

MENENI U S.

O, I'll not go: you hear what he hath faid,
Which was fometime his general; who loved

him

In a moft dear particular. He called me father:
But what o' that? go you, that banished him,
A mile before his tent, fall down, and knee
The way into his mercy: nay, if he coyed
To hear Cominius fpeak, I'll keep at home.
Gom. He would not feem to know me.

Textol what it hath done.]

This is a very common fentiment, but moft obfcurely expoffed. This is the fenfe: That virtue, which delights to commend itfelf, will find the certaineft tomb in that chair, in which it holds forth on its own commendation; i e. Nothing fo readily throws our own virtue into oblivion, as the practice of commending one's felf. That power which is moft jealous of competitors, [unto itself must commendable hath no certainer grave than that chair in which it extols its own worth. Mr Warburton.