To banish your defenders; till, at length,

Your ignorance, (which finds not, till it feels, &c.] Still retain the power of banishing your defenders, till your undiscerning folly, which cun 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 author's mind, that he looked through life in all its relations private and civil.

JOHNSON.

When most struck home, being gentle wounded,

craves

A noble cunning.-]

This is 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 author'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.

51

They bore as heroes, but they felt as men.

-Hadst thou foxship

JOHNSON.

To banish him-] Hadst thou, fool as thou art, mean cunning enough to banish Coriolanus?

52 But your favour is well appear'd by your tongue.] This is strange nonsense. We should read,

-is well appeal'd,

i. e. brought into remembrance.

I should read,

-is well affear'd,

WARBURTON.

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

My title is affear'd. Macbeth.

To repeal may be to bring to remembrance, but appeal

has another meaning.

I would read,

JOHNSON.

Your favour is well approv'd by your tongue.

i. e. your tongue strengthens the evidence of your face.

So Hamlet, sc. 1.

"That if again this apparition come,

"He may approve our eyes, and speak to it."

53

54

STEEVENS.

already in the entertainment,] Already in pay.

-maims

Of shame] i. e. disgraceful diminutions of territory.

55 Sanctifies himself with 's hand-] Crosses himself, -sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears:]

56

To sowle is to pull, to drag.

That is, without assessors; without any other suffrage.

58 -can no more atone-] This is a very elegant expression, and taken from unison strings giving the same tone or sound.

WARBURTON.

POPE.

59 As is the osprey to the fish-] Osprey, a kind of eagle, ossifraga. We find in Michael Drayton's Polyolbion, Song xxv. a full account of the osprey, which shews the justice and beauty of the simile.

"The osprey, oft here seen, tho' seldom here it breeds,

"Which over them the fish no sooner do espy, "But, betwixt him and them by an antipathy,

Turning their bellies up, as tho' their death they

saw,

"They at his pleasure lie, to stuff his gluttonous

maw."

LANGTON.

60a bare petition-] A bare petition, I believe, means only a mere petition. Coriolanus weighs the consequence of verbal supplication against that of actual punishment.

STEEVENS.

61 -upon a subtle ground-] Subtle is here, smooth, level.

My revenge properly,-] Though I have a pecu

liar right in revenge, in the power of forgiveness the Volcians are conjoined.

JOHNSON.

I have borne this business.] How openly. 6+ The sorrow, that delivers us thus chang'd,

Makes you think so.]

Virgilia makes a voluntary misinterpretation of her husband's words. He says, These eyes are not the same, meaning, that he saw things with other eyes, or other dispositions. She lays hold on the word eyes, to turn his attention on their present appearance. JOHNS.

65

wind.

66

-flaw-] Flaw in sea language is a gust of

-to charge thy sulphur, &c.] The meaning of the passage is, To threaten much, and yet be merciful.

WARBURTON.

67 He wag'd me with his countenance,-] This is obscure. The meaning, I think, is, he prescribed to me with an air of authority, and gave me his countenance for my wages; thought me sufficiently rewarded with good looks.

JOHNSON.

The verb, to wage, is used in this sense in the Wise Woman of Hogsden, by Heywood, 1638.

-I receive thee gladly to my house, "And wage thy stay.-'

STEEVENS.

68 For which my sinews shall be stretch'd-] This is the point on which I will attack him with my utmost abilities.