No sense can be made of this. Some copies have vamp, which is not a bad reading; but there is an old word imp, which signifies to piece or patch. Accordingly, Mr Singer reads—"To imp a body," &c. This is the word which ought to stand in the text.
Scene 2.—Here the old corrector is again at his forging tricks upon a large scale. Volumnia says to Coriolanus, her son—
"Pray be counsell'd,
I have a heart as little apt as yours
To brook control without the use of anger;
But yet a brain that leads my use of anger
To better vantage."
The interpolated line is very unlike the diction of Shakespeare, and is not at all called for. "Apt" here means pliant, accommodating. "I have a heart as stubborn and unaccommodating as your own; but yet," &c. Mr Singer proposes soft for "apt ;" but this seems unnecessary.
Act IV. Scene 1.—Although the construction of the latter part of these lines is somewhat involved, it is far more after the manner of Shakespeare than the correction which the margins propose. Coriolanus says to his mother—
"Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage? You were used
To say extremity was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear,
That when the sea was calm, all boats alike
Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows,
When most struck home, being gentle wounded, craves
A noble cunning."
Gentle-minded is the new reading; but it is quite uncalled for. The meaning is—You were used to say that when fortune's blows were most struck home, to be gentle, though wounded, craves a noble cunning—that is, a high degree of self-command.
Scene 5.—It is curious to remark how cleverly Shakespeare has anticipated old Hobbes' theory of human nature and of society, in the scene where the serving-men are discussing the merits of peace and war. "Peace," says one of them, "makes men hate one another." "The reason?" asks another. Answer—" Because they then less need one another." This, in a very few words, is exactly the doctrine of the old philosopher of Malmesbury.
Scene 6.—" God Marcius" for "good Marcius," is a commendable emendation; and perhaps, also, it may be proper to read—
"You have made fair hands,
You and your handycrafts have crafted fair,"
instead of
"You and your crafts, you have crafted fair."
The following passage (Scene 7) has given a good deal of trouble to the commentators. Aufidius is describing Coriolanus as a man who, with all his merits, had failed, through some unaccountable perversity of judgment, in attaining the position which his genius entitled him to occupy. He then says—
"So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time;
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
To extol what it hath done.
One fire drives out one fire, one nail one nail,
Right's by right fouler, strengths by strength do fail."
Our virtues, says Aufidius, consist in our ability to interpret, and turn to good account, the signs of the times. "And power, unto itself most commendable, hath not a tomb so evident as a chair to extol what it hath done;" that is,—and power, which delights to praise itself, is sure to have a downfall, so soon as it blazons forth its pretensions from the rostrum. The MS. corrector proposes—
"Hath not a tomb so evident as a cheer," &c.
The original text is obscurely enough expressed, but the new reading seems to be utter nonsense. What can Mr Singer mean by his reading—
"Hath not a tomb so evident as a hair"?
The old corrector also reads, unnecessarily, as we think, suffer for "fouler." "Rights by rights suffer." There seems to be no necessity for changing the received text. "Right is fouler by right,"—which Steevens thus explains: "what is already right, and is received as such, becomes less clear when supported by supernumerary proof."
Act V. Scene 3.—An emendation,
