good so far as it goes, comes before us in the speech of Volumnia, the mother of Coriolanus. She, his wife, and young son, are supplicating the triumphant renegade to spare his native country. She says that, instead of his presence being a comfort to them, it is a sight—
"Making the mother, wife, and child to see
The son, the husband, and the father tearing
His country's bowels out. And to poor we
Thine enmity's most capital."
This is the reading of the ordinary copies, but it is neither sense nor grammar. The old corrector removes the full stop after out, and reads—
"His country's bowels out; and so poor we
Thine enemies most capital."
But if this is the right reading, it must be completed by changing "we" into us. The meaning will then be—making thy mother, wife, &c.; and so (making) poor us (that is, those whom you are bound to love and protect before all others) thy chief enemies.
Scene 5—Aufidius, speaking of Coriolanus, says, I
"Served his designments
In mine own person, holp to reap the fame
Which he did end all his."
The word "end" has been a stumbling-block to the commentators. The old corrector reads—
"Holp to reap the fame Which he did ear all his."
On which Mr Singer remarks, with a good deal of pertinency, "The substitution of ear for 'end' is a good emendation of an evident misprint; but the correctors have only half done their work: ear—i.e. plough—and reap should change places; or Aufidius is made to say that he had a share in the harvest, while Coriolanus had all the labour of ploughing, contrary to what is intended to be said. The passage will then run thus—
'Served his designments
In mine own person; holp to ear the fame
Which he did reap all his.'
This," adds Mr Singer, "is the suggestion of a correspondent of Notes and Queries, vol. vii. p. 378."
Ten plays, as revised by the old corrector, still remain to be overhauled. These shall be disposed of in our next Number, when it will appear that the MS. emendations offer no symptoms of improvement, but come out worse and worse the more fully and attentively they are considered.
