Page:Coriolanus (1924) Yale.djvu/157

The Tragedy of Coriolanus of his countenance.' Shakespeare's transfer of the speech to the mouth of a contemporary of Coriolanus produces a striking anachronism, since Martius lived some three hundred years before Cato the Censor (234–149 B.C.).

doublets that hangmen would Bury with those that wore them. An allusion to the Elizabethan custom which made the garments of executed prisoners a perquisite of the hangman. Doublets (jackets) which a hangman would refuse to take would not be worth the plunderers' while to steal.

The Roman gods. O you, the gods of Rome! It is not necessary to alter 'The' to 'Ye,' as is commonly done. The reading of the text is an authorized vocative construction in Elizabethan English.

[Soldiers.] ''O, me alone! Make you a sword of me!'' The Folio prints the line without indication of speaker, but it is difficult to explain it as part of Martius' speech.

Wert thou the Hector That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny. 'Progeny' means race or stock, and 'whip' the scourge with which punishment is inflicted: 'If you were Hector, the most formidable warrior of your boasted race.' Allusion is made, of course, to the asserted descent of the Romans from the Trojans.

tent themselves with death. Make death the means of cleansing themselves from festering ingratitude.

Let him be made an overture for the wars. Tyrwhitt and most modern editors alter 'an overture' to 'a coverture,' without much assisting the interpretation of the line. The Folio text appears to mean, 'Let an offer of warlike employment be made to him (the parasite).' When soldiers adopt the effeminate ways of courtiers, let us recruit our armies among the latter class.