ld wax
and unfold itself into such sentiment as this. However, I perceive that in
this speech is meant to be contained a prevention of shock at the
after-change in Aufidius's character.

Act ii. sc. 1. Speech of Menenius:--

"The most sovereign prescription in _Galen_," &c.

Was it without, or in contempt of, historical information that Shakespeare
made the contemporaries of Coriolanus quote Cato and Galen? I cannot
decide to my own satisfaction.

_Ib._ sc. 3. Speech of Coriolanus:--

"Why in this wolvish toge should I stand hero"

That the gown of the candidate was of whitened wool, we know. Does
"wolvish" or "woolvish" mean "made of wool?" If it means "wolfish," what
is the sense?

Act iv. sc. 7. Speech of Aufidius:--

"All places yield to him ere he sits down," &c.

I have always thought this, in itself so beautiful speech, the least
explicable from the mood and full intention of the speaker of any in the
whole works of Shakespeare. I cherish the hope that I am mistaken, and
that, becoming wiser, I shall discover some profound excellence in that,
in which I now appear to detect an imperfection.

"Julius Caesar."

Act i. sc. 1.--

"_Mar._ What meanest _thou_ by that? Mend me, thou saucy
fellow!"

The speeches of Flavius and Marullus are in blank verse. Wherever regular
metre can be rendered truly imitative of character, passion, or personal
rank, Shakespeare seldom, if ever, neglects it. Hence this line should be
read:--

"What mean'st by that? mend me, thou saucy fellow!"

I say regular metre: for even the prose has in the highest and lowest
dramatic personage, a Cobbler or a Hamlet, a rhythm so felicitous and so
severally appropriate, as to be a virtual metre.

_Ib._ sc. 2.--

"_Bru._ A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March."

If my ear does not deceive me, the metre of this line was meant to express
that sort of mild philosophic contempt, characterising Brutus even in his
first casual speech. The line is a trimeter,--each _dipodia_ containing two
accented and two unaccented syllables, but variously arranged, as thus:--

u - - u | - u u - | u - u -
A soothsayer | bids you beware | the Ides of March.

_Ib._ Speech of Brutus:--

"Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other,
And I will look on _both_ indifferently."

Warburton would read "death" for "both;" but I prefer the old text. There
are here three things, the public good, the individual Brutus'