William Shakespeare, Critical Commentary of The Tragedie of Coriolanus
Horace Howard Furness, Jr., A. B.; Litt. D., Ed.

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like the Vertues . . . lose by em Theobald: I wish they would forget me as they do those virtuous precepts which the divines preach up to them, and lose by them, as it were, by their neglecting the practice.—Capell (vol. I, pt i, p. 88): ‘Virtues’ are put poetically for precepts of virtue, which divines are properly enough said to lose by hearers upon whom they have no influence.— Badham (Criticism, p. 13): Anyone who can seriously maintain that there is a meaning in this passage as it now stands has much false ingenuity to unlearn. The following passage in North's Plutarch (Life of Romulus, p. 26, ed. 1579) may perhaps afford us some clue: ‘Moreover other birdes are allwayes (as a man would saye) before our eyes, and doe daylie shewe themselves unto us: where the vulter is a very rare byrde and hardly to be seene, and men do not easily finde their ayeries. Which hath geven some occasion to holde a false opinion that the vulters are passagers, &c. The prognosticators also thincke that such things which are not ordinarie and but rarely seene, be not natural, but miraculously sent by the gods

to prognosticate something.’ Now we have no doubt that Coriolanus here wishes that his dealings with the people were as transitory and rare as the visits of vultures are to the gaze of the soothsayers. He never wishes to encounter them more, not even to hear their praises. But then how is this passage to be moulded according to this view? Shall we read, ‘I wish they would forget me like the vultures Which our diviners lease by’; or, Which our divines lose sight of? Let the judicious determine or, rather, let them propose some more satisfactory way of introducing this word thus strangely corrupted into virtues. [It is, I think, doubtful that Badham's extravagant emendation or explanation will appeal to any thoughtful reader. He himself would very likely have somewhat modified his view had he consulted the several passages wherein Shakespeare refers to the Vulture. In no instance is this bird taken except as the emblem of voracity, which honor it seems to share with the cormorant. The words ‘virtues’ and vultures in the handwriting of the time do not in the least resemble each other.—Ed.]—Verplanck: ‘I wish they would forget me, as they do the moral teachings of our divines.’ This (repeat a dozen critics) is ‘an amusing instance of anachronism.’ I do not see why the priestly teachers of morals in a heathen land may not well be termed ‘divines’ by an English poet without implying that he supposed them to be doctors of divinity of Oxford or Geneva. [As far as I know Verplanck himself is the first to call attention to the anachronism—his edition appeared in 1847—the ‘dozen critics’ are all named John Doe.—Ed.]—Hudson: This use of the term ‘divines’ has been set down as another anachronism. No doubt it is so. And so in North's Plutarch we often find that the ancient Greeks and Romans had bishops among them. The poet simply uses the language of his time to represent what has been done at all times.—Wellesley (p. 26): None of the commentators have informed us what were the precepts by which Coriolanus imagines that the Roman divines of his day are as much losers as he is by his example. I should rather suppose that he borrowed his simile from the Faculty, and that we should read, ‘Which medicines lose by time,’ the compositor having read our divines for medicines and them for time. —Jabez [C. M. Ingleby] (Notes & Queries, 11 Aug., 1877, p. 105): Undoubtedly time may have been read ‘them,’ which, in its turn, was contracted into ‘em.’ But if ‘our divines’ be a corruption, its place can hardly have been occupied by medicines; for men do not cease to care for the lost virtues of their drugs, but throw physic to the dogs when it is found to have survived its efficacy. On the contrary, men do not throw away their old wines, not even their tawny port, but they set store by them, prizing them for the very reason that their former virtues, have departed. I therefore propose to read, ‘Like the virtues Which old wines lose by time,’ conceiving that our d is a misprint for old, ivines for wines. Coriolanus might fitly compare himself (as valued by the plebs) to the virtues of a wine, which men think they do well to dispraise and forget. [In Cam. ii. another emendation is accredited to Ingleby, ‘Which dry wines lose by time’; it is, however, marked as withdrawn. May we not add, wisely?—Ed.]—R. M. Spence (Notes & Queries, 1 Sep., 1877, p. 163): In a reverent and diffident spirit I venture to suggest that Shakespeare's words may possibly have been, ‘I would they would forget me, like the victims Which our diviners toss by 'em.’ I. e., as haruspices, having examined the exta, toss the carcases of the victims aside, as having served their purpose, so wish I that the profanum vulgus of Rome, having got what they wanted from me—victory over their foes and security for themselves—may ever forget

me. Since this note was written I have seen Jabez's proposed emendation of this passage. With all deference, I submit that my rendering, while taking no greater liberty with the text than his, is more in keeping with Coriolanus's impetuous manner. [The deferential tone of Spence's note somewhat precludes severe criticism, still it may be pointed out that ‘victim’ is a word which does not occur in any of Shakespeare's works; and, according to the N. E. D., was not in current use until towards the end of 1600. Of what use are Concordances of the plays and poems if not for the purpose of establishing such a fact as the first of these here given?—Ed.]—W. Carew (Ibid., p. 163): I would suggest the passage is elliptical, and should read, ‘Like the virtues which our divines forget when they lose by enforcing or practising them.’—W. A. Wright: That is, waste upon them by preaching to them in vain. If this be the true reading, Theobald's explanation must be right. [Wright characterises the various emendations proposed as ‘all more open to objection than the original text.’]—Case (Arden Sh.): Elliptical in the extreme. Divines lose their labour, not their virtues, but they may be regarded as losing the plants of virtue which they vainly strive to set and cultivate in base minds.