[Scene VI.]
Enter the two Tribunes Verity (Student's Sh.): The Tribunes' note of self-content and ‘security,’ contrasting with the imminence of the danger already revealed to us, marks a favourite form of Shakespearian tragic irony.
are tame, the present peace Theobald: As this passage has been hitherto pointed it labours under two absurdities: first, that the peace abroad and the quietness of the populace at home are called Marcius's remedies; whereas, in truth, these were the impediments of his revenge. In the next place, the latter branch of the sentence is imperfect and ungrammatical.—Johnson: I do not understand either [this line or the next], but fancy it should be read thus: ‘—neither need we fear him;
His remedies are ta'en, the present peace,’ etc.
The meaning, somewhat harshly expressed, according to our author's custom, is this: We need not fear him, the proper remedies against him are taken by restoring peace and quietness.—Capell: By taking away a colon from ‘tame’ and reading ‘i'the’ for ‘the,’ the third editor has struck out an appearance of sense from what before had no shadow of it; but still it is no more than appearance till we can determine with some sort of certainty what the poet intended by ‘his remedies are tame,’ for the words have more aspects than one. Without ent'ring upon what may be made of them, it is best to come at once to what the editor thinks their true meaning. This, as he apprehends, is pointed out by the words that precede them, ‘neither need we fear him’; his return, and the revenge that would follow it, were what they had to fear; it is these, therefore, and the instruments that might bring them about, which the Tribune calls Coriolanus's ‘remedies,’ adding that they were ‘tame’ now, that is, still, and unlikely to have any effect.—Steevens, in reference to Johnson's interpretation, says, ‘I rather suppose the meaning of Sicinius to be this: “His remedies are tame,” i. e., ineffectual in times of peace like these. When the people were in commotion, his friends might have strove to remedy his disgrace by tampering with them; but now, neither wanting to employ his bravery nor remembering his former actions, they are unfit subjects for the factions to work upon.’ As regards Mason's suggestion, lame, Steevens adds, ‘but the epithets “tame” and “wild” were, I believe, designedly opposed to each other.’—Staunton: Omission is not, perhaps, the only defect in the line; the word ‘remedies’ is very equivocal.—R. G. White: [Instead of Theobald's insertion] I think it more in keeping with the purport of the passage, and far better for its rhythm, to strike out ‘we’ in l. 5, where it not only breaks down an already wellladen verse, but substitutes a feeble and unnatural thought for one forcible and natural. It was in the ‘peace and quietness of the people’ that the Tribunes had their supposed triumph over the Patricians, who had hoped to see ‘dissentious numbers pestering the streets,’ but whom this peace and quietness forced to blush that the world went well. This is entirely lost if the Tribunes are made to say that they make Coriolanus's friends blush. The rhythm of ll. 2 and 3 is also much more Shakespearian with a full pause after ‘tame.’ This play is very carelessly printed in the Folio; and I believe that ‘we’ crept in merely by the erroneous supposition of a printer that a new sentence began at ‘Heere,’ and that a nominative was consequently required for ‘make.’ [Reference to the Text. Notes, l. 5, will show that this reading is substantially—though White does not say so— Hanmer's. White's only change being a shifting of the comma. See also note by Hudson, l. 5.—Ed.]—Whitelaw: Let him do his worst; he is harmless so long as the people, lately so turbulent, are orderly and contented, and give his friends no pretext for recalling him.—W. A. Wright [adopting Theobald's reading]: The sense is, The means which Coriolanus may take to redress his wrongs are no longer an object of fear while the people are peaceable and quiet.—Perring (p. 306): What is easier than to construe this line thus, His remedies are tame, the present [is] peace and quietness of the people, which [that is, who] were before in wild hurry. On the one hand, the substantive verb is dropped in the second sentence, because ‘are’ has been expressed in the first; on the other hand, ‘the present’ is used as a noun substantive, of which there is no lack of examples. Thus Tempest, I, i, 57, the substantive verb is left to be understood, albeit it had not been previously expressed, as ‘The king and prince at prayers’; and in the same play, I, i, 24, we have, ‘to work the peace of the present.’ Yet in this passage Theobald must needs interpolate ‘i’ before ‘the present,’ and all break after him like a flock of sheep.
Heere do we make Hudson (ed. ii.): Here I am induced by clear reasons, both of logic and of metre, to adopt the reading of Hanmer. Some change is evidently required in order to make any sense at all of the passage, and Theobald's change [in l. 3] saves neither the metre nor the logic. In this present line ‘we’ is palpably redundant in verse and paralogical in sense; the speaker's drift being not that we, the Tribunes, but that the peace and quietness of the people, make the Patricians ashamed of having predicted popular commotions as the consequences of the hero's banishment. [Hudson has, however, adopted White's punctuation of Hanmer's reading.—Ed.]
pestring W. S. Walker (Crit., ii, 351): To pester a place or person, for to crowd, to throng them. [The present line quoted.] In the following passages we may see how the change of meaning originated: Hamlet, I, ii, 22, ‘He hath not fail'd to pester us with messages.’ 1 Henry IV: I, iii, 50, ‘To be so pestered with a popinjay.’—W. A. Wright: The French ‘Empestrer’ is explained by Cotgrave, ‘To pester, intricate, intangle, trouble, incomber.’
'Tis he . . . of late Abbott (§ 498) quotes this as an example of an apparent Alexandrine, suggesting that the ‘O’ might coalesce with the following vowel.
Haile to you both Steevens: From this reply of Menenius it should seem that both the Tribunes had saluted him; a circumstance also to be inferred from the present deficiency in the metre, which would be restored by reading (according to the proposal of a modern editor). [See Text. Notes.]
is not much mist, but with his Friends Abbott (§ 505) quotes these words as forming an example of a line of four accents; the line is, however, not of Shakespeare's versification, but a metrical arrangement of this prose passage by the Globe editors.—Ed.
affecting one sole Throne Verity (Student's Sh.): The Tribunes back each other up. The first time (III, iii, 2, 3) it was Brutus who made this charge. Then (III, iii, 83-86) Sicinius took it up; now he harps on it again. without . . . so Abbott (§ 506) quotes: ‘Without assistance. Men. I think not so,’ as an example of a Shakespearian line of four accents; as will be seen, this is, however, Theobald's versification, not Shakespeare's.—Ed. without assistãce Johnson: That is without assessors; without any other suffrage.—Theobald (Letter to Warburton, 12 Feb., 1729; Nichols, ii, 488): The text is slightly corrupted, and the versification neglected. Read: ‘Self-loving.
Sic. And affecting one sole throne,
Without assistants.
Men. Nay, I think not so.’
[As will be seen, Hanmer's text reads assistants, but inasmuch as Theobald did not adopt this conjecture in either edition, or mention it in his notes, Hanmer doubtless made the change independently.—Steevens also opines that: ‘It is not improbable that Shakespeare instead of “assistance” wrote assistants. Thus in the old copies of our author we have ingredience for ingredients, occurrents for occurrence.’—Ed.]
We should . . . found it so Malone: Perhaps the author wrote, We should have by this, or have found it so. Without one or other of these insertions the construction is imperfect.—Abbott (§ 415): In this anomalous passage ‘should’ is treated as though it were ‘should have,’ owing to the introduction of the conditional sentence with ‘had.’ So Richard III: III, v, 56, ‘We would have had you heard.’ our Lamention Abbott (§ 219): Your, our, their, &c., are often used in their old signification, as genitives, where we should use ‘of you,’ &c. [Compare I, ix, 45, ‘At your only choice.’]
a Slaue . . . Reports For other examples of this omission of the relative, where the antecedent clause is emphatic, see Abbott, § 244. whom we haue put in prison E. K. Chambers (Warwick Sh.): This touch, showing how incredible the truth appeared, is perhaps the most ironical thing in the scene.
in For other examples of ‘in’ for into see Shakespeare passim.
stood for Rome Steevens: That is, stood up in its defence. Had the expression in the text been met with in a learned author it might have passed for a Latinism, ‘—summis stantem pro turribus Idam,’ Æneid, ix, 575.
hath beene W. A. Wright: So the first three Folios, which perhaps Shakespeare wrote in consequence of the subject being separated from the verb by the intervening words ‘the like,’ with which the verb is made to agree.
Least you shall chance For other examples wherein the future is used where we should now use the subjunctive or infinitive see Abbott, § 348. your Information W. A. Wright: That is, the source of your information, your informant; abstract for concrete, as in II, i, 178.
some newes is comming Steevens: Old copy [F4], redundantly, some news is come in. The Second Folio, coming; but I think erroneously.—Boswell: Such redundant terminations, laying the emphasis on the first of two words, is common among Shakespeare's contemporaries.—Knight: We retain the reading of the original. The reader will remember Mr Campbell's fine image, ‘Coming events throw [cast] their shadows before.’—Dyce: Mr Knight retains the folio reading (because the reader will remember Campbell's fine image, the Roman nobles, of course, being gifted, like Campbell's wizard, with the second sight!). Now, it is quite evident that the mistake of ‘comming’ for come was occasioned by the transcriber's or compositor's eye having caught the word immediately above, ‘going.’ (So in Tempest, II, ii, 185: ‘Nor fetch in firing, at requiring,
Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish,’
where the word ‘trenchering’ originated in the preceding ‘firing’ and ‘requiring.’)
That turnes their Countenances Malone: That is, renders their aspect sour. This allusion to the acescence of milk occurs again in Timon, ‘Has friendship such a faint and milky heart, It turns in less than two nights?’ [III, i, 57].— Steevens: I believe nothing more is meant than changes their countenances. So in Cymbeline, ‘Change you, madam? The worthy Leonatus is in safety,’ [I, vi, 12].
more More fearfull For other examples of ‘more’ thus used, as a noun and adverb in juxtaposition, see Abbott, § 51.
as spacious . . . oldest thing Whitelaw: Revenge that shall embrace all, from the youngest to the oldes.—E. K. Chambers (Warwick Sh.): It is, rather, ‘revenge, as infinite in its extent as from the creation to today.’ [Chambers wrongly assigns the interpretation, to which he makes objection, to Grant White, led thereto doubtless by Rolfe's ed., where this interpretation is given signed simply ‘Wh.,’ which is Rolfe's regular symbol for Whitelaw's Rugby ed. of this play. Rolfe's abbreviation for R. G. White is the single letter W.—Ed.]
Sicin. This is most likely . . . tricke on't Badham (Text of Sh., p. 289): It is far more probable that Sicinius says, ‘This is most likely, rais'd only,’ &c., and that Brutus answers, ‘The very trick on't.’
Good Martius . . . vnlikely Abbott (§ 514): Interruptions are sometimes not allowed to interfere with the completeness of the speaker's verse. This is natural in dialogue when the interruption comes from a third person. If there are two interlocutors, sometimes either interlocution will complete the line. [The present passage quoted.] Good Martius Collier (Notes & Emendations, etc., p. 361): ‘God Marcius’ is the emendation [of the MS. Corrector], which adds vastly to the force of the passage, and is most accordant with the character of the speaker; ‘good Marcius’ is comparatively tame and unmeaning. Cominius soon afterwards, talking of Coriolanus, says, ‘He is their god,’ &c. Brutus could hardly intend to call Marcius ‘good’ when adverting to his reported return; but he applies the word god to him in derision, as if Coriolanus were in a manner worshipped by a certain class of his admirers.—Ibid. (Shakespeare, ed. ii.): Precisely in the same spirit Ulysses, in Tro. & Cress., I, iii, 169, speaks of ‘god Achilles,’ but it is not there tamely printed ‘good Achilles.’—Dyce (ed. ii.): In my former edition I too hastily adopted the reading of Mr Collier's MS. Corrector, ‘God Marcius,’ and I have now to regret that I should have been partly the cause of Mr Grant White's adopting that erroneous reading. [White remarked that he accepted it ‘with some hesitation.’— Ed.]—Hudson (ed. i.): We adopt the change from Mr Collier's second folio partly because the magnificent sneer expressed by it is in Shakespeare's best manner. Of course ‘god Marcius’ is spoken ironically. [In his ed. ii. Hudson silently adopts the Folio reading. Under Dyce's castigation the sneer had, perhaps, lost some of its magnificence.—Ed.]
can no more attone Theobald: That is, be reconciled, agree; for in this sense the word is as frequently used as in the active one to pacify, to reconcile. So in As You Like It, ‘Then is there mirth in heav'n
When earthly things made ev'n
Atone together,’ [V, iv, 116].—
W. A. Wright: The word is used transitively elsewhere by Shakespeare. See Othello, IV, i, 244. The phrases ‘to be at one’ and ‘to set at one’ were of common occurrence, and from the adverb ‘at one’ the verb ‘atone’ seems to have been formed.
Then violent'st Contrariety W. S. Walker (Vers., p. 170): The Folio has ‘violent'st,’ the true reading. It is a line of three feet and a half, not of four feet, which would not be Shakespearean; and for the same reason, I, i, 76. [Footnote by Lettsom, Walker's editor, ‘It was Walker's opinion that Shakespeare did not introduce verses of eight or nine syllables in his system of versification.’] Contrariety M. Mason: I should read contrarieties.—Steevens: Mr Mason might have supported his conjecture by the following passage in Lear, ‘No contraries hold more antipathy Than I and such a knave,’ [II, ii, 93. Both Mason and Steevens might have saved time for other notes had they but examined the texts of some of their predecessors. See Text. Notes.—Ed.]
the Citty Leades Malone: Our author, I believe, was here thinking of the old city gates of London.—Steevens: The same phrase has occurred already in this play—[II, i, 227]. Leads were not peculiar to our city gates. Few ancient houses of consequence were without them.
burned W. S. Walker (Vers., p. 40): Probably the poets of that age could not, or would not, use confirm'd, &c. (rm, &c., followed by d), as disyllables, &c., on account of the then mode of pronouncing rm, rn, &c., and therefore there was no metrical convenience to be served by suppressing the e in ed. I am inclined to think from what I have observed that they usually retained it in such cases. [The present line quoted, among others, in illustration.] Ciment W. A. Wright: With the accent on the first syllable, as in Ant. & Cleo., III, ii, 29, ‘The piece of virtue, which is set Betwixt us as the cement of our love.’
whereon you stood Case (Arden Sh.): On which you insisted. A common one among the various meanings of ‘to stand upon,’ and may be illustrated by 1 Henry VI: II, iv, 27, 28, ‘Let him that is a true-born gentleman And stands upon the honour of his birth’; and Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, I, i, 90, ‘Nor stand so much on your gentility.’ The sense ‘on which you depended’ would also be possible here, though not so biting. See also ll. 122, 123, post. [Compare I, ix, 49 and II, ii, 166.]
Into an Augors boare Steevens: So in Macbeth, ‘—our fate Hid in an augre-hole,’ [II, iii, 128].
Then Boyes . . . Butter-flies . . . killing Flyes Capell: The editor could have been glad to have had some authority for driving these ‘flies’ away [l. 120], they come too near to the other; if he had not stood in awe of the wits, it is possible he might have turn'd them to—sheep; for he thinks there is some likelihood that the ‘flies’ were brought there by the printer.—Leo (Coriolanus): I would prefer another word after ‘killing,’ since the comparison is very forced, and I suppose the repetition to be an error of the compositor. Pigs, for instance (though there are many words which may be chosen as well), would be better than ‘Flyes.’—W. S. Walker (Crit., iii, 212): Write or at least pronounce, ‘butterflees.’ Drayton, Muses' Elysium, viii.: ‘Of lilies shall the pillows be
With down stuft of the butterflee,’
Nymphidia. (I quote here from a note in the Variorum Sh., vol. vi, p. 52, where the passage is cited with a different purpose): ‘The seat, the soft wool of the bee,
The cover (gallantly to see)
The wing of a py'd butterflee,
I trow, 'twas simple trimming,’
[ed. Hughs, p. 162]. Butterfly (as I am informed) is pronounced butterflee (u as oo in took) in Lancashire; and so also, I doubt not, in Yorkshire, as fly in that county is pronounced flee. I know not if the difference of spelling which the folio exhibits in the two words of Coriolanus, Butter-flies and Flyes, indicates anything. [Herford (Eversley ed.) in a note signed simply L. makes the same suggestion as Walker in regard to the pronunciation of ‘butterfly,’ citing in illustration the above passage from The Muses' Elysium.—Ed.]—E. K. Chambers: Compare the picture of Coriolanus's child in I, iii, 63, 64.—Ulrici (Zusätze und Berichtigungen zu Coriolanus, p. 179): I have adopted in the text Mason's [Capell's] emendation sheep, since I am convinced that ‘flies’ is a misprint, induced by the word ‘butterflies’ directly above it. Cominius wishes to say: The Volscians follow Coriolanus with the very same confidence in the war against us as do boys wage war on butterflies, or butchers on sheep. To this undoubted meaning of the passage ‘flies’ is so inconsistent that it can without doubt be nothing other than a misprint.
voyce of occupation Malone: ‘Occupation’ is here used for mechanics, men occupied in daily business. So again in Jul. Cæs., I, ii, ‘An I had been a man of any occupation,’ &c. So Horace uses artes for artifices, ‘Urit enim fulgore suo, qui prægravat artes Infra se positas,’ [Epist., II, i, l. 13].—M. Mason: The word ‘crafts’ is used in the like manner where Menenius says, l. 147, ‘—you have made fair hands, You and your crafts.’—Verplanck: A phrase of contempt in the mouth of a military aristocrat.
breath of Garlicke-eaters Johnson: To smell of garlick was once such a brand of vulgarity that garlic was a food forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights mentioned by Guevara.—Malone: So in Meas. for Meas., ‘—he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelled brown bread and garlic,’ [III, ii, 195].— Steevens: From the following passage in Dekker's If it be not good Play, the Devil is in it, 1612, it should appear that garlic was once much used in England, and afterwards as much out of fashion: ‘Fortune favours nobody but Garlicke nor Garlicke neither now: yet she has strong reason to love it: for tho Garlicke made her smell abhominably in the nostrills of the gallants, yet she had smelt and stuncke worse but for garlicke,’ [Works, ed. Pearson, iii, 324].—Collier (ed. ii.): Steevens was not aware that the old dramatist referred to a jig which had been brought out at the Fortune Theatre under the title of Garlic. Taylor, the Water-poet, mentions it by name in his Cast over the Water (Works, p. 159): ‘And for his action he eclipseth quite
The Jig of Garlic, or the Punk's delight.’
‘Greene's Tu Quoque and those Garlic Jigs’ are mentioned as having been extraordinarily successful in H. Parrot's ‘Laquei Ridiculosi,’ 1613; and Dekker, in his Satiromastix, 1602, calls Ben Jonson's ‘strong garlic comedies.’ See also Robert Taylor's Hog hath Lost his Pearl, 1614, where Haddit, offering a piece to the player, and wishing to recommend it, says, ‘Garlic stinks to this,’ &c., Dodsley's ‘Old Plays,’ vi, 337, ed. 1825.
As Hercules . . . Mellow Fruite Theobald (Letter to Warburton, Feb. 12, 1729; Nichols, ii, 488): I suspect almost that our Poet, according to his custom, is alluding to the known fable; if so, might we not rather read, ‘th' yellow fruit,’ i. e., the golden fruit in the gardens of the Hesperides.
Regions Collier (ed. ii.): ‘All the legions’ in the corr. fo. 1632; but we adhere to the old and received text, no change being necessary.—Dyce (ed. i.): The MS. correction is very plausible, for it is doubtful if the old text is to be explained by what Aufidius says, ‘All places yield to him ere he sits down,’ IV, vii, 30; here Cominius, eager to mortify the Tribunes, may be exaggerating the successes of Coriolanus; and elsewhere the folio has legions misprinted ‘regions.’ [Dyce refers to 1 Henry VI: V, iii, 11, where Warburton conjectures we should read legions.—Ed.]—Ibid. (ed. ii.): I have felt strongly inclined to adopt the MS. correction, but Mr W. N. Lettsom remarks that ‘the Romans had no army on foot, and consequently no legions.’—R. G. White: Considering the context, ‘smilingly revolt,’ ‘valiant ignorance,’ and ‘constant fools,’ and that the Folio has twice elsewhere the misprint ‘regions’ for legions, I have little hesitation in accepting the reading of Mr Collier's folio of 1632.
who resists For other examples of this construction see Abbott, § 251.
valiant Ignorance Steevens: So in Tro. & Cress., ‘I had rather be a tick in a sheep, than such a valiant ignorance,’ [III, iii, 316].
who is't . . . haue mercy W. S. Walker (Crit., iii, 213): Arrange, perhaps, ‘Who is't can blame him? your enemies and his
Find something in him.
Men. We're all undone unless
The noble man have mercy.’
they charg'd him . . . And therein shew'd Johnson: Their charge or injunction would show them insensible of their wrongs, and make them show like enemies. I read shew, not shewed, like enemies.—Malone (Var. 1778): The old copy has ‘charg'd’ and ‘shew'd.’ If one is changed, so ought the other. I read, ‘They'd charge him—and therein shew.’ [As Malone did not repeat this in his own edition it may be considered as withdrawn.]—M. Mason (Comments, etc., p. 257): There can be no doubt but this passage, as it stands, is very inaccurate, and that Malone's amendment will correct every error, and render it grammatical; but it appears to me that the inaccuracy is that of the author himself, and, of course, should not be amended, as one of a similar nature occurs in Act II, sc. ii, ll. 17-19.—Malone: ‘They charg'd, and therein show'd’ has here the force of ‘They would charge, and therein show.’ [See Abbott, § 361.]— Lettsom (ap. Dyce ii.): Plutarch says that when Coriolanus was besieging Lavinium with the Volsces, the Roman people were desirous to annul the decree of his banishment, but the Senate then maintained it. Possibly Shakespeare may here allude to that circumstance, though it is not mentioned in the play.—Case (Arden Sh.): That is, they would be attacking him in the same way as those that had deserved his hate, and so doing would be confused with them (lit. would seem like enemies). The sense of charge presents some difficulty; probably it is a shade of the sense command, enjoin upon, as in All's Well, IV, ii, 56, ‘Now will I charge you in the band of truth. . . . Remain there but an hour,’ etc.; A Lover's Complaint, 220, ‘Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not.’
You haue made faire hands Whitelaw: Ironically, ‘You have not soiled your hands at all.’—Schmidt (Coriolanus): You have done a fine piece of work, you have done your work well. So in Henry VIII. the Chamberlain says to the Porters, ‘Ye have made a fine hand, fellows; There's a trim rabble let in,’ [V, iv, 74]. Not, as Whitelaw takes it, ironically.—Case: So in Fortune by Land and Sea (Pearson's Heywood, vi, 423), ‘We have made a fair hand on't, have we not?’ The ominous sense here illustrated is related to one of those recorded as still existent provincially. See Eng. Dialect Dict., ‘Make a hand, to spoil, waste, destroy.’
You and your Crafts Collier (Notes and Emendations, etc., p. 361): On the authority of the Old Corrector we ought unquestionably to read handycrafts for ‘crafts.’ This change completes the defective line, and shows that Menenius uses the introductory expression, ‘You have made fair hands,’ in order that he may follow it up by the contemptuous mention of handycrafts.—Dyce: No; the old text is quite right. To ‘make fair hands’ (or ‘a fine hand’) is a common enough expression (so Henry VIII: V, iv, 74); and the change of ‘crafts’ to handycrafts is unnecessary for the sense, because manual labor is sufficiently implied in the former word. As to ‘the metre’—the Corrector's alteration deranges it entirely, ‘You and your crafts! you've crafted fair!’ make up a perfect line with ‘You've brought,’ etc.—Browne (p. 18) and Abbott (§ 486) propose, metri gratia, that ‘crafts’ be here pronounced as a dissyllable cra-afts, since ‘an emphatic monosyllable is often made to take the place of an entire foot.’ crafted W. A. Wright: Menenius is a great word-maker. We are already indebted to him for ‘empiricutic,’ ‘fidiused,’ ‘conspectuities.’
A Trembling vpon Rome . . . of helpe Whitelaw: A panic, the like of which—so desperate as this is—never was. Or we might read, referring ‘so incapable of help’ to ‘Rome, such as 'twas never’; such as = such that, a usage not ungrammatical when Shakespeare wrote.
They'l roare him in againe Johnson: As they hooted at his departure, they will roar at his return; as he went out with scoffs, he will come back with lamentations.
his points W. A. Wright: That is, his commands or directions. In military language ‘a point of war’ was a signal given by sound of a trumpet. See 2 Henry IV: IV, i, 52: ‘Turning . . .
Your pens to lances and your tongue divine
To a loud trumpet and a point of war.’
in hooting For other examples wherein ‘in’ is used in the sense in the act of or while see, if needful, Abbott, § 164.
Y'are . . . to the Capitoll Bayfield (p. 189): Editors divide thus: ‘Ye're goodly things, you voices.—You have made
Good work, you and your cry. Shall's to the Capitol?’
But we shall get nearer to the original form of the passage if we read and divide thus: ‘Com. You are | goodly | thing, you | voices.
Men. You have | made good | work,
You and your | cry. Shall | we to the | Capitol?’
A quadrisyllabic (‘voices. You have’) divided between two speakers is extremely common, and when we restore ‘we’ and give it the stress required by the context, we do not credit the poet with a line of which he would have been ashamed.
cry See III, iii, 146. Shal's Abbott (§ 215): ‘Shall,’ originally meaning necessity or obligation, and therefore not denoting an action on the part of the subject, was used in the South of England as an impersonal verb. So Chaucer, ‘us oughte,’ and we also find ‘as us wol,’ i. e., ‘as it is pleasing to us.’ Hence in Shakespeare: ‘Say, where shall's lay him?’ Cymbeline, IV, ii, 233; ‘Shall's have a play of this?’ Ibid., V, v, 228; ‘Shall's attend you there?’ Wint. Tale, I, ii, 178; [also the present line].
Would buy this Leo (Coriolanus): The repetition of ‘would’ is somewhat heavy; could in this line would perhaps be better reading.