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cry hauocke Steevens: That is, Do not give the signal for unlimited slaughter, &c.—Tyrwhitt: ‘To cry havoc’ seems to have been the signal for general slaughter, and is expressly forbid in Les Ordinances des Battailles, 9 R. ii, art. 10: ‘Item, que nul soit si hardy de crier havok sur peine d'avoir la test coupe.’ So in King John, ‘Cry havoc, Kings,’ [II, i, 357]; and in Jul Cæs., ‘Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war,’ [III, i, 273].—Todd: Again, ‘For them that crye hauoke. Also that noo man be so hardy to cry hauoke, vpon payne of hym that so is founde begynher, to die therefore, and the remenaunt to be emprysoned, and theyr bodyes to be punysshed at the Kynges wyll,’ Certayne Statutes and Ordenaunces of Warre made, &c., by Henry VIII. bl. l. 4to emprynted by R. Pynson, 1513. [See also note on the passage in Jul. Cæs. which Tyrwhitt quotes, III, i, 303, this edition.—Ed.]
William Shakespeare. Horace Howard Furness, Jr., A. B.; Litt. D. The Tragedie of Coriolanus. Philadelphia and London. J. B. Lippincott Company.
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