Source: https://shakespearebrasileiro.org/de/pecas/coriolanus/act-i-scene-iii/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 06:49:01+00:00

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ACT I SCENE III. Rome. A room in Marcius’ house.
VIRGILIA But had he died in the business, madam; how then?
Gentlewoman Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you.
VIRGILIA Beseech you, give me leave to retire myself.
VOLUMNIA Indeed, you shall not.
VIRGILIA His bloody brow! O Jupiter, no blood!
VIRGILIA Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!
VALERIA My ladies both, good day to you.
VIRGILIA I am glad to see your ladyship.
VALERIA How do you both? you are manifest house-keepers.
VIRGILIA I thank your ladyship; well, good madam.
VOLUMNIA One on ‘s father’s moods.
VALERIA Indeed, la, ’tis a noble child.
VIRGILIA No, good madam; I will not out of doors.
VALERIA Not out of doors!
VOLUMNIA She shall, she shall.
VOLUMNIA Why, I pray you?
VIRGILIA ‘Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love.
VIRGILIA No, good madam, pardon me; indeed, I will not forth.
VIRGILIA O, good madam, there can be none yet.
VALERIA In earnest, it’s true; I heard a senator speak it.
VALERIA In troth, I think she would. Fare you well, then.
solemness out o’ door. and go along with us.
STAGE DIRECTION. Volumnia and Virgilia, the real names of the mother and the wife of Coriolanus were respectively Veturia and Volumnia.
2. more comfortable sort, more cheerful manner.
4. would show, desired to show.
6, 7. when youth … way, when his youthful beauty made everyone turn to look at him; his way, in his direction: for an hour, in return for an hour, or, in order to secure an hour.
7, 8. should not … beholding, would certainly refuse to part with him for a single day; sell, the price given being an hour of kings’ entreaties.
8, 9. how honour … person, in what way honour would best lend a charm to one so comely in appearance; what kind of honour would be most in keeping with his look and bearing.
13. his brows bound with oak, the oaken garland was an honour granted to one who had saved the life of a Roman citizen in battle and slain his opponent. It ensured the wearer a place next the senators in public assemblies, where all rose as he entered. Coriolanus obtained the garland at the battle of the Lake Regillus, B.C. 498.
16. how then? what would have been your feelings in that case?
17. Then his … son, then the fame he had earned would have been to me in the place of my son; should expresses her determination.
17, 8. I therein … issue, I should have cherished his fame as though it were the outcome of my womb.
19, 20. each in my love … Marcius, each of them equally dear with the Marcius whom we both love so dearly.
20-2. I had rather … action, I should have been more glad that eleven of them should perish than that one of them should live a life of inactive indulgence.
24. to retire myself, to retire to my own chamber, “The predilection for transitive verbs was perhaps one among other causes why many verbs which are now used intransitively, were used by Shakespeare reflexively. Many of these were derived from the French” (Abb. § 296).
26. Methinks … drum, it seems to me as though I hear the sound of your husband’s drum (as he causes it to be beaten for the assault) borne hither; for the use of forth, hence, hither, without a verb of motion (motion being implied), see Abb. § 41.
28. As children … him, the Volscians scuttling away before him like children running for their lives from a bear.
29. call thus, thus shout to his own troops afraid to follow him.
30, 1. ‘you were … Rome,’ you may have been bom in Rome, but you have nothing of the Roman about you; your sires were a pack of cowards.
32. mail’d hand, hand gauntleted in mail; armour made of links of steel.
33, 4. Like to … hire, like a labourer hired for the harvest on the condition that he shall get in the whole crop, or receive no wages for his labour; for the transposition of or, which belongs properly to to mow, see Abb. § 420.
35. Jupiter, no blood! Jove forbid that a drop of his blood should be spilled!
37. Than gilt his trophy, than the plating of gold adorns a monument erected to a man; trophy, literally a monument erected at the spot where the enemy turned and fled.
39, 40. when it spit … contemning, when, as though in scorn of their blows, the blood spurted from his wounds in the face of his foes; the blood is spoken of as though animated with the contempt felt by him from whom it was drawn. The folios read ‘At Grecian sword. Contenning,’ or ‘At Grecian swords Contending’; the reading in the text is a conjecture of Collier’s, adopted by most modem editors.
42. Heavens … Aufidius! may the heavens show their love for my lord by preserving him from the cruel Aufidius; fell, A. S. fel, cruel, fierce.
43, 4, He’ll beat … neck, the strong-minded Volumnia is ashamed that Virgilia’s fear should prompt such an unworthy prayer.
49. What … here? what needle-work are you engaged upon? A fine spot, a pretty pattern of embroidery; so, Oth. iii. 3. 435, “Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief Spotted with strawberries in your wife’s hand?”, i.e. embroidered with strawberries.
55. O’ my troth, I assure you; literally on, i.e. by my truth: looked upon him, watched him playing about.
58, 9. and after it again, and immediately he was in pursuit of it again: over … again, down he comes, head over heels, and in a moment up he gets upon his legs again in full chase.
59. catched, here only as a preterite, though used as a participle in L. L. L. V. 2. 69, A. W. i. 3. 176, R. J. iv. 5. 48.
59-61. or whether … tear it, whether his tumble had made him angry, or what was the reason, I don’t know, but, etc. For the superfluous or before whether, see Abb. § 136.
62. One on’s father’s moods, just like his father in one of his fits of passion.
65. stitchery, your stitching; the work upon which you are engaged as stitchers.
70. by your patience, if you will pardon me: I’ll not … threshold, I will not stir a step from home.
73. go visit, for the omission of to, see Abb. § 340: that lies in, who is in child-bed, who has just had a child born to her.
77. want love, am lacking in good feeling.
78. You would … Penelope, you wish to show your loyalty to your husband as strongly as Penelope; who when Ulysses was at the siege of Troy, and she was pestered by suitors, promised to make her choice among them as soon as she finished a web she was weaving, but, to gain time, undid at night the work she had done by day.
81. leave … pity, cease thrusting your needle into it out of mere pity.
92. the Volsces … forth, the Volscians have marched an army out of their territories into ours.
94. set down, see note on i. 2. 28.
95, 6. they nothing … wars, they have no doubt of overcoming them and making short work of the war; for this indefinite use of it, see Abb. § 226.
96, 7. and so … us, i.e. since I have been able to give you news which may set your heart at rest.
98. Give me excuse, allow me to excuse myself; little more than a periphrastical way of saying ‘excuse me,’ though with a flavour of greater courtesy.
100, 1. as she is … mirth, in her present fraine of mind, she would, if she accompanied us, only spoil our enjoyment, which will be greater without her; better, used proleptically, as dearer. Temp. v. 1. 68, “so their rising senses Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle Their clearer reason,” i.e. their reason which is made clearer by the chasing, etc.; so, “these quartered slaves,” above, i. 1. 189.
102, 3. you … thy, on the change from you to thy, see Abb. § 231.
105. at a word, in a word; cp. M. W. i. 1. 109, “He hath wronged me: indeed he hath; at a word, he hath”; M. A. ii. 1. 118, “Urs. I know you well enough; you are Signior Antonio. Ant. At a word, I am not”; and 1. 125: I must not, I am compelled to refuse you.

References: § 296
 § 41
 § 420
 V. 
 § 136
 § 340
 § 226
 v. 
 § 231