2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country. 1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud. 2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienc'd men can be content to say, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. 2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: You must in no way say, he is covetous. 1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o'the city is risen: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol. Cits. Come, come. 1 Cit. Soft; who comes here? · Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA. 2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people. 1 Cit. He's one honest enough; 'Would all the rest were so ! Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you. 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know, we have strong arms too. Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves? 1 Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Appear in your impediment: For the dearth, Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, Thither where more attend you ; and you slander 1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must Confess yourselves wond'rous malicious, Or be accus'd of folly. I shall tell you A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it; 1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale : but, an't please you, deliver. Men. There was a time, when all the body's members Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it : That only like a gulf it did remain I' the midst o'the body, idle and inactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing : Like labour with the rest; where the other instruments Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, Unto the appetite and affection common Of the whole body. The belly answered, 7 1 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly! Men. Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile, Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus, (For, look you, make the belly smile, As well as speak,) it tauntingly replied I may To the discontented members, the mutinous parts [4] To scale is to disperse. The word is still used in the North, where they say scale the corn, i. e. scatter it: scale the muck well, i. e. spread the dung well. STEEVENS. With a smile not indicating pleasure, but contempt. JOHNSON That envied his receipt; even so most fitly 8 2 Cit. Your belly's answer: What! In this our fabric, if that they― Men. What then? 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!—what then? what then? 1 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, Who is the sink o'the body, Men. Well, what then? 1 Cit. The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer? Men. I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little,) Men. Note me this, good friend; Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o'the brain; The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins, Whereby they live: And though that all at once, You, my good friends, (this says the belly,) mark me,Cits. Ay, sir; well, well. Men. Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each; Yet I can make my audit up, that all From me do back receive the flower of all, [8] I suppose we should read--They are not as you. So, in St. Luke, xviii. 11: "God, I thank thee, I am not as this publican." The pronoun---such, only disorders the measure. STEEVENS. [9] The heart was anciently esteemed the seat of prudence. Homo cordatus is a prudent man. JOHNSON. [1] Cranks are the meandrous ducts of the human body. STEEVENS. And leave me but the bran. What say you to't? 1 Cit. It was an answer: How apply you this? But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe? Men. For that, being one o'the lowest, basest, poorest, Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost : Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to run Lead'st first to win some 'vantage. But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; The one side must have bale.-Hail, noble Marcius! Mar. Thanks.--What's the matter, you dissensious That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, [rogues, Make yourselves scabs ? 1 Cit. We have ever your good word. t Mar. He that will give good words to thee, will flatter Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, you curs, That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts you, Where he should find you lions, finds you hares Where foxes, geese: You are no surer, no, Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is, To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him, A sick man's appetite, who desires most that Which would increase his evil. He that depends And hews down oaks with rushes.) Hang ye! Trust ye? And call him noble, that was now your hate, Him vile, that was your garland. What's the matter, [2] Both rascal and in blood are terms of the forest. MALONE. 3 Bale, as well as bane, signified poison in Shakespeare's days. STEEVENS. [4] That is, Your virtue is to speak well of him whom his own offences have subjected to justice; and to rail at those laws by which he whom you praise was punished. STEEVENS. That in these several places of the city You cry against the noble senate, who, Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else Would feed on one another ?-What's their seeking? Men. For corn at their own rate; whereof, they say, The city is well stor❜d. Mar. Hang 'em! They say? They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know Who thrives, and who declines: side factions, and give out And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded; Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you, Mar. They are dissolved: Hang 'em! They said, they were an-hungry; sigh'd forth proverbs, That, hunger broke stone walls; that, dogs must eat; That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods sent not Corn for the rich men only :-With these shreds They vented their complainings; which being answer'd, And a petition granted them, a strange one, (To break the heart of generosity, And make bold power look pale,) they threw their caps As they would hang them on the horns o'the moon, Shouting their emulation.) Men. What is granted them? Mar. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wisdoms, Of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus, Sicinius Velutus, and I know not -'Sdeath! The rabble should have first unroof'd the city, Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes STEEVENS. [5] Ruth--that is, their pity, compassion. [6] Why a quarry? I suppose, not because he would pile them square, but because he would give them for carrion to the birds of prey. JOHNSON. [7] And so the word [pitch] is still pronounced in Staffordshire, where they say--picke me such a thing, that is, pitch or throw any thing that the demander wants. [8] To give the final blow to the nobles. Generosity is high birth. TOLLET. |