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 without.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol!

CITIZENS. Come, come!

1 CIT. Soft! who comes here?

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!

Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA.

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.
MEN. I tell you, friends, most charitable care
Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well
Strike at the heaven with your staves, as lift them
Against the Roman state; whose course will on
The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
Of more strong link asunder than can ever
Appear in your impediment: for the dearth,
The gods, not the patricians, make it; and
Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you; and you slander
The helms o' the state, who care for you like fathers,
When you curse them as enemies.

1 Cir. 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 ;(1) 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 wondrous malicious,

please his mother, and because he was proud;" but we believe the genuine text would give us, "- and to be portly proud."

Our business is not unknown to the senate;] This and the subsequent speeches of the civic interlocutor, are in the old copy assigned to the second Citizen. Capell originally gave them to the first Citizen (though Malone, more suo, takes credit for it), and the previous dialogue very clearly shows the necessity of the change.

Or be accus'd of folly. I shall tell

you

A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To stale 'ta a little more.

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 unactive,

Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments
Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answer'd,-

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, I may make the belly, smile,
As well as speak,-it tauntingly replied

*

To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt; even so most fitly
As you malign our senators for that

They are not such as you.—

1 Crr.
The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,
With other muniments and petty helps

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)
Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer.
1 CIT. You're long about it.
MEN.

Your most grave belly was deliberate,

(*) Old text, taintingly.

Note me this, good friend;

(†) Old text, you'st.

To stale 't a little more.] The folio has "To scale 't," for which Theobald substituted stale 't, no doubt the genuine word. See Massinger's "Unnatural Combat," Act IV. Se. 2,

"I'll not stale the jest

By my relation,"

and Gifford's note on that passage.

Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered :-
True is it, my incorporate friends, quoth he,
That I receive the general food at first,
Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
Because I am the store-house and the shop
Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,

Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o' the brain;
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves and small inferior veins,
From me receive that natural competency

Whereby they live: and though that all at once,

You, my good friends,-this says the belly, mark me,1 CIT. Ay, sir; well, well.

MEN.

Though all at once canno

See what I do deliver out to each,
Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the flour of all,

And leave me but the bran. (2)-What say you to't?
1 CIT. It was an answer: how apply you this?
MEN. The senators of Rome are this good belly,
And you the mutinous members: for, examine
Their counsels and their cares; digest things rightly,
Touching the weal o' the common; you shall find,
No public benefit which you receive,

But it proceeds or comes from them to you,

And no way from yourselves.-What do you think,'You, the great toe of this assembly?—

1 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,a

Lead'st first to win some vantage.—

But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs;
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
The one side must have bale:-b

"Rascal" and "in blood" being ancient terms of the chase, the former applicabie to a deer, lean and out of condition, the latter signifying one full of vigour and dangerous to his hunters, Menenius is supposed to mean,-"thou, meagre wretch, least in heart and resolution, art prompt enough to lead when profit points the way." Yet, if nothing better can be extracted from these words in their metaphorical sense, we would rather understand them literally, and believe "worst" to be a misprint, as it might easily be, for last. The passage then becomes perfectly intelligible, and in character with the speaker:

"Thou rascal, that art last in blood [that is, into bloodshed] to run,
Lead'st first to win some vantage."

b — bale.—] That is, hurt, injury, calamity.

That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs?

1 CIT.

We have ever your good word.
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 to 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,
And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness,
Deserves your hate; and your affections are

A sick man's appetite, who desires most that

Which would increase his evil. He that depends
Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,

And hews down' oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye!
With every minute you do change a mind;

And call him noble that was now your hate,

Him vile that was your garland. What's the matter,
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 rates; whereof, they say,
The city is well stor❜d.

MAR.

Hang 'em! They say!

They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know

What's done i' the Capitol; who's like to rise,

Who thrives, and who declines; side factions, and give out
Conjectural marriages; making parties strong,

And feebling such as stand not in their liking

Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's grain enough!
Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,

And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarrya
With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high

As I could pick my lance.

MEN. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded;
For though abundantly they lack discretion,

Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you,
What says the other troop?

MAR.
They are dissolv'd; 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

Aquarry." in the language of the forest, meant a pile of slaughtered game. bpick my lance.] That is, pitch my lance. The word pick for pitch is in common use still in many parts of England.

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.

ΜΕΝ.

*

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-'s death!
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
For insurrection's arguing.

MEN.

This is strange.

MAR. Go, get you home, you fragments!

Enter a Messenger.

Here: what's the matter?

MESS. Where's Caius Marcius?

MAR.

MESS. The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms.

MAR. I am glad on 't; then we shall have means to vent

Our musty superfluity.-See, our best elders.

Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators; JUNIUS BRUTUS and SICINIUS VELUTUS.

1 SEN. Marcius, 't is true that you have lately told us; The Volsces are in arms.

They have a leader,

MAR.
Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to 't.

I sin in envying his nobility;

And were I any thing but what I am,

I would wish me only he.

COM.

You have fought together.

MAR. Were half to half the world by the ears, and he Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make

Only my wars with him: he is a lion

That I am proud to hunt.

1 SEN.

Then, worthy Marcius,

Sir, it is;

(†) Old text, unroos't.

(1) Old text, Lucius.

And I am constant.-Titus Lartius,‡ thou

(*) Old text, Shooting.

(To break the heart of generosity,-] To crush the privileges of the nobly-born. Generosity is used in its primary sense. So in "Othello," Act III. Sc. 3:

"the generous islanders

By you invited, do attend your presence."