1 CIT. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is 't a verdict?

CITIZENS. No more talking on 't; let it be done away, away!

2 Crr. One word, good citizens.

1 CIT. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians good." What authority surfeits on would relieve us if they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.

2 CIT. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

CITIZENS. Against him first: he's a very dog to the commonalty.

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 Cır. Nay, but speak not maliciously.

1 CIT. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though softconscienced 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 Crт. 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 !

8- the patricians good.] Good is here used in the commercial sense, of substance; as in "The Merchant of Venice," Act I. Sc. 3,

"Antonio is a good man."

bere we become rakes:] As lean as a rake" is a very ancient proverb; it is found in Chaucer's Cant. Tales, 1. 289,

"Al so lene was his hors as is a rake;"

and Spenser has it in his "Faerie Queene," B. II. c. 11,

"His body leane and meagre as a rake."

Nay, but speak not maliciously.] In the old text this speech has the prefix All" to it, as if spoken by a body of the citizens, but it unquestionably belongs to the second Citizen,

Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA.

MEN. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you with bats and clubs? The matter Speak, I pray you.

e

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 Crт. 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,
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 't a little more.

1 Crr. 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.

d

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

mean, proud;

e 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.

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. Sc. 2,

"I'll not stale the jest

By my relation,"

and Gifford's note on that passage.

members

MEN. 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!--what then? what then? [strain'd, 1 CIT.-Should by the cormorant belly be reWho 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. Note me this, good friend; Your most grave belly was deliberate, 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;

(*) Old text, taintingly.

(4) Old text, you'st. Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, Lead'st first, to win some vantage.]

"Rascal" and "in blood "being ancient terms of the chase, the former applicable 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 VOL. III.

129

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

MAR. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,

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,

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."

bbale:] That is, hurt, injury, calamity.

K

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.

matter,

What's the

Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow Which he treads on at noon: but I do wonder, His insolence can brook to be commanded Under Cominius.

BRU. Fame, at the which he aims, In whom already he's well grac'd,-cannot Better be held, nor more attain'd, than by A place below the first: for what miscarries Shall be the general's fault, though he perform To the utmost of a man; and giddy censure Will then cry out of Marcius, O, if he Had borne the business!

SIC. Besides, if things go well, Opinion, that so sticks on Marcius, shall Of his demerits" rob Cominius.

Let's along. [Exeunt.

1 SEN.

2 SEN.

ALL. Farewell.

Farewell.

Farewell. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.--Corioli. The Senate-House. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS, and certain Senators.

1 SEN. So, your opinion is, Aufidius, That they of Rome are enter'd in our counsels," And know how we proceed.

AUF.
Is it not yours?
What ever have been thought on in this state,
That could be brought to bodily act, ere Rome
Had circumvention? 'Tis not four days gone,
Since I heard thence; these are the words :-I
think

I have the letter here—yes, here it is:- [Reads.
They have press'd a power, but it is not known
Whether for east or west: the dearth is great ;
The people mutinous: and it is rumour'd,
Cominius, Marcius your old enemy,
(Who is of Rome worse hated than of you)
And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman,
These three lead on this preparation
Whither 'tis bent: most likely 'tis for you:
Consider of it.

1 SEN.

Our army's in the field:

a Of his demerits rob Cominius.] "Demerits" and merits had, of old, the same meaning, that of deserts.

b More than his singularity,-] As " singularity" formerly implied pre-eminence, Sicinius may mean, sarcastically,-after what fashion beside his usual assumption of superiority.

SCENE III.-Rome. An Apartment in Mar

cius' House.

Enter VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA: they sit down on two low stools, and sew.

VOL. I pray you, daughter, sing; or express yourself in a more comfortable sort: if my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour, than in the embracements of his bed where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of my womb; when youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way; when, for a day of kings' entreaties, a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding; I,- considering how honour would become such a person; that it was no better than picture-like to hang by the wall, if renown made it not stir,-was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak.(3) I tell thee, daughter, -I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was

care enter'd in our counsels,-] Have penetrated into our secrets, or, are informed of our purposes.

Corioli;] In the folio this name is spelt "Coriolus," "Corioles," or "Carioles."