Second Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius 25 Marcius?

All. Against him first: he's a very dog to the com

monalty.

Second Cit. Consider you what services he has done for

his country?

First Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him. good report for 't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

Second Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously.

30

First Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, 35 he did it to that end: though soft-conscienced 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.

Second Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you 40 account a vice in him. You must in no way say he

is covetous.

First Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations: he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within. 45 What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen why stay we prating here? to the Capitol ! 34. Second Cit.] Malone; All. Ff. 46. o' the] o' th' F 4; a'th F; a'th' F 3. 27. All] Malone thought these words as only once again in Shakespeare, should be put into the mouth of First Henry VIII, 1. ii. 170: "To gain Citizen, and Hudson so reads. the love o' the commonalty." in North's Plutarch; see the Extracts, ante, p. xxxi, etc. Also see Nash, Pierce Penilesse, 1592, ed. McKerrow, I. 222 (last line): "the brutish Comminaltie."

a very dog to, etc.] The dog is sometimes mentioned with indifference, and generally as the incarnation of bad qualities in Shakespeare's plays. In King Lear, III. iv. 96, the characteristic of the dog is madness: "hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness," the sense of madness here being probably rabies, wild fury. See also 2 Henry IV. Iv. v. 131133:

"For the fifth Harry from curb'd license plucks

The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog

Shall flesh his tooth in every innocent";

and, among other writers, Halle, Chronicle, 1542, ed. 1809, p. 21: "The Gascons now abhorring the English people more than a dog or an Adder."

27. commonalty] the common people:

It is

34. Nay, but, etc.] Malone again would place these words in the First Citizen's mouth.

37-38. he. proud] he did it partly to please his mother, and partly for the sake of his pride. It is unnecessary to change the text, as various editors have done.

39. to the altitude] Steevens quotes Henry VIII. 1. ii. 214 : "He's traitor to the height." The speaker, of course, means to say: "brave man as he is, he is quite as proud as he is brave." 46. The city] Probably Shakespeare had in his mind, the fact that the people went out, as Plutarch told him, to" the Holy Hill" (Mons Sacer) where the tribunes were granted them.

First Cit. Soft! who comes here?

Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA.

Second Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

First Cit. He's one honest enough: would all the rest

Men. What work 's, my countrymen, in hand? where go you

With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray

you. First 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.

54, 55. What . . . pray you.] As Theobald; three lines ending. hand? you in Ff. 56. First Cit.] 1 Cit. Capell (and throughout

They say poor suitors have strong breaths: they
shall know we have strong arms too.

60

Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neigh

bours,

Will you undo yourselves?

First 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

65

70

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.

75

61, 62. Why... yourselves ?] As Theobald; Ff divide after honest. 65. you. For wants,] Johnson; you: for . . . wants, Rowe; you for . . . wants. F; you for . . . wants, F 3.

66

59-60. They say too] A quibble. Strong is defined by Johnson (Dict.), in this connection, as affecting the smell powerfully, and he quotes Hudibras, [Part II. canto i, 753-755]:"The prince of Cambay's daily food Is asp, and basilisk, and toad, Which makes him have so strong a breath," etc. Compare Iv. vi. 99 post, "The breath of garlic-eaters," II. i. 232, " beg their stinking breaths," III. iii. 120, "whose breath I hate As reek o' the rotten fens," and see also Measure for Measure, III. ii. 187-189 (in this edition): "he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown bread and garlic," and Mr. Hart's note there.

66. dearth] famine; its primary meaning is dearness, scarcity of corn. It is often used by Shakespeare: see 1. ii. 10 post, and Antony and Cleopatra,

II. vii. 21-23:

"they know

...

By the height, the lowness, or the 'fathers,' was the title of the Senators

mean, if dearth

Or foizon follow."

of ancient Rome; hence patrician =' of noble birth'" (Verity).

First Cit. Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for us yet suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to sup- 80 port 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 wondrous malicious,
Or be accus'd of fully. I shall tell you

A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To scale 't a little more.

78. indeed! They] indeed !-they Theobald; indeed, they Ff. Ff, stale 't Theobald.

85

90

91. scale 't]

78. True indeed !] Ironical. "O be found a brief statement of my own yes, very likely." 79-80. suffer. grain] Shakespeare had read in North's Plutarch (see Extracts, ante, p. xl): "In the meane season there came great plenty of corn to Rome that had been bought, part in Italie, and part was sent out of Sicilie, as geven by Gelon the tyranne of Syracusa."

80, 81, make . . . usurers] An allusion to the subject of the quarrel between the Patricians and Plebeians stated in North's Plutarch: see Extracts, p. xxx ante.

82-83. more piercing statutes] Compare "biting laws," Measure for Measure, I. iii. 19.

89. pretty] Perhaps = apt, pat, to the purpose. Shakespeare often uses pretty in the sense of "suitable": compare Romeo and Juliet, 1. iii. 1o, a pretty age," i.e. one suitable for marriage; Troilus and Cressida, 1. ii. 169, "his pretty answer.' See also Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621, Part I, Sec. 2, Mem. 4, Subsec. 4: "Martin Cromerus, in the sixth book of his history, hath a pretty story to this purpose; " and then follows a rather horrible tale.

91. To scale 't • more] scale 't is retained here solely in deference to Mr. Craig's intention, as strongly expressed in the following note, after which will

objections to it.-R. H. C. I retain
the folio reading scale't. Theobald,
reading stale 't, writes of scale't as
follows: "Thus all the editions (i.e.
the Ff, Rowe, and Pope), but without
any manner of sense that I can make
out. The Poet must have wrote, as I
have corrected the text." Now this, no
doubt, makes very excellent sense, and
Shakespeare uses the verb stale in
several passages with this identical
meaning. Besides, as has been noted,
Massinger writes (The Unnatural Com-
bat, iv. ii.): "I'll not stale the jest By
my relation." All editors followed
Theobald's lead, till the time of George
Steevens, who has (see Malone's
Shakes., 1790, vol. vii. p. 148), what is,
to my mind, a very convincing note in
favour of scale. He writes: "To scale
is to disperse. The word is still used in
the North. The sense is, Though some
of you have heard the story, I will spread
it wider, and diffuse it among the rest.'"
Gifford writes: "I cannot avoid look-
ing upon the whole of his [Steeven's]
long note, as a feeble attempt to justify
a palpable error of the press, at the cost
of taste and sense,'
," and nearly all
modern editors have continued to read
stale't with Theobald. Hudson says:
"The forced attempts made to justify
scale are, I think, a full condemnation
of it." The present editor, in The Ox-

First Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir; yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale; but, and 't please you, deliver.

Men. There was a time when all the body's members
Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it :

92-94. Prose Capell; four lines ending Well, . . . thinke . . tale .. deliver. in Ff.