1 Crт. 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 CIT. One word, good citizens. 1 Crг. 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 Crr. 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;d 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 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 Crт. He's one honest enough; would, all the rest were so! a the patricians good.] Good is here used in the commercial sense, of substance; as in "The Merchant of Venice," Act 1. Sc. 3, "Antonio is a good man." b -ere 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. 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 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; (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, 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 mean," partly to please his mother, and because he was proud;" but we believe the genuine text would give us, "-and to be portly 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'l, 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 uote on that passage. MEN. There was a time, when all the body's | And, through the cranks and offices of man, members Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it :- I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive, Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 1 Crr. 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,— 1 CIT. In this our fabric, if that they 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; 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 Cır. Ay, sir; well, well. Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each, Yet I can make my audit up, that all 1 CIT. It was an answer: how apply you this? 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 : But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; 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 To gnaw their garners.-Worshipful mutiners, [Exeunt Senators, Coм. MAR. TIT. and SIC. Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius? BRU. He has no equal. SIC. When we were chosen tribunes for the people, BRU. Mark'd you his lip, and eyes s? SIC. SIC. Be-mock the modest moon. BRU. The present wars devour him! he is grown Too proud to be so valiant. SIC. Such a nature, (*) Old text, Shooting. (†) Old text, unroo'st. - pick my lance.] That is, pitch my lance. The word pick for pitch is in common use still in many parts of England. (To break the heart of generosity,-] To crush the privileges of the nobly-born. Generosity is used in its primary sense. "Othello," Act III. Sc. 3 : the generous islanders So с (*) Old text, Lucius. The present wars devour him! he is grown The beginning of this speech, which has been explained,-his pride of military prowess in these wars devours him, we prefer to read, with Warburton, as an imprecation. The latter words appear to import,-He is grown too proud of being so valiant. к 2 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! Let's along. [Exeunt. 1 SEN. 2 SEN. ALL. Farewell. The gods assist you! 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. I have the letter here:-yes, here it is:- [Reads. 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. 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. Το 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. d Corioli;] In the folio this name is spelt Coriolus," "Corioles," or "Carioles." |