cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses 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;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To scale't a little more. 4

1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale3: 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 gulph 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,
And, mutually participate", did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answered, —
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,

To scale't a little more.] To scale is to disperse. The word is still used in the North. The sense of the old reading is, Though some of you have heard the story, I will spread it yet wider, and diffuse it among the rest.

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disgrace with a tale:] Disgraces are hardships, injuries.
where the other instruments-] Where for whereas.

- participate,] Here means participant, or participating. 8 Which ne'er came from the lungs,] With a smile not indicating pleasure, but contempt.

(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 fitly9

As you malign our senators, for that

They are not such as you.

1 Cit.

Your belly's answer: What!

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

In this our fabrick, 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?

I will tell you;

Men.
If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little,)
Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer.

1 Cit. You are long about it.
Men.

Note me this, good friend; Your most grave belly was deliberate,

Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd.
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,

9 — even so most fitly-] i. e. exactly.

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the cranks and offices of man,] Cranks are windings.

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 cannot

flower of all,

See what I do deliver out to each;
Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the
And leave me but the bran.
1 Cit. It was an answer:

What say you to't?
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 publick 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

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 2.-Hail, noble Marcius!

Enter CAIUS MARCIUS.

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

2 The one side must have bale.] Bale is an old Saxon word, for misery or calamity.

Beneath abhorring.
That like nor peace,

What would you have, you curs, 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,
And curse that justice did it 3. 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?

To make him worthy whose offence subdues him,

And curse that justice did it.] i. e. 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.

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Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,←
And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry
With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high
As I could pick my lance.

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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 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, 7

And make bold power look pale,) they threw their caps As they would hang them on the horns o'the moon, Shouting their emulation. 8

Men. What is granted them? Mar. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wisdoms, Of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus,

their ruth,] i. e. their pity, compassion. Fairfax and Spenser often use the word. Hence the adjective-ruthless which is still

current.

I'd make a quarry-] Mr. Steevens asserts, that quarry means game pursued or killed, and supports that opinion by a pas sage in Massinger's Guardian: and from thence, perhaps, the word was used to express a heap of slaughtered persons.

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pick my lance.] i. e. pitch it.

7- the heart of generosity,] To give the final blow to the nobles. Generosity is high birth.

Shouting their emulation.] Emulation, in the present instance, perhaps, signifies faction. Shouting their emulation, may mean, expressing the triumph of their faction by shouts. Emulation, in our author, is sometimes used in an unfavourable sense, and not to imply an honest contest for superior excellence.