1 Cit. Soft; who comes here?

Enter Menenius Agrippa.

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!

Men. What works, 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 car'd for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses cramm'd 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 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 scale 't 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 instru

ments

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, (For, look you, I may make the belly smile, As well as speak,) it tauntingly reply'd

To the discontented members, the mutinous parts That envy'd his receipt; even so most fitly

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 re

strain'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 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,
From me receive that natural competency

Whereby they live: And though that all at once,

You, my good friends, (this says the belly,) mark

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, the great toe of this assembly?—

you think?

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.-Hail, noble Mar-
cius!

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

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 great

ness,

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;