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. i 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 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.

i 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, where all the body's mein

bers
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 inactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

.

a

a

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 replied To the discontented members, the mutinous part That envied his receipt; even so most fitly As you malign our senators, for that They are not such as you. i 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 theyMen.

What then? 'Fore me, this fellow speaks !-what then? what

then? i Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, Who is the sink o' the body, Men.

Well, what then? i 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.

i 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

уои
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, und small inferior reins,
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,
i Cit. Ay, sir; well, well.
Men.

Though all at once cannot
See what I do deliver out to each;
Yet I can make

my
audit

ир,

that all
From me do back receire the flower of all,
And leave me but the bran. What say you to't?

i Cit. It was an answer: 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? -

i 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 bail”.--Hail, noble Marcius!

Enter CAIUS MARCIUS.

Mur. Thanks.- What's the matter, you dissentious

rogues, That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, Make yourselves scabs ? i 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 you, Where he should find you lions, finds you hares; Where foxes, geese: You are no surer, no, Than is the coal of fire

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; 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? Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,