CORIOLANUS. ACT I. SCENE I. Rome. A street. Enter a company of CITIZENS, with staves, clubs, and other weapons. 1 Cit. Before we proceed any farther, hear me speak. Cit. Speak, speak. [several speaking at once. 1 Cit. You are all resolved rather to die than to famish? Cit. Resolved, resolved. 1 Cit. First, you know, Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people. Cit. We know 't, we know 't. 1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is 't a verdict? Cit. No more talking on 't; let it be done: away, away. 2 Cit. One word, good citizens. 1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens, the pa tricians 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 particularise their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: 2 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? Cit. 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 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, 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. 2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature you 1 i. e. rich. Good is here used in the mercantile sense. 2 Thin as rakes. account a vice in him. he is covetous. You must in no way say 1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations: he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: why stay we prating here? To the Capitol. Cit. Come, come. 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 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,1 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 neighbors, Will you undo yourselves? 1 Cit. We cannot, sir; we are undone already. 1 Intimation. 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. 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. Alack, 1 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 1 Spread it. 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 accused it :- I' the midst o' the body, idle and inactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Like labor with the rest; where1 the other instru ments Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 1 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? Men. Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile, 2 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 parts That envied his receipt; even so most fitly3 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, 1 Whereas. 2 With a smile not indicating pleasure, but contempt. |