All. 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?

All. 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 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? All. 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 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 within.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: why stay we prating here? to the Capitol!

All. 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!

CORIOLANUS.

2 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 th' 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,

2 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

T' the discontented members, the mutinous parts

That envied his receipt; even so most fitly

As you malign our senators, for that

They are not such as you.

2 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 fabric, if that they

Men.

'Fore me, this fellow speaks!

What then?

what then? what then?

2 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd,

Who is the sink o' the body, —
Men.

Well, what then?

2 Cit. The former agents, if they did complain,

What could the belly answer?

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

2 Cit. Y' 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 me,

2 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 up, that all
From me do back receive the flour of all,

And leave me but the bran." What say you to 't?

2 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 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?

2 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,