So did we woo

2 Sen. Transformed Timon to our city's love, By humble message, and by promised means; We were not all unkind, nor all deserve The common stroke of war.

1 Sen. These walls of ours Were not erected by their hands from whom You have received your griefs; nor are they such, [should fail That these great towers, trophies, and schools For private faults in them.

Nor are they living

2 Sen.
Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:
By decimation, and a tithed death,

(If thy revenges hunger for that food, [tenth;
Which nature loaths,) take thou the destined
And by the hazard of the spotted die,
Let die the spotted.

1 Sen.
All have not offended;
For those that were, it is not square to take
On those that are revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin,
Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth,
But kill not altogether.

2 Sen.
What thou wilt,
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile,
Than hew to't with thy sword.

1 Sen.
Set but thy foot
Against our rampired gates, and they shall ope;
So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,
To say, thou'lt enter friendly.
2 Sen.
Throw thy glove;
Or any token of thy honour else,
That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress,
And not as our confusion: all thy powers
Shall make their harbour in our town, till we

Have seal'd thy full desire.

Alcib. Descend, and open your uncharged ports; Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own, Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more: and,-to atone your fears With my more noble meaning,-not a man Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But shall be remedied, to your public laws At heaviest answer. Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken. Alcib. Descend, and keep your words. [The Senators descend, and open the Gates. Enter a Soldier.

Then there's my glove;

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead; Entomb'd upon the very hem o'the sea : And on his grave-stone this insculpture; which With wax I brought away, whose soft impres Interprets for my poor ignorance. [sion Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft: Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiff's left!

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate:

Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait.

These well express in thee thy latter spirits: Though thou abhorr❜dst in as our human griefs, Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets which

From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for

[Exeunt.

[Several speaking at once. 1 Cit. You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?

Cit. Resolved, resolved.

I.

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 softconscienced 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.

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 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 revel.ge 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?

Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to The commonalty.

2 Cit. Consider you what services he has one for his country?

• Rich.

way say he is covetous.

1 Ct. 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 [pray you. With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I 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,

+ Thin at raker.

Will you undo yourselves?

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

[on Against the Roman state; whose course will 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 [Alack, Thither where more attends you; and you slander [fathers, The helms o'the state, who care for you like When you curse them as enemies.

1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usarers: 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 accused 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 disgracet 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 :-
That only like a gulf 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 in-

struments

Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
Aud, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answered,-

Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? Men. Sir, I shall tell you.-With a kind of smile, [thus, Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even (Tor, look you, I may make the belly smile As well as speak,) it tauntingly replied [parts To the discontented members, the mutinous That envied 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 fabric, if that they

* Spread it.

9 Exactly.

what then?

[strain'd,

1 Ct. Should by the cormorant belly be reWho is the sink o'the body, Men.

Well, what then? 1 Cit. The former agents, if they did comWhat could the belly answer? [plain, Min. I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little) [swer. Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's anI 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 [mark me,

once,

You, my good friends, (this says the belly,) 1 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?

[this?

1 Cit. It was an answer: How apply you Men. The senators of Rome are this good

belly,

And you the mutinous members: For examine
Their counsels, and their cares; digest things
rightly,
[find,
Touching the weal o'the common; you shall
No public benefit which you receive,
But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you,
And no way from yourselves--What do you
You the great toe of this assembly? [think?
1 Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe?
Men. For that being one o'the lowest,
basest, poorest,
[most:
Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st fore
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 T. Hail, noble
Marcius!

Enter CAIUS MARCIUS. Mar. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dis sentious 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 [you curs, Beneath abhorring.-What would you have, That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, [you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts 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, [greatness, And curse that justice did it. Who deserves 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?
[they say,
Men. For corn at their own rates; whereof,
The city is well stored.
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 *,
And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry +
With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as
As I could pick my lance.
[high

Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly
persuaded;

For though abundantly they lack discretion, Yet are they passing cowardly. But I beseech What says the other troop? [you, Mar. They are dissolved: Hang 'em! They said, they were an hungry; sigh'd forth proverbs;[must eat; That hunger broke stone walls; that dogs 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, [their caps And make bold power look pale,) they threw As they would hang them on the horns o'the Shouting their emulation §. [moon,

Men.
What is granted them?
Mur. Five tribunes to defend their vulgar
wisdoms,

Of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus,
Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'Sdeath!
The rab le should have first unroof'd the city,
Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time
Win upon power, and throw forth greater
For insurrection's arguing .
[themes
This is strange.

Men.
Mar. Go, get you home, you fragments!
Enter a Messenger.

Mes. Where's Caius Marcius?
Mar.
Here: What's the matter?
Mes. The news is, sir, the Volces are in arms.
Mar. I am glad on't; then we shall have

means to vent

Our musty superfluity :-See, our best elders. Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, and other Senators; JUNIUS BRUTUS, and SICINIUS VELUTUS.

1 Sen. Marcius, 'tis true that you have lately The Volces are in arms. [told us;

Mar.

They have a leader,
Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to't.
I sin in envying his nobility:
And were I any thing but what I am
I would wish me only he
Com.
You have fought together.
Mar. Were half to halt the world by the
ears, and he

Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make
Only my wars with him he is a lion
That I am proud to hunt.

1 Sen.

Sir, it is ;

Then, worthy Marcius, Attend upon Cominius to these wars. Com. It is your former promise. Mar. And I am constant -Titus Lartius, thon Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' face: What, art thon stiff? stand'st out?

Tit. No, Caius Marcius; 1'il lean upon one crutch, and fight with the Ere stay behind this business. [other, Men. O, true bred! 1 Sen. Your company to the Capitol; where, Our greatest friends attend us. [I know, Tit. Lead you on: Follow, Cominius; we must follow you; Right worthy you priority ¶. Noble Lartius ! 1 Sen. Hence! To your homes, be gone. [To the Citizens. Mar. Nay, let them follow: The Voices have much corn; take these rats thither, [neers, To gnaw their garners **:-Worshipful mutiYour valour puts well forth: pray, follow.

Com.

[Exeunt Senators, Coм. MAR. TIT. and MENEN. Citizens steal away. Sic. Was ever man so proud as is this Bru. He has no equal. [Marcius?

Sic. When we were chosen tribunes for the Bru. Mark'd you his lip, and eyes? [people