Page:Coriolanus (1924) Yale.djvu/16

4  2. 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.

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 answer'd,—

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—

 97 scale 't; cf. n.

99 disgrace: unfavored treatment

103 gulf: devouring whirlpool

108 participate: cooperating

114 Which lungs; cf. n.

