ACT ONE
SCENE I. Rome. A street.
Enter a company of mutinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons.
1 CITIZEN Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.
ALL Speak, speak.
1 CITIZEN You are all resolvād rather to die than to famish?
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ALL Resolvād, resolvād.
1 CITIZEN First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people.
ALL We knowāt, we knowāt.
1 CITIZEN Let us kill him, and weāll have corn at
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our own price. Isāt a verdict?
ALL No more talking onāt; let it be done. Away, away!
2 CITIZEN One word, good citizens.
1 CITIZEN We are accounted poor citizens, the
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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
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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.
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2 CITIZEN Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?
1 CITIZEN Against him first; heās a very dog to the commonalty.
2 CITIZEN Consider you what services he has done for his country?
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1 CITIZEN Very well, and could be content to give him good report forāt but that he pays himself with being proud.
2 CITIZEN Nay, but speak not maliciously.
1 CITIZEN I say unto you, what he hath done famously he did it to that end; though soft-consciencād 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.
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2 CITIZEN What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.
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1 CITIZEN 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 oā thā city is risen. Why stay we prating here? To thā Capitol!
ALL Come, come.
1 CITIZEN Soft! who comes here?
Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA.
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2 CITIZEN Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always lovād the people.
1 CITIZEN Heās one honest enough; would all the rest were so!
MENENIUS What workās, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you
With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.
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1 CITIZEN Our business is not unknown to thā Senate; they have had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do, which now weāll show āem in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know we have strong arms too.
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MENENIUS Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,
Will you undo yourselves?
1 CITIZEN We cannot, sir; we are undone already.
MENENIUS I tell you, friends, most charitable care
Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
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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
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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
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The helms oā thā state, who care for you like fathers,
When you curse them as enemies.
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1 CITIZEN Care for us! True, indeed! They neāer carād for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammād 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 thereās all the love they bear us.
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MENENIUS Either you must
Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
Or be accusād 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
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To staleāt a little more.
1 CITIZEN Well, Iāll hear it, sir; yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale. But, anāt please you, deliver.
MENENIUS There was a time when all the bodyās members
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Rebellād against the belly; thus accusād it:
That only like a gulf it did remain
Iā thā midst oā thā body, idle and unactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest; where thā other instruments
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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 answerād ā
1 CITIZEN Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
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MENENIUS Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,
Which neāer came from the lungs, but even thusā
For look you, I may make the belly smile
As well as speak ā it tauntingly replied
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To thā 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.
1 CITIZEN Your bellyās answer ā What?
The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor hea...