Page 2775 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

MENENIUS

There was a time when all the body’s members
Rebelled against the belly, thus accused it: [95]
That only like a gulf it did remain

I’th’midst o’th’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, [100]
And, mutually participate, did minister

Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answered −

FIRST CITIZEN
Well, sir, what answer made the belly?

MENENIUS
Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile, [105]

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 th’discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt; even so most fitly [110]

As you malign our senators for that
They are not such as you.

FIRST CITIZEN
Your belly’s answer − What?
The kingly crownèd head, the vigilant eye,

The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter, [115]
With other muniments and petty helps
In this our fabric, if that they −

MENENIUS
What then?

’Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? What then?

FIRST CITIZEN