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did it to that end: though foft-confcienc'd men can be content to fay, 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 fay, he is covetous.

1. Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accufations; he hath faults, with furplus, to tire in repetition, [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other fide o'the city is rifen: 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 honeft enough; 'Would, all the reft were fo!

Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you

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

1. Cit. Our business is not unknown to the fenate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll fhew 'em in deeds. They say, poor fuiters have strong breaths; they fhall know, we have ftrong arms too.

Men. Why, mafters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,

Will you undo yourselves?

1. Cit. We cannot, fir, we are undone already.
Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care
Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
Your fuffering in this dearth, you may as well
Strike at the heaven with your staves, as lift them
Against the Roman ftate; whose course will on
The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs.

Our bufinefs &c.] This and all the fubfequent plebeian speeches in this fcene are given in the old copy to the fecond citizen. But the dialogue at the opening of the play thews that it must have been a mistake, and that they ought to be attributed to the first citizen. The fecond is rather friendly to Coriolanus. MALONE.

Of more ftrong 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. Alack,
You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you; and you flander
The helms o'the ftate, who care for you like fathers,
When you curfe them as enemies.

1. Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They ne'er car'd for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their ftore-houses cramm'd with grain; make edicts for ufury, to support ufurers: repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing ftatutes daily, to chain up and reftrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must

Confefs yourselves wond'rous malicious,

Or be accus'd of folly. I fhall tell you

A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it;
But, fince it ferves my purpose, I will venture
To fcale it a little more".

cracking ten thousand curbs

Of more frong link afunder, than can ever
Appear in your impediment :] So, in Othello:

I have made my way through more impediment,
"Than twenty times your ftop." MALONE.

6- I will venture

1. Cit

To fcale it a little more.] To fcale is to difperfe. The word is still used in the North. The fenfe is, Though fome of you have heard the story, I will fpread it wider, and diffufe it among the reft.

A measure of wine fpilt, is called-" a fcal'd pottle of wine" in Decker's comedy of The Honeft Whore, 1635. So, in The Hyfiorie of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. a play published in 1599: "The hugie heapes of cares that lodged in my minde,

"Are kaled from their neftling place, and pleasures paffage

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find."

In the North they fay, scale the corn, i. e. fcatter it: fcale the muck well, i. e. fpread the dung well. The two foregoing inftances are taken from Mr. Lambe's notes on the old metrical hiftory of Floddon Field.

Again, Holinfbed, vol. ii. p. 499, fpeaking of the retreat of the Welchmen during the abfence of Richard II. fays: "they would no longer abide, but fcaled and departed away." In the Gloffary to Gawin Douglas's Tranflation of Virgil, the following account of the word is

1

1. Cit. Well, I'll hear it, fir: yet you must not think to fob off our difgrace 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 reft; where the other inftruments 8
Did fee, and hear, devife, inftruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate*, did minifter
Unto the appetite and affection common

Of the whole body. The belly answer'd,—

1. Cit. Well, fir, what answer made the belly?
Men. Sir, I fhall tell you.-With a kind of fmile,
Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus,
(For, look you, I may make the belly fmile',
As well as fpeak,) it tauntingly reply'd

To the difcontented members, the mutinous parts
That envy'd his receipt; even fo most fitly "
As you malign our fenators, for that

They are not fuch as you.

1. Cit. Your belly's anfwer: What!

The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,

given. "Skail, fkale, to fcatter, to spread, perhaps from the Fr. efcheveler, Ital. fcapigliare, crines paffos, feu fparfos habere.

All from the Latin

capillus. Thus efcheveler, schevel, fkail; but of a more general fignification." STEEVENS.

Theobald reads-ftale it. MALONE.

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7-difgrace with a tale :] Difgraces are bardships, injuries. JOHNS. where the other inftruments-] Where for whereas. JOHNSON. We meet with the fame expreffion in the Winter's Tale, Vol. IV. P. 155:

"As you feel, doing thus, and fee withal

"The inftruments that feel." MALONE.

participate,] here means participant, or participating. MALONE. 9 Which ne'er came from the lungs,] With a fmile not indicating pleasure, but contempt. JOHNSON.

1-I may make the belly fmile,]" And fo the belly, all this notwith Standing, laughed at their folly, and fayed," &c. North's Translation of Plutarch, p. 240. edit. 1579. MALONE.

2 -even fo moft fitly] i, e. exactly. WARBURTON.

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The

The counsellor heart 3, the arm our foldier,
Our feed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,
With other muniments and petty helps

In this our fabrick, if that they

Men. What then?

'Fore me, this fellow fpeaks !-what then? what then? 1. Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, Who is the fink o' the body,

Men. Well, what then?

1. Cit. The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer?

Men. I will tell you;

If you'll bestow a fmall (of what you have little) Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer. 1. Cit. You are long about it.

Men. Note me this, good friend;
Your most grave belly was deliberate,

Not rafh like his accufers, and thus anfwer'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 ftore-boufe, and the shop
Of the whole body: But if you do remember,
I fend it through the rivers of your blood,

Even to the court, the heart,—to the feat o'the brain*;

And,

3 The counsellor beart,-] The heart was anciently esteemed the feat of prudence. Homo cordatus is a prudent man. JOHNSON.

The heart was confidered by Shakspeare as the feat of the underftanding. See the next note. MALONE.

4to th' feat o' the brain;] feems to me a very languid expreffion. I believe we should read, with the omiffion of a particle:

"Even to the court, the heart, to the feat, the brain. He ufes feat for throne, the royal feat, which the first editors probably not apprehending, corrupted the paffage. It is thus ufed in Richard II.

A& III. fc. iv:

"Yea, diftaff-women manage rusty bills
"Against thy feat."

It should be observed too, that one of the Citizens had just before chaacterifed thefe principal parts of the human fabrick by fimilar metaphors:

The

And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves, and fmall inferior veins,
From me receive that natural competency

Whereby they live: And though that all at once,
Yau, my good friends, (this fays the belly,) mark me,-
1. Cit. Ay, fir; 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 flower of all,

The kingly-crowned bead, the vigilant eye,
The counfellor beart,-. TYRWHITT.

I have too great refpect for even the conjectures of my respectable and very judicious friend, to fupprefs his note, though it appears to me erroneous. In the prefent inftance I have not the fmalleft doubt, being clearly of opinion that the text is right. Brain is here used for reafon or understanding. Shakspeare feems to have had Camden as well as Plutarch before him; the former of whom has told a similar story in his Remains, 1605, and has likewife made the heart the fear of the brain, or understanding: "Hereupon they all agreed to pine away their lafie and publike enemy. One day pafled over, the fecond followed / very tedious, but the third day was fo grievous to them, that they called a common counsel. The eyes waxed dimme, the feete could not fupport the body, the armes waxed lazie, the tongue faltered, and could not lay open the matter. Therefore they all with one accord defired the advice of the beart. There REASON laid open before them," &c. Remains, p. 109. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's plays, Vol. I. in which a circumftance is noticed, that shews our author had read Camden as well as Plutarch.

I agree, however, entirely with Mr. Tyrrwhitt, in thinking that feat means here the royal feat, the throne. The feat of the brain, is put in appofition with the beart, and is defcriptive of it. "I fend it, (fays the belly,) through the blood, even to the royal refidence, the beart, in which the kingly-crowned understanding fits enthroned."

So, in K, Henry VI. P. II.

"The rightful heir to England's royal feat."

In like manner in Twelfth Night, our author has erected the throne of love in the beart:

"It gives a very echo to the feat

"Where love is throned."

Again in Orbello:

"Yield up O love, thy crown and hearted throne."

See alfo a paffage in K. Henry V. where feat is ufed in the fame fenfe

as here; Vol. V. p. 470, n. 3. MALONE.

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