come rakes for the gods know, I fpeak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.

2 CIT. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

CIT. Against him first ;4 he's a very dog to the commonalty.

2 CIT. Confider you what fervices he has done for his country?

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 fay unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though foft conscienc❜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 5 of his virtue.

2 CIT. What he cannot help in his nature, you

Spenfer introduces it in the second Book of his Fairy Queen, Canto II :

"His body lean and meagre as a rake."

As thin as a whipping-poft, is another proverb of the same kind. Stanyhurft, in his tranflation of the third Book of Virgil, 1582, defcribing Achæmenides, fays:

"A meigre leane rake," &c.

This paffage, however, feems to countenance Dr. Johnson's fuppofition; as alfo does the following from Churchyard's Tragicall Difcourfe of the Hapleffe Man's Life, 1593: "And though as leane as rake in every rib."

STEVENS.

I be

4 Cit. Against him firft; &c.] This speech is in the old play, as here, given to a body of the Citizens speaking at once. lieve, it ought to be affigned to the first Citizen. MALONE.

to the altitude -] So, in King Henry VIII; "He's traitor to the height." STEEVENS.

t

account a vice in him: You must in no way fay, he is covetous.

1 CIT. If I muft not, I need not be barren of accufations; he hath faults, with furplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What fhouts are thefe? The other fide o'the city is rifen: Why flay 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 bufinefs 6 is not unknown to the fenate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll fhow 'em in deeds. They fay, poor fuitors have strong breaths; they fhall know, we have strong arms too.

MEN. Why, mafters, my good friends, mine honeft neighbours, Will you undo yourselves?

• Our business &c.] This and all the fubfequent plebeian fpeeches in this scene are given in the old copy to the fecond Citizen, But the dialogue at the opening of the play shows 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.

1 Cir. We cannot, fir, we are undone already. MEN. I tell you, friends, moft 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 ftaves, as lift them Against the Roman ftate; whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link afunder, than can ever Appear in your impediment :7 For the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it; and Your knees to them, not arms, muft help. Alack, You are tranfported by calamity

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

1 CIT. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famifh, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for ufury, to fupport ufurers: repeal daily any wholesome act eftablifhed 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 wondrous 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 't a little more.

8

? cracking ten thousand curbs

Of more ftrong link afunder, than can ever

Appear in your impediment:] So, in Othello:

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

I will venture

To fcale 't a little more.] To fcale is to difperfe. The word

1 CIT. Well, I'll hear it, fir: yet you must not think to fob off our difgrace with a tale :9 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 midft o'the body, idle and inactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

is ftill used in the North. The fenfe of the old reading is, Though fome of you have heard the ftory, I will spread it yet wider, and diffuse it among the rest.

A measure of wine fpilt, is called-" a fcal'd pottle of wine" in Decker's comedy of The Honeft Whore, 1604. So, in The Hyftorie of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. a play published in 1599:

"The hugie heapes of cares that lodged in my minde, "Are Skaled from their neftling-place, and pleasures paffage find."

Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, already quoted:

Fye, fye; idle, idle; he's no Frenchman, to fret at the lofs of a little fcal'd hair." In the North they fay Scale the corn, i. e. fcatter it: Scale 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, Holinfhed, Vol. II. p. 499, speaking of the retreat of the Welshmen during the absence of Richard II. fays: "-they would no longer abide, but fcaled and departed away." again, p. 530:"-whereupon their troops fcaled, and fled their waies." In the learned Ruddiman's Gloffary to Gawin Douglas's tranflation of Virgil, the following account of the word is given. Skail, Skale, to fcatter, to spread, perhaps from the Fr. efcheveler, Ital. fcapigliare, crines paffos, feu fparfos habere. All from the Latin capillus. Thus efcheveler, schevel, skail; but of a more general fignification. See Vol. VI. p. 312, n. 5. STEEVENS.

Theobald reads-ftale it. MALONE.

difgrace with a tale:] Difgraces are hardships, injuries. JOHNSON.

Like labour with the reft; where the other inftru

ments

2

Did fee, and hear, devise, inftruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minifter
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answered,-

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,3 but even thus, (For, look you, I may make the belly fmile,+ As well as fpeak,) it tauntingly replied

To the difcontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt; even fo most fitly 5
As you malign our fenators, for that

They are not fuch as you."

1 CIT.

6

Your belly's answer: What! The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,

I

where the other inftruments-] Where for whereas. JOHNSON.

We meet with the fame expreffion in The Winter's Tale, Vol. IX. p. 267, n.7:

2

"As you feel, doing thus, and fee withal
"The inftruments that feel." MALONE.

participate,] Here means participant, or participating.

MALONE.

3 Which ne'er came from the lungs,] With a smile not indicating pleasure, but contempt. JOHNSON.

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

5 even so most fitly-] i. e. exactly. WARBURton.

6 They are not fuch as you.] I fuppofe we should read-They are not as you. So, in St. Luke, xviii. 11: "God, I thank thee, I am not as this publican." The pronoun-fuch, only disorders the measure. STEEVENS.