The Tragedy of Coriolanus

MENENIUS

Sir, I shall tell you. – With a kind of smile,
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 the 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.

FIRST CITIZEN

Your belly's answer? What!
The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,
With other muniments and petty helps
Is this our fabric, if that they, —

MENENIUS

What then? —
'Fore me, this fellow speaks! – what then? what then?

FIRST CITIZEN

Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd,
Who is the sink o' the body, —

MENENIUS

Well, what then?

FIRST CITIZEN

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

MENENIUS

I will tell you;
If you'll bestow a small, – of what you have little, —
Patience awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer.

FIRST CITIZEN

You are long about it.

MENENIUS

Note me this, good friend;
Your most grave belly was deliberate,
Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'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 storehouse and the shop
Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart, – to the seat o' the brain;
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live: and though that all at once
You, my good friends,' – this says the belly, – mark me, —

FIRST CITIZEN

Ay, sir; well, well.

MENENIUS

'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 flour of all,
And leave me but the bran.' What say you to't?

FIRST CITIZEN

It was an answer: how apply you this?

MENENIUS

The senators of Rome are this good belly,
And you the mutinous members; for, examine
Their counsels and their cares; digest things rightly
Touching the weal o' the common; you shall find
No public benefit which you receive
But it proceeds or comes from them to you,
And no way from yourselves. – What do you think,
You, the great toe of this assembly?

FIRST CITIZEN

I the great toe? why the great toe?

MENENIUS