Part 37 (1/2)

_First Cit_. Soft; who comes here?

[_Enter Menenius Agrippa_.]

_Second Cit_. Worthy Menenius Agrippa, one that hath always _loved the people_.

_First Cit_. He's one _honest_ enough [--_honest_--a great word in the Shakspere philosophy]; would _all the rest_ were so.

[That is a good prayer when it comes to be understood.]

_Men_. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you, With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.

_First Cit. Our business is not unknown to_ THE SENATE [Hear]; they have had _inkling_ this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know we have _strong arms, too_.

_Men_. Why, _masters_, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves_?

_First Cit. We cannot, sir; we are undone already_. [Revolution.]

_Men_. I tell you, friends, _most charitable care_ Have the _patricians_ of you. For your WANTS,--Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well _Strike at the heavens_ 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 Appear in your impediment. For the dearth, The _G.o.ds, not_ the _patricians_, make it; and _Your knees_ to them, _not arms, must_ help.

[This sounds very pious, but it is not the piety of the new school.

The doctrine of submission and suffering is indeed taught in it, and scientifically reinforced; but then it is the patient suffering of the harm 'which is not within our power' which is commendable, according to its tenets, and 'a wise and industrious suffering' of it, too. It is a wise 'accommodating of the nature of man to those points of nature and fortune which we cannot control,' that is pleasing to G.o.d, according to this creed.]

Alack!

You are transported by calamity, Thither where more attends you; and you slander The helms o' the state, who care for you like _fathers_, When you curse them as enemies.

_First Cit_. CARE FOR us! _True_, INDEED! They ne'er cared for us yet.

SUFFER us TO FAMISH, and _their_ store-houses CRAMMED 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 there's _all the love_ they bear us.

Menenius attempts to counteract these impressions; but his story and his arguments appear to have some applications which he is not aware of, and are much more to the purpose of the party in arms than they are to his own. For it is a story in which the natural subordination of the parts to the whole in the fabric of human society is ill.u.s.trated by that natural instance and symbol of unity and organization which the single human form itself present; and that condition of the state which has just been exhibited--one in which the body at large is dying of inanition that a part of it may _surfeit_--is a condition which, in the light of this story, appears to need help of some kind, certainly.

But the platform is now ready. It is the hero's entrance for which we are preparing. It is on the ground of this sullen want that the author will exhibit him and his dazzling military virtues. It is as the doctor of this _diseased common-weal_ that he brings him in with his sword;

'_Enter_ CAIUS MARCIUS.'

and that idea--the idea of the diseased commonwealth, which Menenius has already set forth--that notion of _parts_ and _partiality_, and dissonance and dissolution, which is a radical idea in the play, and runs into its minutest points of phraseology, breaks out at once in his rough speech.

_Men_. Hail, n.o.ble Marcius!

_Mar_. Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues, That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, Make _yourselves_ scabs.

[It is the _common-weal_ that must be made _whole_ and comely.

OPINION! your opinion.]

_First Cit_. We have ever your good word.

_Mar_. In that will give good words to _thee_, will flatter Beneath abhorring.--What would you have, you _curs_, That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud. _He_ that trusts you, _Where he should find you lions, finds you hares_.

_Where foxes, geese_! You are no surer, no Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, Or hail-stone in the sun. Your _virtue_ is, To make _him worthy_ whose _offence subdues him_, And curse that _justice_ did it. Who deserves greatness Deserves your hate: and your affections are A sick man's appet.i.te, who desires most that Which would increase his evil. _He_ that _depends_ Upon your favours, _swims with_ fins of lead, And hews down _oaks_ with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye?

With every minute you do change a mind;

[This is not the principle of _state_, whether in the many or the one].