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Note me this, good friend;
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Your most grave belly was deliberate,
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Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd:
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'True is it, my incorporate friends,' quoth he,
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'That I receive the general food at first,
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Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
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Because I am the store-house and the shop
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Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,
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I send it through the rivers of your blood,
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Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain;
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And, through the cranks and offices of man,
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The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
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From me receive that natural competency
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Whereby they live: and though that all at once,
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You, my good friends,'--this says the belly, mark me,--
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First Citizen:
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Ay, sir; well, well.
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MENENIUS:
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'Though all at once cannot
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See what I do deliver out to each,
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Yet I can make my audit up, that all
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From me do back receive the flour of all,
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And leave me but the bran.' What say you to't?
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First Citizen:
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It was an answer: how apply you this?
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MENENIUS:
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The senators of Rome are this good belly,
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And you the mutinous members; for examine
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Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly
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Touching the weal o' the common, you shall find
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No public benefit which you receive
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But it proceeds or comes from them to you
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And no way from yourselves. What do you think,
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You, the great toe of this assembly?
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First Citizen:
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I the great toe! why the great toe?
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MENENIUS:
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For that, being one o' the lowest, basest, poorest,
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Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost:
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Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
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Lead'st first to win some vantage.
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But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs:
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Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
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The one side must have bale.
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Hail, noble Marcius!
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MARCIUS:
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Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,
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That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
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Make yourselves scabs?
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First Citizen:
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We have ever your good word.
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MARCIUS:
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He that will give good words to thee will flatter
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Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs,
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That like nor peace nor war? the one affrights you,
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The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you,
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Where he should find you lions, finds you hares;
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Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no,
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Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,
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Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is
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To make him worthy whose offence subdues him
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And curse that justice did it.
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Who deserves greatness
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Deserves your hate; and your affections are
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A sick man's appetite, who desires most that
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Which would increase his evil. He that depends
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Upon your favours swims with fins of lead
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And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust Ye?
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With every minute you do change a mind,
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And call him noble that was now your hate,
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Him vile that was your garland. What's the matter,
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That in these several places of the city
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You cry against the noble senate, who,
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Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else
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Would feed on one another? What's their seeking?
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MENENIUS:
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For corn at their own rates; whereof, they say,
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The city is well stored.
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MARCIUS:
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Hang 'em! They say!
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They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know
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What's done i' the Capitol; who's like to rise,
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Who thrives and who declines; side factions
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and give out
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Conjectural marriages; making parties strong
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And feebling such as stand not in their liking
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Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's
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grain enough!
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Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,
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