become rakes: for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.

2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

2 Cit.

All. Against him first: he 's a very dog to the commonalty.
Consider you what services he has done for his country?
Very well; and could be content to give him good report for 't,
pays himself with being proud.

1 Cit.

but that he

1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: 10 though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; 11 which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. 12

2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.

1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations: he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city 13 is risen: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol! All. Come, come.

2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people. 1 Cit. He's one honest enough: 'Would, all the rest were so! Men. What work 's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.

2 Cit. 14 Our business is not unknown to the senate: they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em

8) Die pikes, die mit scharfen Spitzen versehenen Piken, werden hier als etwas Besseres den rakes, den harmloseren Rechen entgegengestellt. rake diente schon lange vor Sh. als sprüchwörtlicher Vergleich zur Bezeichnung der Magerkeit; so in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: As lene was his hors as is a rake.

9) und wir würden es uns schon gefallen lassen, ihm dafür einen guten Namen zu geben.

-

- In demselben Sinne steht can be content bald nachher. die Fol. „Allen" zu. Vgl. Anm. 2.

Die folgende Rede ertheilt

10) to that end weist auf das Folgende hin, nicht auf etwas Vorhergehendes. 11) Es sollte heissen and partly to be proud, und ein andres partly vor to please his mother supplirt werden.

12) Sein Stolz ist eben so gross als seine Tapferkeit, erreicht die Höhe seiner Tapferkeit. Dass Sh. virtue in diesem Sinne fasst, geht aus der von ihm benutzten Stelle des Plutarch hervor: valiantness was honoured in Rome above all other virtues; which they call virtue by the name of virtue itself.

13) Die jenseits der Tiber gelegenen Stadttheile.

14) In der Fol. ist der zweite Bürger", den vielleicht auf dem Sh.'schen Theater ein gewandterer Schauspieler darstellte, der Wortführer des Volkes dem Agrippa gegenüber. Viele Hgg. ertheilen im Widerspruch damit diese und die folgenden Reden dem ,,ersten Bürger" zu.

in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong 15 breaths: they shall know,

we have strong arms too.

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

Will you undo yourselves?

2 Cit. We cannot, Sir; we are undone already.
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 heaven with your staves, as lift them
Against the Roman state, 16 whose course will on
The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
Of more strong link asunder than can ever
Appear in your impediment. 17 For the dearth,
The gods, not the patricians, make it; and

Your knees to them, not arms,

You are transported by calamity

18 must help. Alack!

Thither where more attends you; and you slander

The helms 19 o' the state, who care for you like fathers,
When you curse them as enemies.

2 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, 20 to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily to chain up and If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the

restrain the poor.

love they bear us.

Men. Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,

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

A pretty tale: it may be, you have heard it;

But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture

To stale 't 21 a little more.

stark, von penetrantem Geruch.

Ebenso doppelsinnig wie hier, steht in

All's well that ends well (A. 5, Sc. 2.) I smell somewhat strong of her strong

displeasure.

16) state

Regierung, oder, collectiv gefasst, die Regierenden, also die Patricier oder Senatoren, gegen welche die Bürger mit ihren Stöcken sich erheben.

17) your impediment

=

das Hinderniss, das Ihr bewirkt.

Arme, im Gegensatze zu knees.

18) arms ist hier doppelsinnig Waffen und =

19) helm, eigentlich das Steuerruder, hier die Lenker des Steuerrúders.

20) for usury steht hier zweideutig: die angeblich gegen den Wucher erlassenen Gesetze

sind in der That zu Gunsten des Wuchers.

21) So emendirt Theobald das scale't der Fol., was die meisten Hgg. beibehalten, indem sie es für synonym theils mit to scatter, to disperse, theils mit to weigh erklären. Beides höchst gesucht im Vergleich zu Theobald's plausibler Emendation: To stale abnutzen, steht in demselben Sinne wie hier in Massinger's Unnatural Combat: I'll not stale the jest by my relation.

2 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, Sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace 22 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 23 the viand, never bearing

Like labour with the rest; where 24 th' other instruments
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,

And mutually participate; 25 did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common

Of the whole body. The belly answered,

2 Cit. Well, Sir, what answer made the belly?
Men. Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile, 26
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 27 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.

22) our disgrace die Schmach, die wir dulden, das schmähliche Unrecht, das uns

Manche

25) und im Einverständniss mit einander theilen, sich gegenseitig mittheilen. Hgg. halten participate dagegen für ein Adjectiv, im Sinne von participant oder participating, und interpungiren And, mutually participate, did minister etc.

26) Das Lächeln des Magens war nur eine Art von Lächeln, kein eigentliches Lächeln, insofern es nicht aus der Lunge kommen konnte. Die Lunge wird auch sonst bei Sh. als der Ausgangspunkt des Lachens erwähnt; so Cymbeline (A. 1, Sc. 7.) laughs from his free lungs. Dass der Magen gelacht habe, fand Sh. bei Plutarch an der entsprechenden Stelle. Vgl. Einleitung pag. II.

27) Die Fol. hat taintingly.

28) soldier ist hier dreisylbig zu lesen. In der vorhergehenden Zeile hat die Fol. kingly crowned getrennt, indess ist der Sinn wohl der Kopf, der die Königskrone trägt; wie Julius Caesar (A. 3, Sc. 2.) vorkommt: presented him a kingly crown.

2 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, Who is the sink o' the body,

Men.

--

Well, what then?

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

I will tell you,

Men.
If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little)
Patience a while, you'll hear the belly's answer.
2 Cit. Y' are long about it.
Men.

Note me this, good friend;

Your most grave belly 29 was deliberate,

Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd:
„True is it, my incorporate 30 friends," quoth he,
That I receive the general food at first,

Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
Because I am the store-house, 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; 31
And through the cranks and offices of man,

32

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,
2 Cit. Ay, Sir; well, well.
Men,

"Though all at once cannot

See what I do deliver out to each,
that all
flower 33 of all,
What say you to 't?
How apply you this?

Yet I can make my audit up,
From me do back receive the
And leave me but the bran."
2 Cit. It was an answer.

29) Dem your entspricht im Deutschen der pleonastische, ethische Dativ: Euch. 30 incorporate friends redet der Magen scherzhaft die übrigen Glieder im wörtlichsten Sinne an, insofern sie ihm einverleibt sind, mit ihm einen Leib bilden.

31) Malone fasst brain uneigentlich, nicht als Gehirn, sondern als Verstand und to the seat o' the brain als Apposition zu heart, wonach also das Herz, das erst der Hof genannt wird, als Thron des Verstandes bezeichnet würde. Wahrscheinlich ist indess das Gehirn selbst unter dem Sitz des Gehirns zu verstehen, und der Sinn der, dass der Magen dem Herzen wie dem Gehirn Lebenskraft zusende. 32) cranks and offices of man sind die gewundenen Kanäle und dienstbeflissenen Organe im menschlichen Körper, welche die Nahrungskraft weiter leiten. Dem ersteren Ausdruck entspricht in Hamlet (A. 1, Sc. 5.) the natural gates and alleys of the body. 33) Einige Hgg. setzen flour das feinste Mehl. Indess hat flower, das u. A. auch nur eine andre Orthographie für flour ist, hier vielleicht einen weitern Sinn das Beste, die Quintessenz von Allem.

Men. 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? 34-

2 Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe?

Men. For that, being one o' the lowest, basest, poorest,
Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st foremost:
Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
Lead'st first to win some vantage.

35

But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs,
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
The one side must have bale. 36

Hail, noble Marcius!

Enter CAIUS MARCIUS.

Mar. Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues, That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,

Make yourselves scabs? 37

2 Cit.

We have ever your good word.

Mar. He that will give good words to thee, will flatter
Beneath abhorring.
What would you have, you curs,

38

That like nor peace, nor war? the one affrights you,
The other makes you proud. He that trusts to 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 hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is

To make him worthy whose offence subdues him,

34) assembly ist hier vielleicht viersylbig

assembely zu lesen, wie z. B. Two Gentle

men of Verona (A. 1, Sc. 3.) resembleth resembeleth zu lesen ist. 35) rascal und blood sind Jagdausdrücke, welche Menenius hier in einem Wortspiel auf den „zweiten Bürger" anwendet: Du magres Wild (oder du elender Wicht), der du am wenigsten Kraft und Feuer zum Laufen hast, gehst voran, wo es gilt einen Vortheil zu erringen.

36) bale, ein zu Sh.'s Zeit schon veraltetes Wort, Verderben, und

Gift. Die letztere Bedeutung, in welcher auch Spenser in seiner Fairy Queen das Wort gebraucht: for light she hated as the deadly bale, passt am besten hieher. 37) Die blinde öffentliche Meinung ist gleichsam ein Ausschlag an den Plebejern, der sie juckt und den sie kratzen, bis sie selbst darüber ganz aussätzig werden. zugleich Lump, als Schimpfwort.

scab ist

38) so dass kein Abscheu so tief steigen kann, um die Nichtswürdigkeit eines solchen Schmeichlers zu erreichen.