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Untitled Article
patricians . To the warning of Menenius that they will undo themselves / be replies
unanswerably—We cannot , Sir , we are undone already / There it is , there is the source of all public confusion . Take warning by it , rulers , and maintain such systems as will prevent any large number of the community from being undone / He who has nothing to lose will infallibly try to acquire something ;
and if it may not be by the sweat of his own brow , it will be at the cost of his neighbours . Menenius , after some parley , gets leave to tell a pretty tale , ' and recounts the good old fable of the bell y and the members . The plebeian leader asks , How apply you this V and Menenius replies , —
' The senators of Rome are this good belly , And you the mutinous members . * * * * * What do you think , You , the great toe of this assembly V The poor plebs is taken all aback , and can stammer out nothing but an iteration of the words of Menenius . Were he somewhat shrewder he would
reply' The boot , my master , * s on the other leg ; The people are the belly , the great garner ; They plough , they sow , the senators are reapers , Knowing no other toil . I , being great toe , Must surely know best where the tight shoe pinches . '
But plebeian Romans used neither boots nor shoes , and very probably not much of sandal either , save on holidays , if then . So the poor orator can but look foolish , and scratch his head , and perhaps pinch his cap a little tighter in his horny fright hand , and thrust his left down the loose front of his greasy tunic , which serves him for a pocket , to grope awhile for the nothing to
be found therein , while Menenius pelts him with scurvy names , as a modern politician does his political opponents ; and in the nick of time the magnificent form of Caius Marcius appears , with his arms extended beneath the ample folds of the wide and graceful toga , whereat great toes and little toes all retire to a safe distance , in marvellous great haste , and the clattering of the bats and staves huddled one on the other , sounds like a concert
of chimney sweepers . Glorious is the form and port of that noble Roman ; yet would I give my best gaberdine to see' that plebeian boldly beard him , to see the broad chest heave beneath the imwashen tunic , and the firm foot planted , and the hard hand stretched out , and the brow bent in stern meaning , and the lips unclosing to say , —
* A plebeian is a man l His ignorance is not a thing to be ashamed of , for , alas ! he lias had no opportunity of being wiser ; but he is a coward ; he
Untitled Article
46 Goriolanus no Aristocrat
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 46, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/48/
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