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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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48 Coriolanus no Aristocrat .
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Had he lived in modern Frahce , he would not have been slow to acknowledge the kindred spirits of the plebeian heroes of July . But look how the fuller ' s earth leader shrinks from his address ! 1 He that will give good words to thee will flatter Beneath abhorring . —What would you have , you curs , That like not 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 * * * * . He that depends Upon your favours , swims with fins of lead , And hews down oaks with rushes * * * * . What ' s the matter ? That in the several places of the city You cry against the noble Senate , who , Under the gods , keep you in awe , which else Would feed on one another . What's their seeking V Menenius replies ,
4 For corn at their own rates ; whereof , they say , The city is well stored . '
The good people , notwithstanding their ready assistance , probably know as much about the matter as those in modern England , who deny that the great cause of physical misery is the disproportion of food to the number of the mouths ; and point to certain granaries containing wheat , and markets containing mutton , as a triumphant proof that there is no want of food ; something upon the principle of the boy ' father , who gave his child a shilling , telling him that so long as he kept it , he would never be without money . The corn which fed the Roman people was , it seems , kept in public granaries , rather a bad arrangement , but possibly one for which there was no remedy at the time , and the people were accustomed to go to those granaries to purchase it according to their wants . Now it is likely that the granary keepers were far better judges of the stock in hand than the people were . Sinister interests both the granary keepers and their masters , the senate , most probably had , and the only way to remedy this , was to appoint supervisors on the part of the people , viz . the tribunes . But the proposition to sell the corn cheap , upon the simple assertion of a crowd , that the city was well stored , ' was unreasonable , yet not enough so to warrant the fierce words of Marcius , also unreasonable in his turn , and—supposing his words serious—a cruel tyrant .
• They say , there ' s grain enough ? Would the nobility lay aside their ruth , And let me use my sword , I'd make a quarry With thousands of these quarter ed slaves , as high A 8 I could pick my lance / Not you , Marcius , you would do no such thing . Your words are
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 48, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/50/
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