The Man with the Child I want to see how far you get. If you fail, I’m going to leave Rome with those people from the third district.
First Citizen Regardless of the fact that the plain where they’re going to settle is as arid as stone?
The Man with the Child Regardless. We’ll have water, fresh air and a grave. What more is there for us plebeians in Rome? At least we won’t have to fight rich men’s wars. (To the child) Will you be good, Tertius, if there’s no goat’s milk for you? (The child nods)
First Citizen You see, that’s the kind of people we’ve got. He fears Caius Marcius more than the wilds of the Allegi Mountains. Aren’t you a Roman citizen?
The Man with the Child Yes, but a poor one. They call us plebeians the poor citizens, but they call the patricians the good ones. The unnecessary food the good citizens stuff into their bellies could save us from starvation. Even if they gave us their leftovers, we’d be saved. But they don’t even think that much of us. Their food tastes better when they see us starving. (To the child) Tertius, tell him you don’t want to be a citizen of such a city.
(The child shakes his bead)
First Citizen Then make off quickly, you cowardly dog, but leave the child here; we’ll fight and make a better Rome for Tertius.
Citizens What’s that shouting?—The sixth district has risen.—And we hang around here, squabbling among ourselves. To the Capitol! Who’s this?
(Enter Menenius Agrippa)
First Citizen It’s Menenius Agrippa, the senator and silver-tongued orator.
Citizens Not the worst of them.—He has a weakness for the people.
Menenius
My dear fellow citizens, what’s this? Where are you going With bats and clubs? What’s wrong, I pray you?
First Citizen Our business is not unknown to the senate. They’ve been hearing rumors of it for a fortnight. Your Caius Marcius says our smell takes his breath away. He says poor pleaders have strong breaths; he’ll see that we have strong fists too.
Menenius
Citizens, my good friends and honest neighbors
Are you determined to destroy yourselves?
First Citizen We can’t do that, sir. We’re destroyed already.
Menenius
I tell you, friends, the senate has for you
Most charitable care. For your grievances—
The rising cost of food—you may as well
Strike at the heavens with your staves as lift them
Against the senate; you see, the soaring prices
Come from the gods and not from man. Alas
Your misery is driving you to greater
Misery. You remind me of a babe that
Bites at the empty breast of its unhappy
Mother. You curse the senate as an enemy
And yet it cares for you.
First Citizen Cares for us! A likely story! They’ve never cared for us. Leave us to starve when their storehouses are crammed full of grain. Issue decrees against usury that benefit no one but the usurers! Every day they repeal another good law against the rich and every day they grind out another cruel regulation to chain the poor. If the wars don’t eat us up, they will. That’s all the love they bear us.
Menenius
Either you must
Confess yourselves wondrous malicious
Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you
A pretty tale. It may be you have heard it
But it’s appropriate. Well, will you listen?
First Citizen It’s hardly a time for stories. But I for my part have long wished to learn how to make a pretty speech. And that can be learned from you, Agrippa. Fire away!
Menenius
There was a time when all the body’s members
Rebelled against the belly, thus accused it:
That only like a gulf it did remain
In the midst of the body, idle and inactive
Yet storing up the victuals, never bearing
Equal labor with the rest, whereas the other organs
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel
And, mutually participating, minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
To the whole body. The belly answered …
First Citizen
Well, sir, what was the belly’s answer?
Menenius
Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile
That came not from the heart, a dismal smile—
For you see, I can make the belly smile
As well as speak—it tauntingly replied
To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied its receipts …
First Citizen
What did he say?
The lazy belly, sink and cesspit of
The body? What did he say?
Menenius
What? No—how!
That is the crux of the matter.
First Citizen
No, tell us what your gluttonous belly said.
What could he say?
Menenius
You soon shall hear.
First Citizen
With you “soon” means “tomorrow.”
Menenius
Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered:
“It is true, my incorporate friends,” he said
“That I am the first to receive the general food
You live upon, and this is necessary
Because I am the storehouse and the shop
Of the whole body. But if you will remember
I send it through the rivers of your blood
And through the corridors and pantries of the body.
The strongest sinews and the finest veins
From me receive their proper sustenance.
And though, my friends, you may not all at once”—
This is the belly speaking, mind you …
First Citizen
Stop, sir.
Menenius
“Though you may not see all at once
What I deliver out to each of you
Still, my account books show that I
Distribute to you all the finest flour
Retaining only the bran.” Well then, what do
You say to that?
(Enter, unnoticed except by Menenius, Caius Marcius escorted by armed men)
First Citizen
An answer of sorts. But now the moral?
Menenius
The senators of Rome are this good belly.
You are the mutinous members. Think!
That’s all you have to do. Think, think, think, think!
Then you will fathom how the worthy fathers
Intent upon the common weal, distribute
The public bounty to each citizen.
Whatever you receive is given you
By them alone. Well, what do you think now?
You, the great toe of this assembly?
First Citizen
I the great toe? Why the great toe?
Menenius
Because you, the lowest, basest, poorest
Of all this rabble, take the lead.
You scoundrel, you infectious rotten apple, you
Self-seeking bandit—very well, swing your clubs!
Rome will make war upon its rats. Once and
For all it will … Hail, noble Marcius!
Marcius
Thanks. What’s the matter? Got the itch again?
Scratching your old scabs?
First Citizen
From you we can
Always expect a gracious word.
Marcius
You curs
That like nor peace nor war. War frightens you
Peace makes you insolent. Anyone who trusts you
Finds hares when he wants lions, geese when he looks
For foxes. You hate the great because they are great.
To depend upon you is to swim with
fins
Of lead and hew down oaks with rushes. Hanging’s
The only hope! You’ve got the appetite
Of a sick man who devours what makes him sicker.
You curse the senate who with the help of the gods
Maintain some little order. If they didn’t
You’d feed upon each other.
Menenius
They’re demanding
The right to set the price of grain. They say
The granaries are overflowing.
Marcius
They say! Hang ’em!
They sit by the fire and presume to know
What’s happening on the Capitol, what there is
And what there isn’t. Waste grain on them!
If only the senate dropped its moderation
For which I have a very different name—
They say there’s grain!—they’d get their answer
From my sword. And with my lance I’d measure
Not grain but their corpses by the bushel
In the streets of Rome.
Menenius
Let be. I’ve won these fellows over, stopped them
With a fairy tale. Though to be sure, it was not
The sword of my voice but rather the voice of your sword
That toppled them. But what of the other troop?
Marcius
Dissolved. I broke it up. Hang ’em! Damnation!
They shouted they were hungry, bellowed slogans
That hunger breaks stone walls, that dogs must eat
That bread is made for mouths, that the gods don’t send
Fruit for the rich alone. And more such nonsense.
And when I fell upon them, while retreating
They shouted: “Then we’ll emigrate.” And I
Wished them a pleasant journey.
(A Messenger enters)
Messenger Where’s Caius Marcius?
Marcius
Here. What’s the matter?
(The Messenger whispers in his ear)
Marcius
Menenius, in the forum
They’re tossing up their caps into the air
As if they wished to hang them on the moon:
The senate has allowed them their demand.
Menenius
Allowed them what?
Marcius
Two tribunes
To represent the wisdom of the rabble.
The one is Junius Brutus, then Sicinius
And heaven knows who else. I’d sooner
Have seen the rabble tear the city’s roofs off
Than granted that. They’ll be
More insolent than ever. Soon they’ll threaten
Revolt for every pound of olives.
Menenius
It is strange.
(A Citizen comes running)
Second Citizen Long live Junius Brutus! The senate has granted all our demands! Two tribunes appointed! With the right to attend all sessions and veto decisions!
Citizens
Hurrah for Junius Brutus!
Second Citizen
And Sicinius Velutus!
Marcius
Go home, you fragments!
Menenius
The worthy fathers!
Marcius
And the newly baked
Tribunes are coming too. With faces
Such as you’d cut down from the gallows!
(Enter Cominius, Titus Lartius and other Senators, Brutus, and Sicinius)
Citizens
Long live Sicinius!—And Junius Brutus!
Marcius
Most worthy fathers, I’ve heard ugly news
And I see an ugly sight …
First Senator
Noble Marcius
The Volscians are in arms, encouraged by
Reports of shortage and rebellion here.
Cominius
War!
Marcius
I’m glad to hear it.
That ought to help us here in Rome
To use our surplus that is growing moldy.
First Senator
Tullus Aufidius is leading them.
Marcius
I know him.
Comenius
You’ve fought together.
Marcius
An enemy like him
Makes the whole war worth fighting.
First Senator
You will fight under Cominius.
Cominius
As you once promised.
Marcius
Agreed. And Titus, what of you?
Stiff in the joints? Will you stay home?
Lartius
Never, Marcius.
I’ll lean upon one crutch and fight with the other
Before I miss this business.
First Senator
To the Capitol!
Lartius
Lead on, Cominius.
Cominius
After you.
Lartius
You first.
Marcius
After you.
First Senator
Citizens, go home.
Marcius
No, let them follow.
The Volscians have much grain; take these rats with you
To gnaw their garners. Worshipful mutineers
Your courage can now prove itself. Do follow!
(All go out except for the tribunes and Citizens)
Brutus
Follow him, friends. Inscribe your names in the lists!
Be valiant soldiers for a better Rome.
As for the struggle waged within its walls
Over grain, olives, and the remission of debt
We will keep watch while you are in the field.
Citizens
The Volscians are in arms!—War!
(The Citizens go out)
Brutus
We’ll have to. Did you see Marcius’ eye
When we, the tribunes of the people, approached him?
Sicinius
I heard him speak. A man like him’s a greater
Danger to Rome than to the Volscians.
Brutus
I don’t believe that. The valor of his arm
Outweighs his vices and makes good their harm.
(Both go out)
2
Rome. The house of Caius Marcius.
Volumnia and Virgilia are standing on the balcony looking after the departing Soldiers. Martial music.
Volumnia If my son were my husband, I should rejoice more in an absence that won him honor than in the fondest embraces of his bed. When he was still tender of body, the only son of my womb, when the comeliness of his youth attracted every eye, when a king might have entreated me all day before I’d have let him out of my sight for an hour, I bade him seek danger where he was likely to find fame. I sent him to a cruel war. He came back crowned with oak leaves. I tell you, daughter, I didn’t leap more for joy at first hearing he was a man-child than on the day when he first proved himself to be a man.
Virgilia But if he had died in the battle, madam, what then?
Volumnia I tell you sincerely that if I had a dozen sons, none less dear to me than your Marcius and mine, I would rather see eleven die on the battlefield than one wallow in peace.
Virgilia Heaven protect my husband from Aufidius.
(Enter a Serving Woman)
Volumnia
Virgilia, I seem to hear your husband’s drum.
I see him slaughter this Aufidius and go
His way like a reaper after a day’s work.
Upon his neck, as it says in the Iliad
He sets his bloody foot.
Virgilia