2

1. CIT. Well, I'll hear it, fir: yet you must not think to fob off our difgrace 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 midft o' the body, idle and unactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

Like labour with the reft; where the other inftru̟-
3
ments

Hyftorie of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. a play published in 1599:

"The hugie heapes of cares that lodged in my minde,
"Are kaled from their neftling-place, and pleasures paf-
fage find.

Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, already quoted:

Fye, fye; idle, idle; he's no Frenchman, to fret at the lofs of a little cal'd hair." In the North they fcale the corn, i. e. fcatter it: Scale the muck well, i. e. fpread the dung well. The two foregoing inftances are taken from Mr. Lambe's notes on the old metrical hiftory of Floddon Field.

Again, Holinfhed, Vol. II. p. 499, speaking of the retreat of the Welchmen during the absence of Richard II. fays: "— they would no longer abide, but fcaled and departed away. So again, p. 530: " whereupon their troops fcaled, and fled their waies.' In the learned Ruddiman's Gloffary to Gawin Douglas's Translation of Virgil, the following account of the word is given. "Skail, Jhale, to Scatter, to spread, perhaps from the Fr. efcheveler, Ital. Scapigliare, crines paffos, feu sparsos habere. All from the Latin capillus. Thus efcheveler, fchevel, fkail; but of a more general fignification." See Vol. VI. p. 118, n. 2. STEEVENS.

Theobald reads - fale it. MALONE.

a

3

difgrace with a tale :] Disgraces are hardships, injuries.

JOHNSON

where the other inftruments] Where for whereas. JOHNSON. We meet with the fame expreffion in The Winter's Tale, Vol.

X. p. 59, n. 6:

"As you feel, doing thus, and fee withal
"The inflruments that feel. " MALONE,

Did fee, and hear, devife, inftruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, 4 did minifter
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answered, -
1. CIT. Well, fir, what anfwer made the belly?
MEN. Sir, I fhall tell you. With a kind of smile.
Which ne'er came from the lungs, 5 but even thus,
(For, look you, I may make the belly fmile"
As well as fpeak,) it tauntingly reply'd

To the difcontented members, the mutinous parts
That envy'd his receipt; even fo moft fitly'
As you malign our fenators, for that

They are not such as you.

8

1. CIT. Your belly's answer: What! The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye, The counfellor heart, the arm 9 the arm our foldier, Our feed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter, With other muniments and petty helps In this our fabrick, if that they MEN.

What then?

participate,] Here means participant, or participating.

MALONE,

Which ne'er came from the lungs, ] With a fmile not indicating pleasure, but contempt. JOHNSON.

6

I may make the belly fmile, ] "And fo the belly, all this notwithstanding, laughed at their folly, and fayed, &c. North's Translation of Plutarch, p. 240, edit. 1579. MALONE.

7

8

even fo moft fitly. -] i. c. exactly. WARBURTON.

They are not fuch as you. ] I suppose we fhould read — They are not as you. So, in St. Luke, xviii. 11. "God, I thank thee, I am The pronoun-fuch, only diforders the

not as this publican. measure. STEEVENS.

The counsellor heart, ] The heart was anciently esteemed the feat of prudence. Homo cordatus is a prudent man. JOHNSON. The heart was confidered by Shakspeare as the feat of the under◄ Aanding. See the next note. MALONE.

'Fore me, this fellow fpeaks! - what then? what

then?

1. CIT. Should by the cormorant belly be re

1. CIT. The former agents, if they did com

plain,

What could the belly answer?

I will tell you;

MEN. If you'll beftow a fmall (of what you have little,) Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's anfwer. 1. CIT. You are long about it. MEN.

Note me this, good friend;

Your most grave belly was deliberate,
Not rafh like his accufers, and thus anfwer'd.
True is it, my incorporate friends, quoth he,
That I receive the general food at first,
Which you do live upon and fit it is;
Because I am the ftore-houfe, and the shop.
Of the whole body: But if you do remember,
I fend it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart,

to the feat o' the brain;

to the feat o' the brain;] feems to me a very languid expreffion. I believe we fhould read, with the omiffion of a particle:

Even to the court, the heart, to the feat, the brain.

He ufes feat for throne, the royal feat, which the first editors probably not apprehending, corrupted the paffage. It is thus ufed in Richard IL A& III. fc. iv:

"Yea, diftaff-women manage rusty bills

Againft thy feat.

It should be obferved too, that one of the Citizens had juft before chara&erifed thefe principal parts of the human fabrick by fimilar metaphors:

"The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
"The counsellor heart,
TYRWHITT.

"

And, through the cranks and offices of man,"
The ftrongest nerves, and fmall inferior veins,
From me receive that natural competency

Whereby they live: And though that all at once,
You, my good friends, (this fays the belly,) mark

me,

I have too great refped for even the conje&ures of my refpe&able and very judicious friend, to fupprefs his note, though it appears 10 me erroneous. In the prefent inftance I have not the fmalleft doubt, being clearly of opinion that the text is right. Brain is here used for reafon or understanding. Shakspeare feems to have had Camden as well as Plutarch before him; the former of whom has told a fimilar ftory in his Remains, 1605, and has likewife made the heart the feat of the brain, or underflanding: "Hereupon they all agreed to pine away their lafie and publike enemy. One day paffed over, the fecond followed very tedious, but the third day was fo grievous to them, that they called a common counsel. The eyes waxed dimme, the feete could not support the body, the armes waxed lazie, the tongue faltered, and could not lay open the matter. Therefore they all with one accord defired the advice of the heart. There REASON laid open before them, &c. Remains, p. 109. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's plays, Vol. II. in which a circumftance is noticed, that fhews our author had read Camden as well as Plutarch.

I agree, however, entirely with Mr. Tyrwhitt, in thinking that feat means here the royal feat, the throne. The feat of the brain, is put in oppofition with the heart, and is defcriptive of it. 66 I fend it, (fays the belly,) through the blood, even to the royal refidence, the heart, in which the kingly-crowned understanding fils enthroned.

So, in King Henry VI. P. II:

"The rightful heir to England's royal feat.

In like manner in Twelfth Night, our author has ere&ed the: throne of love in the heart:

"It gives a very echo to the feat

"Where love is throned.

Again, in Othello:

"Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne."

See alfo a paflage in King Henry V. where feat is ufed in the fame fenfe as here; Vol. XIII. p. 299, n. 9. MALONE.

the cranks and offices of man,] Cranks are the meandrous

duds of the human body. STEEVENS.

1. CIT. Ay, fir; well, well. MEN.

Though all at once cannot

See what I do deliver out to each;
Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the flower of all,
And leave me but the bran. What fay you to't?
1. CIT. It was an answer: How apply you this?
MEN. The fenators of Rome are this good belly,
And you the mutinous members: For examine
Their counfels, and their cares; digeft things
rightly,

Touching the weal o' the common; you shall find,
No publick 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 affembly?

1. CIT. I the great toe? Why the great toe?
MEN. For that being one o' the lowest, basest,
poorest,

Of this moft wife rebellion, thou go'fl foremost:
Thou rafcal, that art worft in blood, to run
Lead'ft firft, to win fome vantage, 3

Cranks are windings. So, in Venus and Adonis:

"He cranks and creffes, with a thousand doubles. '

Thou rafcal, that art worst in blood, to run

MALONE.

Lead fi firft, to win fome vantage. ] I think, we may better read, by an eafy change,

Thou rafcal that art worft in blood, to ruin

Lead'ft firft, to win &c.

Thou that art the meaneft by birth, art the foremoft to lead thy fellows to ruin, in hope of fome advantage. The meaning, however, is perhaps only this, Thou that art a hound, or running dog of the loweft breed, lead'ft the pack, when any thing is to be gotten. JOHNSON.

Worf in blood may be the true reading. In King Henry VI. P. I: "If we be English deer, be then in blood,

i.. high fpirits, in vigour.