2. Cit. Care for us! True, indeed! They
ne'er cared for us yet: suffer us to famish, and 84
their storehouses crammed with grain; make
edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal
daily any wholesome act established against the
rich, and provide more piercing statutes daily 88
to chain up and restrain the poor, If the wars
eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love
they bear us.
Men. Either you must 92
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 96
To scale 't a little more.
2. Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir; yet you must not
think to fob off our disgrace with a tale; but,
an 't please you, deliver. 100
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, 104
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest, where th' other instruments
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister 108
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body, The belly answer'd,—
2. Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the
belly? 112
Men. Sir, I shall tell you.—With a kind of smile,
Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus—
97 scale 't; cf. n.
99 disgrace: unfavored treatment
103 gulf: devouring whirlpool
108 participate: cooperating
114 Which . . . lungs; cf. n.
