QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Coriolanus ACT/SCENE: 1.1 SPEAKER: First Citizen CONTEXT: FIRST CITIZEN
Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price.
Is’t a verdict?
ALL
No more talking on’t; let it be done: away, away!
SECOND CITIZEN
One word, good citizens.
FIRST CITIZEN
We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.
What authority surfeits on would relieve us: if they
would yield us but the superfluity, while it were
wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely;
but they think we are too dear: the leanness that
afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an
inventory to particularise their abundance; our
sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with
our pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know I
speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for
revenge.
SECOND CITIZEN
Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?
ALL
Against him first: he’s a very dog to the commonalty. DUTCH: Laat ons dit wreken met onze pieken, eer wij dun als harken worden! Want de goden weten het, ik zeg dit uit honger naar brood, niet uit dorst naar wraak. MORE: Proverb: As lean as a rake

The patricians good=Good (mercantile), meaning wealthy, well monied
Guess=Think, suppose
Object=Spectacle, sight
Accounted=Thought of as
To particularise=Specify
Sufferance=Suffering, misery
Rake=A lean person (as thin as a rake)
Compleat:
As lean as a rake=Zo mager als een hout
Abundance=Overvloed
Sufferance=Verdraagzaamheid, toegeevendheid

Burgersdijk notes:
De patriciërs als goede. Omdat zij arm zijn, worden de plebejers niet voor vol geteld, niet „goed” gerekend. Vergelijk: Koopman v. Venetië”, 1. 3. 16. Topics: proverbs and idioms, poverty and wealth, order/society, fate/destiny