QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Coriolanus ACT/SCENE: 1.1 SPEAKER: First Citizen CONTEXT: MENENIUS
Note me this, good friend;
Your most grave belly was deliberate,
Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer’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 store-house and the shop
Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o’ the brain;
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live: and though that all at once,
You, my good friends,’—this says the belly, mark me,—
FIRST CITIZEN
Ay, sir; well, well.
MENENIUS
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 flour of all,
And leave me but the bran.’ What say you to’t?
FIRST CITIZEN
It was an answer: how apply you this? DUTCH: Een antwoord was het. Maar hoe past gij ‘t toe? MORE: Piercing statutes=Biting laws (See Measure for Measure, 1.3)
True indeed=Ironical
Edicts for usury=Laws, decrees for money-lending
Wholesome=Suitable, beneficial
Eat us up=To devour, to consume, to waste, to destroy
Suffer=To bear, to allow, to let, not to hinder
Compleat:
Usury=Woeker
To lend upon usury=Op rente leenen
Wholesom=Gezond, heylzaam, heelzaam
To pierce=Doorbooren, doordringen
Edict=Een gebod, bevel, afkondiging
Eat up=Opeeten, vernielen
Suffer=Toelaten Topics: blame, nature, order/society, reply