First Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not[2486][2487]
think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an't please[2486][2488]
you, deliver.[2486]
Men. There was a time when all the body's members
Rebell'd against the belly; thus accused it: 90
That only like a gulf it did remain
I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive,[2489]
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest; where the other instruments
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 95
And, mutually participate, did minister[2490]
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answer'd—[2491][2492]
First Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly?[2491]
Men. Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,[2493] 100
Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus—
For, look you, I may make the belly smile
As well as speak—it tauntingly replied[2494]
To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt; even so most fitly 105
As you malign our senators for that
They are not such as you.
First Cit. Your belly's answer? What![2495]
The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,[2496][2497]
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,[2496]
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,[2496] 110
With other muniments and petty helps[2496]
In this our fabric, if that they—[2496]
Men. What then?[2496][2498]
'Fore me, this fellow speaks! what then? what then?[2496][2498][2499]
First Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd,[2496]
Who is the sink o' the body,—[2496][2500]
Men. Well, what then?[2496] 115
First Cit. The former agents, if they did complain,[2496][2501]
What could the belly answer?[2496]
Men. I will tell you;
If you'll bestow a small—of what you have little—[2502]
Patience awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer.[2503]