The Belly and the Members. 70 by Townsend
THE MEMBERS of the Body rebelled against the Belly,
and said, "Why should we be perpetually engaged in
administering to your wants, while you do nothing but
take your rest, and enjoy yourself in luxury and
self-indulgence?' The Members carried out their resolve
and refused their assistance to the Belly. The whole Body
quickly became debilitated, and the hands, feet, mouth,
and eyes, when too late, repented of their folly.
Pe130=Ch159, Cax3.16, L'Es51, Laf3.2, Jacobs29, TMI J461.1,
A1391, Type293. cf.KHM180
Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, Scene 1
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MENENIUS
There was a time when all the body's members
Rebell'd against the belly, thus accused it:
That only like a gulf it did remain
I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest, where the other instruments
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answer'd--
First Citizen
Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
MENENIUS
Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,
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
To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt; even so most fitly
As you malign our senators for that
They are not such as you.
First Citizen
Your belly's answer? What!
The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter.
With other muniments and petty helps
In this our fabric, if that they--
MENENIUS
What then?
'Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? what then?
First Citizen
Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd,
Who is the sink o' the body,--
MENENIUS
Well, what then?
First Citizen
The former agents, if they did complain,
What could the belly answer?
MENENIUS
I will tell you
If you'll bestow a small--of what you have little--
Patience awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer.
First Citizen
Ye're long about it.
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?
---- omit the rest
reference site: http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/coriolanus/coriolanus.1.1.html
Pancatantra 5.(73)
quotation from "VISNU SARMA The Pancatantra"
translated by Chandra Rajan, Penguin Classics.
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Wit, kindliness and modesty,
sweetness of speech and youthful beauty,
liveliness too and vitality,
freedom from sorrow, and joviality,
uprightness, knowledge of sacred texts,
and wisdom of the Preceptor of the Immortals,
purity as well, of mind and body,
respect too for rules of right conduct:
all these fine attributes arise in people
once their belly-pot is full.
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