The Tragedy of Coriolanus occupies thirty pages in the folio of 1623, viz., from p. 1 to p. 30 inclusive, in the division of tragedies; a new pagination commencing with this drama. It is there divided into Acts, but not into Scenes, and is without a list of Dramatis Personæ. Rowe supplied both deficiencies. (168) CORIOLANUS. INTRODUCTION. A S the Chronicles of Hall and Holinshed were the great storehouses whence Shakespeare drew the materials for his English Historical Dramas, so Plutarch's Lives (in North's translation from the French version of Amiot) furnished him with the characters and the incidents which he worked into his Roman Tragedies. He found the story of Coriolanus in North's Plutarch; and he followed it closely, even to the occasional adoption of its very language. The tragedy presents but one noteworthy deviation from Plutarch's story; and that one is trifling. It is in the conduct of Coriolanus immediately after his entrance into the house of Aufidius. (Act IV. Sc. 5.) Plutarch shows him enduring the jeers of the attendants in grand and mute disdain. Shakespeare makes him answer them; and Plutarch's golden silence pales even Shakespeare's speech to silver. This play first appeared in the folio of 1623; and as no mention of it at an earlier date is known, and it is without allusions to contemporary matters, the period of its production cannot be determined with any approach to accuracy. Its style, however, clearly shows that it is the fruit of Shakespeare's later years. It was probably written after 1610. Coriolanus is the worst printed play in the whole first folio. Every page of it is spotted with corruption. In several passages Mr. Collier's folio of 1632 gives unwonted aid to conjecture in the restoration of the text; but even with this help some of the confusion must be abandoned as hopeless. The period of the action is about B. C. 460. The remains of ancient art teem with authorities for the costume, to which in the Roman plays the stage should adhere strictly. TULLUS AUFIDIUS, General of the Volscians. Lieutenant to Aufidius. Conspirators with Aufidius. A Citizen of Antium. Two Volscian Guards. VOLUMNIA, Mother to Coriolanus. VIRGILIA, Wife to Coriolanus. VALERIA, Friend to Virgilia. Gentlewoman, attending on Virgilia. Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Ædiles, Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other Attendants. SCENE, partly in Rome, and partly in the Territories of the Volscians and Antiates. (170) |