CORIOLANUS

samaan has in this play shewn himself well versed in history and CORIOLANUS is a store-house of political common-places. an. who studies it may save himself the trouble of reading Ketection, or Paine's Rights of Man, or the Debates in ashaszon a. Parliament since the Frenci. Revolution or our own. ment to and against aristocracy or democracy, on the the row and the claims of the many, on liberty and ake the abuse of u, peace and war, are here very ably wall share a noe: and the acuteness of a philosopher. Juli seem n have had leaning to the arbitrary side NCAA tror som feeling of contempt for his own no occasion e' bating the rabble. What

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-The cause of the people

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infinite many, might before right. A lion hunting a flock of sheep or a herd of wild asses is a more poetical object than they; and we even take part with the lordly beast, because our vanity or some other feeling makes us disposed to place ourselves in the situation of the strongest party. So we feel some concern for the poor citizens of Rome when they meet together to compare their wants and grievances, till Coriolanus comes in and with blows and big words drives this set of 'poor rats,' this rascal scum, to their homes and beggary before him. There is nothing heroical in a multitude of miserable rogues not wishing to be starved, or complaining that they are like to be so but when a single man comes forward to brave their cries and to make them submit to the last indignities, from mere pride and self-will, our admiration of his prowess is immediately converted into contempt for their pusillanimity. The insolence of power is stronger than the plea of necessity. The tame submission to usurped authority or even the natural resistance to it has nothing to excite or flatter the imagination it is the assumption of a right to insult or oppress others that carries an imposing air of superiority with it.] We had rather be the oppressor than the oppressed. The love of power in ourselves and the admiration of it in others are both natural to man : the one makes him a tyrant, the other a slave. Wrong dressed out in pride, pomp, and circumstance, has more attraction than abstract right.-Coriolanus complains of the fickleness of the people: yet, the instant he cannot gratify his pride and obstinacy at their expense, he turns his arms against his country. If his country was not worth defending, why did he build his pride on its defence? He is a conquerer and a hero; he conquers other countries, and makes this a plea for enslaving his own; and when he is prevented from doing so, he leagues with its enemies to destroy his country. He rates the people as if he were a God to punish, and not a man of their infirmity.' He scoffs at one of their tribunes for maintaining their rights and franchises: Mark you his absolute shall?' not marking his own absolute will to take every thing from them, his impatience of the slightest opposition to his own pretensions being in proportion to their arrogance and absurdity. If the great and powerful had the beneficence and wisdom of Gods, then all this would have been well : if with a greater knowledge of what is good for the people, they had as great a care for their interest as they have themselves, if they were seated above the world, sympathising with the welfare, but not feeling the passions of men, receiving neither good nor hurt from them, but bestowing their benefits as free gifts on them, they might then rule over them like another Providence. But this is not the case. Coriolanus is unwilling that the senate should shew their cares

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atmy, and to me yer ve vüch a nu til mee, and inde race demenme: 2 ent nags taan hits impl, LITE MEL POD; to degrade sur lects to the rank of diva, and babes to the condo of brites) The titory of munkud is a comatot, a mand, a tragedy, constructed upon the principles så jordeal justice; is a nocie or royal but, in which what is sport w the few is death to the many, and in which the spectators halloo and encourage the strong to set upon the weak, and cry havoc in the chase though, they do not share in the spoil We may depend upon in hut what mes delight to read in books, they will put in practice reality.

One of the most neural traits in this play is the difference of the

interest taken in the success of Coriolanus by his wife and mother. The one is only anxious for his honour; the other is fearful for his life.

Volumnia. Methinks I hither hear your husband's drum :

I see him pluck Aufidius down by th' hair:
Methinks I see him stamp thus-and call thus-
Come on, ye cowards; ye were got in fear

Though you were born in Rome; his bloody brow
With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes
Like to a harvest man, that's task'd to mow

Or all, or lose his hire.

Virgilia. His bloody brow! Oh Jupiter, no blood.
Volumnia. Away, you fool; it more becomes a man
Than gilt his trophy. The breast of Hecuba,
When she did suckle Hector, look'd not lovelier
Than Hector's forehead, when it spit forth blood
At Grecian swords contending.'

When she hears the trumpets that proclaim her son's return, she says in the true spirit of a Roman matron,

'These are the ushers of Martius: before him
He carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears.
Death, that dark spirit, in 's nervy arm doth lie,
Which being advanc'd, declines, and then men die.'

Coriolanus himself is a complete character: his love of reputation, his contempt of popular opinion, his pride and modesty, are consequences of each other. His pride consists in the inflexible sternness of his will; his love of glory is a determined desire to bear down all opposition, and to extort the admiration both of friends and foes. His contempt for popular favour, his unwillingness to hear his own praises, spring from the same source. He cannot contradict the praises that are bestowed upon him; therefore he is impatient at hearing them. He would enforce the good opinion of others by his actions, but does not want their acknowledgments in words.

'Pray now, no more: my mother,

Who has a charter to extol her blood,
When she does praise me, grieves me.'

His magnanimity is of the same kind. He admires in an enemy that courage which he honours in himself; he places himself on the hearth of Aufidius with the same confidence that he would have met him in the field, and feels that by putting himself in his power, he takes from him all temptation for using it against him.

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Iwia me proetry from the board, and coming towards him, as a tema, werdure he came. Then Maries d 1.vé, ut er te tad pauset avile, making no answer, he said unto kimef, If nos knowest me not yes, Tina and seeing me, dost not permaps believe me to be the man I am indest, I must of necessity discover myself to be that I am. I am Calus Martius, who hath done to thyself partie warry, and to all the Voices generally, great hurt and mischief, which I cannot deny for my surname of Coriolanus that I bear. For I never had other benefit for recompeace of the true and painful service I have done, and the extreme dangers I have been in, but this only surname: a good memory and witness of the malice and displeasure thou shouldest bear me. Indeed the name only remaineth with me; for the rest, the envy and cruelty of the people of Rome have taken from me, by the sufferance of the dastardly nobility and magistrates, who have forsaken me, and let me be banished by the people. This extremity hath now driven me to come as a poor suitor, to take thy chimney-hearth, not of any hope I have to save my life thereby. For if I had feared death, I would not have come hither to put myself in hazard; but pricked forward with desire to be revenged of them that thus have banished me, which now I do begin, in putting my person into the hands of their enemies. Wherefore if thou hast any heart to be wrecked of the injuries thy enemies have done thee, speed thee now, and let my misery serve thy turn, and so use it as my service may be a benefit to the Volces: promising thee, that I will fight with better good will for all you, than I did when I was against you, knowing that they fight more valiantly who know the force of the enemy, than such as have never proved it. And if it be so that thou dare not, and that thou art weary to prove fortune any more, then am I also weary to live any longer. And it were no wisdom in thee to save the life of him who hath been heretofore thy mortal enemy, and whose service now can nothing help, nor pleasure thee." Tullus hearing what he said, was a