(art of noise)
Peter Ackroyd’s Shakespeare: The Biography:
“The mutinous citizens of Coriolanus, ‘in hunger for Bread’ (21), were not some historical fantasy.” (page 16)
Yeah, happened in the author’s lifetime.
“The baiting of Jesus reappears in Julius Caesar and Coriolanus.” (page 51)
Yeah, and with my sister around? There’s always the baiting of the brother.
“The public context of Coriolanus is rapidly succeeded by private communings; (page 279)
“It is a nasty story of rivalries between local people and the avaricious lord. It has its counterparts in other country towns where the problem of enclosures had arisen, but in this case it implicated people well-known to Shakespeare. It is not stretching credulity too far to see something of this local drama in the plot of Coriolanus, whereby the tribunes of the people are matched against a haughty and domineering patrician.” (page 394)
“It is sometimes supposed that Menenius in Coriolanus is the voice of good sense or worldly wisdom; but if here were played by Armin, as has been suggested, he would have become a grotesque.” (page 382)” N.B.: Armin was a later addition to Shakespeare’s company, The King’s Men. He was noted for comic and singing roles, and it’s been suggested, by the same author, that Feste in 12th Night was written just for Armin.
“But Coriolanus also calls for trumpets, a Globe specialty, and some of the play’s staging would suggest the larger arena of the public playhouse. So he composed it with both stages in mind. There were other Roman plays on the period, Sejanus and Catiline among them, but no one had previously treated the the theme of Coriolanus, the Roman nobleman who refused to co-operate with the plebeians, and was exiled from the city only to return with an enemy army.” (page 468)
“There is a spareness in the language that is reminiscent of Julius Caesar, another Roman play in which a mighty figure is raised and pulled down.” (page 468)
“(Shakespeare’s Coriolanus) He exists; he sings his high chant; and then he is ended.” (page 468)
“In Coriolanus the crowd is portrayed as fickle and ever changing, as light and variable as the wind.” (pages 268-9)
“One of the most powerful figures in Coriolanus is the mother of the eponymous hero, Volumia, who has sometimes been considered to be a portrait of Shakespeare’s own mother.” (page 471)
“So the position of Coriolanus, reviled by the mass and exiled from Rome only to vow a terrible vengeance, is infinitely dramatic and elicits from Shakespeare some of his finest poetry.” (page 470)
Well, that’s two plays about some guy who comes back to Rome with an enemy army to overthrow the status quo, and while I’m on about that, that’s three dramatic events about revenge, “A dish best served cold” (according to the opera).
Coriolanus is was good enough that I almost cried at the end, I mean, I felt sorry for the guy. Not quite enough to cry. But close. I mean, he did get what he deserved, but still. Perhaps it’s just the catharsis that theatre is all about.
The images from this trip start here. It’s a long tale.
(click to visit)
