INTRODUCTION

AMONG the twenty plays which are first found in the folio of 1623, Coriolanus is one of sixteen for which licence to publish was obtained by Master Blounte and Izaak Jaggard on November 8th of that year, as "Master William Shakspeers Comedyes, Histories, and Tragedyes soe manie of the said Copies as are not formerly entred to other men." In the list of sixteen plays that follows, Coriolanus heads the section of tragedies, as it also does in the "Catalogue" of contents in the folio itself. But in the folio text it is preceded by Troilus and Cressida, which, though omitted in the catalogue, seems to have been meant to come fourth in the section, and was afterwards put first, in the course of printing.

Similarities of source, language, and metre, have suggested a date of composition for Coriolanus following closely on that of Antony and Cleopatra. Both plays exemplify the closepacked elliptical style of Shakespeare's late work, and also its metrical characteristics; of which those that can be numbered for comparison, and can be shown to have been used increasingly by Shakespeare, especially the overflow, the speechending within the line, the aggregate of light and weak endings, would bring the plays immediately together in the order assumed. The most favoured date is therefore the latter part of 1608, or early in 1609, because Antony and Cleopatra is usually assigned to 1608; but as, in the edition of that play in this series, reasons were given for considering 1607, or even 1606, as possible dates for its production, and for excluding 1608, the year 1607 becomes a possibility for Coriolanus as well as 1608 or later, in proportion as these reasons are valid. They are based upon the re-fashioning by Daniel of his Cleopatra, in 1607 (or between 1605 and 1607), in more dramatic form, and with new detail, suggesting Antony and Cleopatra as the model which converted him from dull recitation to representation.

External evidence of a reliable kind for the date of Coriolanus is not forthcoming, except that, as Malone was the first to perceive, the language of Menenius in relating the fable of

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the belly appears to be indebted to the version given Camden in his Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concer Britaine, etc., 1605, as well as to that of North's Plutar Other circumstances that have been put forward as evid of date are: (1) that there was a great frost in the winte 1607-1608, when the Thames was frozen over and fires actu lit upon it, which, being present or fresh in remembra might suggest more readily sooner than later "the coal of upon the ice," in I. i. 172 (Hales); (2) that there was a de in England in 1608 and 1609, as in the play (Chalmers); that James I. encouraged the planting of mulberry trees order to raise silk-worms in 1609, whence perhaps the sim "Now humble as the ripest mulberry That will not hold handling," in III. ii. 79 (Malone). The two last, which wo indicate 1609 or 1610 as earliest date for the play, are esp ally weak, for mulberrys were not (as Malone himself po out) an absolute novelty either in England or in Shakespea work, and the dearth in Coriolanus is part of the original st Malone's comparison of II. ii. 101: "He lurch'd all sword th' garland" with Jonson's Epicene, V. ad fin., "Well, Dauph you have lurch'd your friends of the better halfe of the garlan has more point. Unless the combination of lurch and garl was a commonplace, in which case the saying would su have turned up elsewhere, it creates a strong probability reminiscence on one side or the other; and this would be m likely in the character of a comedy, who playfully accuses friend, and finds a striking phrase from a serious play very to his purpose. Epicene was acted towards the end of 16 old style, that is, between January 4th (when a patent granted for the Children of Her Majesty's Revels, who play it) and March 25th, 1610, which would point to 1609 Coriolanus at latest.

Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps and Mr. A. B. Paton thought t had proved Coriolanus to be later than the edition of Nort Plutarch published in 1612, because the word "unfortunat is used by Shakespeare in v. iii. 97, and in the correspond passage in North in that edition, whereas in the earlier editio of North it is "unfortunately." The obvious answer has b made that Shakespeare-who had already used North long fore 1612, according to dates generally accepted—had metri inducements to shorten the word here, and was probably 1 first to substitute adjective for adverb in this passage. Mo

1See Extract on pp. lxiii, lxiv post.

over, Mr. M. W. MacCallum (Shakespeare's Roman Plays and their Background, 1910) points out his use of spite in IV. v. 84, which is North's word in the editions before 1603 only. Arguments for the late date (and also for earlier ones) have been sought by attempting to show that Shakespeare had an eye to the political situation in England and the disputes between James and his parliaments, which one is tempted to call "foul wresting and impossible construction."

Dr. Brandes1 sees a help to the date in the death of Shakespeare's mother in 1608, regarding the event as an inducement to the subject of the play. Assuming the possible and desirable as fact, he says of Shakespeare: "He remembered all she had been to him for forty-four years, and the thoughts of the man and the dreams of the poet were thus led to dwell upon the significance in a man's life of this unique form, comparable to no other-his mother." According to his view, Shakespeare, hating the mob because he despised their discrimination, and above all because of the "purely physical repugnance of his artist nerves to their plebeian atmosphere. . . now, for the third time, finds in his Plutarch a subject which not only responds to the mood of the moment, but also gives him an opportunity for portraying a notable mother; and he is irresistibly drawn to give his material dramatic style."

Leaving this view for later reference, there is no necessity, but a strong probability, that, having come back to North for the subject of Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare would turn over the pages of the same book for his next plot, and some think that having shown Antony as the infatuated victim of the charms and wiles of a mistress, he continued to illustrate the effects of woman's influence by selecting the story of Coriolanus, whose character for good or evil was of his mother's making, and who could no more resist her power over him than Antony could evade the "full supremacy" of Cleopatra.

This is plausible, and if the poet required great difference of theme for his new work, it was by no means wanting. The story contracts time, scene of action and scale of events in the new play, giving it, notwithstanding some difficulties in adapting historical material, a beauty of proportioned construction in which it is as superior to its predecessor as that exceeds it in variety of scene and character and in grandeur of scope.

1 William Shakespeare, a critical study, ed. 1902 (Translation), pp. 532, 533.

The world for theatre of action, with its empire for the at stake, is contracted to a petty commonwealth, Rome th it be, and a neighbouring rival state. The dominion of q mistress and that of mother are as different in essence as i omnipresence of the one and the unobtrusiveness of the save at decisive moments. The genial Antony, a revelle a brawler" with knaves that smells of sweat" finds a s contrast in the haughty and temperate Coriolanus, whose words in even an amiable interview with a plebeian w probably be, "Breathe further off!" His situation is sir

than Antony's, and his character less complex and less i magical light of poetry. He has no genius "that's the that keeps" him, and no god whom he loves to befriend and to forsake him at the crisis of his fate with "music i air." He is eloquent in the emphasis of strong views b the senate, in profuse language of scorn or anger to th bunes and people, and his too few and brief words to mother, wife, and Valeria, owe a debt to imagination as as to grace and gentleness; but it is in his pride that he dures torture, and racked pride can never speak with the of doubting or repentant love, or "greatness going off." heroes meet in their valour and invincibleness in fight. come always from " the world's great snare uncaught," a battle, when seconded, Coriolanus can even become the in ing comrade-leader like Antony and Henry V. Both great in adversity, but in different ways, and there is a nanimity in Antony and a generous understanding of o that lifts him higher above fate. When Coriolanus bids well to his mother and friends he speaks something Antony, "'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes," but u vincingly, as in forced consolation, and never with the pat greatness of soul in :—

The miserable change now at my end

Lament nor sorrow at; but please your thoughts In feeding them with those my former fortunes, Wherein I lived the greatest prince o' the world, The noblest, (Antony and Cleopatra, Iv. xv. 51 et s Coriolanus, as drawn by Plutarch, is deprived by loss of his father, of education and its civilising influ so that he is unfit for society, choleric, impatient, un and unyielding. By nature he has an excellent u standing, a great heart, and temperance in everything pride and choler. He is subject neither to love of ple