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Coriolanus. Ye common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
As reek o'the rotten fens-whose loves I prize
As the dead carcases of unburied men
That do corrupt my air-I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till, at length,
Your ignorance

Deliver you, as most

Abated captives, to some nation
That won you without blows!

ACT III. SCENE 3.

CORIOLANUS,

A TRAGEDY,

IN FIVE ACTS.

BY W SHAKSPEARE.

A

Printed from the Acting Edition, with Remarks.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED,

THE

DESCRIPTION OF THE COSTUME, CAST OF CHARACTERS, SIDES OF ENTRANCE AND EXIT, RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE PERFORMERS

ON THE STAGE, AND THE WHOLE OF THE

STAGE BUSINESS.

AS NOW PERFORMED AT THE

THEATRES ROYAL, LONDON.

Embellished with a Wood Engraving, from an original Drawing made expressly for this Work, by Mr. I. R. CRUIKSHANK, and executed by Mr WHITE.

London:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY T. DOLBY, BRITANNIA PRESS, 17, CATHERINE-STREET, STRAND;

AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

Price Sixpence.

.

Jan. 21. EHM

REMARKS.

To say that this is an excellent play would be unnecessary-Shakspeare is its author. It is nearly historically correct. The following extract from Hooke's Roman History (Dolby's edition) page 128, will show who and what Coriolanus was:

"Caius Marcius Coriolanus was descended from one of the most illustrious patrician families in Rome: he received the surname of Coriolanus, for having taken, sword in hand, Corioli, one of the chief towns of the Volsci. Having, in his infancy, lost his father, he was educated by his mother, Veturia; for whom (as Plutarch tells us) he conceived so high a respect, and so tender a regard, that though no man was ever more ardent in the pursuit of glory, yet glory itself, the ultimate end of other men in their noblest actions, was by him coveted chiefly as a means to create delight and satisfaction to his mother. Happily disposed by nature, and virtuously educated, he kept himself master of those passions by which young men are usually enslaved; and so great an abhorrence he had of vice, that to be innocent, or to avoid injustice from the necessity which the laws imposed, or from fear of punishment, he reckoned not as virtue. He was frugal, disinterested, a contemner of riches, patient of hardships and fatigue: and never were these excellent qualities accompanied with a more exalted courage, or a greater capacity for the art of war; he seemed to have been born a general; but he was harsh and imperious in command; as severe to other men as to himself; a generous friend, an implacable enemy; too haughty for a republic. Though ambitious of the highest dignities, he neglected those arts of management and insinuation so necessary to obtain them n a state founded upon equality and freedom. "

So long as the world endures, will this play be understood and relished. Brave and high-minded men will ever be impatient of vulgar controul; the great are ever the prey of the mean and selfish; the great mass of clamourers for rights and immunities, whenever a popular favourite truly deserves and requires their support, damn and desert him.

That must have been a bitter moment with Coriolanus when he resolved to join the Volsci; painful convictions must have flashed on his mind to have induced him to take that step: again, the sight of his mother, his wife and child, unbent his stern soul to the soft impulses of humanity; finally, the taunting speech of Aufidius roused his mighty spirit to its utmost vigour, death put its seal to the integrity of the man, and the fame of the hero became immortal.

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