Episode 230:
Shakespeare probably did not realise it, but his next offering would be his last tragedy and his last Roman play, but for this one he reached back into a much earlier Rome than the world of Caesar, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra that he had previously mined. ‘Coriolanus’, the choice of the story of the legendary Caius Martius, a 5th century BC Roman general who was both fated and vilified during his political career and who was also known for his antipathy towards a hungry Roman population, might have been inspired by recent events in England. We can’t be certain of that, but whatever the case there it is quite clearly one of Shakespeare’s most political tragedies which has become a play that perhaps more than any other in the cannon has been used to make political points, particularly when we consider productions in the last century.
The dating of the play
The play at the Blackfriars Theatre and in the First Folio
The sources for the play
A summary of the plot
Coriolanus as a political play, but not representative of his own views
The question of how power should be granted
The character of Coriolanus
The use of language as an expression of character
The character and speech of Menenius
The character and speech of Volumina
The pivotal moment of silence in the play
The performance history of the play
A final word on the play from Willian Hazlitt
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month.
","author_name":"Philip Rowe"}