CORIOLANUS: A TRAGEDY, En Five Acts, BY WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. PRINTED FROM THE ACTING COPY, WITH REMARKS, To which are added, A DESCRIPTION OF THE COSTUME,-CAST OF THE CHARACTERS, ENTRANCES AND EXITS,-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 FINE ENGRAVING, By MR. WHITE, from a Drawing taken in the Theatre, by MR. R. CRUIKSHANK. LONDON: JOHN CUMBERLAND, 6, BRECKNOCK PLACE, CAMDEN TOWN. REMARKS. CORIOLANUS is one of the three tragedies of Shakspeare, which may be distinguished by the appellation of Roman. It exhibits an animated picture of patrician pride and plebeian insolence; and is more adapted for representation than either Julius Cæsar, or Anthony and Cleopatra, from its mixed character and agreeable transitions froni tragedy to comedy. In this play, Shakspeare has freely availed himself of the language and sentiments of Plutarch; but he has so amplified and illustrated them-he has combined so much deep feeling, eloquent declamation, and poignant wit-his plot and incidents are so artfully conducted and diversified, and his characters brought forward with such boldness of colouring, that, though yielding in some higher qualities, to the more exalted inspirations of Macbeth, Lear, and Hamlet, Coriolanus, as an acting drama, stands in the foremost rank. There are many noble passages interspersed throughout the play; but there is one image which, for grandeur and expression, can hardly be paralleled even by the poet himself— "My mother bows; As if Olympus to a mole-hill should The character of Volumnia is a picture of what mothers were in the days of victorious Rome; when glory was the only road to fame, and when those who had deserved well of their country were in their life-time decreed immortal honours, and, at their death, elevated amongst the gods. Her first scene, where she consoles Virgilia for the absence of Coriolanus, is conceived in the sublime spirit of a Roman matron; and in her last, where, having vainly endeavoured to move the compassion of her son, she resolves no longer to expose herself a spectacle of shame before the Volscian people, there is nothing left in that tremendous burst of godlike heroism either to conceive or to desire. Menenius, the patrician, seems to have been a favourite with Shakspeare, for he has drawn him in his very best manner. His sarcastic wit serves to show in a stronger light the difference betwixt a true love of our country, and that licentiousness and caprice which are ever the concomitants of newlyacquired authority in vulgar minds. He can see and condemn the haughty unbending spirit of Coriolanus; but he can reprove and despise the still greater pride of the factious tribunes, whose ludicrous self-importance, and insidious designs to disturb the public tranquillity, by exciting those worshipful mutineers," the rabble, are exposed and rebuked with the most bitter irony. "You are ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs you wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange wife and a fosset-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence to a second day of audience.-You are a pair of strange onts." The Volumnia of Mrs. Siddons was perfect. Never did we behold such an impersonation of all that is noble and exalted in human nature. Her spirit-stirring tone and gesture in her address to Virgilia-her subdued majesty when she beseeches Coriolanus to show more deference to the Roman people-and the grandeur of her voice, look, and action throughout the whole of that trying scene before the Volscian camp-raised in the mind an enthusiasm which can only be felt by those who have witnessed this transcendant effort of dramatic skill. It was in the character of Coriolanus that the late Mr. Kemble took his leave of the stage; and never did he produce a more powerful impression than on that memorable night when he bade a final adieu to the tragic scene. Ten years have well nigh elapsed since that period, yet we can hardly bring our minds to think with complacency on the genius we have lost! Hamlet, Macbeth, and Lear-Brutus, Coriolanus, Hotspur, Cato-all lie buried in the grave of Kemble. For the character of Coriolanus, the figure, the countenance, and the manner of this accomplished actor were peculiarly adapted; his very habits and sentiments gave strength to the illusion. He was a scholar and a gentleman; impatient of insult; a foe to servility; and, being conscious (as what superior mind is not ?) of high intelligence, he might lack that power of accommodating his humour to low cunning and vulgar ignorance. He was not one who, in ordinary life, could "Frame his face to all occasions ;" and when, to the disgrace of a capital boasting its patronage of the arts, he was assailed by a misguided mob, headed by a drunken ruffian, we fancied that we could hear him, in his ineffable contempt, repeat a line from his beloved Shakspeare, "To what base uses we may return, Horatio." His appearance at the statue of Mars was a study for a painter: we can remember nothing like it but Mrs. Siddons, in the last scene of The Winter's Tale. It was the grandeur of past ages illustrated and exemplified: "Ages roll back from time's destructive doom; It has been the fashion to find fault with Kemble's voice; yet what voice ever reached so effectually the wildest bursts of rage and despair, or sunk more naturally into those undertones, expressive of stifled rage and calm contempt? His * "The Modern Dunciad." |