Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-72874-4 - Coriolanus: Updated Edition Edited by Lee Bliss Frontmatter More information THE NEW CAMBRIDGE SHAKESPEARE general editor Brian Gibbons associate general editor A. R. Braunmuller, University of California, Los Angeles From the publication of the first volumes in 1984 the General Editor of the New Cambridge Shakespeare was Philip Brockbank and the Associate General Editors were Brian Gibbons and Robin Hood. From 1990 to 1994 the General Editor was Brian Gibbons and the Associate General Editors were A. R. Braunmuller and Robin Hood. CORIOLANUS This generously annotated updated edition of Coriolanus provides a thorough reconsideration of Shakespeare’s remarkable, and probably his last, tragedy. A substantial introduction situates the play within its contemporary social and political contexts – dearth, riots, the struggle over authority between James I and his first parliament, the travails of Essex and Ralegh – and pays particular attention to Shakespeare’s shaping of his primary source in Plutarch’s Lives. It presents a fresh account of how the protagonist’s personal tragedy evolves within Shakespeare’s most searching exploration of the political life of a community. The edition is alert throughout to the play’s theatrical potential, while the stage history also attends to the politics of performance from the 1680s onwards, including European productions following the Second World War. A new introductory section by Bridget Escolme covers recent productions of Coriolanus, and criticism of the last ten years, with particular focus on identity, gender and the politics of the play. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-72874-4 - Coriolanus: Updated Edition Edited by Lee Bliss Frontmatter More information THE NEW CAMBRIDGE SHAKESPEARE All’s Well That Ends Well, edited by Russell Fraser Antony and Cleopatra, edited by David Bevington As You Like It, edited by Michael Hattaway The Comedy of Errors,editedbyT.S.Dorsch Coriolanus, edited by Lee Bliss Cymbeline, edited by Martin Butler Hamlet, edited by Philip Edwards Julius Caesar, edited by Marvin Spevack King Edward III, edited by Giorgio Melchiori TheFirstPartofKingHenryIV, edited by Herbert Weil and Judith Weil The Second Part of King Henry IV, edited by Giorgio Melchiori King Henry V, edited by Andrew Gurr TheFirstPartofKingHenryVI, edited by Michael Hattaway The Second Part of King Henry VI, edited by Michael Hattaway The Third Part of King Henry VI, edited by Michael Hattaway King Henry VIII, edited by John Margeson King John,editedbyL.A.Beaurline The Tragedy of King Lear, edited by Jay L. Halio King Richard II, edited by Andrew Gurr King Richard III, edited by Janis Lull Love’s Labour’s Lost, edited by William C. Carroll Macbeth, edited by A. R. Braunmuller Measure for Measure, edited by Brian Gibbons The Merchant of Venice,editedbyM.M.Mahood The Merry Wives of Windsor, edited by David Crane A Midsummer Night’s Dream, edited by R. A. Foakes Much Ado About Nothing,editedbyF.H.Mares Othello, edited by Norman Sanders Pericles, edited by Doreen DelVecchio and Antony Hammond The Poems,editedbyJohnRoe Romeo and Juliet, edited by G. Blakemore Evans The Sonnets, edited by G. Blakemore Evans The Taming of the Shrew, edited by Ann Thompson The Tempest, edited by David Lindley Timon of Athens,editedbyKarlKlein Titus Andronicus, edited by Alan Hughes Troilus and Cressida, edited by Anthony B. Dawson Twelfth Night, edited by Elizabeth Story Donno The Two Gentlemen of Verona, edited by Kurt Schlueter The Two Noble Kinsmen, edited by Robert Kean Turner and Patricia Tatspaugh The Winter’s Tale, edited by Susan Snyder and Deborah T. Curren-Aquino the early quartos The First Quarto of Hamlet, edited by Kathleen O. Irace The First Quarto of King Henry V, edited by Andrew Gurr The First Quarto of King Lear, edited by Jay L. Halio The First Quarto of King Richard III, edited by Peter Davison The First Quarto of Othello, edited by Scott McMillin The First Quarto of Romeo and Juliet, edited by Lukas Erne The Taming of a Shrew: The 1594 Quarto, edited by Stephen Roy Miller © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-72874-4 - Coriolanus: Updated Edition Edited by Lee Bliss Frontmatter More information CORIOLANUS Updated edition Edited by LEE BLISS © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-72874-4 - Coriolanus: Updated Edition Edited by Lee Bliss Frontmatter More information University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521728744 C Cambridge University Press 2000, 2010 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2000 Updated edition 2010 877th printing2014 Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc. A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616. Coriolanus / edited by Lee Bliss ; [new introduction by Bridget Escolme]. – Updated ed. p. cm. – (The new Cambridge Shakespeare) Includes bibliographical references. isbn 978-0-521-42960-3 (hardback) 1. Coriolanus, Cnaeus Marcius – Drama. 2. Generals – Drama. 3. Rome – Drama. 4. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616. Coriolanus. I. Bliss, Lee, 1943– II. Title. pr2805.a2b58 2010 822.33 –dc22 2009046281 isbn 978-0-521-42960-3 Hardback isbn 978-0-521-72874-4 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-72874-4 - Coriolanus: Updated Edition Edited by Lee Bliss Frontmatter More information CONTENTS List of illustrations page vi Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations and conventions viii Introduction 1 Date, theatre, chronology 1 Sources 10 Contemporary contexts 17 Dearth, riots, rebellions 17 Politics and the franchise 27 Essex and Ralegh 33 The Play 40 Coriolanus on Shakespeare’s stage 63 Stage history 67 Recent stage and critical interpretations bridget escolme 98 The people and the city: the politics of Coriolanus 99 Gender, sexuality, identity 101 A theatre of shame 102 The play in performance and performance criticism: anti-theatricality, stage presence and charisma 103 Spatial and sartorial politics in the early and post-modern theatre 109 Note on the text 112 List of characters 116 THE PLAY 118 Textual analysis 289 Appendix: Lineation 308 Reading list 314 v © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-72874-4 - Coriolanus: Updated Edition Edited by Lee Bliss Frontmatter More information ILLUSTRATIONS 1 Title page from Thomas Dekker [?], The Great Frost (1608) page 3 2 Soldiers attacking a gate. Bronze plaquette, Italy c. 1500, by the Master of Coriolanus 16 3 Women of the Gracchi. Engraving by Pieter Furnius, from Jan van der Straet, Celebrated Roman Women (1573) 57 4 Frontispiece for Coriolanus in Nicholas Rowe, The Works of Mr. William Shakespear (1709). Engraving by Elisha Kirkhall 65 5 James Quin as Coriolanus, c. 1722 70 6 John Philip Kemble as Coriolanus. Oil painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence 73 7 Ellen Terry as Volumnia in Sir Henry Irving’s 1901 production, Lyceum Theatre, London 78 8 The House of Aufidius. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s design for Irving’s production, Lyceum Theatre 79 9 Alec Clunes (Coriolanus), Dorothy Green (Volumnia) and R. Lesley Brook (Virgilia) costumed for the 1939 Iden Payne production, Stratford Memorial Theatre. Photograph by Ernest Daniels 83 10 Laurence Olivier’s death-fall in the 1959 Peter Hall production, Stratford Memorial Theatre. Photograph: Angus McBean 86 11 Fight sequence (Act 1, Scene 4)inthe1972 Trevor Nunn production, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. Photograph: Joe Cocks Studio 90 12 Alan Howard, raised on his soldiers’ spears (1.6.76, ‘Make you a sword of me?’), in Terry Hands’s 1977 production, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. Photograph: Joe Cocks Studio 92 13 Coriolanus directed by Dominic Dromgoole, 2006, Shakespeare’s Globe. Martius – Jonathan Cake; Aufidius – Mo Sesay 104 14 Coriolanus directed by Greg Doran, RSC 2007. Volumnia (Janet Suzman) tries to persuade Martius (Will Houston) to humble himself before the citizens 107 Illustration 1 is reproduced by courtesy of the Guildhall Library, Corporation of London; illustration 2 is from the Samuel H. Kress collection, c 1997 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; illustration 6 is reproduced by courtesy of the Guildhall Gallery, Corporation of London; illustrations 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are reproduced by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.; illustration 10 by courtesy of the estate of Angus McBean; illustrations 9, 11 and 12 by courtesy