William Shakespeare, Critical Commentary of The Tragedie of Coriolanus
Horace Howard Furness, Jr., A. B.; Litt. D., Ed.

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Bru. E. K. Chambers (Warwick Sh.): The discourse of the Tribunes shows that, at the very moment of Coriolanus's triumph, he is near an unsuspected downfall. This elaborate description would be out of place in a modern play, because the increased capabilities of stage-effect would allow the scene to be represented more effectually to the eye. But for the rudimentary condition of the Elizabethan theatre we should have lost some of Shakespeare's finest descriptive passages.—S. Brooke (p. 230): The Tribunes are not carried away by the triumph of Coriolanus. They see in it a fresh danger to the liberty of the People for which they are contending; they lay a plot for his destruction as the enemy of the People, and it is just that they should do it. Coriolanus deserved death. The talk of Sicinius and Brutus, admirably conceived by Shakespeare, proves them masters of the situation. It is marked by that pitilessness towards the oppressing class which has characterised, in all revolutions of the people, the leaders of the people; and at the back of which is the long hatred of years, sometimes of centuries, as it was in the French Revolution. The enemy must be annihilated. And the way to destroy Coriolanus is clear—to work on his choleric pride till he insults the people.

All tongues speake of him, etc. Koch (Einleitung, p. 13, foot-note): The influence of Shakespeare's Coriolanus upon Goethe is noteworthy. George Lewes in his novel-like biography of Goethe refers to the parallelism between Egmont, V, i, and Coriolanus, II, i, 221-237, [the present passage. This is not strictly true. Lewes quotes a passage from Egmont, V, i, which he translates as

follows: ‘Stay! Stay! Shrink not away at the sound of his name, to meet whom ye were wont to press forward so joyously! When rumour announced his approach, when the cry arose, “Egmont comes! he comes from Ghent!” then happy were they who dwelt in the streets through which he was to pass. And when the neighing of his steed was heard, did not every one throw aside his work, while a ray of hope and joy like a sunbeam from his countenance, stole over the toil-worn faces which peered from every window. Then as ye stood in doorways ye would lift up your children and, pointing to him, exclaim, “See! that is Egmont! he who towers above the rest! 'Tis from him ye must look for better times than those your poor fathers have known!”’ Lewes says in his general criticism of Egmont that it ‘was conceived in the period when Goethe was under the influence of Shakespeare; it was mainly executed in the period when he had taken a classical direction. It wants the stormy life of Götz and the calm beauty of Iphigenia.’ Lewes does not, however, compare this with the present lines in Coriolanus. The parallelisms between the passage in Egmont and Jul. Cæs., I, i, 42-52 is, to me, much more striking. Marullus there berates the Citizens for their forgetfulness of Pompey in a strain similar to that in Egmont, and in a like situation.—Ed.]—Verity (Student's Sh.) compares this present passage with the above lines in Jul. Cæs., adding: ‘In either case the street-architecture seems that of Elizabethan London. Another example of Shakespeare's power of suggesting to the mind's eye some crowded, moving pageant is that wonderful picture (praised so by Dryden) of Bolingbroke's stateentry into London with King Richard in his train, Richard II: V, ii, 1-40. No doubt the use of these long passages of description was due to the lack of scenery on the Elizabethan stage, i. e., of means to appeal to the physical eye. The classical example is the scene in King Lear (IV, vi, 11-22), where the blind Gloucester wishes to throw himself from what he supposes to be Dover Cliff. Compare also the description of the cliff at Elsinore, Hamlet, I, iv, 70-78. The same thing is felt in the prologues of Henry V, especially Prol. iv. (describing the camp-scenes on the eve of Agincourt).’