Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
Actus Quintus. [Scene I.] Miss C. Porter (First Folio Sh.): The part of the Act now marked Scene I. was shown on the fore-stage, and, as we may guess, the entry of the group was made from the end of the outer-stage (either right or left of the rear-stage compartment). This entrance stands all through the play for most of the Roman localities, as the ‘Cyprus grove’ side, opposite, stood, all through, for the open country and the out-of-Rome localities. When Menenius goes on his errand (l. 73) perhaps he made his exit through the ‘Cyprus grove.’ The dialogue, after he leaves, gives space of time enough for the audience to suppose him on his way, and when the Roman group goes off (l. 86) as it had entered, then, at the point marked now as Scene II, Menenius appeared again from the ‘Cyprus grove’ side, and, approaching the rear-stage or tent of Coriolanus, held his parley with the two men on guard who barred his progress (see Folio stage-direction II, i.).
William Shakespeare. Horace Howard Furness, Jr., A. B.; Litt. D. The Tragedie of Coriolanus. Philadelphia and London. J. B. Lippincott Company.
NSF, NEH: Digital Libraries Initiative, Phase 2 provided support for entering this text.