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Shakespeare's Coriolanus: Elizabethan Soldier

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Paul A. Jorgensen
Paul A. Jorgensen*
Affiliation:
University of California at Los Angeles
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Extract

The New Variorum Coriolanus offers ample evidence that criticism of this play has spent its force upon two sources of conflict: the relationship between plebs and patricians and the relationship between Coriolanus and his mother. These approaches have led to interesting speculation as to Shakespeare's own point of view. But the fact remains to be reckoned with that the two disastrous relationships which most have excited critics are also exciting in North's Plutarch and that Shakespeare's most important departures from his source are in another direction. In this paper I hope to show that Shakespeare drew principally upon the military situation of his own era and country in reshaping the Plutarchan story. In this reshaping, Coriolanus emerges as a soldier whose life comprises two significantly related phases: the soldier at war and the soldier in civil life. The Roman general's difficulty in adjusting himself to a non-military career is of central importance because Shakespeare gave this problem a greater prominence and more clearly defined statement than did Plutarch. Nevertheless, Coriolanus' rôle in warfare is, in Shakespeare's design, basic to an understanding of his rôle in peace. What is more, the complexity of the former rôle has been underestimated by critics, most of whom esteem him an excellent warrior.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 64 , Issue 1: Issue 1 part 1 , March 1949 , pp. 221 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1949

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References

1 Such is the verdict of three major 20th century critics: Hardin Craig: “In the battles before Corioli Marcius is impeccable”—An Interpretation of Shakespeare (N. Y., 1948), p. 290; E. K. Chambers: “The first act shows us Coriolanus, on the whole, great; a great warrior, undaunted in danger, removed high above the greed and poltroonery of common man”—Coriolanus (N. Y., 1904), pp. xv-xvi; M. W. MacCallum: “He is … a general who once and again gives proof of his strategic skill”—Shakespeare's Roman Plays and Their Background (London, 1910), p. 373.

2 I have used the Complete Works, ed. Kittredge (Boston, 1936).

3 “My Lord of Essex was one of the first that got over the walls, followed by the souldiers as the place would give them leave”—The Commentaries of Sir Francis Vere (Cambridge, 1657), p. 39. Cf. p. 58.

4 “The Fight and Cyclone at Azores”, Arber's English Reprints (London, 1871), p. 90.

5 Ibid., pp. 91–92. Like Coriolanus (as seen by the tribunes), Grenville was a “man of intolerable pride and insatiable ambition”—Lane to Walsyngham, Sept. 8, 1585, Cal. State Papers (Col.), i, 3.

6 J. W. Fortescue, A History of the British Army (London, 1910), i, 149–150.

7 History of the Netherlands (1599): in W. B. Rye, England As Seen by Foreigners (London, 1865), p. 70.

8 Icon Animorum (1614); Englished by Thomas May (1633), p. 81: quoted in Willard Farnham, “The Tragic Prodigality of Life”, Essays in Criticism, Second Series (Berkeley, 1934), p. 189. Cf. Languet's letter to Sidney (Feb. 15, 1578): “In our countries we can carcely find a veteran commander and this is owing simply to our recklessness. The Spaniards alone are free from this species of madness and therefore they possess generals of the utmost experience in the art of war, who effect far more by genius than by strength.”

9 Robert Barret, The Theorike and Practike of Moderne Warres (London, 1598), p. 8.

10 Matthew Sutcliffe, The Practice, Proceedings, and Lawes of Armes (London, 1593), pp. 42–43. Cf. Barnaby Rich, The Fruites of Long Experience (London, 1604), pp. 29–30.

11 Rich, A Path-way to Military Practise (London, 1587), sig. C1v.

12 Certain Discourses, Written by Sir John Smythe, Knight (London, 1590), “Proeme Dedicatorie.”

13 Pathway, sig. C3. Sir John Norris engineered a famous retreat in 1592, “then the which”, wrote Bacon, “there hath not been an Exploit of Warre more celebrated. For in the true judgement of Men of Warre, honourable Retreats are no wayes inferiour to brave Charges; As having less of Fortune, more of Discipline, and as much of Valour”—Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine (London, 1629), p. 38.

14 Rich, A Right Exelent and Pleasaunt Dialogue (London, 1574), sig. C5.

15 MacCallum, p. 373.

16 Craig, p. 289.

17 The State in Shakespeare's Greek and Roman Plays (N. Y., 1940), p. 162.

18 George Peele, “Polyhymnia”, Works, ed. Dyce (London, 1829–39), ii, 204.

19 Campaspe, i, i, 82–84, Works, ed. Bond (Oxford, 1902). Shakespeare's earlier plays stress this ideal. Cf. Talbot's eulogy of Bedford (1 Henry VI, iii, ii, 134):

A braver soldier never couched lance,
A gentler heart did never sway in court and the idealization of the Black Prince in Richard II, ii, i, 173.

20 The definitions of Character writers, though oversimplified, are an index to the change in public opinion. See especially Overbury's “A Souldier”, a creature of wrath and impulsiveness, in The Overburian Characters, ed. Paylor (Oxford, 1936), p. 24, and the Character drawn by Shakespeare's Jaques, As You Like It, ii, vii, 149.

21 The Mirror of Honor (London, 1597), p. 33.

22 The dramatic importance of this party is proved by R. B. Sharpe, The Real War of the Theaters (Boston, 1935). A suggestive statement of the plight of Elizabethan “war men” is to be found in An Apologie of the Earle of Essex, against those which jealously and maliciously, tax him to be the hinderer of the peace and quiet of his country (London, 1603). See especially sigs. A2v, C1, and C1v.

23 Oct. 4, 1596. James Spedding, The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon (London, 1862), ii, 413.

24 For example, the account by Sir Francis Vere, most astute of Elizabethan generals, of his indiscretions at court, The Commentaries of Sir Francis Vere, pp. 26, 46–47, 66, 68. Also illuminating is the behavior of Christopher St. Lawrence at the Council table, where he spoke “pasionat as a Soldier”, Letters and Memorials of Stale, ed. Collins (London, 1746), ii, 137–138.

25 Annals of the Reformation, ed. Strype (Oxford, 1824), iv, 477.

26 The Arte of Warre, Written in Italian by Nicholas Machiavel, and set foorth in English by Peter Withorne (London, 1588), sig. A1.

27 Three to One: Being an English-Spanish Combat, Performed by a Westerne Gentleman, of Tavysloke in Devonshire with an English Quarter-Staffe, against Three Spanish Rapiers and Poniards … (London, 1625), sig. A4. For evidence that this kind of apology had already reached the status of a Character, see Nicholas Breton, “The Scholler and the Souldiour”, The Wil of Wit (London, 1597), sig. I4v.

28 Thomas Churchyard, A Generall Rehearsall of Warres (London, 1579), sigs. M3v, O1v, and O2.

29 Geffrey Gates, The Defence of Militarie Profession (London, 1579); Thomas Trussell, The Souldier Pleading His Owne Cause (London, 1619).

30 A Right Exelent and Pleasaunt Dialogue, sig. C2.

31 Shakespeare assuredly knew the work. Twelfth Night, according to Chambers, is probably indebted to the Farewell's “Appolonius and Sylla”, and another tale, “Of Two Brethren and Their Wives”, has recently been suggested as a source for The Merry Wives. See Dorothy H. Bruce, “The Merry Wives and Two Brethren”, SP, xxxix (1942).

32 Farewell, ed. Collier (London, 1846), pp. 22–23.

33 See the chapter on Coriolanus in J. E. Phillips, op. cit.

34 Fruites of Long Experience, p. 5.

35 Cf. C. G. Cruickshank, Elizabeth's Army (Oxford, 1946), pp. 9–10.

36 This sinister “policy” is not found in Plutarch's Aufidius. Shakespeare thus points the soldier-intriguer antithesis.

37 MacCallum, p. 510.

38 Cf. Henry V, v, i, 93–94.

39 Shakespeare's Satire (Oxford Univ. Press, 1943), p. 209.

40 Shakespeare's Plutarch, ed. Tucker Brooke (London, 1909), ii, 183.

41 Ibid., p. 185.

42 Ibid., p. 206.

43 MacCallum, p. 598.