We have seen that, according to Plutarch, Volumnia was entrusted with the selection of her son's wife. This Shakespeare omits, perhaps as incongruous with the spontaneousness of the relation between his wedded lovers, but it may have left a trace in the position he assigns to Virgilia. The mother-in-law has and claims the leading place; and, as Kreyssig remarks, with a woman of the daughter-in-law's steady inflexibility, collisions more proper for comedy than for tragedy must inevitably ensue, unless there were a strict delimitation of spheres. Volumnia continues to be prompter and guide in all matters political. She has all the outward precedence. On his return from Corioli, her son gives her the prior reverence and salutation, and, only as it were by her permission, turns to his wife. When the deputation of ladies appears in his presence before Rome, he seems for a moment to be surprised out of his decorum, and his first words of passionate greeting are for Virgilia; but he presently recovers, and, with a certain accent of reproof, turns on himself:

You gods! I prate,

And the most noble mother of the world
Leave unsaluted: sink, my knee, i' the earth :
Of thy deep duty more impression show
Than that of common sons.

(v. iii. 48.)

Evidently, his love for his wife, intense though it be, is a thing apart, a sanctuary of his most inmost feeling, and is quite out of relation with the affairs of the jostling world. In them his mother has supreme sway, and Virgilia's unobtrusive graciousness does not exercise even an indirect influence on his ingrained principles and prejudices. She is no makeweight against the potent authority of Volumnia.

CHAPTER V

THE GREATNESS OF CORIOLANUS. AUFIDIUS

In the atmosphere then of Volumnia's predominance we are to imagine young Marcius growing up from infancy to boyhood, from boyhood to youth, environed by all the most inspiring and most exclusive traditions of an old Roman family of the bluest blood. After the expulsion of the Tarquins, we must suppose that there was no more distinguished gens than his. The tribune Brutus gives the long bead roll of his ancestry, the glories of which, as has already been shown, are even exaggerated in his statement through Shakespeare's having made a little mistake in regard to Plutarch's account, and having included representatives of later among those of former generations. But Volumnia is not the mother to let him rest on the achievements of his predecessors; he must make them his own by equalling or excelling them. He begins as a boy, and already in his maiden fight his exploits rouse admiration. Plutarch describes the circumstance:

The first time he went to the warres, being but a strippling, was when Tarquine surnamed the prowde . . . dyd come to Rome with all the ayde of the Latines, and many other people of Italie. . . . In this battell, wherein were many hotte and sharpe encounters of either partie, Martius valliantly fought in the sight of the Dictator; and a Romaine souldier being throwen to the ground even hard by him, Martius straight bestrid him, and slue the enemie with his owne

handes that had overthrowen the Romaine. Hereupon, after the battell was wonne, the Dictator dyd not forget so noble an acte, and therefore first of all he crowned Martius with a garland of oken boughs.

This furnishes Cominius with the prologue to his eulogy :

At sixteen years,

When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought
Beyond the mark of others: our then dictator,
Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight,
When with his Amazonian chin he drove
The bristled lips before him: he bestrid
An o'erpress'd Roman and i' the consul's view
Slew three opposers: Tarquin's self he met
And struck him on his knee in that day's feats,
When he might act the woman in the scene,

He proved the best man i' the field, and for his meed
Was brow-bound with the oak.

(11. ii. 91.)

But it will be noticed that in Shakespeare's version Marcius' prowess is enhanced: not one opponent but three fall before him; he confronts the archenemy himself, and has the best of it. Similarly his derring-do at Corioli is raised to the superhuman. Plutarch's statement, as he feels, makes demands, but it is moderate compared with Shakespeare's.

Martius being in the throng emong the enemies, thrust him selfe into the gates of the cittie, and entred the same emong them that fled, without that any one of them durst at the first turne their face upon him, or els offer to slaye him. But he looking about, him and seeing he was entred the cittie with very fewe men to helpe him, and perceyving he was envirouned by his enemies that gathered round about to set apon him: dyd things then as it is written, wonderfull and incredible: By this meanes, Lartius that was gotten out, had some leysure to bring the Romaines with more safetie into the cittie.

Here he is accompanied at least by a few, among whom, it is implied, the valiant Lartius is one, and Lartius having extricated himself, comes back with reinforcements to help him. But in Shakespeare he

is from beginning to end without assistance, and his boast, "Alone I did it," is the literal truth. The first soldier says, discreetly passing over the disobedience of the men:

Following the fliers at the very heels,

With them he enters; who, upon the sudden,
Clapp'd to their gates: he is himself alone
To answer all the city.

And Cominius reports:

Alone he enter'd

(1. iv. 49.)

(II. ii. 114.)

The mortal gate of the city, which he painted With shunless destiny; aidless came off. But he is not merely, though he is conspicuously, a soldier. He is also a general who once and again. gives proof of his strategic skill. Nor do his qualifications stop here. He has the forethought and insight of a statesman, at any rate in matters of foreign and military policy. He has anticipated the attack of the Volsces with which the play begins, as we learn from the remark of the First Senator:

Marcius, 'tis true that you have lately told us;
The Volsces are in arms.

(1. i. 231.) So after their disaster at Corioli, he estimates the situation aright, when even Cominius is mistaken, and conjectures that the enemy is only waiting an opportunity for renewing the war :

So then the Volsces stand but as at first,

Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road
Upon's again.

(III. i. 4.)

And this, as we presently learn, is quite correct.

Even in political statesmanship, the department in which he is supposed to be specially to seek, he has a sagacity and penetration that show him the centre of the problem. This does not necessarily mean that his solution is the true one; and still less does it mean that he is wise in proclaiming his views when and where he does so: but the views themselves are certainly deep-reaching and acute, and

such as would win approval from some of the greatest builders of states, the Richelieus, the Fredericks, the Bismarcks. He is quite right in denying that his invectives against the concession are due to "choler":

Choler!

Were I as patient as the midnight sleep,
By Jove, 'twould be my mind!

policy of

(III. i. 84.)

His objections are in truth no outbreaks of momentary exasperation, though that may have added pungency to their expression, but mature and sober convictions, that have a worth and weight of their own. As we might expect; for Shakespeare derives almost all of them from Plutarch; and Plutarch, who had thought about these things, puts several of his favourite ideas in Coriolanus' mouth, even while condemning Coriolanus' bigotry and harshness; and while, for dramatic fitness, suppressing the qualifications and provisos that he himself thought essential.

To Marcius the root of the matter is to be found in the fact that the Roman Republic is not a democracy but an aristocracy, and in this respect he contrasts it with some of the Greek communities.

Therefore sayed he, they that gave counsell, and persuaded that the corne should be geven out to the common people gratis, as they used to doe in citties of Graece, where the people had more absolute power; dyd but only nourishe their disobedience, which would breake out in the ende, to the utter ruine and overthrowe of the whole state.

Shakespeare's transcription is, but for the interpolated interruption, fairly close :

Coriolanus. Whoever gave that counsel, to give forth
The corn o' the storehouse gratis, as 'twas used

Sometime in Greece,-

Menenius. Well, well, no more of that.

Coriolanus. Though there the people had more absolute

power,

I say, they nourished disobedience, fed

The ruin of the state.

(III. i. 113.)