I'm always left gobsmacked by Shakespeare, how he can simultaneously be the writer of the smallest intimacies of the heart and the vastest visions of power.
In general in his plays, Shakespeare seems to fear the mob, whilst understanding the mob.
And its a play about sons and mothers, which is one of the things that makes the world what it is
Mind blown by the grain hoarding stuff. Good work Henry.
The mulberry and the rotten silk is a lovely catch, and it makes me look again at the speech Volumnia gives in Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus, which Shakespeare followed so closely through North's translation. There the mother's plea is made in public and is a straightforward appeal to duty. Shakespeare seems to have given her the more calculating, theatrical persuasion that you describe. Do you think the grain-hoarding connection in his own life made him more sceptical of the Roman patricians, or simply of the crowd?
This essay is simply magnificent - the genius of Shakespeare, the complexity of human motivation, the folly of the mob - the sheer wonder of being alive.
Brilliant. And if one of your missions is to encourage reading the classics (and I know it is) you have sent me back to my volumes of Shakespeare.
Ah excellent
Thank you
I'm always left gobsmacked by Shakespeare, how he can simultaneously be the writer of the smallest intimacies of the heart and the vastest visions of power.
In general in his plays, Shakespeare seems to fear the mob, whilst understanding the mob.
And its a play about sons and mothers, which is one of the things that makes the world what it is
Mind blown by the grain hoarding stuff. Good work Henry.
The mulberry and the rotten silk is a lovely catch, and it makes me look again at the speech Volumnia gives in Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus, which Shakespeare followed so closely through North's translation. There the mother's plea is made in public and is a straightforward appeal to duty. Shakespeare seems to have given her the more calculating, theatrical persuasion that you describe. Do you think the grain-hoarding connection in his own life made him more sceptical of the Roman patricians, or simply of the crowd?
Coriolanus dehumanizing others as 'rats' and 'fragments'…
'Rome and her rats are at the point of battle
Go, get you home, you fragments!
The crows to peck the eagles
You shames of Rome! you herd of - Boils and plagues'"
Shakespeare, "Coriolanus"
he is brutalized by the very forces of hatred and violence he weaponized.
Coriolanus is very much alive and around us today.
thank you for reminding me of Coriolanus.
This essay is simply magnificent - the genius of Shakespeare, the complexity of human motivation, the folly of the mob - the sheer wonder of being alive.
‘Tyrant’ is not an apt description of Coriolanus.
"Grain horder"- another profession Will put on his C.V.? Probably not. Just like he probably wouldn't have described himself as a "poacher", either.