Coriolanus Critical Essays

Originally published in 1995. Providing the most influential historical criticism, but also some contemporary pieces written for the volume, this collection includes the most essential study and reviews of this tragic play. The first part contains critical articles arranged chronologically while the second part presents reviews of stage performances from 1901 to 1988 from a variety of sources. Chapters chosen are representative of their given age and critical approach and therefore show the changing responses and the topics that interested critics in the play through the years. Coriolanus is an unsympathetic character and the play has been traditionally less popular than other tragedies - a comprehensive introduction by the editor discusses these attitudes to the play and the reasons behind them.

General Editor’s Introduction Philip C. Kolin Introduction David Wheeler 1. Dedication to The Ingratitude of a Common-Wealth, 1682 Nahum Tate 2. The Argument of Coriolanus, 1710 Charles Gildon 3. Advertisement to Coriolanus, 1755 Thomas Sheridan 4. Coriolanus (from The Examiner, 15 December 1816) William Hazlitt 5. From Lecture XXVI, Criticisms on Shakespeare’s Historical Dramas, 1846 August Wilhelm von Schlegel 6. From A Study of Shakespeare, 1880 Algernon Charles Swinburne 7. Coriolanus (British Academy Lecture, 1912) A. C. Bradley 8. Shakespeare’s Coriolanus: Elizabethan Soldier, 1949 Paul A. Jorgensen 9. Coriolanus, 1965 Tyrone Guthrie 10. Coriolanus: Wordless Meanings and Meaningless Words, 1966 James L. Calderwood 11. Coriolanus: The Anxious Bridegroom, 1968 Emmett Wilson, Jr. 12. Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, Shakespeare’s Heroic Tragedies: A Jacobean Adjustment, 1973 J. L. Simmons 13. Coriolanus, 1974 Lawrence Danson 14. There is a World Elsewhere: Tragedy and History in Coriolanus, 1976 Patricia K. Meszaros 15. Coriolanus and Stavisky: The Interpenetration of Art and Politics, 1986 Felicia Hardison Londré 16. Annihilating Intimacy in Coriolanus, 1986 Madelon Sprengnether 17. Coriolanus’s Stage Imagery on Stage, 1754-1901, 1987 John Ripley 18. Coriolanus: Body Politic and Private Parts, 1990 Zvi Jagendorf 19. Drama, Politics, and the Hero: Coriolanus, Brecht, and Grass, 1990/91 Martin Scofield 20. To Their Own Purpose: The Treatment of Coriolanus in the Restoration and Eighteenth Century, 1994 David Wheeler 21. Shifting Masks, Roles, and Satiric Personae: Suggestions for Exploring the Edge of Genre in Coriolanus, 1994 Karen Aubrey 22. On Both Sides More Respect: A Very British Coriolanus, 1994 S. K. Bedford. Illustrations. Reviews: 1901 London Production with Sir Henry Irving The Athenaeum, Saturday Review; 1933 Paris Production The New York Times; 1954 New York Production The Nation, The New York Times, The New York Times; 1959 Stratford Production, with Laurence Olivier The New York Times; 1965 New York Production The New York Times, Shakespeare Quarterly, Commonweal; 1979 New York Production The Village Voice, New York magazine; 1985 London Production Newsweek, The New York Times ; 1988 New York Production Shakespeare Quarterly, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, The Nation