Coriolanus (first printed from a singularly bad text in 1623) similarly owes its origin to the biography of the hero in Norths Plutarch, although Shakespeare may have first met the story in Painters Palace of Pleasure (No. iv.) He again adhered to the text of Plutarch with the utmost literalness, and at times-even in the great crises of the action-repeated Norths translation word for word. But the humorous scenes are wholly of Shakespeares invention, and the course of the narrative was at times slightly changed for purposes of dramatic effect. The metrical characteristics prove the play to have been written about the same period as Antony and Cleopatra, probably in 169. In its austere temper it contrasts at all points with its predecessor. The courageous self-reliance of Coriolanuss mother, Volumnia, is severely contrasted with the submissive gentleness of Virgilia, Coriolanuss wife. The hero falls a victim to no sensual flaw, but to unchecked pride of caste, and there is a searching irony in the emphasis laid on the ignoble temper of the rabble, who procure his overthrow. By way of foil, the speeches of Menenius give dignified expression to the maturest political wisdom. The dramatic interest throughout is as single and as unflaggingly sustained as in Othello.

About the Author

The poets birth and baptism. John Shakespeares marriage with Mary Arden doubtless took place at Aston Cantlowe, the parish church of Wilmcote, in the autumn of 1557 (the church registers begin at a later date). On September 15, 1558, his first child, a daughter, Joan, was baptised in the church of Stratford. A second child, another daughter, Margaret, was baptised on December 2, 1562; but both these children died in infancy. The poet William, the first son and third child, was born on April 22 or 23, 1564. The latter date is generally accepted as his birthday, mainly (it would appear) on the ground that it was the day of his death. There is no positive evidence on the subject, but the Stratford parish registers attest that he was baptised on April 26. Alleged birthplace. Some doubt is justifiable as to the ordinarily accepted scene of his birth. Of two adjoining houses forming a detached building on the north side of Henley Street, that to the east was purchased by John Shakespeare in 1556, but there is no evidence that he owned or occupied the house to the west before 1575. Yet this western house has been known since 1759 as the poets birthplace, and a room on the first floor is claimed as that in which he was born. The two houses subsequently came by bequest of the poets granddaughter to the family of the poets sister, Joan Hart, and while the eastern tenement was let out to strangers for more than two centuries, and by them converted into an inn, the birthplace was until 1806 occupied by the Harts, who latterly carried on there the trade of butcher. The fact of its long occupancy by the poets collateral descendants accounts for the identification of the western rather than the eastern tenement with his birthplace. Both houses were purchased in behalf of subscribers to a public fund on September 16, 1847, and, after extensive restoration, were converted into a single domicile for the purposes of a public museum. They were presented under a deed of trust to the corporation of Stratford in 1866. Much of the Elizabethan timber and stonework survives, but a cellar under the birthplace is the only portion which remains as it was at the date of the poets birth.