Home > Shakespearean Criticism > Coriolanus (Vol. 75) - Marc Geisler (essay date 1997)

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Marc Geisler (essay date 1997)

SOURCE: Geisler, Marc. “Collecting a National Voice: Shakespeare's Coriolanus and the People's Grievances.” Journal of Theatre and Drama 3 (1997): 17-44.

[In the following essay, Geisler examines the ways in which Coriolanus seems to presage the English Civil War of 1642, arguing that the play accurately dramatizes the way that political petitioning may be used against a monarchy.]

I

In a striking scene of calculated manipulation, the tribune Sicinius prepares to assemble the voices of the people in order to foment a popular protest against Coriolanus' election as a consul:

SICINIUS

Have you a catalogue

Of all the voices that we have procured,

Set down by th' poll?

AEDILE

I have, 'tis ready.

SICINIUS

Have you collected them by tribes?

AEDILE

I have.

...

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1. Introduction
2. Criticism: Character Studies
   1. Eugene M. Waith (essay date 1962)
   2. Jane Carducci (essay date 1987)
3. Criticism: Production Reviews
   1. Robert Shore (review date 30 June 2000)
   2. Ben Brantley (review date 11 September 2000)
   3. John Lahr (review date 18 September 2000)
   4. Heidi Holder (review date May 2001)
4. Criticism: Themes
   1. Marc Geisler (essay date 1997)
   2. Alex Garganigo (essay date 2002)
5. Further Reading
6. Copyright