The nature of the material and the whole conception of the play required that the pride of Coriolanus should occasionally be expressed with repellant arrogance. But we feel, through all the intentional artistic exaggeration of the hero's self-esteem, how there arose in Shakespeare's own soul, from the depth of his stormy contempt for humanity, a pride immeasurably pure and steadfast.
[1] Plays confuted in Five several Actions, by Stephen Gosson, 1580.
[2] It is therefore a droll error into which the otherwise admirable writer, Professor Fr. Paulson, falls in his essay, Hamlet die Tragedie des Pessimismus (Deutsche Rundschau, vol. lix. p. 243), when he remarks as a proof of the sensuality of Hamlet's nature: "Man erinnere sich nur seiner Intimität mit der Schauspielern; als sie ankommen, fällt sein Blick sogleich auf die Füsse der Schauspielerin.
[3] "A Prologue to introduce the first woman that came to act on this stage, in the tragedy called The Moor of Venice: "—
"I come unknown to any of the rest
To tell you news; I saw the lady drest.
The woman plays to day; mistake me not,
No man in gown or page in petticoat:
A woman to my knowledge, yet I can't
If I should die, make affidavit on't....
'Tis possible a virtuous woman may
Abhor all sorts of looseness and yet play,
Play on the stage when all eyes are upon her.
Shall we count that a crime, France counts an honour?"
[4] See Shakespeare's Tragedy of Coriolanus, by the Rev. Henry N. Hudson, Professor of Shakespeare at Boston University. Boston, 1881.