First Citizen. For mine own part, When I said, banish him, I said ’twas pity.
Second Citizen. And so did I.
Third Citizen. And so did I: and, to say the truth, so did very many of us....
First Citizen. I ever said we were i’ the wrong when we banished him.
Second Citizen. So did we all.
(IV. vi. 139 and 155.)
What then is Shakespeare’s opinion of the people as a whole? Despite his sympathy with those of whom it is composed, it is to him a giant not yet in his teens, with formidable physical strength, with crude natural impulses to the good and the bad, kindly-natured and simple-minded, not incapable of fair-dealing and generosity; but rude, blundering, untaught, and therefore subject to spasms of fury, panic, and greed, fit for useful service only when it finds the right leader, but sure to go wrong if abandoned to its own or evil guidance.
To the danger of evil guidance, however, it is specially exposed, for it loves flattery and is imposed on by professions of goodwill: so Shakespeare reserves his severest treatment for those who cajole it, the demagogues of the Tribunate. No doubt in his tolerant objective way he concedes even to them a measure of justification. He was bound to do so, else they would have been outside the pale of dramatic sympathy; and also the culpability of Coriolanus would have been obscured. So there is something to be said even for their policy and management. They are quite right in fearing the results of Coriolanus’ elevation to the chief place in Rome:
Sicinius.On the sudden,
I warrant him consul.