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    herself on him as a son , who can reflect honour upon her . She rejoices when any one praises him , in the thought that her training has made him what he is . She cares not for his honour abstractedly ,, but merely for his notoriety , and the power arising from it , nor does she make any distinction in the quality of the power , or how it may be gained , whether virtuously or by chicanery . All considerations of honour or dishonour vanish into

    mere expediency . All is fair and proper in her estimation , which can tend to secure power . Her opening speech proves that her love for her son is purely on account of his power . Had lie not possessed that power , she would have cared comparatively little for him , and her intellect is of that class which can only recognise power of the most coarse kind , that which is most evident to the external senses . A strong hand and a brawny arm weigh far more with her than a subtle brain . The latter she only holds available as an aid to the former . She much prefers the man who ' can buffet' for a woman ' s love , or bound his horse for her favours , laying on like a butcher and sitting like a jackanapes ; never off . ' Volumnia is speaking of her son :

    • To a cruel war I sent him , from whence he returned , his brows bound with oak . I tell thee , daughter , I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child , than now , in first seeing he had proved himself a man /

    What deep space there is for reflection in these words . Why should a woman glory in giving birth to a man-child , more than a woman-child ? Because Volumnia , like many other women , has the keenness , or rather the instinct , to perceive that the lot of woman is for the most part that of a slave , that she is generally linked to man as a necessary convenience , that she is at best not a sympathizing friend , but an amusing toy , to be thrown away when the owner is tired of it . She has the instinct to perceive that woman has no separate existence , no power , no enjoyment , apart from man , and her proud spirit feels that it is better not to be , than to be thus , therefore would she not , if she can avoid it .

    give birth to a woman-child . But man she sees is self-dependent , that he has an immense sphere of enjoyment in which woman is not concerned . She knows also that the link between mother and son is far the strongest and most enduring of any that holds between man and woman , and when she has given birth to a man-child , ' she at once becomes of more importance in the world . It is even

    thus with the women in the east in the present day , and Victor Hugo , in his admirable Ndtre Dame , makes the beautiful and childish Esmeralda taunt Gringoire with the superiority of Phoebus de Chateaupers , who , by his personal strength and other means , is better able to protect her . That Volumnia cared more for her son than for her child , is further proved by the following words :

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    Coriolanus no Aristocrat . 61

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    £ 2

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 51, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/53/