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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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190
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CORIOLANUS NO ARISTOCRAT .
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{ Continuedfrom p . 139 . ) The second act opens with Menenius and the two tribunes accidentally meeting in the forum ,, and they enter into a
discussion on the merits of Coriolanus ; the former defending , the two latter attacking him . Menenius has much the best of the argument ; but he does not thereby gonvince the tribunes , whoso sinister interest lies in not being convinced . Volumnia ., Virgilia , and Valeria now enter with the news that Coriolanus is coming home victorious , and old Menenius can scarce contain himself for the emotions of generous joy . He asks if he is wounded , when Virgilia gives way to affright , and Volumnia , in the emotions of pride which discard the kindlier feelings , exclaims , . * Oh ! he is wounded , I thank the gods for it /
Her thoughts are , My butcher has been in peril in the slaughterhouse , and his wages will be raised in consequence , an advantage which I shall share . ' ' In troth there are wondrous things spoke of him , ' says the gossiping Valeria ; and Virgilia , as if ray-stricken by the ' moon of Rome / mouths out , The gods grant them true ; ' whereon Volumnia laughs her doubts to scorn with , ' True ! pow wow / Then Menenius asks where he is wounded , and the tender mother replies ,
' Fthe shoulder and the left arm : there will be large cicatrices to show the people , when he shall stand for his place . He received in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i'the body . * * * He had , before this last expedition , twenty-five wounds upon him . ' 4
Now it ' s twenty-seven' ( says Menenius ) . * Every gash was an enemy s grave . * But the fierce spirit which animates Volumnia , like that of tho Itunic poets and divinities , is shown most forcibly in her fiendlike exultation in the next lines , speaking of the trumpets :
These are the ushers of Marcius ; before him He carries noise , behind him he leaves tears ; Death , that dark spirit , in ' s nervy arm doth lie , Which being advanced , declines ; and then men die . The savage warriors of the western wilderness praise their o . hiVfs in the same terms . Destruction is their idol . An there weir
two such , there would be none shortly , for the one ' would kill tin other . ' When Coriplanus enters the senate-house in triumph , browbound with the oaken garland , all but the tribunes hail him with joy ; they are blind to all but the diminution of their own importance , and fresh hatred against the hero is the result . Th ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 190, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/30/
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