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Untitled Article
heart and writhing lip , and bursting scorn , are all tokens of true nobility , while he says , To brag unto them , —Thus I did , and thus ;—Show them the unaching scars which I should hide , As if I had received them for the hire Of their breath only . ' He did what he did without bargaining or wishing for hire of any kind , either in gold or flattery . He did it under a high sense of moral duty , in order that he might enable himsel to wear an approving conscience , and he felt that to make an after-brag of it , for the sake of gaining office , would be to undo what he had done , —to lose his self-respect , and reduce himself to the level of a hireling gladiator , —to become one of the rabble of ambitious tricksters , whose valour , or knowledge , or eloquence , are never used , save as instruments for their own personal advancement . Shame fall on the tribunes , who for the gratification of petty
malice and pettier ambition could unworthily practice on a noble heart like this . The third scene is an election , which in scarcely any respect but one differs from an English election at the present day in a town or county where the people are still in ignorance of the true philosophy of elections as an instrument of human happiness . The differing point is the thorough nobleness of the candidate , Coriolanus . Is there Whig or Tory member who can match him in honesty of principle . Are the Radicals of his stamp numerous ? Alas , no ! Alas , and woe the while !
Our fr iend c g reat toe , ' the fuller , opens the popular question in the forum . There is something of high nature in him , rude though he be . At their former meeting Caius Marciua had put him down , yet the surname Coriolanus , won by honour and patriotism , seems to have wiped away all feelings of unkindness . He feels ( think , he cannot , to any depth ) that Coriolanus is worthy to be the consul , and he manfully avows his feelings :
4 Once , if he do require our voices , we ought not to deny him . ' One of his captious fellows , anxious to be of some importance , replies , ' We may , sir , if we will . ' A third deprecates any appear-(ance of ingratitude to him who has served his country , and the fuller naively remarks , that a very little help will serve' to fasten the imputation of ingratitude on the people , and make them ill thought of . This is as true as it is unjust . The ' masters o' the people' ever expect that ignorance should see clearly when benefits are intended , forgetting that the dog which is frequently unjustly beaten , not unfrequently bites the fingers oi those who beat him , even when they intend caresses ; but to say that the people , —that any people , —as a body , arc unjust to those who serve them , and whose mode of serving them they can
Untitled Article
194 i Coriolanus no Aristocrat .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 194, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/34/
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