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comprehend , is a foul and monstrous libel on human nature . One of the fuller ' s companions says of Coriolanus , « I say , if he would incline to the people , there was never a worthier man . What he means by inclining to the people / is simply showing them forms of outward respect , —feigned sympathy . Not good government , but individual self-importance , was what was aimed at by the short-sighted citizen , as witness his words on the entry of Coriolanus to go through the customary forms : 4 are not to stay all together , but to come by him where he stands , by twos , and by threes . He ' s to make his requests by particulars : wherein every one of us has a single honour , in giving him our own voices with our own tongues : therefore follow me , and I'll direct
you how you shall go by him . ' It is the absurdity and meanness of all this which Coriolanus sees , and which , to the entreaties of Menenius to practice expediency / ( that Whig virtue , ) makes him answer , in the tones of impatient irony , after the following fashion : * What must I say ?—I pray , Sir , —Plague upon ' t ! I cannot bring
My tongue to such a pace : —Look , Sir ;—my wounds ;—I got them in my country ' s service , when Some certain of your brethren roar'd , and ran * From the noise of their awn drums . '
The fuller , and the fuller ' s still more self-important companion , enter to him with a hang-down foolish kind of look , not knowing what to say themselves , and waiting till they are spoken to . Had they been fluent of speech they would have expressed their notions after some such manner as this : * Sir , you are a brave man , and we are proud to think that you are one of our countrymen . We wish you would be a little more social with us , and stand upon this horse-block , and tell us how you fought , and how many men you killed with your own hand ; and , after that , we'll fling up our caps , and make you consul . So brave a man as you ought to be consul . ' This they think , but do > not say ; and Coriolanus , chafing like a . generous steed when hard-reined up and teasingly goaded , breaks silence in a tone half impatient half contemptuous : 4 You know the cause , sirs , of my standing here / Tho oppression is instantly taken off the fuller ' s tongue , and he
chimes in , We do , sir : tell us vvliat hath brought you to ' t . ' Coriolanus is no bragger , but he knows his own value ; end when he is challenged , he speaks of his own worth as he would have spoken of that of a stranger . His is not the mock modeaty
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Coriolanus no Aristocrat 19 &
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 195, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/35/
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