B 0 0 KS.

CORIOLANUS AND HAMLET.* I cusomax with great pleasure the appearance of the Coriolanus volume in the admirable Arden Shakespeare—a work which began to appear in 1899 and, in spite of the drums and tramplings of war, has pursued the majestic tenor of its way. This book' was left unfinished by Mr. Craig, but has been effi- ciently completed by Mt. Case, the present editor of the series. Coriolanus well repays the flood of scholarship poured upon it in the present volume, for Coriolanus is intellectually, though not, of course, emotionally or from the imaginative standpoint, one of the greatest plays written by Shakespeare. There are things in it which show that the poet dived into the mind of every kind of man and into every recess of the human heart in a manner which produces a sense of awe and even of uncanniness, sometimes almost too poignant. Poets can know too much. Shakespeare, as the universal advocate and universal trimmer of the enchanted boat of existence, seems in Coriolanus to have got himself into the position of a man who is " fed up " with all the talk about peace and universal brotherhood which had become the fashion, partly owing to natural reaction from the great times of Elizabeth, and partly owing to the natural poltroonery and dislike of all physical force shown by that disgusting, but clever, pedant James L If you wanted to please the King, you must be an effeminate Pacifist from every point of view. The King even made that truculent old swashbuckler Ben Jonson write in the "New Inn" againstthe old- f ashioned ideas of honour and the duel. In the courtly Bacon again, and, indeed, in all other amenable writers, we find that the word had gone round that war was a vile and degrading thing per se, and that peace had no fellow. Apparently Shake- speare, not because he was an enemy of peace, but because he always liked to put the other side, determined to see whether he could not incidentally and almost slyly set forth in a touch or two what could be said against peace, and also what could be said against the liberal ideas which were fast becoming fashionable—though they were largely his own ideas. Almost certainly Shakespeare, the man, the supporter of the Virginia Company, thought favourably of a wise and moderate Liberal Polity.

Coriolanus was the great reactionary, and Shakespeare was determined to show what could be said for reactionaries as well as for murderers, Jews, tyrants, and all sorts of other unpopular and anti-social figures. The passage about peace in Coriolanus, though ironic, is one of the most memorable in Shakespeare. . It is a warning_a notice board. Coriolanus, it will be remem- bered, an exile, seeks the capital of the Volscians, and finds them preparing a great banquet. The waiters are talking as they will—waiters are always cynical—over things while the feasters are still at their wine. The shrewdest of them points out that war is in the air. To this the second servitor replies :— " Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers."

There follows more of this conventional banter, and then the first servitor breaks in with his view of Peace, and what it does :—

" FrEIST SERVITOR : Ay, and it makes men hate one another. THIRD Szavrron: Reason : because they then less need one another."

Here, indeed, is something to make the extreme Pacifists consider themselves and their views, for that was always Shake- speare's object. The people who push the need of the communal spirit too far and overdo their dislike of individualism have got to remember that peace tends to make for isolation. The passage that immediately follows, though in a new Hoene, is another wonderful piece of ironic political comment

Swarms : We hear not of him, neither need we fear him ; His remedies are tame i' the present peace And quietness o' the people, which before Were in wild hurry. Here we do make his friends Blush that the world goes well, who rather had, Though they themselves did suffer by it, behold Dissentious numbers, pestring streets, than see Our tradesmen singing in their shops and going About their functions friendly. Baurns : We stood to 't in good time."

• (1) The Tragedy of Coriolanus. Edited by W. J. Craig and R. H. Case. ILethuen and Co. [68. net.)—(2) Shakespeare's "Hank." By A. Clutton- Brock. Methuen and Co. Os. net.'

" Him " is, of course, Coriolanus. Sicinius is a constitutional politician.

But this is nothing in its cryptic and tantalizing darkness to a passage in Act L, Scene 9, which runs as follows :- " MAncrus (Coriolanus): I thank you, general ; But cannot make my heart consent to take A bribe to pay my sword : I do refuse it ; And stand upon my common part with those That have beheld the doing.

(A long flourish. They all cry, • Marcius Marcius ! ' cast up their caps and lances : Cominius and Lartius stand bare.) May these same instruments, which you profane, Never sound more ! When drums and .trumpets shall. I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be Made all of false fao'd soothing !

When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk, Let him be made an overturefor the wars !"

There are some admirable notes upon this Stygian diatribe, and no one who likes, as I must confess I do, to worry words as a dog worries bones, will be otherwise than delighted to find how much can be said about " parasite's silk," " an overture," and so on. If Shakespeare and Browning, as would seem probable, are on the same plane in Elysium, how they would be amused to put their heads together and smile over the conundrums which they have so innocently set the critics. In any case,

Coriolanus will always give the commentators plenty to do. With Coriolanus I may notice Mr. Clutton-Brock's three very fascinating little essays on Shakespeare's " Hamlet."2 All who

like reading about Shakespeare, as well as reading Shakespeare, as in my opinion they ought, will be delighted to see the sympa- thetic, ingenuous and often very penetrating things which are said by Mr. Clutton-Brock. Indeed, there is not a page of this little book on which there is not something stimulating and delightful. Perhaps, however, though on the whole he is quite fair to Ophelia, many of us will feel rather sorry that he has not been a little more chivalrously sympathetic.

I confess that I love beyond measure the fiery spirit of the English naval officer• who, when a German critic in writing about. Hamlet declared with Teutonic effrontery that Ophelia had certainly been seduced by Hamlet, immediately sent him a challenge. After all, that is the proper way to feel about Shakespeare's characters. They are not quite as real but a great deal more real than life. With tepid admirers of Ophelia, Miranda, Viola, Juliet and Rosalind, and their vapid com-

mendations, I have no patience. J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.