United States or Caribbean Netherlands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
She fancied the head of one of the Roman emperors to be like his Grace of Montague; she had a very lively though garbled familiarity with the histories of the veritable Brutus and Cassius, Coriolanus, Cato, Alexander, and other mighty, picturesque, cobbled-up ancients, into whose mouths she could put appropriate speeches; and she accepted a loan of his 'Plutarch's Lives, "to clear up her classics," as she said merrily; altogether poor Squire Rowland felt that he had feasted at an intellectual banquet.
The effect produced upon the people by the invasion of which I complain may lead to consequences which it is impossible to foresee; and although I am not a Coriolanus, and do not command the Volsci, I have a sufficiently good opinion of the Swedes to assure you that they dare undertake anything to avenge insults which they have not provoked, and to preserve rights to which they are as much attached as to their lives.
For both Coriolanus and Camillus were banished on account of the wrongs which they inflicted on the commons; and though the former was not forgiven because he constantly retained ill will against the people, the latter was not only recalled, but for the rest of his life honoured as a prince.
Then the matrons assembled in a body around Veturia, the mother of Coriolanus, and his wife, Volumnia: whether that was the result of public counsel, or of women's fear, I can not clearly ascertain.
But it is a fair and noble specimen, it is a highly-qualified, 'illustrious instance, of this instinctive heroic virtue, he has seized on here, and made ready now for his experiment; and even when he brings him in, reeking from the fresh battlefield, with the blood undried on his brow, rejoicing in his harvest, even amid the horrors of the conquered town, this Poet, with his own ineffable and matchless grace of moderation, will have us pause and listen while his Coriolanus, ere he will take food or wine in his Corioli, gives orders that the Volscian who was kind to him personally the poor man at whose house he lay shall be saved, when he is so weary with slaying Volscians that 'his very memory is tired, and he cannot speak his poor friend's name.
Now, though he is very unlike Shakespeare's Coriolanus, yet there is resemblance enough between them to make the comparison very amusing.
Some of the lines are very grossly applied. As You Like it, act iii. sc. 2. The giant's name is Gargantua, not Garagantua. Coriolanus, act iii. sc. 1. See vol. i. p. 498. See ante, ii. 236, where Johnson charges Robertson with verbiage. This word is not in his Dictionary. Pope, meeting Bentley at dinner, addressed him thus: 'Dr. Bentley, I ordered my bookseller to send you your books.
The character of Coriolanus, though high and noble, is quite as likely to inspire resentment as to awaken sympathy. It contains many elements and all of them are good; but chiefly it typifies the pride of intellect. This, in itself a natural feeling and a virtuous quality, practically becomes a vice when it is not tempered with charity for ignorance, weakness, and the lower orders of mind.
Some of the talkers noticed him, and connected him and his class a little injuriously with the events of the day. Just as he passed the corner, brushing very near some of the talkers and casting a hurried glance at the bulletin-board one of the crowd, a rough fellow who might have belonged to the set who growled and hooted Coriolanus out of Rome, broke out with: "There goes one of them, now!"
'It won't do; the design is bad, the artist petulantly exclaimed as his daughter re-entered the apartment, and he dashed his pencil to the ground. 'What won't do, dear papa? Amy gently inquired. 'I've spent the whole night deciding on a subject, and now that I have sketched it, see that it's not suitable, he pettishly made answer. 'What is it, papa? 'Coriolanus and his mother.
Word Of The Day