Title page
CORIOLANUS. A TRAGEDY, by SHAKESPEARE, AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRE-ROYAL, DRURY-LANE,
Regulated from the PROMPT-BOOK, With PERMISSION of the MANAGERS, By Mr. HOPKINS, Prompter.
An INTRODUCTION, and NOTES Critical and Illustrative, ARE ADDED, BY THE AUTHORS of the DRAMATIC CENSOR.
LONDON:
Printed for JOHN BELL, near Exeter-Exchange, in the Strand; and C. ETHERINGTON, at York.MDCCLXXIII.
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INTRODUCTION.
CORIOLANUS.
We must very much applaud Shakespeare for his frequent
choice of historical subjects, and his strict adherence
to those he selected; however we think here he
got upon rather a barren spot; genius could not mount
on free wing; for heroism, and that rather of a savage
kind, without any additional concerns that might engage
attention or touch the heart, is too limited an idea
for five acts; wherefore we find that our author was
under the tiresome necessity of employing near three acts
of the five, in tedious repetitions of fulsome panegyrics
on his hero—what the theme would allow he has struck
out, and we readily allow Coriolanus, Menenius, and
Volumnia to be well supported; but the piece, altogether,
can never be much a public or private favourite.
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DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
Caius Martius Coriolanus,
Mr. Mossop.
Titus Lartius,
Mr. Simson.
Cominius,
Mr. Davies.
Menenius Agrippa,
Mr. Berry.
Sicinius Velutus,
Mr. Bransby.
Junius Brutus,
Mr. Burton.
Tullus Aufidius,
Mr. Howard.
Lieutenant to Aufidius.
Young Martius,
Mr. J. Simson.
Conspirators with Aufidius.
Volumnia,
Mrs. Pritchard.
Virgilia,
Mrs. Davies.
Valeria,
Mrs. Bennet.
Roman and Volscian Senators, Ædiles, Lictors, Soldiers,
Common People, Servants to Aufidius, and other Attendants.
The SCENE is partly in Rome, and partly in the Territory of the Volscians, and Antiates.
The whole History exactly follow'd, and many of the
principal speeches copy'd, from the Life of Coriolanus,
in Plutarch.
