ABSTRACT
On the night of 6 February 1934 the French lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, was attacked by large numbers of right-wing political activists. There were of course many causes of the bloody events of that night, but a good case can be made that the pro-fascist production of Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus at the Comdie-Franaise was a significant factor. Coriolanus tells the story of the fifth-century bc Roman nobleman Caius Martius, as found in the writings of the Greek historian Plutarch. Coriolanus is a dark, intense and passionate play, lacking humour and offering the performers little opportunity for audience contacts, qualities which are so important to the effect of many other Shakespearean tragedies. Coriolanus take place during the time when Rome was a republic. In its earliest days Rome was ruled by kings, but the monarchy was driven out late in the sixth century bc by the nobility.
