ABSTRACT
As Coriolanus stands suspended between the Rome from which he has been exiled and the Antium to which he turns, he has this to say in explanation of his motivation:
O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart, Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise Are still together, who twin as ’twere in love Unseparable, shall within this hour, On the dissension of a doit, break out To bitterest enmity. So fellest foes, Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep To take the one the other, by some chance, Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends And interjoin their issues. So with me. (Coriolanus, 4.4. 12-22)
We do not ordinarily look to Coriolanus for introspection; nonetheless, this soliloquy – apparently offered in place of self-knowledge – is remarkable for how little it explains. Coriolanus tells us that he is going to join with Aufidius to make war upon his city because sometimes friends become enemies and sometimes enemies become friends, both for entirely trivial reasons (‘on the dissension of doit’ or for ‘a trick not worth an egg’). But why – given that his actions illustrate only the second of these generalizations – does he begin with those who ‘twin as ’twere in love’ and then ‘break out to bitterest enmity’? And why – given that his own reasons are anything but trivial – does he insist on the triviality of these quarrels?
