ABSTRACT
The stage directions in Coriolanus, which are considered to be authentically Shakespeare's, identify the Roman people in varying ways. Taking together the collective terms for the Roman people, one finds varying inflections, which encompass the respectful, the neutral, and the dismissive. If the Roman people were a single character, one would say that its identity has no single or absolute register. Citizen has loftier claims, all of whose associated meanings are positive. A citizen is a member of a community, one whose rights and duties go well beyond a narrow allegiance to class. There is nothing here like the brutal capriciousness of Cade's mob in 2 Henry VI, or the blood-lust that Antony arouses during the Forum scene. Shakespeare conclude, then, that the essential underlying feature of the modern Coriolanus in England is its disengagement from politics. From time to time, directors do indeed sketch in a political allusion.
