This generously annotated edition of Coriolanus offers a
thorough reconsideration of Shakespeare's remarkable, and probably
his last, tragedy. A substantial introduction situates the play
within its contemporary social and political contexts - death,
riots, the struggle over authority between James 1 and his first
parliament, the travails of Essex and Ralegh - and pays particular
attention to Shakespeare's shaping of his primary source in
Plutarch's Lives. It presents a fresh account of how the
protagonist's personal tragedy evolves within Shakespeare's most
searching exploration of the political life of a community. The
edition is alert throughout to the play's theatrical potential,
while the stage history also attends to the politics of performance
from the 1680s to the 1990s, including European productions
following the Second World War.