Shakespeare's Roman Trilogy: The Twilight of the Ancient World by Paul A. Cantor

Author:Paul A. Cantor [Cantor, Paul A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-226-46265-3
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2017-05-18T04:00:00+00:00

Where is this viper

That would depopulate the city and

Be every man himself? (3.1.262–64)

This drive to “be every man himself” is what motivates the Roman heroes in their struggles for preeminence. Confronted by his mother’s embassy from Rome, Coriolanus lays claim to being self-sufficient and independent of all ordinary human ties:

I’ll never

Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand

As if a man were author of himself,

And knew no other kin. (5.3.34–37)

The choice Shakespeare’s Roman heroes face is this: either accept the limits set by the city and accommodate oneself to the regime or seek out some form of tyranny, however subtle or exotic—a way of life independent of and superior to the city’s.

Ultimately the tyrannical desire of the Roman heroes takes the form of a will to apotheosis. Spurning any conventional sense of the limits of humanity, these heroes wish to become gods. Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony all at one point or another are portrayed as divine. Menenius, for example, characterizes the wrathful Coriolanus threatening to destroy Rome in these terms: “What he bids be done is finish’d with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in” (5.4.22–24).10 Cominius pictures Coriolanus as achieving divine status among the Volsces:

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