Shakespeare's Coriolanus is, as T.S. Eliot would have it, an even more successful drama than Hamlet. Despite this, it has not been staged nearly as often, or enjoyed the same level of commercial and critical success. Indeed, during the 1930s, Coriolanus was even banned in France for a time due to the rising threat of fascism.
When looking at the play, it isn't difficult to see what fascists might have liked about it: Coriolanus is one of Shakespeare's most "military" plays, focusing on the tragic life and exploits of the general Caius Martius Coriolanus, who earns acclaim fighting in the wars of the ancient Roman Republic. Coriolanus is exalted by his contemporaries as one of the...
