SOURCE: Geisler, Marc. “Collecting a National Voice: Shakespeare's Coriolanus and the People's Grievances.” Journal of Theatre and Drama 3 (1997): 17-44.

In the following essay, Geisler examines the ways in which Coriolanus seems to presage the English Civil War of 1642, arguing that the play accurately dramatizes the way that political petitioning may be used against a monarchy.

I

In a striking scene of calculated manipulation, the tribune Sicinius prepares to assemble the voices of the people in order to foment a popular protest against Coriolanus' election as a consul:

SICINIUS

Have you a catalogue 

Of all the voices that we have procured, 

Set down by th' poll? 

AEDILE

I have, 'tis ready. 

SICINIUS

Have you collected them by tribes? 

AEDILE

I have. 

SICINIUS

Assemble presently the people hither, 

And when they hear me say ‘It shall be so 

I'th' right and strength o'th' commons', be it either 

For death, for...