The Physiology of Peace and Coriolanus

Abstract

Written in the midst of the eight-year Jacobean Peace (1604–1612), Coriolanus turns the physiology of war and peace inside out. “No body can be healthfull without Exercise, neither Naturall Body, nor Politique,” Francis Bacon had written. “And certainly, to a Kingdome or Estate, a Just and Honourable Warre, is the true Exercise… . [A] Forraine Warre, is like the Heat of Exercise, and serveth to keepe the Body in Health: For in a Slothful Peace, both Courages will effeminate, and Manners Corrupt.” Bacon's claims were based upon Galenic medical theory that asserts that bloodletting purges the human body of debilitating toxins so that the four humours achieve a balance insuring both physical and psychological health. Shakespeare shows Coriolanus, repeatedly likened to a disease or toxin, disturbing the public body's peace. The playwright transforms the standard physiology of war and peace when Coriolanus—in keeping with the tail-end of his name—is vented through the Roman equivalent of London's Dungate. Then Romans enjoy a harmonious peace (4.6.2–9). When he returns to Rome leading a Volscian army, Coriolanus, advised by Volumnia, negotiates a peace that, while costing him his life, appears to persist at play's end when a calm Aufidius, all passion spent, never utters hostile words concerning Rome. The social importance of peace in other late plays—Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline, and The Life of Henry VIII—agrees with Shakespeare's revaluation of war and peace in Coriolanus.