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 and 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.