CITY OF IN-GRAT IA: ROMAN INGRAT ITUDE IN SHAKESPEARE ’ S CORIOLANUS 1

Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is among the most politically rich of Shakespeare’s plays, and has often been produced with an ideological slant to the right or left. Shakespeare’s political interests, however, are more basic than these productions suggest. The article examines the theme of political gratitude in the play which gradually moves towards a theological and specifically Augustinian interpretation of the play. Three dimensions of the theme are explored: first, the ingratitude of the populace of Rome towards Coriolanus; second, Coriolanus ’ own ingratitude towards Rome and, finally and fundamentally, Rome’s essential perversion of the economy of benefit and gratitude. By hinting that pagan Rome cannot help but be a cannibalistic Mother-city, Coriolanus gestures towards another city, a city marked by grateful participation because it is the realm marked by gratia. A woman once requested that H. L. Mencken examine and critique two novels she had written. Mencken protested, then relented under a barrage of flattery, and found the manuscripts ‘wholly without merit—in fact, the veriest twaddle’. He wrote as much to the author, and was initially surprised when she never expressed her gratitude for his time and effort. On reflection, Mencken concluded that her failure to respond was ‘not discreditable to her, but highly creditable’, demonstrating ‘a certain human dignity, despite her imbecile writings’. Gratitude, Mencken concluded, is always a confession of inferiority, which is ‘degrading to the confessor ’ and embarrassing to the recipient of the confession. Altruists and philanthropes fish for gratitude and attempt ‘to get fuel for [their vanity] in the cheapest way’, and the grateful man is ‘essentially third rate ’ and ‘is conscious of it at the bottom of his heart’. Anyone who possesses an accurate knowledge of his gifts and limitations will avoid both giving favours and thanks: ‘He hesitates to demonstrat