The Third Citizen: Shakespeare's Theater and the Early Modern House of Commons

Epilogue: Losing Power, Losing Oneself: The Third Citizen and Tragedy

215 The most tremendous thing which has been granted to man is: the choice, freedom. And if you desire to save it and preserve it there is only one way: in the very same second unconditionally and in complete resignation to give it back to God, and yourself with it. Søren Kierkegaard, Journal We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do. The Third Citizen In the very first moments of Coriolanus, a company of lowly Roman “garliceaters ” debate whether or not they should kill Coriolanus, Rome’s greatest warrior and the darling of her patrician oligarchs: first citizen: First, you know Caius Martius is chief enemy to the people. all: We know’t, we know’t. first citizen: Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price. Is’t a verdict? all: No more talking on’t, let it be done. Away, away. (1.1.7–12) There is, in fact, a little more “talking on’t”: the Second Citizen raises several possible defenses of Coriolanus’s conduct (27–28, 38–40), but he does not shake the resolve of his fellow plebeians, who all agree to “proceed especially against Caius Martius” (24–26). The audacity and self-possession of these RoEpilogue : Losing Power, Losing Oneself The Third Citizen and Tragedy 216 man mechanicals must have electrified at least some of the garlic-eaters in Shakespeare’s audience. When we next see our band of citizens, they are preparing to enjoy the fruits of their rebellion: armed now with voices rather than weapons, the newly enfranchised people await the arrival of Coriolanus, who must solicit their suffrages for the consulship. They are changed men: the same citizens who resolved to storm the Capitol and murder Coriolanus now patiently wait for him to descend from the Senate House to the marketplace. The Third Citizen, scrupulously obedient to the new order, carefully rehearses for his fellow initiates the still unfamiliar customs of electoral politics: “We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he stands by ones, by twos, and by threes. He’s to make his requests by particulars . . . I’ll direct you how you shall go by him” (2.3.42–47).1 The stunning transformation of “mutinous citizens” into docile political subjects is felt most profoundly when the citizens briefly debate their proper role in the consular election. When the play begins, the citizens sit in judgment over Coriolanus’s life; now they wonder if they have the right to deny him their own voices. Although the people have been taught the forms of representational politics, they remain uncertain of the precise nature of their new powers. The First Citizen insists that the plebeians must yield their voices to Coriolanus, but the Second Citizen claims that they may withhold their voices “if [they] will” (2.3.3). The Third Citizen manages to take both positions: We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do. For if he show us his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds and speak for them; so if he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. (2.3.4–9) The political marketplace the Third Citizen imagines here is hardly free; he conceives of the people’s actions as necessary reactions to Coriolanus’s offers: “if he show us his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those wounds and speak for them”; “if he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him our noble acceptance of them.”2 But the Third Citizen does not think of himself as powerless; rather, he imagines himself simultaneously powerful and powerless: that is, quite literally a vessel of power (“we have power in ourselves”) and yet incapable of exercising the power he possesses (“it is a power that we have no power to do”).3 The Third Citizen recognizes (believes) that he has a power, but he also recognizes (accepts as legitimate) that he cannot exercise that power. This double recogThe Third Citizen 217 nition constitutes a misrecognition: if the Third Citizen believes that he can exercise power only by yielding it, he will always be powerless...