Later uses of the Ricardian Template: Crafting the Fifth act of Coriolanus

Abstract

From time to time we have asserted that the technique Shakespeare learns from his collaboration with Richard becomes the hallmark of his dramatic style. Though ample evidence of the truth of this statement exists in our earlier book, Analyzing Shakespeare’s Action, we feel it important to close this study of Shakespeare’s craftsmanship with a glance at the use the mature Shakespeare makes of the template he discovered while writing Richard III. Let us, therefore, jump forward to 1608 and Coriolanus to observe what the mature Shakespeare can do with the template for the 180-degree reversal that has been the subject of this book. The fifth act of Coriolanus makes a telling contrast to the fifth act of Richard III.