Note 72 — Chapter II · SHAKESPEARE’S TREATMENT OF HISTORY

I.e. more tragic in the technical sense. Of course Mr. Bradley is quite aware that as it stands Coriolanus is “a much nobler play.” It is right to add that he expresses no opinion whether the actual close of Shakespeare’s play “was due simply to his unwillingness to contradict his historical authority on a point of such magnitude.” At any rate, I am convinced that in his eyes that was a sufficient ground.