‘The innocent and unwary perish, but the party machines grind on: the faces may be different next time but the pressures will be the same, the compromises and dissimulations will still work to weaken and distort truth and honesty. Democratic processes will still be open to exploitation; the people will always believe that image which is most cleverly constructed, not that which is true, but less attractive. […] One exposure to the play should be enough to destroy our complacency about politics for ever.’
Brian Vickers, Shakespeare: Coriolanus. London: Edward Arnold, 1976. 56.
