time and place. Coriolanus himself exemplifies the effort toward "Nature," that is, typicality and reasonableness, in pseudo-classical characterization. He expresses the sentiments and manners approved by the eighteenth century, and, even when pride and revenge most fire his passion, is a very tame lion. The moral lessons, somewhat clouded in Shakespeare, are distinctly enunciated and finally summed up by Galesus:-- "This man was once the glory of his age, Disinterested, just, with every virtue Of civil life adorn'd, in arms unequall'd. His only blot was this; that, much provok'd, He rais'd his vengeful arm against his country," etc. (v. 4). In Thomson's other plays the inflated declamation occasionally gives way to a bit of description that recalls "The Seasons," but in "Coriolanus" he follows the promise of the Prologue to "Tancred" with unerring fidelity:-- "Your taste rejects the glittering false sublime, To sigh in metaphor, and die in rhyme. High _rant_ is tumbled from his gallery throne; Description, dreams,--nay, similes are gone." He was obviously seeking what he called Shakespeare's "simple, plain sublime," and his declamations occasionally reach a sententious lucidity worthy of Addison, but the pseudo-classic diction freezes every emotion with its "transports," "charms," and "nuptial loves." This is Volumnia's appeal to Coriolanus, her husband in Thomson's play:-- "Ah Coriolanus! Is then this hand, this hand to be devoted, The pledge of nuptial love, that has so long Protected, bless'd, and shelter'd us with kindness, Now lifted up against us? Yet I love it, And, with submissive veneration, bow Beneath th' affliction which it heaps upon us. But O! what nobler transports would it give thee! What joy beyond expression! couldst thou once Surmount the furious storm of fierce revenge, And yield ye to the charms of love and mercy. Oh make the glorious trial!" (v. 1).