LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary

8 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XII
What better time to focus on these matters than Lent? In fact, if you begin
a midweek series on Ash Wednesday and go through to Wednesday of Holy
Week, you will find exactly seven evenings in which to develop this line of
spiritual inquiry. If only six evenings are available, merely omit the
particular sin to which you yourself are prone. If you find you want to omit
all seven, it is time to visit your father confessor.
Each homily can be developed in a number of ways. For example, you
might simply go through the plot of the play in some detail as an exemplum
of the sin. Another tack might be to focus on the topic, bringing in
Shakespeare as supporting material. Here follows a series of notes on seven
plays, mostly tragedies, along with applicable verses from Proverbs. But lo, I
hold before you a blessing and a curse: blessing to him who doth his
homework, a curse upon him who readeth not the plays.
1. Pride
“Pride goes before destruction.” (Prov. 16:18)
Coriolanus
This tragedy is about a noble Roman general whose pride leads to his
downfall. In the opening scene, a group of citizens discusses Coriolanus’
deeds, done “to be partly proud, which he is, even to the altitude of his
virtue” (I.i.39). Coriolanus enters and says haughtily, “Hang ’em!” (I.i.190).
Aghast, the citizens ask, “Was ever man so proud as this?” (I.i.252). But
Rome needs the able Coriolanus, as events soon prove. The Volsces, led by
Tullus, attack Rome, but Coriolanus single-handedly turns the tide of battle.
He is accorded a Hero’s welcome but refuses to display his wounds,
requisite to being acclaimed consul. “He’s vengeance proud,” the people
complain, “and loves not the common people” (II.i.5). Meanwhile the
Volscian army is regrouping while the unbending Coriolanus, taunted by his
political enemies, is banished from Rome. In disdain he exclaims, “I banish
you!” (III.iii.123). Then he leaves.
In all this there is still something sympathetic in this nobleman. One
character says, “His nature is too noble for this world” (III.i.254). As internal
strife erupts in Rome, Coriolanus goes over to the Volsces and befriends
Tullus, his former enemy. Even there suspicions arise, and an officer
describes Coriolanus as “insolent, / O’ercome with pride, ambitious past all
thinking” (IV.vi.29-30). The Romans now have real reason to fear a
Volscian army led by Coriolanus, even as Tullus begins to suspect and fear
his new general. Before the battle, Rome in desperation sends Coriolanus’
mother, wife, and child to plead with him for mercy. “I melt,” he concedes,
“and am not / Of stronger earth than others” (V.iii.28-29). He retreats, and an
enraged Tullus vows revenge and meets with conspirators and kills