“The Stamp of Martius”: Commoditized Character and the Technology of Theatrical Impression in Coriolanus

Abstract

peaking in response to the spectacular entrance of Martius during the battle of Corioles, the amazed General Cominius recognizes the enigmatic antihero of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus—so bloody that he appears “flayed”— because of his “stamp.” Here “stamp” could mean “physical or outward form,” or it may be a reference to Coriolanus’s characteristic stamping of his feet (1.3.34). The word, however, also evokes the image of an imprint, casting his wounds as newly stamped impressions. Coriolanus’s identifiable “stamp” is the blood