The Tragedy of Coriolanus

By William Shakespeare

Vengeance and War-- Rome is in turmoil, there is rioting in the streets and open warfare between the varying ruling factions. Coriolanus would bring peace and order to Rome, but will Rome let him? You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize As the dead carcases of unburied men That do corrupt my air,-I banish you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilder Publications, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781627557221

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) is arguably the most famous playwright to ever live. Born in England, he attended grammar school but did not study at a university. In the 1590s, Shakespeare worked as partner and performer at the London-based acting company, the King’s Men. His earliest plays were Henry VI and Richard III, both based on the historical figures. During his career, Shakespeare produced nearly 40 plays that reached multiple countries and cultures. Some of his most notable titles include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. His acclaimed catalog earned him the title of the world’s greatest dramatist.

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THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS

by William Shakespeare

Wilder Publications, Inc.

Copyright © 2014

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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ISBN 978-1-62755-722-1

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae

ACT I

ACT I. SCENE I. Rome. A street

ACT I. SCENE II. Corioli. The Senate House.

ACT I. SCENE III. Rome. MARCIUS’ house

ACT I. SCENE IV. Before Corioli

ACT I. SCENE V. Within Corioli. A street

ACT I. SCENE VI. Near the camp of COMINIUS

ACT I. SCENE VII. The gates of Corioli

ACT I. SCENE VIII. A field of battle between the Roman and the Volscian camps

ACT I. SCENE IX. The Roman camp

ACT I. SCENE X. The camp of the Volsces

ACT II

ACT II. SCENE I. Rome. A public place

ACT II. SCENE II. Rome. The Capitol

ACT II. SCENE III. Rome. The Forum

ACT III

ACT III. SCENE I. Rome. A street

ACT III. SCENE II. Rome. The house of CORIOLANUS

ACT III. SCENE III. Rome. The Forum

ACT IV

ACT IV. SCENE I. Rome. Before a gate of the city

ACT IV. SCENE II. Rome. A street near the gate

ACT IV. SCENE III. A highway between Rome and Antium

ACT IV. SCENE IV. Antium. Before AUFIDIUS’ house

ACT IV. SCENE V. Antium. AUFIDIUS’ house

ACT IV. SCENE VI. Rome. A public place

ACT IV. SCENE VII. A camp at a short distance from Rome

ACT V

ACT V. SCENE I. Rome. A public place

ACT V. SCENE II. The Volscian camp before Rome

ACT V. SCENE III. The tent of CORIOLANUS

ACT V. SCENE IV. Rome. A public place

ACT V. SCENE V. Rome. A street near the gate

ACT V. SCENE VI. Corioli. A public place

Dramatis Personae

CAIUS MARCIUS, afterwards CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS

Generals against the Volscians

TITUS LARTIUS

COMINIUS

MENENIUS AGRIPPA, friend to Coriolanus

Tribunes of the People

SICINIUS VELUTUS

JUNIUS BRUTUS

YOUNG MARCIUS, son to Coriolanus

A ROMAN HERALD

NICANOR, a Roman

TULLUS AUFIDIUS, General of the Volscians

LIEUTENANT, to Aufidius

CONSPIRATORS, With Aufidius

ADRIAN, a Volscian

A CITIZEN of Antium

TWO VOLSCIAN GUARDS

VOLUMNIA, mother to Coriolanus

VIRGILIA, wife to Coriolanus

VALERIA, friend to Virgilia

GENTLEWOMAN attending on Virgilia

Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Aediles, Lictors,

Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other

Attendants

ACT I

ACT I. SCENE I. Rome. A street

Enter a company of mutinous citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons

FIRST CITIZEN: Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.

ALL: Speak, speak.

FIRST CITIZEN: YOU are all resolv’d rather to die than to famish?

ALL: Resolv’d, resolv’d.

FIRST CITIZEN: First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the

people.

ALL: We know’t, we know’t.

FIRST CITIZEN: Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own

price. Is’t a verdict?

ALL: No more talking on’t; let it be done. Away, away!

SECOND CITIZEN: One word, good Citizens.

FIRST CITIZEN: We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.

What authority surfeits on would relieve us; if they would yield

us but the superfluity while it were wholesome, we might guess

they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear. The

leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an

inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a

gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes ere we become

rakes; for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in

thirst for revenge.

SECOND CITIZEN: Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

FIRST CITIZEN: Against him first; he’s a very dog to the

commonalty.

SECOND CITIZEN: Consider you what services he has done for his

country?

FIRST CITIZEN: Very well, and could be content to give him good

report for’t but that he pays himself with being proud.

SECOND CITIZEN: Nay, but speak not maliciously.

FIRST CITIZEN: I say unto you, what he hath done famously he did it

to that end; though soft—conscienc’d men can be content to say it

was for his country, he did it to please his mother and to be

partly proud, which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

SECOND CITIZEN: What he cannot help in his nature you account a

vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous.

FIRST CITIZEN: If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations;

he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts

within] What shouts are these? The other side o’ th’ city is

risen. Why stay we prating here? To th’ Capitol!

ALL: Come, come.

FIRST CITIZEN: Soft! who comes here?

Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA

SECOND CITIZEN: Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always lov’d

the people.

FIRST CITIZEN: He’s one honest enough; would all the rest were so!

MENENIUS: What work’s, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you

With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.

FIRST CITIZEN: Our business is not unknown to th’ Senate; they have

had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we’ll

show ‘em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths;

they shall know we have strong arms too.

MENENIUS: Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,

Will you undo yourselves?

FIRST CITIZEN: We cannot, sir; we are undone already.

MENENIUS: I tell you, friends, most charitable care

Have the patricians of you. For your wants,

Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well

Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them

Against the Roman state; whose course will on

The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs

Of more strong link asunder than can ever

Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,

The gods, not the patricians, make it, and

Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,

You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you; and you slander

The helms o’ th’ state, who care for you like fathers,

When you curse them as enemies.

FIRST CITIZEN: Care for us! True, indeed! They ne’er car’d for us

yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses cramm’d with

grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily

any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more

piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the

wars eat us not up, they will; and there’s all the love they bear

us.

MENENIUS: Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,

Or be accus’d of folly. I shall tell you

A pretty tale. It may be you have heard it;

But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture

To stale’t a little more.

FIRST CITIZEN: Well, I’ll hear it, sir; yet you must not think to

fob off our disgrace with a tale. But, an’t please you, deliver.

MENENIUS: There was a time when all the body’s members

Rebell’d against the belly; thus accus’d it:

That only like a gulf it did remain

I’ th’ midst o’ th’ body, idle and unactive,

Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing

Like labour with the rest; where th’ other instruments

Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,

And, mutually participate, did minister

Unto the appetite and affection common

Of the whole body. The belly answer’d—

FIRST CITIZEN: Well, sir, what answer made the belly?

MENENIUS: Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile,

Which ne’er came from the lungs, but even thus—

For look you, I may make the belly smile

As well as speak— it tauntingly replied

To th’ discontented members, the mutinous parts

That envied his receipt; even so most fitly

As you malign our senators for that

They are not such as you.

FIRST CITIZEN: Your belly’s answer— What?

The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye,

The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,

Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,

With other muniments and petty helps

Is this our fabric, if that they—

MENENIUS: What then?

Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? What then?

FIRST CITIZEN: Should by the cormorant belly be restrain’d,

Who is the sink o’ th’ body—

MENENIUS: Well, what then?

FIRST CITIZEN: The former agents, if they did complain,

What could the belly answer?

MENENIUS: I will tell you;

If you’ll bestow a small— of what you have little—

Patience awhile, you’st hear the belly’s answer.

FIRST CITIZEN: Y’are long about it.

MENENIUS: Note me this, good friend:

Your most grave belly was deliberate,

Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered.

‘True is it, my incorporate friends,’ quoth he

‘That I receive the general food at first

Which you do live upon; and fit

Reviews for The Tragedy of Coriolanus

[barrettlucero · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In preparation for the movie coming out soon! Best line so far? Menicius (Coriolanus' friend) calling a citizen, who is critical of the arrogant Coriolanus, as the "great toe of the assembly." And not in a good way, either. Coriolanus then calls all mutinous citizens (those that disagree with C?) "scabs." Awesome!
...
Really enjoyed this play, and I believe it's the first Shakespeare I've read since college. Coriolanus has some of the best speeches with which he burns his foes, and these offset some of the longer, duller passages.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

[Coriolanus] by [[William Shakespeare]].While not the best of Shakespeare's tragedies, [Coriolanus] just may be the timeliest. Yes, it's a play about a soldier whose pride and love for his overbearing mother ultimately bring him down. But the driving force behind the plot is a pair of manipulating politicians who know how to spin things to their advantage and lead the fickle multitude by their noses. While the people are more villains that victims, one can't help but notice that some things never change; here's one of them on their current government:Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er cared for usyet: suffer us to famish, and their store-housescrammed with grain; make edicts for usury, tosupport usurers; repeal daily any wholesome actestablished against the rich, and provide morepiercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrainthe poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; andthere's all the love they bear us.All one has to do to see the truth in that is take a look at the PA governor's proposed budget . . . or the federal budget, for that matter. It's Robin Hood in reverse: give to the rich and take from the poor.

[neverstopreading-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

 Coriolanus is worth the read, but there's also a reason why you may be unfamiliar with it. Compared to, say, Julius Caesar, it's nothing. But don't let the Bard set the bar too high on himself.

[tzelman_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Personal code of honor admits no compromises; Shakespeare's strong argument against republican government

[briony_2 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I have actually seen this as a play as well as read it, and either way, its INSANELY boring.

[phredfrancis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The secondary characters were the best part. I would have preferred spending more time with Menenius and Aufidius and having been spared some of Coriolanus's haughty declarations. I'm no scholar of Shakespeare's works, but it seemed to me that much of his poetry fell short in this play. Rarely did I stop to savor the language or to marvel at an elegant turn of phrase. I did appreciate some of the political themes, but even the best of these pale in comparison with Shakespeare's vast array of more poignant and personal observations.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Several years ago I read this play as part of a class at the University of Chicago. It was a revelation that entranced me with its drama. Even so, the warrior Coriolanus is perhaps the most opaque of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, rarely pausing to soliloquise or reveal the motives behind his prideful isolation from Roman society. Instead, the play demonstrates his character through his actions and his relationships. The relationship with his mother, Volumnia, is the most important of these. The tension of her love for him reaches heights that are only exceeded by those of Coriolanus fame as a warrior for Rome.This is not the Rome of the Caesars but that of the early days when the republic was in its formative stages. It was a city concerned with warring neighbors like the Volscians who are an ever-present enemy. While Caius Martius' success in battles with this enemy lead him to military honors and earn him the name Coriolanus, he does not have the temperamental qualities that would allow him use these accolades for political purposes. He is held back by his own nature and his situation leads to banishment by the crowds who once cheered him. His speech to them as he leaves Rome is memorable:"You common cry of curs! whose breath I hateAs reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prizeAs the dead carcasses of unburied menThat do corrupt my air, I banish you;And here remain with your uncertainty!Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,Fan you into despair! Have the power stillTo banish your defenders; till at length Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,Making not reservation of yourselves,Still your own foes, deliver you as mostAbated captives to some nationThat won you without blows! Despising, For you, the city, thus I turn my back:There is a world elsewhere."(Act III, Scene iii) It is, for me, the best of the lesser-known of his plays and stands tall by the side of the other two great Roman history plays, Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra. In particular, the psychological depth of the character of Coriolanus, his relationships with his mother and subject Romans, and the dramatic action make this play a delight to read.

[thelibrarina · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nobody says Coriolanus is their favorite Shakespeare play--not even the kind of people who have favorite Shakespeare plays. But after a second read, it's moving up my list. Martius (aka Coriolanus) is, for the most part, an intensely dislikeable character--but as the play goes on, you begin to see how he came to be the way he is, and while it doesn't excuse his faults, it certainly makes him a complex and intriguing character.There's just so much depth to this play. Martius' relationships with his mother, his wife, and his nemesis are all delightfully screwed up. It's difficult to pick a single "tragic flaw" for Martius because he has so many of them--pride, rigidity, wrath, unhealthy attachment to his mother... It's one of Shakespeare's last tragedies, and thus one of the most mature. Though there's a great deal of blood referenced in the text and the stage directions, there's no on-stage bloodbath as in Titus Andronicus: Martius is the only character to die in the play.It almost needs to be seen, either on stage or on screen, to be really appreciated. Just don't talk to me about the Donmar production unless you want me to spend an hour telling you about how perfect every last detail was.

[nycke137 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this book on audio in preparation to see the performance. I wanted to familiarize myself with it since I didn't get into Shakespeare much in high school or after. If I had known that his plays were also gruesome and bloody, I would have been enjoying Shakespeare a long time ago.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't have followed this story if my life depended on it. Something about a talented warrior who has mama manipulating him on one side and his cohorts betraying him on the other. Who knows? Who cares? Definitely the weakest of all the Bard's works I've read thus far.

[coach_of_alva · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The citizens of a republic run their greatest soldier out of town because they can't stand him and he can't stand them. As it happens, they can't live without each other - literally. This may be the greatest political drama written. It is also one of the great mother and son stories.

[aulsmith · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Tragedy usually centers on someone with a tragic flaw, but I'm not sure being an asshole counts as a tragic flaw. There's a reason this one wasn't covered in my Shakespeare courses. Give it a miss unless you insist on reading all of Shakespeare.

[jeff5maynes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In most tragedies, and Shakespearan ones in particular, the force of the tragedic ending is based on the reader's (or audience's) sympathy with the principal character. We may not like him or her, but we feel close enough to them to suffer their loss. We've lamented in the storm with Lear, and contemplated with Hamlet. We can never really get to this place with Caius Martius Coriolanus (I'll use Martius to refer to the character, to avoid confusion with the title of the play).Martius is a Roman general of great reknown, whose tragic flaw is his contempt for the people of Rome. Led on by members of the Roman senate, the people turn on Martius, and he is cast from the city. When his mother leads a contingent to him, to ask him to lay down the arms he has raised against Rome, Martius prepares himself for their visit:"My wife comes foremost; then the honored mold Wherein this trunk was framed, and in her handThe grandchild to her blood. But out, affection!All bond and privilege of nature, break!Let it virtuous to be obstinate" (V.3, 22-25).This is a moving passage, and a rich one. Does Martius think that it is obstinate to be virtuous, because the obstinancy protects a virtue (namely his pride)? Or does he recognize that he has long since left virtue behind, and is pleading to retain virtue? Yet even here, where Martius tries to cast aside affection for his family and break the bonds he has with them, it is difficult for the reader to sympathize with Martius in the way we would with characters in other tragedies. He has not given us rich soliloquies, or even reflected on his course of action. What's more, his course of action seems clearly in the wrong. His pride against the people is contemptous, and when he is cast aside, he ends up electing to burn Rome to the ground. The way in which pride drives him to these actions, the way it drives him to atttempt to reject his bonds, is entirely opaque. The play is not weaker for it though. It is different from many of the tragedies, but no less moving and no less thought provoking. While I may not have felt the same sense of desolation that one feels at the end of Lear, this play is rewarding for the complexity of the character interactions, and the depth of the sub-text.Consider, for example, the role of the citizens of Rome. The play opens with their lodging a complaint with Martius, that he has prevented them from receiving available grain. This charge is unrefuted, and Martius instead replies that the people do not deserve it, for they have not served in the wars. They ultimately turn on Martius, and it seems that there is something prescient about this decision. While Martius was not guilty of some of the charges laid against him, his willingness to turn against Rome on the simple matter of his pride suggests a mercenary element of his character that the people have trussed out.At the same time, the people are led by tribunes who goad and manipulate them. Martius' failure is his inability to win the crowd over in this way. This portrayal is much harsher on the citizens. In these passages, they come across as animals waiting to be herded. This is like the image we get of the Roman citizens in Julius Caesar, where the people's emotions are so easily manipulated by Brutus and then Antony. We see elements of that here, but the people are much more complex. After banishing Martius, one citizen recalls "For mine own part, / when I said `Banish him,' I said 'twas pity." One might read this as the citizens simply turning coat again, as Martius' returns with an army. Yet, I suspect there is more to it than that. The citizens may be manipulable, but they recognize this fact. The citizens in Caesar show little indication that they recognize how Antony moves them at his will.This relation between Martius and the people drives the play. As noted above, Martius' downfall is due to his unwillingness and inability to placate the people. In one particularly moving passage, Martius' claims:"...I will not do'tLest I surcrease to honor mine own truthAnd by my body's action teach my mindA most inherent baseness" (III.2, 119-122).Martius, along Aristotelian lines, sees acting viciously as a way of training vicious character, and as he sees placating the people as a vice, he cannot bring himself to do it (or ultimately to do it well). On one hand, if we side with Martius, we see a populace refusing to understand and exalt the triumphs of the soldier. It is Martius who has spilled blood for the city, and the citizens who have benefited from his wounds refuse to honor them. For Martius, the conflict is clear. Yet, it is clear that Shakespeare does not want us to simply settle into Martius' point of view. Indeed, since we understand him so poorly, it is very difficult to do so. What's more, after being thrown from the city, Martius' ultimately elects to burn Rome. Civilian control over the military here seems essential. While they may have been led around by the tribunes, the people have rightly removed a highly dangerous individual, whose loyalty to Rome seems to be rooted more in his own pride at being a soldier than love for the virtues of the city or its society.Shakespeare remains ambiguous between these interpretations, and the opacity of Martius' character lends itself to this ambiguity. Rather than getting sucked into his view of the matter (even if we recognize the other side), here we are unable to really understand anyone. Martius is inscrutable and the people are being led around. I found that this issue truly rewarded reflection, and it is the sort of issue that Coriolanus raises so well.This is not to mention a host of other interesting questions raised in the play, which for the sake of brevity, I will simply mention. The gender politics of Volumnia are fascinating. She has raised Martius by the ideals of honor, even so much as to value his honorable death greater than his living company. Or what is the nature of honor? Is it tied to virtue (or is itself a virtue), or can one have strictly self-interested honor? Should we say that Martius' lacks honor in the end, or that he has a self-interested honor? Woven together, as always, with Shakespeare's unparalled poetry, these rewarding and interesting questions make Coriolanus a truly powerful play.

[le.vert.galant · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a timely play in that it captures something of the American political zeitgeist wherein popularity and playing to the crowd trumps ideals and personal integrity. One can't help hearing the voices of pundits on the left and right in the petty complaints of the tribunes Brutus and Sicinius.

Marcius (Coriolanus):
Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,
That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs?