A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's "Coriolanus"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Shakespeare for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Shakespeare for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535821117

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Coriolanus

William Shakespeare

1607

Introduction

There is no record of when Coriolanus was first performed. Nor is there solid evidence of its date of composition, but 1607 or 1608 are the dates generally accepted by scholars since there seem to be echoes of some phrases from the play in Ben Jonson's Epicoene; or, The Silent Woman (1609). Menenius's parable of the belly is probably derived from a work published in 1605, William Camden's Remaines of a Greater Work Concerning Britain. The plebeians' insurrection suggests the English Midland riots of 1607 by the English peasantry against a food shortage and the practice of enclosure, whereby common lands were being removed from common ownership by the aristocracy. The style of Coriolanus also suggests a late date in Shakespeare's career. The composition date leads scholars to surmise that the play was also performed around the time it was written, although there are no records, since plays were written so that acting companies could have material to perform.

Coriolanus first appeared in print in the 1623 Folio edition published by John Hemminges and Henry Condell; these two fellows in Shakespeare's acting company published the folio as a memorial tribute to Shakespeare. The text is believed to have been set from Shakespeare's manuscript, with more complete stage directions, supposedly by Shakespeare himself, than most of his plays have. Coriolanus seems to be a good text, which is marred, however, by a number of printer's errors.

The primary source for Coriolanus is Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, which was first published in 1579. It is believed that Shakespeare also consulted Livy's Roman History in a translation by Philemon Holland published in 1600. While Shakespeare altered, added to, subtracted from, and reshaped Plutarch's tale significantly, there are notable passages in which Shakespeare's language and North's are remarkably similar, as in the following example. Here is a small section of North's translation of Plutarch's account of Volumnia's petition to her son: Thou shalt see, my son, and trust unto it, thou shalt no sooner march forward to assault thy country, but thy foot shall tread upon thy mother's womb that brought thee first into this world. Here is Shakespeare's adaptation;

   thou shalt no sooner

   March to assault thy country than to tread

   (Trust to 't, thou shalt not) on thy mother's womb

   That brought thee to this world.

As the last of Shakespeare's tragedies, Coriolanus is always esteemed but, perhaps because it is a political play, or perhaps because of its protagonist's bristly disposition, or perhaps because of the austerity of its verse, it is not loved as are the great tragedies which preceded it, or the miraculous romances which follow it.

Plot Summary

Act 1, Scene 1

Coriolanus opens with a revolt of the plebeians in ancient Rome. They are out in the streets shouting for bread and the death of Caius Marcius, whom they blame for being the cause of their suffering. They accuse the patricians, members of the upper class, of hoarding the grain for themselves. The plebeians say that the patricians do nothing and thrive while they, the workers, starve. As they talk among themselves, the plebeians acknowledge that Marcius has fought for Rome and distinguished himself in the wars. But, they add, it was done out of pride and for his mother. As they are about to go to join another contingent of aroused citizens, Menenius encounters them and stops to talk with them. He is a patrician who is pleased to argue with the plebeians and instruct them. In response to their complaints, he first tells them that the patricians do take care of them and that they ought to rebel against the heavens regarding the scarcity of bread, not against the patricians. Then he tells them a story about the time the other parts