Introduction
Coriolanus is a heroic soldier in ancient Rome who cannot compromise or accommodate enough to make the transition into the political arena. This play has the most modern of applications, insofar as it is a primer on grooming a candidate for public office, complete with both handlers and critics. There are many ways to read Coriolanus. One can experience it through the lens of the Roman history it portrays, the Elizabethan period of Shakespeare’s composition or through the ever-shifting present, wherever it is staged. Typical of Shakespeare plays, Coriolanus tells various stories simultaneously, and the focus depends upon which characters and themes are placed in the forefront. We can concentrate our attention on Coriolanus himself, the heroic great man and tragic namesake of the story, who is the author of his own fate. It is also possible to encounter the play from the vantage point of the voice of the disempowered common class of people in Rome, or we can emphasize the experience of the women, both their marginalization and influence. And through all of these evident lenses, Shakespeare, as always, does not judge or demonstrate any preferences of one perspective over another.
There are several excellent characters in this play other than Coriolanus himself. His mother is a powerful voice, especially in the ear of her son. There is no sense of compromise in either of them, and he is wholeheartedly his mother’s prodigy. When we encounter his mother, we understand her son. Aufidius, the leader of the Volscians and Coriolanus’s greatly admired but hated rival, ultimately strips him of both his power and his life, but only after the two intimately bond as both soldiers and men. Menenius is Coriolanus’s old friend, who does his very best to broker a peace between the Senate and the people, but is never able to garner his friend’s complicity in his efforts. Cominius is the master orator and Roman consul, who urges Coriolanus to do what he simply cannot, which is to use social grace and verbal eloquence to win over the common people to his cause and thus be elected as consul. Coriolanus is required to play a role and perform a part, as politicians must, in order to achieve his goal, but he becomes hopelessly enraged as soon as he encounters the detested commoners who must decide his fate. They easily bait him and he loses all hope of their support. When he is banished from the city, he joins forces with his enemies, the Volscian tribes, led by Aufidius, and plans to attack his home, which has abandoned him. Only his powerful mother convinces him in the eleventh hour to abort these plans to destroy Rome and this reaffirmation of his bond to his home seals his fate with Aufidius and the Volscian army. Coriolanus is similar to all of Shakespeare’s titanic tragic heroes, with their courage and ambition on the one hand and their insecurities and stubborn pride on the other. Coriolanus is just another tragic individual whose personal obsessions turn against him, prevent him from functioning in the wider world he does not fully understand, and which ultimately destroys him. He is a man with exceptional military skill, who cannot negotiate or maneuver beyond the battlefield. When there is no more enemy to kill but only political opponents to convince and persuade, he is doomed.
Act I (10 scenes)
Scene I
Rome. A street
A group of mutinous citizens
1 Citizen: “You are all resolved rather to die than to famish?”
All: “Resolved.”
1 Citizen: “First, you know, Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the people.”
All: “We know it.”
1 Citizen: “Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price.”
All: “No more talking on it; let it be done.”
2 Citizen: “One word, good citizens.”
1 Citizen: “The Leannes 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; for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.”
2 Citizen: “Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcus?”
1 Citizen: “Against him first; he’s a very dog to the commonality.”
2 Citizen: “Consider you what services he has done for his country?”
1 Citizen: “Very well, but he pays himself in being proud. I say unto you, what he has done famously he did to please his mother and to be proud.”
2 Citizen: “What he cannot help in his nature you account a vice in him.”
1 Citizen: “He has faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. Why stay we prating here? To the Capitol! Soft! Who comes here?”
Enter Menenius, friend to Caius Marcius
2 Citizen: “Worthy Menenius; one who has always loved the people.”
1 Citizen: “He’s one honest enough; would all the rest were so!”
Menenius: “Where go you with bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you.”
1 Citizen: “Our business is not unknown to the Senate; they have had inkling this fortnight of what we intend to do, which now we’ll show them in deeds.”
Menenius: “Why, masters, my good friends, will you undo yourselves?”
1 Citizen: “We cannot, sir; we are already undone.”
Menenius: “I tell you, friends, most charitable care have the patricians of you. For your wants you may as well strike at the heavens with your staves as lift them against the Roman state. You slander the helms of the state, who care for you like fathers when you curse them like enemies.”
1 Citizen: “Care for us! They never cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain. There’s all the love they bear us.”
Menenius: “The senators of Rome digest things rightly and you shall find no public benefit which you receive but it proceeds from them to you and no way from yourselves.”
Enter Caius Marcius
Menenius: “Hail, noble Marcius!”
Marcius: “Thanks. What’s the matter you dissentious rogues, who, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, make yourselves scabs. What would you have, you curs, who like neither war nor peace? The one affrights you, the other makes you proud. He who trusts you, where he should find you lions, finds you hares. Who deserves greatness deserves your hate; and your affections are a sick man’s appetite, who desires most that which would increase his evil. He who depends open your favours swims with fins of lead. Hang ye! Trust ye? With every minute you do change a mind and call him noble who was now your hate, him vile who was your garland. What’s the matter that you cry against the noble Senate, who keep you in awe, which else would feed on one another? What’s their seeking?”
Menenius: “For corn at their own rates, whereof they say the city is well stored.”
Marcius: “Hang em! Would the nobility let me use my sword, I’d make a quarry with thousands of these quartered slaves, as high as I could pick my lance. Hang em!”
Menelius: “What is granted them?”
Marcius: “Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wisdoms. Go get you home, you fragments.”
Enter a messenger, hastily.
Messenger: “Where is Caius Marcius?”
Marcius: “Here. What’s the matter?”
Messenger: “The news is, sir, the Volscians are in arms.”
Marcius: “I am glad on it.”
Enter Generals Cominius and Titus Lartius and Brutus and Sicinius, tribunes of the people.
1 Senator: “Marcius, tis true that the Volscia are in arms.”
Marcius: “They have a leader, Aufidius, and I sin in envying his nobility; and were I anything but what I am, I would wish me only he. He is a lion who I am proud to hunt.”
1 Senator: “Then, worthy Marcius, attend upon Cominius to these wars. (to the citizens) Hence to your homes; be gone.”
Citizens steal away, except for Sicinius and Brutus, tribunes.
Sicinius: “Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius?”
Brutus: “He has no equal.”
Sicinius: “Nay, but his taunts!”
Brutus: “The present wars devour him! He has grown too proud.”
Analysis
The main issues are immediately evident as the play opens with a group of common citizens, or plebeians, expressing their extreme displeasure with the ruling class, or patricians, and their Senate. They are hungry and are rioting for the right to set what they believe would be a fair price for grain, and they lay the blame at the feet of Caius Marcius (later known as Coriolanus), a patrician war hero, who always makes clear his extreme disdain for the common people. The crowd meets up with Menenius, a patrician who they actually like because he speaks respectfully to them, something Marcius is incapable of doing. Menenius tries to convince the mob that the Patricians have their best interests at heart and uses a metaphor to help them understand. He compares the Senate of Rome to the stomach of the human body. The stomach is the storehouse for all of the nutrients, which then get dispensed throughout the entire body, just as the Senators dispense grain and all services throughout the body of Rome. Menenius may not care for the plebeians any more than Marcius does, but he behaves as one who loves the people. He has the gift of subtle persuasion, a quality Marcius utterly lacks, and will be his downfall. When Marcius encounters the group he immediately hurls insults at them, calling them curs and cowards. A messenger arrives with news that the Volscian tribe is preparing for war with Rome. Marcus, who will serve glowingly in this war, speaks with respect for the Volscian military commander, Aufidius, who he has fought against repeatedly. The stage is set. Marcius and the patricians are at severe odds with the plebeians while Marcius, the war hero, is set to once again face Aufidius and the Volscian tribes.
Act I
Scene ii
Corioli, capital of the Volscians. The Senate house.
Enter Aufidius and Senators of Corioli
1 Senator: “So, your opinion is, Aufidius, that they of Rome know how we proceed.”
Aufidius: “Is it not yours? I have letters here.”
1 Senator: “Our army is in the field; we never yet made doubt but Rome was ready to answer us.”
Aufidius: “Nor did you keep your great pretences veiled till when they need show themselves, which in the hatching, it seemed, appeared to Rome. By this discovery we shall be shortened in our aim, which was to take in many towns before Rome should know we were afoot.”
2 Senator: “Noble Aufidius, take your commission and let us alone to guard Corioli. I think you’ll find they have not prepared for us.”
Aufidius: “O, doubt not that! I speak from certainties. Some parcels of their power are forth already. If we and Caius Marcius chance to meet, tis sworn between us we shall ever strike till one can do no more.”
All: “The gods assist you.”
Analysis
This entire little scene profiles Aufidius, the Volscian military leader, and two of their senators. It is agreed that the Romans are well aware of what the Volscian leaders hoped would be a surprise attack. But when the senators argue that Rome will be nonetheless ill prepared for the offensive, Aufidius vehemently disagrees. He knows the Romans and he knows Marcius. They have sworn to fight to the death if they should ever meet in the field again. There is only one main character we have yet to encounter and she is coming up next.
Act I
Scene iii
Rome. Marcius’ house.
Enter Volumnia and Virgilia, mother and wife to Caius Marcius
Volumnia: “If my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the embracements of his bed where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender bodied, and the only son of my womb, I was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him from whence he returned his brows bound with oak. He had proved himself a man.”
Virgilia: “But had he died in the business, madam, how then.”
Volumnia: “Then his good report should have been my son. Had I a dozen sons and none less dear than my good Marcius, I had rather have eleven die nobly for their country. Methinks I hear your husband’s drum; see him pluck Aufidius down by the hair. His bloody brow.”
Virgilia: “His bloody brow? O Jupiter, no blood!”
Volumnia: “Away you fool! It more becomes a man. The breasts of Hecuba, looked not lovelier than Hector’s forehead when it spit forth blood at a Grecian sword.”
Virgilia: “Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!”
Volumnia: “He’ll beat Aufidius’ head in and tread upon his neck.”
Enter Valeria, Virgilia’s friend
Valeria: “How does your little son?”
Volumnia: “He had rather see he swords and hear a drum than look upon his schoolmaster.”
Valeria: “Tis a very pretty boy. I saw him run after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it he let it go again, and after it again until he did so set his teeth upon it and tear it. Tis a noble child. The Volscians have an army forth, against whom Comidius the general is gone, with on part of our Roman power. Your lord and Titus Lartius are set down before the city of Corioli.”
Analysis
Here we meet the mother, Volumnia, the woman behind the man, and the main contributor to Marcus’ war-like character and his ineffectiveness beyond the battlefield. She speaks of how proud she is of him as a soldier and how much she celebrates his bloody wounds. This is the story of Marcus the soldier, but it is also the story of Marcius, the mama’s boy. We hear the story of young Marcus capturing a butterfly and tearing it apart with his teeth. Volumnia hopes her son will crush Aufidius and the Volscian forces in the coming war. She has raised him to be a ruthless warrior, but as we will see, he is little else. We learn that Marcius is about to lead a force of Roman soldiers in a siege of the Volscian city of Corioli, precisely what he does best.
Act I
Scene iv
Before Corioli
Enter Marcius, Titus Lartius (Roman general) and many soldiers
Marcius: “Yonder comes news. Say, has our general met the enemy?”
Messenger: “They lie in view, but have not spoke as yet.”
Marcius: “How far off lie these armies?”
Messenger: “Within a mile and a half.”
Enter two Volscian senators
Marcius: “Is Aufidius within your walls?”
1 Senator: “There is Aufidius. List what work he makes amongst your army.”
Marcius: “O, they are at it!”
Enter the army of the Volscians
Marcus: “Now fight and advance. He who retires, I’ll take for a Vlosce and he shall feel my edge.”
The Romans are beat back to their trenches. Re-enter Marcius, cursing.
Marcius: “All the contagion of the south light on you, you shames of Rome! You herd of boils and plagues! You souls of geese who bear the shapes of men, how have you run from slaves who apes would beat! I’ll leave the foe and make my wars on you. If you stand fast we’ll beat them. Follow me!”
The Volscians fly and Marcus follows them to the gates.
Marcius: “So, now the gates are open. Mark me and do the like.”
Marcius enters the gates.
1 Soldier: “Fool hardiness; not I.”
2 Soldier: “Not I.”
Marcius is shut in.
Titus Lartius: “What has become of Marcius?”
All: “Slain, sir, doubtless.”
1 Soldier: “He is himself alone, to answer all the city.”
Lartius: “O noble fellow!”
Re-enter Marcius, bleeding, assaulted by the enemy.
1 Soldier: “Look, sir.”
Lartius: “Let’s fetch him off.”
They fight, and all enter the city
Analysis
Marcius and his soldiers approach Corioli and are beat back by the Volscian ar. Marcius verbally blasts his own soldier for their cowardess and then singlehandedly pursues the enemy in though their own gates, where he is shut in alone with them and thought to be dead. At the end of the scene he is discovered fighting the Volscesians on his own and his fellow Romans join the battle. This scene is intended to show us Marcus the unparalleled warrior at his finest.
Act I
Scene v
Within Corioli.
Enter Romans with spoils
1 Roman: “This will I carry to Rome.”
2 Roman: “And I this.”
Enter Marcius and Titus Lartius
Marcius: “There is the man of my soul’s hate, Aufidius, piercing our Romans.”
Lartius: “Worthy sir, thou bleeds. Thy exercise has been too violent for second course of fight.”
Marcius: “Sir, praise me not; my work has yet not warmed me. The blood I drop is rather physical than dangerous to me. To Aufidius thus I will appear and fight.”
Lartius: “Now the fair goddess, Fortune, fall deep in love with thee, and her great charms misguide thy opposer’s swords. Thou worthiest Marcus.!”
Exit Marcius
Analysis
The legend continues. Marcius, covered in blood, insists on returning right back into the battle: “My work has not yet warmed me.” He badly wants a piece of Aufidius.
Act I
Scene vi
Near the camp of Cominius
Enter Cominius
Cominius: “Breathe you, my friends. Well fought, we have come off like Romans.”
Enter a messenger
Cominius: “Thy news?”
Messenger: “The citizens of Corioli have issued and given to Lartius and to Martius battle.”
Enter Marcius:
Cominius: “Who is yonder that does appear as he were flayed? O gods! He has the stamp of Marcius. How is it with Titus Lartius?”
Marcius: “Holding Corioli in the name of Rome.”
Cominius: “But how prevailed you?”
Marcius: “Will the time serve to tell? Where is the enemy? Are you lords of the field? If not, why cease you till you are so?”
Cominius: “Marcius, we have at disadvantage fought, and did retire to win our purpose.”
Marcius: “I do beseech you, by all the battles wherein we have fought, by the blood we have shed together, by the vows we have made, that you directly set me against Aufidius, and that you not delay.”
Cominius: “Though I could wish you were conducted to a gentle bath and balms applied to you, yet dare I never deny your asking: take your choice of those that best can aid your action.”
Marcius: “Those are they who most are willing. If any such be here who love this painting wherein you see me smeared; if any think brave death outweighs bad life and his country dearer than himself, follow Marcius.”
Analysis
Cominius asks ‘Who’s yonder that does appear as he were flayed? He has the stamp of Marcius.’ Of course its Marcius, who still keeps fighting and seeking out single combat with Aufidius. Drenched in his own blood, he gathers brave men who will not stop fighting. Here is a true hero to Rome, and yet this is a tragedy and his heroism only will last as long as these wars. Shakespeare is setting us up for his fall.
Act I
Scene vii
The gates of Corioli
Enter Titus Lartius, having set guards around Corioli.
Titus Lartius: “Let the ports be guarded. If we lose the field we cannot keep the town.”
Analysis
There are 7 scenes played out in act I around the various battlefields. Shakespeare does not generally display the skirmishes of his lead warriors. They would not be easy to depict on limited stages where his theatre company played. There is that famous opening scene in Henry V where chorus begs us to imagine the battle before Agincourt: “On your imaginary forces work. Think when we talk of horses that you see them.” But in Coriolanus we actually bear witness to the scenes of war so that we may bear witness to the heroism of Marcius. By act two these wars will have ended and we will see an entirely different Marcius, who, like Richard III, will frown upon the times of peace and in them find that the world of politics is fraught with danger and tragedy.
Act I
Scene viii
A field of battle between the Roman and the Volscian camps.
Enter Marcius and Aufidius
Marcius: “I’ll fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee worse than a promise breaker.”
Aufidius: “We hate alike.”
Marcius: “Tis not my blood wherein you see me masked.”
Aufidius: “Were thou Hector, you should not escape me here.”
Here they fight and Volscians come to the aid of Aufidius. Marcus fights until they are all driven away breathless.
Analysis
We witness the first encounter between Marcius and Aufidius. They declare their hate for one another and Marcius once again gets the better of Aufidius, who must flee from Marcus with his fellow soldiers. There is actually quite the love-hate between them, as will become increasingly evident. They are clearly the two finest warriors on the battlefield whenever they meet.
Act I
Scene ix
The Roman camp
Enter Cominius and Marcius with soldiers
Cominius: “If I should tell thee over this thy day’s work, thou would not believe thy deeds; but I’ll report it where the senators shall mingle tears with smiles; where great patricians shall attend and where the dull tribunes shall say against their hearts, ‘we thank the gods our Rome has such a soldier.'”
Marcius: “I have done as you have done – that’s what I can for my country.”
Cominius: “Rome must know the value of her own.”
Marcius: “I have some wounds upon me and they smart to hear themselves remembered.”
Cominius: “Too modest are you. Therefore be it known to all the world that Caius Marcius wears this war’s garland, and from this time, for what he did before Corioli, call him Caius Marcus Coriolanus. Bear the addition nobly and forever.”
All: “Caius Marcius Coriolanus!”
Analysis
Henceforth Caius Marcus will be known simply as Coriolanus in honour of his heroism in and around the Volscian city of Corioli. This is his apex, as he prepares to return to Rome to be considered for consul, a position which must earn the approval of the common plebeians.
Act I
Scene x
The camp of the Volscians
Enter Aufidius, bloody, with soldiers
Aufidius: “The town is taken. I would I were a Roman. ‘Five times, Marcius, I have fought with thee; so often has thou beat me.’ By the elements, if ever again I meet him, he’s mine or I am his; or craft may get him.”
1 Soldier: “He’s the devil.”
Aufidius: “Bolder, though not so subtle. Where I find him would I wash my fierce hand in his heart.”
Analysis
Aufidius is bitter and humiliated, having been beaten in single combat by Marcius on five separate occasions. And now Marcius bears the name of the Volsces city he has defeated. Coriolanus is a hated name to Aufidius and the Volscians. Its time to return Rome.
Act II (3 scenes)
Rome. A public place.
Enter Menenius with the two tribunes of the people, Sicinius and Brutus
Menenius: “The people love not Marcius.”
Sicinius: “Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.”
Menenius: “Pray you, who does the wolf love?”
Sicinius: “The lamb.”
Menenius: “Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians would the noble Marcius. In what enormity is Marcus poor in that you two have not in abundance?”
Sicinius: “In pride.”
Brutus: “In boasting.”
Menenius: “You blame Marcus for being proud?”
Brutus: “We do it not alone, sir.”
Menenius: “I know you can do very little alone; for your helps are many, or else your abilities are too infant-like for doing much alone. You talk of pride. O that you could turn your eyes toward the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves! Then you should discover a brace of proud, violent, testy magistrates – alias fools – as any in Rome.”
Brutus: “Come sir, come, we know you well enough.”
Menenius: “You know neither me, yourselves, nor anything. You are ambitious for poor knaves. You are a pair of strange one. When you speak best it is not worth the wagging of your beards; yet you say Marcius is proud, who, in a cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors. I will be bold to take my leave of you.”
Exit Brutus and Sicinius
Enter Volumnia, Virgilia and Valeria
Volumnia: “Honorable Menenius, my boy Marcius approaches.”
Menenius: “Ha! Marcius coming home? Is he not wounded?”
Volumnia: “O, he is wounded. I thank the gods for it.”
Menenius: “So do I, if it be not too much. The wounds become him. Has he disciplined Aufidius soundly?”
Volumnia: “They fought together, but Aufidius got off. He has in this action outdone his former deeds doubly.”
Menenius: “Where is he wounded?”
Volumnia: “In the shoulder and in the left arm. He received in the repulse of the Tarquin seven hurts in the body and he had been that last expedition twenty-five wounds upon him.”
Menenius: “And every gash was an enemy’s grave.”
Enter Cominius, Titus Lartius and Coriolanus.
Herald: “Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did fight within Corioli gates, where he has won with fame the name Coriolanus. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!”
All: “Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus!”
Coriolanus: “No more of this; it does offend my heart. Pray now, no more.”
Cominius: “Look, sir, your mother.”
Coriolanus: “You have, I know, petitioned all the gods for my prosperity.”
Volumnia: “Coriolanus must I call thee?”
Coriolanus: “Would thou have laughed had I come coffined home, who weeps to see me triumph? Ah, my dear, such eyes the widows in Corioli wear, and mothers who lack sons.”
Menenius: “Now the gods crown thee.”
Volumnia: “O, welcome home.”
Menenius: “A hundred thousand welcomes. I could weep and I could laugh; I am light and heavy. Welcome!”
Coriolanus: “The good patricians must be visited.”
Brutus and Sicinius come forward
Brutus: “All tongues speak of him. I heard him swear were he to stand for consul, never would he appear in the market-place. We must suggest to the people in what hate he still holds them.”
Sicinius: “His soaring insolence shall touch the people. Their blaze shall darken him forever.”
Enter a messenger
Brutus: “What’s the matter?”
Messenger: “You are sent for to the capitol. Tis thought that Marcius shall be consul. I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and the blind to hear him speak; matrons flung gloves, ladies their scarfs as he passed; the nobles bended as to Jove’s statue and the commoners made a shower and thunder with their caps and shouts. I never saw the like.”
Brutus: “Let’s to the capitol and carry with us ears and eyes for the times.”
Analysis
Tribunes Brutus and Sicinius immediately challenge Menenius about Marcius. They don’t trust Marcius one bit, calling him boastful and proud. You can immediately see that they have it in for him and will do everything they can to prevent him from being made consul, knowing full well he will need the support of the tribunes and the people in order to attain that high post. Marcius comes home to his family and friends as Coriolanus and kneels before his mother, who brags of his many wounds. Brutus and Sicinius make their plans to turn the people against Coriolanus and the lines are drawn. The question is will Coriolanus be capable of the political and oratory skills necessary to persuade the people over to his side, despite his contempt for them. Can the war hero play politics?
Act II
Scene ii
Rome. The capitol
Enter two officers
1 Officer: “Coriolanus is a brave fellow, but he is vengeance proud and loves not the common people.”
2 Officer: “Faith, there have been many great men who have flattered the people, who never loved them. Therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition.”
1 Officer: “But he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can render it to him. Now to seem to affect the malice and displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he dislikes – to flatter them for their love. No more of him.”
Enter the patricians and the tribunes of the people, Coriolanus, Menenius and Cominius
Menenius: “It remains the main point of this meeting to gratify his noble service that has thus stood for his country.”
1 Senator: “Speak, good Cominius. Leave nothing out. Sit, Coriolanus, never shame to hear what you have nobly done.”
Coriolanus: “Your honour’s pardon. I would rather have my wounds to heal again than hear say how I got them.”
Exit Coriolanus
Menenius: “Proceed, Cominius.”
Cominius: “The deeds of Coriolanus should not be uttered feebly. It is held that valour is the chief virtue and most dignifies the haver of it. If it be, the man I speak of for sixteen years has fought beyond the mark of others. He has proved the best man in the field. In the brunt of seventeen battles he has lurched all swords. For this last, before and in Corioli, his sword, death’s stamp, where it did mark, it took. From face to foot he was a thing of blood, whose every motion was timed with dying cries. Alone he entered the mortal gates of the city, aidless, and struck Corioli like a planet. Until we called both field and city ours he never stood to ease his breast with panting. He covets less than misery itself would give, rewards his deeds with doing them.”
Menenius: “Worthy man! He is right noble. Let him be called for.”
Re-enter Coriolanus
Menenius: “The Senate, Coriolanus, are well pleased to make thee consul.”
Coriolanus: “I do owe them still my life and services.”
Menenius: “It then remains that you speak to the people.”
Coriolanus: “I do beseech you to let me overleap that custom, for I cannot entreat them to give their suffrage. Please you that I may pass this doing.”
Sicinius: “Sir, the people must have their voices.”
Coriolanus: “It is a part that I shall blush in acting, to brag unto them and to show them the scars that I should hide, as if I had received them for the hire of their breath only!”
Exit all but Brutus and Sicinius
Brutus: “You see how he intends to use the people.”
Sicinius: “May they perceive his intent!”
Brutus: “Come, we’ll inform them of our proceedings here. On to the marketplace. I know they do attend us.”
Analysis
Cominius gives a speech to the Senate, praising Coriolanus, but Coriolanus is so awkward in such a public forum that he cannot even bring himself to hear it. This awkwardness is a glimpse of what is to come. Nonetheless, the Senators are enthusiastic to make him consul. He only needs to do one more thing and that is to speak to the common people, the plebeians and their Tribunes. But this he begs not to have to do. We already knows what he thinks of the people. Even Menenius insists that it is a custom that must be honoured. Brutus and Sicinius overhear Coriolanus try to dismiss the need to speak to the people and they proceed to the marketplace to stir the plebeians against Coriolanus. He is so close to the consulship. Just a bit of politicking and it is his.
Act II
Scene iii
Rome. The Forum.
Enter seven or eight citizens
3 Citizen: “If he tells us his noble deeds, we must also tell him of our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is monstrous, and for the multitudes to be ungrateful were to make a monster of the multitudes. If he were to incline to the people, there was never a worthier man.”
Enter Coriolanus with Menenius
Coriolanus: “What must I say? ‘Look, sir, my wounds! I got them in my country’s service, when some certain of your brethren roared and ran from the noise of our drums.’
Menenius: “O my, the gods! You must not speak of that!”
Coriolanus: “Hang them! I would they would forget me.”
Menenius: “You’ll mar all. Pray you speak to them in a wholesome manner.”
Exit Menenius
Enter the citizens
Coriolanus: “Bid them wash their faces and keep their teeth clean. Here they come. You know the cause, sir, of my standing here?”
3 Citizen: “We do, sir; tell us what has brought you to it.”
Coriolanus: “Ay, not my own desire.”
3 Citizen: “How not your own desire?”
Coriolanus: “Twas never my desire yet to trouble the poor with begging.”
3 Citizen: “You must think, if we give you anything, we hope to gain by you.”
Coriolanus: “Well then, I pray, your price for the consulship?”
1 Citizen: “The price is to ask for it kindly.”
Coriolanus: “Kindly, sir, I pray let me have it. I have wounds to show you. What do you say?”
2 Citizen: “You shall have it, worthy sir.”
Coriolanus: “A match sir. I have your alms. Adieu.”
Exit the three citizens / Enter two more citizens
4 Citizen: “You have deserved nobly of your country, and you have not deserved nobly.”
Coriolanus: “Your enigma?”
4 Citizen: “You have not indeed loved the common people.”
Coriolanus: “You should account me the more virtuous, that I have not been common in my love. Therefore, beseech you I may be consul.”
5 Citizen: “We hope to find you our friend.”
4 Citizen: “You have received many wounds for your country.”
Coriolanus: “I will not seal your knowledge with showing them. I will make much of your voices, and so trouble you no further.”
Both Citizens: “The gods give you joy, sir.”
Exit citizens
Coriolanus: “Most sweet voices! What custom wills, in all things should we do.”
Enter three more citizens
6 Citizen: “He has done nobly.”
7 Citizen: “Therefore, let him be consul and make him a good friend to the people.”
Exit citizens
Coriolanus: “Worthy voices!”
Enter Menenius with Brutus and Sicinius
Menenius: “The tribunes endue you with the people’s voice.”
Coriolanus: “Is this done?”
Sicinius: “The people do admit you.”
Exit Coriolanus and Menenius
Sicinius: “How now, my masters! have you chosen this man?”
1 Citizen: “He has our voice, sir.”
Brutus: “We pray to the gods he deserves your love.”
2 Citizen: “He mocked us when he begged our voices.”
3 Citizen: “He flouted us downright.”
1 Citizen: “No, he did not mock us.”
2 Citizen: “He used us scornfully. He should have showed us his marks of merit, wounds received for his country.”
All: “No man saw them.”
3 Citizen: “He said he had wounds he could show.”
Brutus: “He was your enemy and even spoke against your liberties. If he should still malignantly remain foe to the plebeians, your voices might be curses to yourselves.”
Sicinius: “You should have taken advantage of his choler and passed him up unelected.”
Brutus: “Do you think that his contempt shall not be bruising to you when he has power to crush?”
3 Citizen: “He’s not confirmed; we may deny him yet.”
2 Citizen: “And will deny him.”
Brutus: “Get you hence instantly, and tell your friends they have chosen a consul who will from them take their liberties, make them of no more voice than dogs, who are often beat for barking.”
Sicinius: “Let them assemble, and on a safer judgment, revoke your ignorant election. Say you chose him more after our commandment than as guided by your own true affections, and that your minds made you against the grain to voice him consul. Lay the fault on us.”
Brutus: “Ay, spare us not.”
Sicinius: “He’s your fixed enemy.”
2 Citizen: “We will do so and and repent his election.”
Exit the Plebians
Brutus: “Let them go. If, as his nature is, he falls into a rage with their refusal, both observe and answer the vantage of his anger.”
Sicinius: “To the capitol, come. We will be there before the stream of people, who we have goaded onward.”
Analysis
Coriolanus, nervous as he is, does manage to convince the plebeian citizens to admit him to consul. After Coriolanus departs, the two tribunes, Brutus and Sicinius, manipulate the people into believing they made a mistake and they reverse their decision and head to the capital an angry mob, prepared to say they were told by the tribunes to approve Coriolanus for consul, against their better judgment. The people are fickle, to be sure, but Coriolanus did not help himself much, barely containing his contempt for the plebeians, and not even showing them his many wounds.
Act III (3 scenes)
Scene i
Rome. A street.
Enter Coriolanus, Menenius, Cominius, Titus Lartius and Senators.
Coriolanus: “Aufidius and the Volscians then stand ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road upon us again. Saw you Aufidius?”
Lartius: “He did curse against the Volscians, for they had so vilely yielded the town.”
Coriolanus: “Spoke he of me?”
Lartius: “He did, my lord.”
Coriolanus: “How? What?”
Lartius: “How often he had met you, sword to sword; that of all things upon the earth he hated your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes so he might be called your vanquisher. At Antium he lives.”
Coriolanus: “I wish I had a cause to seek him there, to oppose his hatred fully.”
Enter Brutus and Sicinius
Sicinius: “Pass no further.”
Coriolanus: “Ha! What is that?”
Brutus: “It will be dangerous to go on.”
Coriolanus: “What makes this change?”
Cominius: “Has he not passed the noble and the common?”
Brutus: “Cominius, no. The people are incensed against him.”
Coriolanus: “Are these your herd? Must these have voices? You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? Have you not set them on?”
Menenius: “Be calm, be calm.”
Coriolanus: “It is a purposed thing, and grows by plot to curb the will of the nobility; suffer it, and live with such as cannot rule nor ever will be ruled.”
Brutus: “Call it not a plot. The people cry you mocked them; and of late, when corn was given them gratis, you called them time-pleasers, flatterers and foes to nobleness.”
Sicinius: “You show too much of that for which the people stir; if you will pass to where you are bound, you must enquire your way with a gentler spirit, or never be so noble as a consul.”
Menenius: “Let’s be calm.”
Cominius: “The people are abused and set upon. This becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus deserved this dishonoured rub.”
Coriolanus: “Tell me of corn!”
Menenius: “Not no, not now.”
Coriolanus: “I say again, in soothing them we nourish against our Senate the cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, which we ourselves have ploughed, sowed and scattered by mingling them with us, the honoured number, who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that which they have given to beggars. As for my country, I have shed my blood.”
Brutus: “You speak of the people as if you were a god.”
Sicinius: “Tis well we let the people know it. It is a mind that shall remain a poison where it is and not poison any further.”
Coriolanus: “Shall remain! Hear you this triton of the minnows? Mark you his shall? Thus do we debase the nature of our seats, and make the rabble call our cares fears; which will in time break open the locks of the Senate and bring in the crows to peck the eagles.”
Brutus: “Enough!”
Coriolanus: “Your dishonour mangles true judgment and bereaves the state of that integrity which should become it, not having the power to do the good it would, for the ill which does control it.”
Brutus: “He has said enough.”
Sicinius: “He has spoken like a traitor and shall answer, as traitors do.”
Coriolanus: “Thou wretch!”
Brutus: “Manifest treason!”
Sicinius: “This a consul? No.”
Brutus: “Let him be apprehended.”
Sicinius: “Go call the people.”
Coriolanus: “Hence old goat! Hence, rotten thing, or I shall shake thy bones out of thy garments.”
Sicinius: “Help, ye citizens!”
Enter a rabble of plebs.
Menenius: “On both sides more respect.”
Sicinius: “Here’s he who would take from you all your power.”
Brutus: “Seize him!”
Plebeians: “Down with him! Down with him!”
Patricians: “Peace! Peace! Peace!”
Menenius: “I am out of breath; confusion’s near; I cannot speak.”
Sicinius: “Hear me, people, peace!”
Plebeians: “Let’s hear our tribune, peace! Speak!”
Sicinius: “You are at point to lose your liberties. Marcus would have all from you.”
Menenius: “Fie, fie, fie! This is the way to kindle, not to quench.”
1 Senator: “To unbuild the city.”
Sicinius: “What is the city but the people?”
Plebians: “True, the people are the city.”
Cominius: “That is the way to lay the city flat, to bring the roof to the foundation, and bury all in heaps and piles of ruins.”
Sicinius: “This deserves death.”
Brutus: “We do here pronounce Marcius is worthy of present death.”
Sicinius: “Therefore lay hold of him; bear him to the Tarpeian rock and from thence into destruction cast him.”
Brutus: “Seize him.”
Plebeians: “Yield, Marcius, yield.”
Coriolanus draws his sword.”
Menenius: “Down with that sword! Tribunes, withdraw awhile.”
Brutus: “Lay hands upon him.”
Plebeians: “Down with him! Down with him!”
Coriolanus: “I would they were barbarians, as they are. On fair ground I could beat forty of them.”
Menenius: “I could myself take up the two tribunes.”
Exit Coriolanus with others
Menenius: “His nature is too noble for the world. His heart is his mouth; what his breast forges, his tongue must vent; and, being angry, does forget that ever he heard the name of death.”
Sicinius: “Where is this viper who would depopulate the city and be everyman himself? He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock with rigorous hands.”
1 Citizen: “He shall well know the noble tribunes are the people’s mouths and we their hands.”
Menenius: “Sir, do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt with modest warrant. Hear me speak, as I know the consul’s worthiness.”
Sicinius: “Consul! What consul?”
Menenius: “The consul Coriolanus.”
Brutus: “He consul?”
Plebeians: “No, no, no, no, no!”
Sicinius: “We are peremptory to dispatch this viperous traitor. It is decreed he dies tonight.”
Menenius: “Now the good gods forbid that our renowned Rome should now eat up her own.”
Sicinius: “He is a disease that must be cut away.”
Menenius: “What has he done to Rome that’s worthy of death? Killing our enemies, the blood he has lost, by many an ounce, he dropped for his country.”
Brutus: “We’ll hear no more. Pursue him to his house and pluck him hence, lest his infection spread further.”
Menenius: “Consider this: he has been bred in the wars and is ill-schooled in bolted language. Give me leave, and I’ll go to him and undertake to bring him where he shall answer by a lawful form, in peace, to his utmost peril.”
1 Senator: “Noble tribunes, it is the humane way; the other course will prove too bloody, and the end of it is unknown to the beginning.”
Sicinius: “Noble Menenius, be you then as the people’s officer. Masters, lay down your weapons and meet on the market-place. We’ll attend you there, where, if you bring not Martius, we’ll proceed in our first way.”
Menenius: “I’ll bring him to you.”
Analysis
Coriolanus learns that Aufidius and the Volsces may be planning an attack on Rome. Just then the tribunes arrive and declare that the people will not accept Coriolanus as consul. Coriolanus launches into a litany of viscous verbal attacks on the plebeians and their tribunes. As a result the people attempt to seize him and have him executed. Coriolanus flees the scene and Menenius convinces the angry mob to hear Coriolanus speak directly to them. Coriolanus has unwisely exposed himself to be the enemy of the people the plebeians suspected he was all along. Now he is in a battle with the people, a situation he is infinitely more comfortable with than having to win over their approval and convince them of his good will toward them. Nonetheless, at Menenius’ urging, the people are willing to hear from him directly one last time before rendering their harsh judgment and punishment.
Act III
Scene ii
Rome. The house of Coriolanus.
Enter Coriolanus with patricians.
Coriolanus: “Let them pull all about my ears, present me death on the wheel or at wild horses’ heels. Yet will I still be thus to them. I muse my mother does not approve of me.”
Enter Volumnia
Coriolanus: “I talk of you; why did you wish me milder? Would you have me false to my nature?”
Volumnia: “You might have been enough the man you are with striving less to be so.”
Coriolanus: “Let them hang.”
Volumnia: “Ay, and burn too.”
Menenius: “Come, come; you have been too rough. You must return and mend it.”
1 Senator: “There’s no remedy, unless, by not so doing, our good city cleave and perish.”
Volumnia: “Pray be counselled; I have a heart as little apt as yours, but yet a brain that leads my use of anger to better advantage.”
Menenius: “Well said, noble woman.”
Coriolanus: “What must I do?”
Menenius: “Return to the tribunes and repent what you have spoke.”
Coriolanus: “For them! Must I do it?”
Volumnia: “You are too absolute. I have heard you say, honour and policy in the wars do grow together. Grant that and tell me, in peace what each of them by the other lose that they combine not there.”
Coriolanus: “Tush, tush! Why force you this?”
Volumnia: “Because it now lies on you to speak to the people. I pray now, my son, go to them and say thou art their soldier, and being bred in broils, you have not the soft way which, thou does confess, were fit for thee to use, as thy to claim, in asking their good loves.”
Menenius: “This but done, their hearts are yours.”
Volumnia: “Prithee, now, go.”
Cominius: “I have been in the market-place, and sir, tis fit you defend yourself by calmness. All is anger.”
Menenius: “Only fair speech.”
Cominius: “I think it will serve, if he can thereto frame his spirit.”
Volumnia: “He must and will. Prithee, say you will and go about it.”
Coriolanus: “Must I with my base tongue give to my noble heart a lie that it must bear? Well then, I’ll do it. To the market-place!”
Cominius: “Come, we’ll prompt you.”
Volumnia: “I prithee now, sweet son, my praises made thee first a soldier, so, to have my praise for this, perform a part thou has not done before.”
Coriolanus: “Well, I must do it. Away, my disposition, and possess me some harlot’s spirit! My throat of war be turned into a pipe as small as a eunuch. A beggar’s voice make motion through my lips, and my armed knees bend like his that receives alms! I will not do it, lest I teach my mind a most inherent baseness.”
Volumnia: “At thy choice then, come all to ruin. I mock at death with as big a heart as thou. Thy valiantness was mine, thou sucked it from me; but owe thy pride thyself.”
Coriolanus: “Pray, be content, mother, I am going to the market-place; chide me no more. Look, I am going and I’ll return consul.”
Cominius: “The tribunes do attend you. Arm yourself to answer mildly; for they are prepared with accusations.”
Coriolanus: “I will answer in my honour.”
Menenius: “Ay, but mildly.”
Coriolanus: “Mildly be it then – mildly.”
Analysis
Coriolanus has no intention of appealing to the mob of people on his own behalf until his mother pleads her case. Even then he vacillates until she finally gets firm with him and he relents: “Be content, mother. I am going to the market-place. Chide me no more.” And the dutiful son finally agrees to appeal to the people on behalf of his mother. His heart is not in it but he simply cannot disappoint his mother and this is his only chance at being consul and not being run out of Rome or executed by the people he despises.
Act III
Scene iii
Rome. The forum.
Enter Brutus and Sinicius
Brutus: “Will he come?”
Roman official: “He’s coming.”
Sicinius: “Assemble presently the people hither.”
Brutus: “Put him to choler straight. He is used to conquering; being once chafed, he cannot be reigned again to temperance.”
Enter Coriolanus, Menenius and Cominius
Sicinius: “Well, here he comes.”
Coriolanus: “I do beseech you to keep Rome in safety and the chairs of justice supplied with worthy men! Plant love among us! Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, and not our streets with war.”
Menenius: “A noble wish.”
Coriolanus: “Hear me speak. Shall I be charged no further than this present? Must all be determined here?”
Menenius: “Lo, citizens, the warlike service he has done, consider; think upon the wounds his body bears. Consider further, that when he speaks not like a citizen, you find him like a soldier; do not take his rougher accents for malicious sounds, but, as I say, such as becomes a soldier.”
Sicinius: “Answer to us. We charge that you have contrived to take Rome into a power tyrannical, for which you are a traitor to the people.”
Coriolanus: “How – traitor? Call me traitor? Thou injurious tribune!”
Sicinius: “Mark you this, people?”
Plebeians: “To the rock, to the rock with him!”
Sicinius: “Peace! What you have seen him do and heard him speak, cursing you, opposing laws, and here defying those whose great powers must try him – even this deserves extremest death.”
Brutus: “But since he has served well for Rome -“
Coriolanus: “What do you know of service? You!”
Menenius: “Is this the promise you made your mother?”
Coriolanus: “I’ll go no further. Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death vagabond exile, flaying; I would not buy their mercy at the price of one fair word.”
Sicinius: “For that he has from time to time envied against the people, seeking means to pluck away their power, in the name of the people, and in the power of us the tribunes, we, from this instant, banish him from our city, never more to enter our Roman gates.”
Plebeians: “Let it be so; he is banished!”
Cominius: “Hear me, my common friends – “
Sicinius: “No more hearing.”
Brutus: “There is no more to be said but that he is banished as an enemy to the people and his country. It shall be so.”
Plebeians: “It shall be so! It shall be so!”
Coriolanus: “You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate and whose love I prize as the red carcasses of unburied men who do corrupt my air – I banish you! Let every feeble rumour shake your heart and may your enemies fan you into despair! Despising for you the city, thus I turn my back; there is a world elsewhere.”
Exit Coriolanus, Cominius, Menenius and other patricians
Plebeians: “Our enemy is banished; he is gone!”
Sicinius: “Go see him out the gates and give him deserved vexation.”
Analysis
Coriolanus comes before the people one last time to humble himself in their presence in order to be granted the position of consul. He has been coached by his mother, his friends and his fellow patricians, but no one can make this soldier into an able politician. Once the people confront him he falls apart and goes on the attack, sealing his fate, which is his banishment from Rome. It was all within his immediate reach. Indeed, does pride cometh before the fall. But there are two entire acts remaining, and much drama.
Act IV (7 scenes)
Scene i
Rome. Before the gates of the city.
Enter Coriolanus, Volumnia, Virgilia, Menenius, Cominius
Coriolanus: “Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell. The beast with many heads butts me away. Nay mother, where is your ancient courage? You were used to say that extremities were the triers of spirits; that common chances common men could bear; that when the sea was calm all boats alike showed mastership in floating.”
Virgilia: “O heavens! O heavens!”
Volumnia: “Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome and occupations perish!”
Coriolanus: “Cominius, droop not; adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother. I’ll do well yet.”
Volumnia: “My son, wither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius with thee awhile; determine on some course.”
Virgilia: “O the gods!”
Cominius: “I’ll follow thee a month, devise with thee where thou shalt rest.”
Coriolanus: “Fare ye well; bring me to outside the gate. Come, bid me farewell and smile.”
Menenius: “Worthily said. Come, let’s not weep. If I could shake off but one and seven years from these old arms and legs, by the gods, I’d with thee every foot. Give me thy hand.”
Analysis
So there goes the banished Coriolanus. His family and friends have joined him to the gates of the city and are watching him disappear into the unknown. If you are waiting for a penetrating soliloquy a la Hamlet, Lear, Othello or Macbeth, you are definitely in the wrong play. He does not express his inner conflict. But he is a man of honour, who otherwise could have told the people what they wanted to hear and been accepted as consul. He is who he is, a great warrior. That’s it. He is a man of action and not reflection or deep thought and, in that sense, is rather the opposite of Hamlet.
Act IV
Scene ii
Rome. Enter the two tribunes
Sicinius: “Bid them all home; he’s gone. The nobility are vexed, who have sided on his behalf.”
Brutus: “Now that we have shown our power, let us seem humbler after it is done than when it was a-doing.”
Sicinius: “Bid them home. Say that their great enemy is gone.”
Brutus: “Here come his mother.”
Enter Volumnia, Virgilia and Menenius
Sicinius: “Let’s not meet her.”
Brutus: “Why?”
Sicinius: “They say she’s mad.”
Brutus: “They have taken note of us.”
Volumnia: “You have banished him who struck more blows for Rome than thou has spoken words. Bastards and all! Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome! Twas you who incensed the rabble.”
Brutus: “Pray, let’s go.”
Volumnia: “Ere you go, hear this: my son and this lady’s husband, whom you have banished, exceeds you all.”
Brutus: “Well, well; we’ll leave you now.”
Volumnia: “I wish the gods had nothing else to do but to confirm my curses.”
Menenius: “You have told them home. You’ll sup with me?”
Volumnia: “Anger’s my meat; I sup upon myself, and so shall starve with feeding.”
Menenius: “Fie, fie, fie.”
Analysis
Brutus and Sicinius are clearing the people and sending them home when they run into Volumnia, who condemns their deeds and curses them. The people have won the day and Volumnia has lost her son.
Act IV
Scene iii
A highway between Rome and Antium
Enter a Roman named Nicanor and a Volscian, meeting
Nicanor: “I am a Roman, and my services are against them. Know you me yet?”
Volscian: “Nicanor?”
Nicanor: “The same, sir.”
Volsian: “What’s the news in Rome?”
Nicanor: “There have been in Rome strange insurrections: the people against the senators, patricians and nobles.”
Volscian: “Our state is in a most warlike preparation, and hopes to come upon them in the heat of their division.”
Nicanor: “The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again; for the nobles receive so to heart the banishment of the worthy Coriolanus that they are in a ripe aptness to take all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes forever.”
Volsian: “Coriolanus banished!”
Nicanor: “Banished, sir.”
Volsian: “You will be welcomed with this intelligence, Nicanor.”
Nicanor: “Your noble Aufidius will appear well in these wars, his great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no request of his country. Have you an army ready?”
Volsian: “A most royal one, to be on foot at an hour’s warning.”
Nicanor: “I am joyful to hear of their readiness. Let us go together.”
Analysis
A Roman spy for the Volscians informs a Volscian that Rome is deeply divided over the banishment of Coriolanus and that this is a golden opportunity for Aufidius and his army to strike at Rome. The Volscian suggests that their army is indeed poised to strike. It is time to find out where Coriolanus has chosen to go, which will drive the plot the remainder of the way through the play.
Act IV
Scene iv
Antium. Before Aufidius’s house.
Enter Coriolanus, disguised
Coriolanus: “A goodly city is this Antium. Tis I who made thee widows. Then know me not, lest the wives with spits and boys with stones, in puny battle slay me.”
Enter a citizen
Coriolanus: “Direct me, if it be your will, where great Aufidius lies. Is he in Antium?”
Citizen: He is, and feasts the nobles at his house tonight.”
Coriolanus: “Which is his house?”
Citizen: “This here before you.”
Coriolanus: “Thank you, sir; farewell.”
Exit citizen
Coriolanus: “O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, inseparable, shall within this hour, on dissension break out to bitterest enmity; so fellest foes shall grow dear friends. So with me: my birthplace hate I, and my love’s upon this enemy town. I’ll enter. If he slay me, he does fair justice; if he give me way, I’ll do his country service.”
Analysis
The secret is out. Coriolanus has come to Antium to combine forces with Aufidius to attack the Rome he once loved but now despises.
Act IV
Scene V
Antium. Aufidius’s house
Enter Coriolanus
Coriolanus: “A goodly house.”
Enter 1 Servant
1 Servant: “What would you have, friend? Whence are you? Here is no place for you: pray, go to the door.”
Exit 1 Servant
Coriolanus: “I have deserved no better in being Coriolanus.”
Enter 2 Servant
2 Servant: “Whence are you, sir? Pray, get you out.”
Coriolanus: “Away!”
2 Servant: “Away? Get you away.”
Enter 3 Servant and 1 Servant
3 Servant: “What fellow is this?”
1 Servant: “A strange one as ever I looked on. I cannot get him out of the house.”
3 Servant: “What have you to do here fellow? What are you?”
Coriolanus: “A gentleman.”
3 Servant: “A marvellous poor one.”
Coriolanus: “True, so I am.”
3 Servant: “Pray you, poor gentleman, here is no place for you.” (to 2 Servant) “Prithee, tell my master what a strange guest he has here.”
2 Servant: “And I shall.”
Enter Aufidius with 2 Servant
Aufidius: “Where is this fellow?”
2 Servant: “Here, sir.”
Aufidius: “Whence comes thou? What would thou? Thy name? Speak, man. What’s thy name?”
Coriolanus: “A name unmusical to the Volscian ear, and harsh in sound to thine.”
Aufidius: “Thou has a grim appearance, and thy face bears a command in it.”
Coriolanus “Prepare thy brow to frown. Know me yet?”
Aufidius: “I know thee not. Thy name?”
Coriolanus: “My name is Caius Marcius, who has done to thee particularly, and to all the Volscians, great hurt and mischief; therefore witness my surname: Coriolanus. The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood shed for my thankless country, are requited but with that surname – only that name remains. The cruelty and envy of the people, permitted by our dastard nobles, who have all forsook me, have devoured the rest, and have suffered me by the voice of slaves to be whooped out of Rome. This extremity has brought me to thy hearth, in mere spite, to be more quit of those my banishers. Make my misery serve thy turn; for I will fight against my cankered country with the spleen of all the under-fiends. I also present my throat to thee and to thy ancient malice; which not to cut would show thee but a fool, since I have ever followed thee with hate, drawn tons of blood out of thy country’s breast, and cannot live but to thy shame, unless it be to do thee service.”
Aufidius: “O Marcius, Marcius! Each word thou has spoke has weeded from my heart a root of ancient envy. All noble Marcius, let me wind my arms around that body. Here I clip the anvil of my sword, and do contest as hotly and as nobly with thy love as ever in ambitious strength I did contend against thy valour. Know thou first, I loved the maid I married; but that I see thee here, thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart than when I first my wedded mistress saw bestride my threshold. Thou has beat me out twelve several times , and I have nightly since dreamt of encounters between thyself and me – we have been down together in my sleep, unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat – and waked half dead with nothing. O come in, and take our friendly senators by the hands, who now are here, prepared against your territories.”
Coriolanus: “You bless me, gods!”
Aufidius: “Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou will have the leading of thine own revenges, take the one half of my commission, since thou knows thy country’s strength and weakness and whether to knock against the gates of Rome or rudely visit them in parts remote to frighten and destroy them. But come in. Let me commend thee first to those who shall say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes! And more a friend than ever an enemy.”
Exit Coriolanus and Aufidius
Enter 2 servants
1 Servant: “Here’s a strange alteration.”
2 Servant: “I’ll be sworn, he is simply the rarest man in the world.”
1 Servant: “I take him to be a great soldier.”
Enter 3 Servant
3 Servant: “O slaves, I can tell you news, you rascals!”
1 and 2 Servants: “What, what, what?”
3 Servant: “I would not be a Roman, of all nations.”
1 and 2 Servants: “Wherefore, wherefore?”
3 Servant: “Why, here’s he who was wont to thwack our general – Caius Marcius. Our general himself makes a mistress of him. He’ll go, he says, and sowl the porter of Roman gates by the ears; he will mow down all before him. He will do it!”
1 Servant: “When goes this forward?”
3 Servant: “Tomorrow today, presently.”
2 Servant: “Why then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron and increase ballad makers.”
1 Servant: “Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as day does night. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.”
2 Servant: “Tis so; and as war in some sort may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.”
1 Servant: “Ay, and it makes men hate one another.”
3 Servant: “Reason: because they then less need one another. The wars for my money.”
Analysis
Coriolanus arrives at Aufidius’s house and eventually encounters his great rival. He explains that he has been banished from Rome and has come to offer his services to Aufidius and the Volscian army. Although he claims that Aufidius would be a fool not to cut his that, in fact, Aufidius welcomes him as he would a lover. ‘Let me twine my arms around that body… Thou noble thing, I see thee here more dances my rapt heart than when I first my wedded mistress saw.’ They begin to make their plans together on the assault of Rome. Coriolanus has clearly settled his fate upon revenge against the Romans who have banished him. The scene concludes with the three servants declaring their love for war, which promises to imminently return with the appearance of Coriolanus, who lives for it.
Act IV
Scene vi
Rome. A public place.
Enter the Tribunes Sicinius and Brutus
Sicinius: “We hear not of him, neither need we fear him. His remedies are tame. The present peace and the quietness of the people here do make his friends blush that the world goes well; behold our tradesmen singing in their shops and going about their functions friendly.”
Enter Menenius
Sicinius: “Hail, sir!”
Menenius: “Hail to you both.”
Sicinius: “Your Coriolanus is not much missed, but by his friends. The commonwealth does stand.”
Menenius: “All is well, and might have been much better if he could have temporized.”
Sicinius: “Where is he, hear you?”
Menenius: “Nay, I hear nothing and his mother and wife hear nothing from him.”
Brutus: “Caius Martius was a worthy officer in the war, but insolent, ambitious and self-loving. Rome sits safe and still without him.”
Enter an official
Official: “Worthy tribunes, there is a slave who reports the Volscians have entered the Roman territories, and with the deepest malice destroy what lies before them.”
Menenius: “Tis Aufidius, who, hearing of our Marcius banishment, thrusts forth his horns again into the world.”
Brutus: “Go see this rumourer whipped. It cannot be.”
Menenius: “Cannot be? We have record that it can. Reason with this fellow, before you punish him, where he heard this.”
Sicinius: “I know this cannot be.”
Brutus: “Its not possible.”
Enter a messenger
Messenger: “The nobles in great earnestness are going to the Senate House, for some news has come that turns heir countenances. The report has been seconded and more. Marcius has joined with Aufidius and leads a great power against Rome. He vows revenge.”
Menenius: “This is unlikely.”
Enter 2 Messenger
2 Messenger: “You are sent for to the Senate. A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius, associated with Aufidius, rages upon our territories.”
Enter Cominius
Cominius: “O, you have made good work. You have helped to ravish your own daughters and to see your wives dishonoured. Marcius is their god; he leads them like a thing made by some other diety than nature. And they follow him against us brats with no less confidence than boys pursuing butterflies or butchers killing flies.”
Menenius: “You have made good work, you and your apron men.”
Cominius: “He’ll shake your Rome about your ears.”
Brutus: “But is this true?”
Cominius: “Ay, and you’ll look pale before you find it other.”
Menenius: “We are all undone unless the noble man have mercy.”
Cominius: “Who shall ask it? The tribunes cannot do it for shame.”
Cominius: “You have brought a trembling upon Rome.”
Both Tribunes: “Say not we brought it.”
Menenius: “Was it we? We loved him, but like cowardly nobles, gave way under your clusters, who did boot him out of the city. You are they who made the air unwholesome when you cast your stinking greasy caps in hooting at Coriolanus’ exile. Now he’s coming.”
Plebians: “We hear fearful news.”
1 Citizen: “For my part, when I said banish him, I said ’twas pity.'”
2 Citizen: “And so did I.”
3 Citizen: And so did I. We did for the best; and though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will.”
1 Citizen: “I ever said we were in the wrong when we banished him.”
Brutus: “I do not like this news.”
Sicinius: “Nor I.”
Brutus: “Would half my wealth would buy this for a lie.”
Analysis
Disturbing word arrives that Coriolanus has joined with Aufidius and is leading a Volsian army on Rome. Cominius and Menenius immediately turn on the two tribunes, laying all the blame right at their feet. How fickle the people are. After soundly and willfully banishing Coriolanus, now they are back pedaling, as he returns to wreak havoc on those who banished him.
Act IV
Scene vii
A camp a short distance from Rome
Enter Aufidius and his lieutenant.
Aufidius: “Do they still fly to the Roman?”
Lieutenant: “I do not know what witchcraft is in him, but your soldiers use him as the grace before meat; and you are darkened in this action, sir.”
Aufidius: “He bears himself more proud than I thought he would when I first did embrace him.”
Lieutenant: “Yet I wish, sir, you had not joined in commission with him.”
Aufidius: “I understand thee well.”
Lieutenant: “Think you he’ll carry Rome?”
Aufidius: “All places yield to him. I think he’ll be to Rome as is the osprey to the fish, who takes it by sovereignty of nature. When, Caius, Rome is thine, thou art poorest of all: then shortly thou art mine.”
Analysis
The writing is on the wall for Act V, as Aufidius has already grown weary of Coriolanus. The allegiances and alliances are fickle. The Romans were prepared to make Coriolanus consul and then they banished him. Aufidius was his great and passionate rival, but they nearly fell in love with one another, until Aufidius envisions his finally victory over him after the fall of Rome. Coriolanus was once the great military hero of a Rome he is preparing to destroy. There is much to be reconciled as we venture into Act V, which is what Shakespeare does best.
Act V (6 scenes)
Scene i
Rome. A public place.
Enter Menenius, Cominius, Sicinius and Brutus
Menenius: “No, I’ll not go. Go, you who banished him and kneel the way into his mercy.”
Cominius: “He would not seem to know me. I urged our old acquaintance and the drops that we have bled together. He would not answer to it. He was a kind of nothing.”
Menenius: “No, I will not meddle.”
Sicinius: “Pray you go to him.”
Menenius: “What should I do?”
Brutus: “Only make trial what your love can do for Rome.”
Menenius: “I’ll undertake it. I think he’ll hear me. Yet to bite his lip at good Cominius much unhearts me.”
Brutus: “You know the very road into his kindness and cannot lose your way.”
Cominius: “He’ll never hear him. I kneeled before him; twas very faintly he said ‘Rise’ and dismissed me with his speechless hand. All hope is in vain unless his noble mother, who, as I hear, means to solicit him for mercy to his country. Therefore, let’s haste them on.”
Analysis
Cominius went out to speak with Coriolanus and was rejected. Now the tribunes are pleading with Menenius to attempt to persuade Coriolanus to call off the attack on Rome. Menenius agrees but Cominius is convinced that only his mother can get through to him. Mother has her ways!
Act V
Scene ii
The Volscian army camp before Rome.
Enter Menenius to the watch on guard.
1 Watch: “Stay. Whence are you?”
2 Watch: “Stand and go back.”
Menenius: “I am an officer of state and come to speak with Coriolanus.”
1 Watch: “You may not pass. Our general will no more hear from thence.”
2 Watch: “You’ll see your Rome embraced with fire before you speak with Coriolanus.”
Menenius: “Good, my friends, if you have heard your general talk of Rome and of his friends there, my name has touched your ears: it is Menenius. I must have leave to pass”
1 Watch: “If you are a Roman than you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you think to blow out the intended fire your city is ready to flame in with such weak breath as this? No, you are deceived; therefore, back to Rome and prepare for your execution. You are condemned. My general cares not for you. Back, I say; go, lest I let forth your half pint of blood. Back.”
Enter Coriolanus with Aufidius
Coriolanus: “What is the matter?”
Menenius: “O my son! My son! Thou art preparing fire for us; look thee, here’s water to quench it.”
Coriolanus: “Away!”
Menenius: “How away!”
Coriolanus: “Wife, mother, child I know not. That we have been familiar, ingrate forgetfulness shall poison rather than pity note how much. Therefore be gone. My ears against your suits are stronger than your gates against my force. Yet, for I loved thee, take this along. (he hands Menenius a letter) Another word, Menenius, I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius, was my beloved in Rome.”
Exit Coriolanus and Aufidius
1 Watch: “Now, sir, your name is Menenius?”
2 Watch: “Tis a spell, you see, of much power. You know the way home.”
Menenius: “Let your general do his worst. For you, be that your misery increases with your age. I say to you as I was said to: away!”
Analysis
Cominius was right. Coriolanus would not receive Menenius and rejected him as he rejected Cominius. Only one hope remains and here she comes.
Act V
Scene iii
The tent of Coriolanus
Enter Coriolanus and Aufidius
Coriolanus: “This last old man, who I have sent back to Rome, loved me above the measure of a father.”
Aufidius: “You have stopped your ears against the general suit of Rome, never admitting a private whisper.”
Enter in mourning habits Virgilia, Volumnia and young Marcius
Coriolanus: “My wife comes foremost, then the honoured mould wherein this trunk was framed, and in her hand the grandchild to her blood. But out, affection! All bonds break! Let it be virtuous to be obstinate. My mother bows and my young boy has an aspect of intercession which great nature cries ‘Deny not’. Let the Volscians plough Rome and harrow Italy. I’ll stand as if a man were author of himself and knew no other kin.”
Virgilia: “My lord and husband!”
Coriolanus: “These eyes are not the same I wore in Rome. Like a dull actor now I have forgot my parts. Best of my flesh, forgive my tyranny; but do not say ‘forgive our Romans’. And the most noble mother of the world, sink, my knee.” (he kneels)
Volumnia: “O, stand up blest! While with no softer cushion than the flint I kneel before thee and show duty.” (she kneels)
Coriolanus: “What’s this? Your knees to me?”
Volumnia: “Thou art my warrior; I helped to frame thee.”
Coriolanus: “That’s my brave boy.”
Volumnia: “Even he, your wife and myself are suitors to you.”
Coriolanus: “I beseech you, peace! Do not bid me to dismiss my soldiers or capitulate. Tell me not wherein I seem unnatural; desire not to allay my rages and revenges with your colder reasons.”
Volumnia: “No more, no more! You have said you will not grant us anything – for we have nothing else to ask but the which you deny already; yet we will ask, that, if you fail in our request, the blame may hang upon your hardness; therefore hear us.”
Coriolanus: “Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark; for we’ll hear nought from Rome in private. Your request?”
Volumnia: “Think how more unfortunate than all living women are we come hither; since that thy sight, which should make our eyes flow with joy constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow, making the mother, the wife and the child to see the son, the husband and the father tearing his country’s bowels out. How can we for our country pray, whereto we are bound, together with thy victory, whereto we are bound? Alack, or we must lose the country or else thy person; for either thou must as a foreign recreant be led with manacles through our streets, or else triumphantly tread on thy country’s ruin. Thou shall no sooner march to assault thy country than to tread – trust to it, thou shalt not – on thy mother’s womb who brought thee to this world.”
Virgilia: “Ay, and mine who brought you forth the boy to keep your name living to time.”
Coriolanus: “I have sat too long.” (rising)
Volumnia: “Nay, go not from us thus. If our request did tend to save the Romans and thereby destroy the Volscians whom you serve, you might condemn us as poisonous of your honour. No, our suit is that you reconcile them, and each on either side give the all hail to thee, and cry ‘be blest for making up this peace’. Thou knows, great son, the end of war is uncertain; but this is certain, that, if thou conquer Rome, the benefit which thou shall thereby reap is such a name whose repetition will be dogged with curses; whose chronicle thus written: ‘the man was noble, but with his last attempt he wiped it out, destroyed his country, and his name remains to the ensuing age abhorred.’ Speak to me, son. Why do you not speak? Daughter, speak you: he cares not for your weeping. Speak thou, boy: perhaps thy childishness will move him more than can our reasons. There is no man in the world more bound to his mother; yet here he lets me prate like one in the stocks. Thou has never in thy life showed thy dear mother any courtesy. Say my request is unjust, and spurn me back, but if it be not so, thou art not honest, and the gods will plague thee. He turns away. Down, ladies, let us shame him with our knees. Down. This is the last. So we will home to Rome, and die among our neighbours. Come, let us go. This fellow had a Volscian for a mother; his wife is in Corioli and his child like him by chance.”
Coriolanus holds his mother’s hand
Coriolanus: “O mother, mother! What have you done? Behold, the heavens do open, the gods look down, and this unnatural scene they laugh at. O my mother, my mother! O! You have won a happy victory for Rome. Most dangerously you have with him prevailed, if not most mortal to him. But let it come. Aufidius, although I cannot make true war, I’ll frame a convenient peace. Now, good Aufidius, were you in my stead, would you have heard a mother less, or granted less?”
Aufidius: “I was moved withal.”
Coriolanus: “I dare be sworn you were. And sir, it is no little thing to make my eyes sweat compassion. But, good sir, what peace you’ll make, advise me. For my part, I’ll not to Rome, I’ll stay back with you and pray you’ll stand by me in this cause.”
Aufidius: (aside) “I am glad thou has set thy mercy and thy honour at difference in thee. Out of that I’ll work myself a former fortune.”
Coriolanus: (to the ladies) “Ay, we will drink together; and you shall bear a better witness back than words. Come ladies, you deserve to have a temple built to you. All the swords in Italy could not have made this peace.
Analysis
Coriolanus may have saved Rome but he has also sealed his own fate. His mother again has triumphed, convincing him to make peace between the Volscians and Rome, where no one else was able to move him in the least. She convinces him that he can prevent dishonour and be a hero by forging a lasting peace between Rome and the Volscians. However, in saving Rome Coriolanus has betrayed Aufidius, who now sees the opportunity which has always eluded him: to destroy his former enemy. For Coriolanus must now return to Antium and explain himself to the Volscian generals. Volumnia is the great hero here, for she has truly saved Rome. But she cannot save her son from the old jealousy and rage of Aufidius.
Act V
Scene iv
Rome. A public place.
Enter Menenius and Sicinius
Menenius: “ere is some hope the ladies of Rome, especially his mother, may prevail with him. But I say there is no hope in it; our throats are sentenced. This Marcius has grown from man to dragon.”
Sicinius: “He loved his mother dearly.”
Menenius: “So did he me; what he bids be done is finished with his bidding.”
Sicinius: “The gods be good unto us.”
Menenius: “No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto us. When we banished him we respected not them; and, he returning to break our necks, they respect not us.”
Enter a messenger
Messenger: “Sir, if you would save your life, fly to your house. The plebians have your fellow tribune, all swearing if the Roman ladies bring not comfort home, they’ll give him death.”
Enter another messenger.
Sicinius: “What’s the news?”
2 Messenger: “Good news, good news! The ladies have prevailed, the Volscians are dislodged and Marcius gone. A merrier day did never yet greet Rome.”
Menenius: “This is good news. I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia is worth consuls, senators and patricians.”
Sicinius: “We’ll meet them.”
Analysis
Menenius despairs that Volumnia will never succeed, having failed himself, when a messenger arrives with the good news that mother has done it again! Rome is saved. Brutus must be relieved, since the plebeians have gotten a hold of him and have determined to put him to death if the ladies fail in their mission.
Act V
Scene v
Rome. A street near the gate.
Enter two senators with Volumnia and Virgilia
1 Senator: “Behold our patroness, the life of Rome! Praise the gods, and make triumphant fires; strew flowers before them. Unshout the noise that banished Marcius. Repeal him with the welcome of his mother; welcome, ladies, welcome!”
Analysis
The true hero returns to Rome triumphant. She is the patroness of Rome! Now let’s see what becomes of her son in the play’s final scene.
Act V
Scene vi
Corioli. A public place.
Enter Aufidius
Aufidius: “Him I accuse. He intends to appear before the people, hoping to purge himself with words. Dispatch.”
Enter three conspirators
2 Conspirator: “Most noble sir, we’ll deliver you of your great danger.”
3 Conspirator: “The fall makes the survivor heir of all.”
Aufidius: “I know it; and my pretext to strike at him admits a good construction. I raised him up and I pawned my honour for his truth. He watered his new plants with dews of flattery, seducing so my friends. He came unto my hearth, presented to my knife his throat. I took him in and made him joint-servant with me; gave him way in all his own desires; my best and freshest men served him, till at last, I seemed his follower, not partner.”
1 Conspirator: “So he did, my lord. The army marvelled at it.”
Aufidius: “So there it is, for which my sinews shall be stretched upon him. He sold the blood and labour of our great action; therefore shall he die, and I’ll renew me in his fall.”
3 Conspirator: “Let him feel your sword, which we will second.”
Enter the Lords
1 Lord: “Making a treaty where there was yielding – this admits no excuse.”
Enter Coriolanus:
Coriolanus: “Hail, Lords! I am returned your soldier; no more infected with my country’s love than when I parted hence, but still subsisting under your great command.”
Aufidius: “Noble lords, tell the traitor in the highest degree he has abused your powers.”
Coriolanus: “Traitor! How now?”
Aufidius: “Ay, traitor, Marcius.”
Coriolanus: “Marcius?”
Aufidius: “Ay, Marcius, Caius Marcius! Does thou think I will grace thee with that robbery, thy stolen name, Coriolanus? You lords and heads of state, he has betrayed your business and given up your city of Rome – I say your city – to his wife and mother; breaking his oath and resolution and never admitting counsel of the war; but at his nurse’s tears he whined away your victory.”
Coriolanus: “Hear’st thou, Mars?”
Aufidius: “Name no the god, thou boy of tears.”
Coriolanus: “Ha! Measureless liar, thou has made my heart too great for what contains it. ‘Boy’! O slave! Pardon me, lords. Your judgments, my grave lords, must give this cur the lie, who wears my stripes impressed upon him. Cut me to pieces, Volscians. Stain all your edges on me. ‘Boy’! False hound!”
Aufideus: “Why, noble lords, will you be put in mind of his blind fortune, which was your shame, by this unholy braggart, before your own eyes and ears?”
Conspiators: “Let him die for it.”
All the People: “Tear him to pieces. Do it presently. He killed my son, my daughter, my cousin, my father.”
Aufidius: “Insolent villain!”
Conspirators: “Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him!”
The conspirators draw and kill Coriolanus. Aufidius stands on him.
Aufidius: “My lords, when you should know – as in this rage, provoked by him, you cannot – the great danger which this man’s life did owe you, you’ll rejoice that he is thus cut off.”
2 Lord: “His own impatience takes from Aufidius a great part of blame.”
Aufidius: “My rage is gone and I am struck with sorrow. Though in this city he has widowed and unshielded many a one, yet he shall have a noble memory.”
Final Thoughts
The story of a tremendous hero with a tragic flaw, Coriolanus has never been regarded as one of Shakespeare’s finest tragedies, mostly because the lead character lacks the depth we associate, for example, with Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth or Mark Antony. And yet he is a complex figure. Coriolanus is the epitome of a one dimensional killing machine, a military hero and the pride of Rome on the battlefield, but he entirely lacks any political savvy whatsoever and is easily manipulated by the more conniving tribunes. Although he is coached by his friend, Menenius, who has the gift of political persuasion, he is hopelessly unsuited for the compromises required for politics and his bid to become consul. The most important person in his life is his domineering mother, who has no power of her own in a patriarchal Rome, but lives through her son, who she controls completely. Ironically, when only she can convince him to spare Rome, after his banishment, she seals his doom, and he falls victim to his arch-foe, Aufidius, who finally defeats him after countless humiliations at his hands on the battlefield.
The is a marvellous play for the structure and themes and the way Coriolanus is affected by the various intriguing characters who surround him. It is also relevant to modern audiences as a political treatise on what challenges a military hero might face in making the transition to politics. Dwight Eisenhower, Charles DeGaul, Colin Powell and even Adolph Hitler come to mind as relevant examples. As much as any of his plays, Coriolanus provides a clear and evident bridge between the 1607 world of Shakespeare and all the various settings of its productions ever since. During periods of conflict between England and Scotland Coriolanus was often depicted as English and Aufidius Scottish. After WW II the character of Coriolanus was played typically as a prototype of Hitler. There have been Marxist productions which exalt the role of the commoners who bring him down. The applications have, in fact, been countless. Is Coriolanus the man for the particular time and place of each new production? That is the question. Shakespeare’s sources for this play are Plutarch’s Lives and Livy’s History of Rome. Per usual, there is ample material on this play on youtube, including a very good stage production directed by Charles Bouchard and a film by Ralph Fiennes. There are lectures on Coriolanus, countless clips, scene selections and much analysis.
William Shakespeare: Journey Through Genius 