Coriolanus Entreated by His Family

Coriolanus

William Shakespearec. 1608
Influence17th pct
Popularity32nd pct
Shakespeare

Read this if you…

  • like Rome and Shakespeare
  • like an arrogant famous guy as main character
  • have already read the better Shakespeares

Skip this if you…

  • haven't already read the classic shakespeare tragedies
  • aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
  • foolishly think shakespeare is overrated

The Groblé Take

I liked that both Coriolanus and the tribunes were unlikeable but with redeeming qualities, and what a great play by Aufidius at the end

Connections

The lineage through Coriolanus

Built Onwhat came beforeCoriolanusPlutarch's Lives

  • Plutarch's Lives by Plutarch. Coriolanus built on it. - *Coriolanus* is Plutarch's *Life of Caius Marcius Coriolanus* set on stage, by way of North's 1579 translation - The moment Coriolanus arrives at Aufidius's house to defect is borrowed almost word-for-word from North's prose - Read the *Life* first and you can hear exactly where Shakespeare stopped paraphrasing and started transcribing
See the full map
Gallery

Depicted in Art

Coriolanus draws his sword beneath Rome's massive walls as Volumnia, Virgilia, their children, and Roman matrons reach toward him pleading.

Nicolas Poussin, 1653

Veturia and her grandchildren confront Coriolanus before the city walls, the warrior wavering between filial duty and military assault.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1727

Coriolanus stands armored outside Rome's gates as kneeling women plead beneath a stormy sky.

Franz Anton Maulbertsch, 1795

A wide Italian Renaissance frieze: armored Coriolanus mid-frame, his family arrayed in procession, Rome's architecture rising behind.

Michele da Verona, 1500

Large-scale Baroque composition: Coriolanus in Roman armor at the gates, his mother and wife kneeling before him in dramatic light.

Ciro Ferri, 1685

Large-scale Baroque composition with Volumnia rising before her armored son, attendants and Roman military gathered around.

Jan Erasmus Quellinus, 1700

Volumnia looks directly at her son while he averts his eyes; his wife and other women cluster around them in a tense, intimate group.

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, 1662

Coriolanus on horseback at the head of his army receives a procession of Roman matrons led by Volumnia outside the city.

Pieter Lastman, 1622

Pen-and-ink drawing of the family-pleading scene; Coriolanus in armor faces his mother and wife with crowded onlookers behind.

Heinrich Friedrich Füger

Bas-relief sculpture of Coriolanus and the pleading women, neoclassical idiom in carved marble.

Anne Seymour Damer, 1788

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick$9.99$9.31

Folger Shakespeare Library

2009

Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise google, without breaking the scene to do it.

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Notable Quotes

There is a world elsewhere.

Coriolanus, Coriolanus
All 16 quotes, with sources →
Adaptations

Screen & Stage

Posters via The Movie Database (TMDB)

AcclaimPraised by 6 notable voices
  • Ralph Fiennes, actor and film director, 1962-: "Coriolanus spoke to me very strongly and wouldn't leave me."
  • T.S. Eliot, poet & critic, 1888–1965: "Coriolanus may be not as 'interesting' as Hamlet, but it is, with Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare's most assured artistic success."
  • George Bernard Shaw, playwright & critic, 1856–1950: "Coriolanus is the greatest of Shakespeare's comedies."
  • Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, 1809–1865: Lincoln was especially fond of the political characters in Shakespeare — Coriolanus among them — and read them over and over.
  • David Oyelowo, actor, 1976-: "I love an underdog, and Coriolanus is a much better play than people give it credit for."
  • Harold Bloom, literary critic, 1930–2019: "Coriolanus is the greatest killing machine in all of Shakespeare; that he is not totally unsympathetic is a Shakespearean triumph."

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