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Coriolanus (/kɒriəˈleɪnəs/ or/-ˈlɑː-/[1]) is atragedy byWilliam Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendaryRoman leaderGnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. Shakespeare worked on it during the same years he wroteAntony and Cleopatra, making them his last two tragedies.
Coriolanus is the name given to a Roman general after his military feats against theVolscians atCorioli. Following his success, others encourage Coriolanus to pursue theconsulship, but his disdain for theplebeians and mutual hostility with thetribunes lead to his banishment from Rome. In exile, he presents himself to the Volscians, then leads them against Rome. After he relents and agrees to a peace with Rome, he is killed by his previous Volscian allies.
The play opens in Rome shortly after the expulsion of theTarquin kings. There are riots in progress after stores of grain have been withheld from ordinary citizens. The rioters are particularly angry atCaius Marcius,[2] a brilliant Roman general whom they blame for the loss of their grain. The rioters encounter apatrician namedMenenius Agrippa, as well as Caius Marcius himself. Menenius tries to calm the rioters, while Marcius is openly contemptuous, and says that theplebeians are not worthy of the grain because of their lack of military service. Two of thetribunes of Rome, Brutus and Sicinius, privately denounce Marcius. Marcius leaves Rome after news arrives that aVolscian army is in the field.
The commander of the Volscian army,Tullus Aufidius, has fought Marcius on several occasions and considers him a blood enemy. The Roman army is commanded by Cominius, with Marcius as his deputy. While Cominius takes his soldiers to meet Aufidius's army, Marcius rallies Roman troops in front of the Volscian city ofCorioli. The siege of Corioli is initially unsuccessful, but the Romans conquer it when Marcius is able to force open the gates of the city. Even though he is exhausted from the fighting, Marcius marches quickly to join Cominius and fight the other Volscian forces. Marcius and Aufidius meet in single combat, fighting until Aufidius's own soldiers drag him away from the battle.
In recognition of his great courage, Cominius gives Caius Marcius theagnomen, or "officialnickname", ofCoriolanus. When they return to Rome, Coriolanus's mother Volumnia encourages her son to run forconsul. Coriolanus is hesitant to do this, but he bows to his mother's wishes. He effortlessly wins the support of theRoman Senate, and seems at first to have won over the plebeians as well. However, Brutus and Sicinius scheme to defeat Coriolanus and instigate another plebeian riot in opposition to his becoming consul. Faced with this opposition, Coriolanus flies into a rage and rails against the concept ofpopular rule. He compares allowing plebeians to have power over the patricians to allowing "crows to peck the eagles". The two tribunes condemn Coriolanus as a traitor for his words and order him to be banished. Coriolanus retorts that it is he who banishes Rome from his presence.
After his exile from Rome, Coriolanus makes his way to the Volscian capital ofAntium, and asks Aufidius's help to wreak revenge upon Rome for banishing him. Moved by his plight and honoured to fight alongside the great general, Aufidius and his superiors embrace Coriolanus, allowing him to lead a new assault on Rome.
Rome, in its panic, tries desperately to persuade Coriolanus to halt his crusade for vengeance, but both Cominius and Menenius fail. Finally, Volumnia is sent to meet her son, along with Coriolanus's wife Virgilia and their child, and the chaste gentlewoman Valeria. Volumnia succeeds in dissuading her son from destroying Rome, urging him instead to clear his name by reconciling the Volscians with the Romans and creating peace.
Coriolanus concludes a peace treaty between the Volscians and the Romans. When he returns to the Volscian capital, conspirators, organised by Aufidius, kill him for his betrayal.
Romans
Volscians
Other
Coriolanus is largely based on the "Life of Coriolanus" inThomas North's translation ofPlutarch'sThe Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (1579). The wording ofMenenius's speech about thebody politic is derived fromWilliam Camden'sRemaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine (1605),[3][4] wherePope Adrian IV compares a well-run government to a body in which "all parts performed their functions, only the stomach lay idle and consumed all"; the fable is also alluded to inJohn of Salisbury'sPolicraticus (Camden's source) andWilliam Averell'sA Marvailous Combat of Contrarieties (1588).[5]
Other sources have been suggested, but are less certain. Shakespeare might also have drawn onLivy'sAb Urbe condita, as translated byPhilemon Holland, and possibly a digest of Livy byLucius Annaeus Florus; both of these were commonly used texts in Elizabethan schools.Machiavelli'sDiscourses on Livy were available in manuscript translations, and could also have been used by Shakespeare.[6] He might also have made use of Plutarch's original source, theRoman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus,[7] as well as on his own knowledge of Roman custom and law.[5]
Most scholars dateCoriolanus to the period 1605–10, with 1608–09 being considered the most likely, although the available evidence does not permit great certainty.
The earliest date for the play rests on the fact that Menenius's fable of the belly is derived fromWilliam Camden'sRemaines, published in 1605. The later date derives from the fact that several other texts from 1610 or thereabouts seem to allude toCoriolanus, includingBen Jonson'sEpicoene,Robert Armin'sPhantasma andJohn Fletcher'sThe Woman's Prize, or the Tamer Tamed.[8]
Some scholars note evidence that may narrow down the dating to the period 1607–09. One line may be inspired byGeorge Chapman's translation of theIliad (late 1608).[9] References to "the coal of fire upon the ice" (I.i) and to squabbles over ownership of channels of water (III.i) could be inspired byThomas Dekker's description of the freezing of theThames in 1607–08 andHugh Myddleton's project to bring water to London by channels in 1608–09 respectively.[10] Another possible connection with 1608 is that the surviving text of the play is divided into acts; this suggests that it could have been written for the indoorBlackfriars Theatre, at which Shakespeare's company began to perform in 1608, although the act-breaks could instead have been introduced later.[11]
The play's themes of popular discontent with government have been connected by scholars with theMidland Revolt, a series of peasant riots in 1607 that would have affected Shakespeare as an owner of land inStratford-upon-Avon; and the debates over the charter for theCity of London, which Shakespeare would have been aware of, as it affected the legal status of the area surrounding the Blackfriars Theatre.[12] The riots in the Midlands were caused by hunger because of the enclosure of common land.
For these reasons, R. B. Parker suggests "late 1608 ... to early 1609" as the likeliest date of composition, while Lee Bliss suggests composition by late 1608, and the first public performances in "late December 1609 or February 1610". Parker acknowledges that the evidence is "scanty ... and mostly inferential".[13]
The play was first published in theFirst Folio of 1623. Elements of the text, such as the uncommonly detailed stage directions, lead some Shakespeare scholars to believe the text was prepared from a theatricalprompt book.
Like some of Shakespeare's other plays (All's Well That Ends Well;Antony and Cleopatra;Timon of Athens), there is no recorded performance ofCoriolanus prior to theRestoration. After 1660, however, its themes made it a natural choice for times of political turmoil. The first known performance wasNahum Tate's bloody 1682 adaptation atDrury Lane. Seemingly undeterred by the earlier suppression of hisRichard II, Tate offered aCoriolanus that was faithful to Shakespeare through four acts before becoming aWebsterian bloodbath in the fifth act. A later adaptation,John Dennis'sThe Invader of His Country, or The Fatal Resentment, was booed off the stage after three performances in 1719. The title and date indicate Dennis's intent, a vitriolic attack on the Jacobite'Fifteen. (Similar intentions motivatedJames Thomson's 1745 version, though this bears only a very slight resemblance to Shakespeare's play. Its principal connection to Shakespeare is indirect;Thomas Sheridan's 1752 production atSmock Alley used some passages of Thomson's.)David Garrick returned to Shakespeare's text in a 1754 Drury Lane production.[14]
Laurence Olivier first played the part atThe Old Vic in 1937 and again at theShakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1959. In that production, he performed Coriolanus's death scene by dropping backwards from a high platform and being suspended upside-down without the aid of wires.[15]
In 1971, the play returned to the Old Vic in a National Theatre production directed byManfred Wekwerth and Joachim Tenschert with stage design byKarl von Appen.Anthony Hopkins played Coriolanus, withConstance Cummings as Volumnia andAnna Carteret as Virgilia.[citation needed]
Other performances of Coriolanus includeAlan Howard,Paul Scofield,Ian McKellen,Ian Richardson,Tommy Lee Jones,Toby Stephens,Robert Ryan,Christopher Walken,Morgan Freeman,Colm Feore,Ralph Fiennes,Tom Hiddleston andDavid Oyelowo.[citation needed]
In 2012,National Theatre Wales produced a composite of Shakespeare'sCoriolanus withBertolt Brecht'sCoriolan, entitled Coriolan/us, in a disused hangar atMOD St Athan.[16] Directed by Mike Brookes and Mike Pearson, the production usedsilent disco headsets to permit the text to be heard while the dramatic action moved throughout the large space. The production was well received by critics.[17][18]
In December 2013,Donmar Warehouse opened their new production. It was directed byJosie Rourke, starringTom Hiddleston in the title role, along withMark Gatiss,Deborah Findlay,Hadley Fraser, andBirgitte Hjort Sørensen.[19][20] The production received very strong reviews.Michael Billington withThe Guardian wrote "A fast, witty, intelligent production that, in Tom Hiddleston, boasts a fine Coriolanus."[21] He also credited Mark Gatiss as excellent as Menenius, the "humorous patrician".[21] InVariety, David Benedict wrote thatDeborah Findlay in her commanding maternal pride, held beautifully in opposition byBirgitte Hjort Sørensen as Coriolanus's wife Virgilia.[22] Helen Lewis, in her review ofCoriolanus, along with two other concurrently running sold-out Shakespeare productions with celebrity leads—David Tennant'sRichard II andJude Law'sHenry V—concludes "if you can beg, borrow or plunder a ticket to one of these plays, let it beCoriolanus."[23] The play was broadcast in cinemas in the UK and internationally on 30 January 2014 as part of theNational Theatre Live programme.[24][25]
Bertolt Brecht adapted Shakespeare's play in 1952–55, asCoriolan for theBerliner Ensemble. He intended to make it a tragedy of the workers, not the individual, and introduce thealienation effect; his journal notes showing that he found many of his own effects already in the text, he considered staging the play with only minimal changes. The adaptation was unfinished at Brecht's death in 1956; it was completed by Manfred Wekwerth and Joachim Tenschert and staged inFrankfurt in 1962.[26]
In 1963, the BBC included Coriolanus inThe Spread of the Eagle.
Slovak composerJán Cikker adapted the play into an opera which premiered in 1974 inPrague.
In 1983, theBBC Television Shakespeare series produced a version of the play. It starredAlan Howard and was directed byElijah Moshinsky.
In 2003, theRoyal Shakespeare Company performed a new staging ofCoriolanus (along with two other plays) starringGreg Hicks at theUniversity of Michigan. The director, David Farr, saw the play as depicting the modernisation of an ancient ritualised culture, and drew onsamurai influences to illustrate that view. He described it as "in essence, a modern production. The play is basically about the birth of democracy."[27]
In 2011,Ralph Fiennes directed and starred as Coriolanus withGerard Butler as Aufidius andVanessa Redgrave as Volumnia in a modern-day film adaptationCoriolanus. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in May, 2012. It has a 93% rating on the film review site Rottentomatoes.com.[28]Slavoj Žižek argued that unlike preceding adaptations, Fiennes' film portrayed Coriolanus without trying to rationalise his behaviour, as a raw figure for the "radicalleft" whom he compares to Che Guevara, whom Žižek characterises as making clear that "a revolutionary also has to be a 'killing machine'".[29]
In 2019, theTanghalang Pilipino staged a Filipino translation of the tragedy. It was translated by Guelan Varela-Luarca and was directed by Carlos Siguion-Reyna. The play was led by TP Actors Company's senior member Marco Viaña as Coriolanus, opposite to him is Brian Sy as Tullus Aufidius,Frances Makil-Ignacio and Sherry Lara alternating the role of Volumnia. Along with them are Jonathan Tadioan as Menenius, JV Ibesate as Velutus, Doray Dayao as Brutus, and the Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company.[30][31]
While the title character's name's pronunciation inclassical Latin has thea pronounced "[aː]" in theIPA, in English the a is usually pronounced "[eɪ]."Ken Ludwig'sMoon Over Buffalo contains a joke dependent upon this pronunciation, and the parodyThe Complete Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged) refers to it as "theanus play". Shakespeare pronunciation guides list both pronunciations as acceptable.[32]
Cole Porter's song "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" from the musicalKiss Me, Kate includes the lines: "If she says your behaviour is heinous,/Kick her right in the Coriolanus".
Based onCoriolanus, and written in blank verse, "Complots of Mischief" is a satirical critique of those who dismiss conspiracy theories. Written by philosopher Charles Pigden, it was published inConspiracy Theories: The Philosophical Debate (Ashgate 2006).[33]
Samuel Johnson’s notes in his 1765 edition praised the play’s “vehement passions” yet complained of its abrasive protagonist and dense military rhetoric, signalling an ambivalence that would shape later criticism.[34] Romantic-era readers, especiallyWilliam Hazlitt, admired Shakespeare’s “complete character-drawing,” locating tragedy in Coriolanus’s inflexible pride and contempt for popular opinion, thereby cementing the drama’s reputation as Shakespeare’s austerest political play.[35] Victorian scholars such asA. C. Bradley placed the work “on the grand scale” while judging it less psychologically expansive thanHamlet orKing Lear.[36] The warrior Coriolanus is perhaps the most opaque of Shakespeare's tragic heroes, rarely pausing tosoliloquise or reveal the motives behind his proud isolation from Roman society. In this way, he is less like the effervescent and reflective Shakespearean heroes/heroines such asMacbeth,Hamlet,Lear andCleopatra, and more like figures from ancient classical literature such asAchilles,Odysseus, andAeneas—or, to turn to literary creations from Shakespeare's time, theMarlovian conquerorTamburlaine, whose militaristic pride finds its parallel in Coriolanus. Readers and playgoers have often found him an unsympathetic character, as his caustic pride is strangely, almost delicately balanced at times by a reluctance to be praised by his compatriots and an unwillingness to exploit and slander for political gain. His dislike of being praised might be seen as an expression of his pride; all he cares about is his own self-image, whereas acceptance of praise might imply that his value is affected by others' opinion of him. The play is less frequently produced than the other tragedies of the later period, and is not so universally regarded as great. (Bradley, for instance, declined to number it among his famous four in the landmark critical workShakespearean Tragedy.)
In his bookShakespeare's Language,Frank Kermode describedCoriolanus as "probably the most fiercely and ingeniously planned and expressed of all the tragedies".[37]
T. S. Eliot famously proclaimedCoriolanus superior toHamlet inThe Sacred Wood, in which he calls the former play, along withAntony and Cleopatra, the Bard's greatest tragic achievement. Eliot wrote a two-part poem about Coriolanus, "Coriolan" (an alternative spelling of Coriolanus); he also alluded toCoriolanus in a passage from his ownThe Waste Land when he wrote, "Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus."[38] Mid-century criticism shifted attention from character to civic process: Rabkin’s article argued that the play anatomises the impossibility of sustaining republican consensus in wartime Rome.[39]
Post-war Marxist scholars highlighted the drama’s class antagonism. Robert Ormsby traces howBertolt Brecht’s East-German adaptation reframed Coriolanus as an object lesson in bourgeois militarism, a reading that later influenced British stagings.[40] Contemporary political critics likewise recruit the play as a lens on populism: James Shapiro compared theTrump administration’s pandemic rhetoric to Menenius’ patrician complacency, underscoring its resonance with twenty-first-century crisis governance.[41]
Psychoanalytic approaches, from early Freudian readings to recent trauma studies, interpret Coriolanus’s wound-display and speechlessness as symptoms of an unresolved Oedipal bond and narcissistic injury.[42]
Coriolanus has the distinction of being among the few Shakespeare plays banned in a democracy in modern times.[43] It was briefly suppressed in France in the late 1930s because of its use by the fascist element, andSlavoj Žižek noted its prohibition in Post-War Germany due to its intense militarism.[44]
Stage criticism often gauges how directors negotiate the play’s austere rhetoric.Michael Billington laudedJosie Rourke’s 2013Donmar Warehouse production, praisingTom Hiddleston’s “fast, witty” interpretation that foregrounded civic unrest.[45]
Recent scholarship explores howCoriolanus anticipates debates on technocratic elitism and populist backlash, interpreting its set-pieces as dramatizations of media-mediated politics.[46] Critics note the play’s revival during moments of civic anxiety: productions proliferated during theArab Spring, the United Kingdom’sBrexit referendum and global pandemic lockdowns, each reframing bread riots and senatorial manoeuvring for new audiences.[47]
Headlined by the U.S. premiere of the stage adaptation of Salman Rushdie's award-winning novel "Midnight's Children," the 16-day residency also offers new stagings of Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Coriolanus".
Coriolanus public domain audiobook atLibriVox
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