Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

LARTIUS

in Coriolanus — Shakespeare, William

Metadata

PlayCoriolanus
AuthorShakespeare, William
Year (catalogued)1623
First performance1608
Decade1620s
GenreTragedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyKing's Men
Speech prefix(es)Tit. | Titus Lartius. | Lartius. | Lar. | Lart. | Latius.
Words385
Characters2091
Typicality0.46 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA11954.26
BritDrama no.1589
ClusterCluster 9 — Boon companions & bluff banter

Important excerpts

No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).

Full speech

No Caius Martius, I'll lean upon one Crutch, and fight with tother, Ere stay behind this Business. Led you on: Follow Cominius, we must follow you, right worthy you Priority. What is become of Martius ? O General: Here is the Steed, we the Caparison: Hadst thou beheld— I shall, my Lord. Martius, his Name. My horse to yours, no. O Noble Fellow! Who sensibly outdares his senseless Sword, And when it bows, standest up: Thou art left Martius, A Carbuncle entire: as big as thou art Wear not so rich a Jewel. Thou was't a Soldier Even to Calves wish, not fierce and terrible Only in strokes, but with thy grim looks, and The Thunderlike percussion of thy sounds Thou madest thine enemies shake, as if the World Were Fevorous, and did tremble. Oh it's Martius. Let's fetch him off, or make remain alike. Worthy Sir, thou bleedest, Thy exercise hath been too violent, For a second course of Fight. Now the fair Goddess Fortune, Fallen deep in love with thee, and her great charms Misguide thy Opposers swords, Bold Gentleman: Prosperity be thy Page. Thou worthiest Martius, Go found thy Trumpet in the Market place, Call thither all the Officers of the Town, Where they shall know our mind. Away. So, let the Ports be guarded; keep your Duties As I have set them down. If I do send, dispatch Those Centuries to our aid, the rest will serve For a short holding, if we lose the Field, We cannot keep the Town. Agreed. So, the good Horse is mine. No, I'll nor sell, nor give him: Lend you him I will For half a hundred years: Summon the Town. Their noise be our instruction. Ladders hoa. Hence; and shut your gates upon's: Our Guider come, to the Roman Gampe conduct us. He had, my Lord, and that it was which caused Our swifter Composition. On safeguard he came to me, and did curse Against the Volces, for they had so vildly Yielded the Town: he is retired to Antium. He did, my Lord. 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 Fortune's To hopeless restitution, so he might Be called your Vanquisher. At Antium.

Plot summary

Plot — Coriolanus
The. citizens of Rome riot for corn. They insist that the patricians are hoarding the commodity, but Menenius Agrippa tells them a fable suggesting that the Senate has made an equitable distribution of what there is. The Senate grants the people tribunes to represent their interests, to the disgust of the patrician soldier Martius. ‘The Volsces put troops in-the field in an attempt to capture Roman territory. The Romans split their powers: the general Cominius takes on the attacking army under the Volscian commander Aufidius, while Martius and Titus Lartius attack the Volscian town of Corioles. Martius ventures alone into the town and is trapped when the gates close behind him. When he re-emerges, bleeding from the fight, he invigorates the troops and Corioles is conquered. He goes to relieve Cominius, while Titus Lartius finalizes the terms of the Roman occupation. Martius confronts Aufidius in single combat. They are long-time rivals who have sworn to fight to the death, but they are balked when Aufidius’ troops intervene to rescue him. Meanwhile, Aufidius realizes that he will never beat Martius in a fair fight: it will have to be by stealth. Martius, now surnamed Coriolanus, returns triumph to Rome, and is put forward for the consulship. By custom, he must humbly ask the consent of the people and show them his war-wounds. He is reluctant, partly through contempt for the plebeians and partly out of a concern that his valour might be misinterpreted as political ambition. Even so, he. undertakes the obligation and receives the people’s voices, but does not actually show the wounds. The Tribunes persuade the people to withdraw their votes, since it would not be in their best interests to have Coriolanus as head of state. When the Tribunes intervene to block his promotion, Coriolanus loses his temper and speaks to them in terms which exacerbate the situation. Cominius undertakes to get him to apologise, but Coriolanus — persuaded to comply only at the intervention of his mother, Volumnia — still cannot keep his temper, and the Tribunes banish him from Rome. Coriolanus goes to Aufidius’ house in Antium and is received. The Volsces are mobilizing a new army for a fresh attack on the Romans, and Aufidius splits his command with Coriolanus, who marches on Rome. When his victory seems certain, first Cominius and then Menenius entreat his clemency, but are refused. An embassy from Volumnia, his wife, and young son proves more effective, however: he decides to…