Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

VALERIA

in Coriolanus — Shakespeare, William

Metadata

PlayCoriolanus
AuthorShakespeare, William
Year (catalogued)1623
First performance1608
Decade1620s
GenreTragedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyKing's Men
Speech prefix(es)Val. | Ʋ al. | Valeria. | Valer.
Words357
Characters1810
Typicality0.60 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA11954.26
BritDrama no.1589
ClusterCluster 1 — Wives, widows & intimate counsel

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

My Ladies both good day to you. How do you both? You are manifest house-kee pers. What are you sowing here? A fine spot in good faith. How does your little Son? A my word the Father's Son: I'll swear it's a very pretty boy. A my troth, I looked upon him a Wens day half and hour together: ha such a confirmed con tenance. I saw him run after a gilded Butterfly, & when he caught it, he let it go again, and after it again, and oh ver and over he comes, and up again: catched it again: or whither his fallen enraged him, or how 'twas, he did so set his teeth, and tear it. O, I warrant how he mammockt it. Indeed la, 'tis a Noble child. Come, lay aside your stitchery, I must have you play the idle Huswife with me this afternoon. Not out of doors? Fie, you confine your self most unreasonably: Come, you must go visit the good Lady that lies in. You would be another Penelope : yet they say, all the yearn she spun in Ulysses absence, did but fill Athica full of Moths. Come, I would your Cambrick were sen sible as your finger, that you might leave pricking it for pity. Come you shall go with us. In earnest it's true; I herd a Senator speak it. Thus it is: the Volcies have and Army forth, against who ̄ Cominius the General is gone, with one partly of our Ro mane power. Your Lord, and Titus Lartius, are set down before their City Carioles, they nothing doubt preuai ling, and to make it brief Wars. This is true on mine Honour, and so I pray go with us. Well, then farewell. In truth la go with me, and I'll tell you excellent news of your Husband. Verily I do not jest with you: there came news from him last night. In troth I think she would: Fare you well then. Come good sweet Lady. Prithee Virgilia turn thy solemness out a door, And go along with us. In troth, there's wondrous things spoke of him.

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…