Coriolanus (play) - Definition and Overview

Coriolanus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare based on the life of the legendary Roman leader.

The tragedy revolves around Caius Martius Coriolanus, a brilliant Roman general who ultimately is banished from Rome and leads an assault on that same city. Only the pleadings of his mother stop him from sacking Rome, a change of heart which leads to his destruction.

This is one of Shakespeare's later plays, appearing about 1607.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Tragedy of Coriolanus

• The Life of Coriolanus, by Plutarch (http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/coriolan.html) - English translation of Shakespeare's source by John Dryden
• http://classics.mit.edu/Shakespeare/coriolanus/ -- Full text of Shakespeare's play
• The Tragedie of Coriolanus (http://william-shakespeare.classic-literature.co.uk/the-tragedie-of-coriolanus/) - HTML version of this title.
• Coriolanus (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/2269) - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg

Example Usage of Coriolanus