A goodly city is this Antium. City,
’Tis I that made thy widows. Many an heir
Of these fair edifices ’fore my wars
Have I heard groan and drop. Then know me not,
Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones
In puny battle slay me.
A goodly city is this Antium. City, ’Tis I that made thy widows. Many an heir Of these fair edifices ’fore my wars Have I heard groan and drop. Then know me not, Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones In puny battle slay me.
A goodly city is this Antium. City, ’Tis I that made thy widows. Many an heir Of these fair edifices ’fore my wars Have I heard groan and drop. Then know me not, Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones In puny battle slay me.
a goodly city is this antium. city, ’tis i that made thy wid
And you.
And you.
And you.
and you.
Direct me, if it be your will,
Where great Aufidius lies. Is he in Antium?
Direct me, if it be your will, Where great Aufidius lies. Is he in Antium?
Direct me, if it be your will, Where great Aufidius lies. Is he in Antium?
direct me, if it be your will, where great aufidius lies. is
He is, and feasts the nobles of the state
At his house this night.
He is, and feasts the nobles of the state At his house this night.
He is, and feasts the nobles of the state At his house this night.
he is, and feasts the nobles of the state at his house this
Which is his house, beseech you?
Which is his house, beseech you?
Which is his house, beseech you?
which is his house, beseech you?
This here before you.
This here before you.
This here before you.
this here before you.
One of the strangest textual features of this scene is that Coriolanus's great meditation on fortune — 'O world, thy slippery turns!' — appears in the First Folio as stage directions rather than a speech. Editors disagree about whether this is an authorial choice or a scribal error. In practice, modern productions almost universally treat it as a soliloquy delivered aloud. And it is extraordinary: in a play where Coriolanus almost never reflects philosophically, this speech is him genuinely thinking — watching himself from the outside, marveling at the absurdity of what he's doing. Friends become enemies over nothing. Enemies become friends over nothing. 'My birthplace hate I, and my love's upon this enemy town.' He is philosophically prepared for what he's about to do. It's the reverse of tragic — a man who has intellectualized his own catastrophe.
Thank you, sir. Farewell.
Thank you, sir. Farewell.
Thank you, sir. Farewell.
thank you, sir. farewell.
The 'slippery turns' speech taps into one of the most central Renaissance anxieties: the arbitrariness of fortune's wheel. The goddess Fortuna was depicted spinning a wheel that raised men to glory and plunged them to ruin — randomly, without moral logic. Coriolanus's observation that 'friends now fast sworn... shall within this hour break out to bitterest enmity' and vice versa is philosophically sharp: he's not grieving, he's categorizing. He has identified that loyalty and enmity are functions of circumstance, not character. This is a disturbing thing for an audience to watch — because it's true, and because the speaker is about to demonstrate it by going from Rome's greatest general to her greatest enemy, in roughly two scenes.
The Reckoning
The pivot of the entire play. Coriolanus, who banished Rome, now arrives at Antium carrying what he described as his hatred for his city and his love for this enemy town. The speech he delivers (encoded in the scene's 'stage directions') is one of the most remarkable psychological moments in Shakespeare — a man talking himself into the most radical act imaginable, with perfect cold logic. The audience watches a hero become something else entirely.
If this happened today…
A retired American general, fired under political pressure, shows up at a military base in a rival country wearing civilian clothes. He waits by the gate. He thinks about how strange it is that allies become enemies and enemies become allies — sometimes over almost nothing. He decides: if they execute him, fine. If they use him, even better. He asks a local passerby where the commanding general lives. He rings the doorbell.