William Shakespeare 1564-1616 Coriolanus John Bartlett 1919 Familiar Quotations


1
Had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, I had rather eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.
Coriolanus. Act i. Sc. 3.
2
Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.
Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 1.
3
A cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in ’t. 1
Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 1.
4
Many-headed multitude. 2
Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 3.
5
I thank you for your voices: thank you: Your most sweet voices.
Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 3.
6
Hear you this Triton of the minnows? Mark you His absolute “shall”?
Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 1.
7
Enough, with over-measure.
Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 1.
8
His nature is too noble for the world: He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, Or Jove for ’s power to thunder.
Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 1.
9
That it shall hold companionship in peace With honour, as in war.
Coriolanus. Act iii. Sc. 2.
10
Serv. Where dwellest thou? Cor. Under the canopy.
Coriolanus. Act iv. Sc. 5.



11
A name unmusical to the Volscians’ ears, And harsh in sound to thine.
Coriolanus. Act iv. Sc. 5.
12
Chaste as the icicle That ’s curdied by the frost from purest snow And hangs on Dian’s temple.
Coriolanus. Act v. Sc. 3.
13
If you have writ your annals true, ’t is there That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I Flutter’d your Volscians in Corioli: Alone I did it. Boy!
Coriolanus. Act v. Sc. 6. 3

Note 1.
When flowing cups pass swiftly round
With no allaying Thames.
Richard Lovelace: To Althea from Prison, ii. [back]

Note 2.
See Sidney, Quotation 6. [back]

Note 3.
Act v. sc. 5 in Singer and Knight. [back]