# Result number

Work The work is either a play, poem, or sonnet. The sonnets are treated as single work with 154 parts.

Character Indicates who said the line. If it's a play or sonnet, the character name is "Poet."

Line Shows where the line falls within the work.

The numbering is not keyed to any copyrighted numbering system found in a volume of collected works (Arden, Oxford, etc.) The numbering starts at the beginning of the work, and does not restart for each scene.

Text The line's full text, with keywords highlighted within it, unless highlighting has been disabled by the user.

1

Coriolanus
[I, 3]

(stage directions)

361

[Enter VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA. they set them down]
on two low stools, and sew]

2

Coriolanus
[I, 4]

Coriolanus

491

Then shall we hear their 'larum, and they ours.
Now, Mars, I prithee, make us quick in work,
That we with smoking swords may march from hence,
To help our fielded friends! Come, blow thy blast.
[They sound a parley. Enter two Senators with others]
on the walls]
Tutus Aufidius, is he within your walls?

3

Coriolanus
[I, 10]

(stage directions)

877

[A flourish. Cornets. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS,]
bloody, with two or three Soldiers]

4

Coriolanus
[II, 1]

(stage directions)

916

[Enter MENENIUS with the two Tribunes of the people,]
SICINIUS and BRUTUS.

5

Coriolanus
[II, 1]

Menenius Agrippa

928

He's a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two
are old men: tell me one thing that I shall ask you.

6

Coriolanus
[II, 1]

Menenius Agrippa

931

In what enormity is CORIOLANUS poor in, that you two
have not in abundance?

7

Coriolanus
[II, 1]

Menenius Agrippa

936

This is strange now: do you two know how you are
censured here in the city, I mean of us o' the
right-hand file? do you?

8

Coriolanus
[II, 1]

Menenius Agrippa

961

I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that
loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying
Tiber in't; said to be something imperfect in
favouring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like
upon too trivial motion; one that converses more
with the buttock of the night than with the forehead
of the morning: what I think I utter, and spend my
malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as
you are—I cannot call you Lycurguses—if the drink
you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a
crooked face at it. I can't say your worships have
delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in
compound with the major part of your syllables: and
though I must be content to bear with those that say
you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that
tell you you have good faces. If you see this in
the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known
well enough too? what barm can your bisson
conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be
known well enough too?

9

Coriolanus
[II, 1]

Menenius Agrippa

1069

One i' the neck, and two i' the thigh,—there's
nine that I know.

10

Coriolanus
[II, 2]

(stage directions)

1224

[Enter two Officers, to lay cushions]

11

Coriolanus
[II, 3]

Coriolanus

1491

Bid them wash their faces
And keep their teeth clean.
[Re-enter two of the Citizens]
So, here comes a brace.
[Re-enter a third Citizen]
You know the cause, air, of my standing here.

12

Coriolanus
[II, 3]

Coriolanus

1512

A match, sir. There's in all two worthy voices
begged. I have your alms: adieu.

13

Coriolanus
[II, 3]

(stage directions)

1517

[Re-enter two other Citizens]

14

Coriolanus
[II, 3]

Coriolanus

1545

Most sweet voices!
Better it is to die, better to starve,
Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.
Why in this woolvish toge should I stand here,
To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear,
Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to't:
What custom wills, in all things should we do't,
The dust on antique time would lie unswept,
And mountainous error be too highly heapt
For truth to o'er-peer. Rather than fool it so,
Let the high office and the honour go
To one that would do thus. I am half through;
The one part suffer'd, the other will I do.
[Re-enter three Citizens more]
Here come more voices.
Your voices: for your voices I have fought;
Watch'd for your voices; for Your voices bear
Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six
I have seen and heard of; for your voices have
Done many things, some less, some more your voices:
Indeed I would be consul.

15

Coriolanus
[III, 1]

Coriolanus

1845

'Shall'!
O good but most unwise patricians! why,
You grave but reckless senators, have you thus
Given Hydra here to choose an officer,
That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but
The horn and noise o' the monster's, wants not spirit
To say he'll turn your current in a ditch,
And make your channel his? If he have power
Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake
Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd,
Be not as common fools; if you are not,
Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians,
If they be senators: and they are no less,
When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste
Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate,
And such a one as he, who puts his 'shall,'
His popular 'shall' against a graver bench
Than ever frown in Greece. By Jove himself!
It makes the consuls base: and my soul aches
To know, when two authorities are up,
Neither supreme, how soon confusion
May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take
The one by the other.

16

Coriolanus
[III, 1]

Cominius

2039

I could myself
Take up a brace o' the best of them; yea, the
two tribunes:
But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic;
And manhood is call'd foolery, when it stands
Against a falling fabric. Will you hence,
Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend
Like interrupted waters and o'erbear
What they are used to bear.

17

Coriolanus
[III, 1]

Menenius Agrippa

2093

If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people,
I may be heard, I would crave a word or two;
The which shall turn you to no further harm
Than so much loss of time.

18

Coriolanus
[IV, 5]

Tullus Aufidius

2904

Therefore, most absolute sir, if thou wilt have
The leading of thine own revenges, take
The one half of my commission; and set down—
As best thou art experienced, since thou know'st
Thy country's strength and weakness,—thine own ways;
Whether to knock against the gates of Rome,
Or rudely visit them in parts remote,
To fright them, ere destroy. But come in:
Let me commend thee first to those that shall
Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes!
And more a friend than e'er an enemy;
Yet, CORIOLANUS, that was much. Your hand: most welcome!
[Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS. The two]
Servingmen come forward]

19

Coriolanus
[IV, 6]

Aedile

3057

Worthy tribunes,
There is a slave, whom we have put in prison,
Reports, the Volsces with two several powers
Are enter'd in the Roman territories,
And with the deepest malice of the war
Destroy what lies before 'em.

20

Coriolanus
[V, 1]

Cominius

3304

I offer'd to awaken his regard
For's private friends: his answer to me was,
He could not stay to pick them in a pile
Of noisome musty chaff: he said 'twas folly,
For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt,
And still to nose the offence.