Shakespeare Commonplace Book

A collection of noteworthy quotes by (and artworks inspired by) William Shakespeare

[mephistopheles]

shakespeare was a freak

[justjamespotterr]

coriolanus is such an insane play because for a story that involves so much politics, the actual political message of the play is ambiguous enough that each reader’s interpretation will depend on their own political leanings. there’s that one post about how coriolanus has been staged as both pro-fascist and pro-communist propaganda during world war ii and the cold war, respectively. today you could interpret the play as a criticism of income inequality and the upper classes’ hoarding of wealth, OR as a warning against the dangers of populism and how people in positions of relative deprivation will make violent decisions if given the chance (or both!). however the only thing that is absolutely not up for debate is that coriolanus and aufidius were two seconds away from having sex the entire goddamn time

[theshakespearediaries]

Soma Orlai Petrich (1822–1880), Coriolanus (1869), oil on canvas, 140 x 260 cm, Mihály Munkácsy Museum, Békéscsaba, Hungary. Wikimedia Commons.

[theshakespearediaries]

"I'll never be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand, As if a man were author of himself And knew no other kin."

-Coriolanus, Act V Scene III

[theshakespearediaries]

Richard Westall (1765-1836), Volumnia Pleading with Coriolanus Not to Destroy Rome (1800), media and dimensions not known, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC. 

[theshakespearediaries]

"My rage is gone, And I am struck with sorrow."

-Coriolanus, Act V Scene VI

[theshakespearediaries]

Heinrich Friedrich Füger (1751-1818), Coriolanus Implored by his Family to Spare Rome (date not known), pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash over black chalk, 51 x 65.8 cm, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Stanford, CA. 

[theshakespearediaries]

"If you have writ your annals true, ’t is there, That, like an eagle in a dovecote, I Fluttered your Volscians in Corioles. Alone I did it. Boy!"

-Coriolanus, Act V Scene VI

[theshakespearediaries]

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621–1674), Coriolanus’ Wife and Mother Beg Him to Spare Rome, (1662), media and dimensions not known, The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

[theshakespearediaries]

"Let me have war, say I: it exceeds peace as far as day does night: it's sprightly waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible: a getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer of men."

-Coriolanus, Act IV Scene V

[theshakespearediaries]

Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), Coriolanus Begged by his Family (c 1652-53), oil on canvas, 112 x 198.5 cm, Musée Nicolas-Poussin, Les Andelys, France.

[theshakespearediaries]

"Anger's my meat: I sup upon myself, And so shall starve with feeding."

-Coriolanus, Act IV Scene II

[theshakespearediaries]

[theshakespearediaries]

"What is the city but the people?"

-Coriolanus, Act III Scene I

[theshakespearediaries]

[theshakespearediaries]

William Hodges (1744–1797), Jaques and the Wounded Stag: ‘As You Like It,’ Act II, Scene I (1790), oil on canvas, 92.1 x 123.2 cm, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT. 

[theshakespearediaries]

"I pray you do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine."

-As You Like It, Act III Scene V