Coriolanus
By William Shakespeare
Cover: Virgilia and Volumnia Plead with Coriolanus (1795), brown wash on canvas by Robert Smirke (1753-1845) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (artist died 1845)
Caius Martius wins the name Coriolanus by taking a city for Rome, but his contempt for the common people costs him the consulship and gets him banished. He turns on his own city at the head of its enemies, and only his mother can stop him.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.