Menenius

Play

Coriolanus

Summary

Menenius Agrippa is an elderly Roman patrician and Coriolanus's closest friend among the political class — a jovial, wily diplomat who manages the plebeians through wit and flattery where Coriolanus cannot manage them at all. He opens the play with the famous "belly fable," a parable comparing Rome's patricians to the belly that receives all nourishment and distributes it to the body's members. Menenius is warm, humane, and entirely aware of Coriolanus's flaws, yet his affection is unconditional. His attempt to intercede with Coriolanus on behalf of Rome — turned away at the Volscian camp — is one of the play's most poignant scenes, as Coriolanus coldly dismisses him with what is effectively a denial of all former connection.

Notable Quotations

"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." *(2.1)*

"He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in." *(5.4 — on Coriolanus)*

"There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger." *(5.4)*

Cross-references

• Coriolanus — the play
• Tragedies
• character_coriolanus — his beloved friend whose destruction he cannot prevent
• character_volumnia — Coriolanus's mother, his fellow patrician
• character_sicinius — tribune he sparrs with verbally
• character_brutus_coriolanus — the other tribune