#Coriolanus/Aufidius

[wisteria-lodge]

so one of the things about me is I'm a massive Coriolanus apologist

and it never gets brought up enough when people start talking about homeoerotic Shakespeare plays.

So here's the set up. Disillusioned roman general Martius Coriolanus has left Rome to find his nemesis Aufidius, because Aufidius is the only person he feels any connection to or respects anymore. (Which is already such a good set up. my god.)

And this is what Aufidius says when they meet:

AUFIDIUS: Let me twine Mine arms about that body, whereagainst My grainèd ash an hundred times hath broke And scarred the moon with splinters.

(so at the VERY LEAST they embrace, and mOST productions have Coriolanius not wearing a shirt, so Aufidius can literally trace his scars, because Coriolanus having a lot of scars is v important plot point...)

AUFIDIUS: Here I clip The anvil of my sword and do contest As hotly and as nobly with thy love As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valor. Know thou first, I loved the maid I married; never man Sighed truer breath. But that I see thee here, Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart Than when I first my wedded mistress saw Bestride my threshold. (...) Thou hast beat me out Twelve several times, and I have nightly since Dreamt of encounters ’twixt thyself and me; We have been down together in my sleep, Unbuckling helms, fisting each other’s throat, And waked half dead with nothing.

(At then Aufidius just makes him co-captain of his forces.)

(it's honestly one of the reasons I think this play is kind of C-squad, it's been harder to teach historically because like what could the non-homoerotic interpretation of that speech even be?)

#shakespeare stuff #shakespeare quotes #classic lit #shakespeare #coriolanus #coriolanus/aufidius #doesn't even have a cute ship name

[iamnmbr3]

Shakespeare Characters Playing Chess

Horatio: ...

Horatio: ...

Horatio: It’s your move! 

Hamlet: I’m thinking.

Horatio: This is boring.

Hamlet: Not for the audience. They can hear my internal monologue. And let me tell you. It’s a banger. 

**

Aufidius: You can’t move there. It puts you in check. 

Coriolanus: Don’t tell me what to do.

Aufidius: Fine. Then I'll just take your king.

Coriolanus: *throws the entire board at him*

Aufidius: ...

Coriolanus: ...

Aufidius: Your place or mine?

**

Henry IV: Checkmate.

Richard II: ... Really?

Henry IV: Too soon?

**

Brutus: You win. What do you want for your prize? 

Cassius: Your solemn promise that you acknowledge I’m the superior strategist and next time you’ll follow my lead on planning.

Brutus: ... :/

**

Dauphin: Your king is surrounded and you have 5 pieces left. Are you sure you’re not ready to concede?

Henry V:  No. And I won’t change my mind so stop asking.

*1 epic speech later*

Henry V: Checkmate 

#Brutus: how about a kiss instead? Cassius: NO. I want your promise that- stop making those eyes at me. I want your promise that- #Cassius: ok fine. a kiss it is. Brutus: :))) #Bertram: Who are you? #Helena: Uh. Definitely NOT Helena. By the way. If I win can I have that ring you're wearing? #Bertram: Why? #Helena: No reason. :) #Henry VIII: so you're telling me if I get a pawn all the way to the other side I can get a new queen? #Hamlet #Coriolanus #henriad #the henriad #Richard II #Caesar #the tragedy of Julius Caesar #Shakespeare #humor #Henry V #incorrect shakespeare quote #coriolanus/aufidius #q #Shakespeare shenanigans #my post

[transsexualcoriolanus]

hey can you stop moaning when we fight. i'm trying to be violent and ferocious over here and honestly it's a little off putting

#as always this is about #coriolanus #caius marcius coriolanus #caius martius coriolanus #tullus aufidius #shakespeare #willy shakes #blorbus blorbius from my shakespearean tragedy

[withasideofshakespeare]

Most Shakespeare plays are made worse by romance but man, if Coriolanus and Aufidius would just make out already…

#shakespeare #Coriolanus #caius martius coriolanus #tullus Aufidius

[gayestshakespearecouples]

I still think about Coriolanus and Aufidius' intense, twisted, homoerotic, obsessive, love-hate relationship sometimes. God. Those two are on another level. Shakespeare invented something when he wrote that play. It wasn't love, but it was certainly something.

#lars speaks #coriolanus #Or more specifically I should say how Aufidius feels towards Marcius #love and hatred are two sides of the same coin indeed; especially when respect and awe are involved

[drfaustus]

Just finished coriolanus and I.....hngngng something about violence as a metaphor for queer love and the way that this play is so focused on masculine identity through violence.....

yeah, yeah. i feel you. on returning to the play for a seminar paper, i was so struck by how in some ways, coriolanus himself is a figure of that ideal of masculinity-as-defined-by-violence taken too far. so far that it completely disfigures him. i was fascinated by how often he is imagined by others as disjointed wounded body parts. menenius and volumnia meticulously recount each of his wounds and where they sit on him—one on the shoulder, the left arm, on the neck, two on the thigh. twenty-seven in total following the taking of corioles. cominius calls him "a thing of blood" (2.2.104), whatever the hell that means. menenius even claims "the wounds become him" (2.1.120). he's engulfed by wounds—unique in the sense that they represent something physical—the literal scarred tissue on the body—but also something lacking. a cut is an empty space. i don't even know what to say about the citizen who claims they should stick their tongue in his wounds and speak for them—a weirdly specific violation. god and when he's told to sit put in the senate to hear the stories of his wounds recounted once again for political points, and has to plead to be let leave to try to heal, to become whole again. and all this because he's so good at being the pinnacle of violent masculinity—but really, it's that he's not allowed to be anything more than that at all. and it's all good until it's a threat to rome!

and the queer intimacy. the homoeroticism present is almost so weirdly blatant that it feels like there isn't much to say about it. i remember reading it last year for class and we all just laughed through my professor reading aufidius recounting his gay ass dreams about coriolanus because like. what the hell. shakespeare's most marlowe moment of all time honestly. and i mean, soldiers on the battlefield enter into a space where they're surrounded only by other men with the unique peril of the threat of violence that brings them together in comradery, and like, yeah, sometimes also gay sex i guess. certainly, violence is a part of it here too. coriolanus's use of the wedding bed metaphor comes with the elation of seeing comunius on the battlefield. but the moment with aufidius in 4.5 feels different to me because it's almost like a moment where the homoeroticism is off the battlefield, i am always struck by how coriolanus is essentially like "you can slit my throat and i'd completely understand." he expects aufidius to enact violence on him. but aufidius embraces him ("here i clip the anvil of my sword." clip means to embrace. but the anvil and sword kinda problematize my point here i guess, they're image of war, too). maybe the violence can never be escaped actually, wait maybe that's why their intimacy fails too. anyway. literally had that revelation while rereading this to post it.

#like yeah the man has absolutely rancid political takes but the politics have always been the least interesting part to me #coriolanus #shakespeare #also convinced that the complete 180 that aufidius takes between 4.5 and 4.7 #is the result of either extremely exhilarating or weirdly disappointing gay sex that happened that we don't get to see #those two can not be normal with each other #cant imagine their sex would be any different #also sorry this is long and doesn't really have a neat conclusion #the paper is still really a wip if you can't tell

[chanelpirate]

listen i respect the hunger games. a lot. I’d go as far as to say it’s my favourite YA. but you can’t imagine the frustration that all I’m trying to find is Prime Content about willy shakes’ gayest of army gays and all I’m actually seeing is gifsets of that one evil blonde twink. I am personally victimised by suzanne collins

#all I want for Christmas is coriolanus/aufidius fic i BEG #coriolanus #Shakespeare #hunger games #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #gayest of army gays and evil blonde twink: the two genders - a tale of two coriolani #have I mentioned how much I love that coriolanus snow canonically used to be an Evil Blonde Twink? honestly I’m obsessed

[wanderinghedgehog]

Sometimes there are roles that I want to play but I know it would be kind of impossible to be cast as them. Like I’d laugh at anyone who casts me in those kinds of roles because what are you talking about? I would be terrible at this. You know?

Anyway, shoutout to Aufidius from Coriolanus. He sure had one hell of a monologue.

#I would love to play him but also I would not do anything right if I did #acting #theater #shakespeare #coriolanus #aufidius

[magnanimousmuse]

Coriolanus is so funny bc it really is a play about two men viewing each other as equals and wanting to (at least) fuck each other so bad, and because they are equals and are Roman, one of them has to be the penetrator and the one penetrated and bc of the patriarchal society they live in, if one of them is being penetrated then they are no longer equals and are viewed as lesser than.

Then the ending really is Aufidius essentially teabagging his lover he killed and thus officially dominating Coriolanus.

#I AM SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VIOLENCE AND DESIRE #AND THE GAY RELATIONSHIP OF CORIOLANUS AND AUFIDIUS #coriolanus Shakespeare #william shakespeare #shakespeare #shakespeare plays #personal #coriolanus #rip Aufidius you would’ve loved call of duty

[irate-iguana]

So people really weren’t kidding when they said Coriolanus was gay, huh?

#i think coriolanus and aufidius should kiss #coriolanus #shakespeare #original post

[iamnmbr3]

hey did Coriolanus & Aufidius invent the ‘character falls on hard times and shows up all ragged on their nemesis’s door step all ‘I didn’t have anywhere else to go’ fic trope?  

#well. even if they didn't invent it they sure did it to perfection #Coriolanus #Shakespeare #coriolanus/aufidius #random musings #humor #my post

[transsexualcoriolanus]

sexuality: bi but whenever i watch coriolanus i become a raging homosexual via osmosis

#coriolanus #blorbus blorbius from my shakespearean tragedy #caius marcius coriolanus #caius martius coriolanus #shakespeare #willy shakes #tullus aufidius

[radley-writes]

Just -

Let me twine Mine arms about that body, where against My grained ash an hundred times hath broke And scarr'd the moon with splinters: here I clip The anvil of my sword, and do contest As hotly and as nobly with thy love As ever in ambitious strength I did Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, I loved the maid I married; never man Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here, Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart Than when I first my wedded mistress saw Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars! I tell thee, We have a power on foot; and I had purpose Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn, Or lose mine arm fort: thou hast beat me out Twelve several times, and I have nightly since Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me; We have been down together in my sleep, Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat, And waked half dead with nothing.

Modern translation: yo Coriolanus I know we've tried to kill each other multiple times but, like, I'm totally horn for you and dtf <3

#OKAY TULLUS #everyone always forgets coriolanus in discussions of queer shakespeare #yes you need to read it with a Critical MindTM because. like. there are certain elements of fascism. #and glorification of war. #because coriolanus IS NOT A GOOD GUY #but imo coriolanus is one of the most interesting shakespeare tragic heroes because he's so fucking opaque #he don't explain SHIT #he is a Perfect Soldier - a weapon built for his country #who turns against that country and is actually very childlike in terms of his concepts of pride and honor #and mommy issues #I haven't read this play in YONKS so can't provide deep commentary but #he is a very fascinating and fucked up guy #and his enemy (tullus aufidius) who is giving the above speech........ gay

[withasideofshakespeare]

coriolanus/aufidius?

(horny) enemies to (horny) lovers to enemies to aw shit he's really dead? what have i done?!

#shakespeare #coriolanus #aufidius #they sure are guys #weird weird guys #one of the only shakespeare plays where gay sex would actually cause MORE problems

[gayestshakespearecouples]

Fellas, is it gay to tell your enemy that when you see him your heart "dances" more than it did when you looked on your new wife?

#holy fucking shit coriolanus and aufidius are legitimately antonio-and-sebastian level textually homosexual for each other #I have never seen it I had no idea #looking at the lines a submitter gave me and BRO #lars speaks #edit: I have now read the entire speech that's from and am absolutely dumbfounded #I think they deserve to win this poll to be honest they just win on being the most absolutely textually gay by a mile

[iamstandingwater]

Coriolanus act 5 scene 3 except when virgilla kisses coriolanus, aufidius pulls an Edward Cullen in the background and rips a tree out of the ground

#shakespeare #coriolanus #caius martius coriolanus #tullus aufidius