# Coriolanus: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> William Shakespeare. 54 speaking roles, 26,546 words, about 190 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/coriolanus
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Coriolanus** has the most to say in Coriolanus: about 885 lines and 6,425 words, 24.2% of the play. Shakespeare’s tragedy follows the Roman soldier Caius Marcius, whose war honors and contempt for the people lead to his banishment. He is called Marcius in Act 1 and Coriolanus after that, and we count both: about a quarter of the words, in 18 of the 29 scenes. Menenius comes next with about a sixth, and Volumnia is the largest female role.

- Speaking roles: 54
- Scenes: 29
- Words: 26,546
- Speech time: 190 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Coriolanus](https://www.offbook.com/plays/coriolanus/coriolanus) | 885 | 6,425 | 24.2% | 45.9 | 18 |
| Menenius | 580 | 4,267 | 16.1% | 30.5 | 13 |
| Volumnia | 306 | 2,396 | 9% | 17.1 | 6 |
| Aufidius | 274 | 2,029 | 7.6% | 14.5 | 8 |
| Cominius | 279 | 1,949 | 7.3% | 13.9 | 11 |
| Sicinius | 305 | 1,870 | 7% | 13.4 | 10 |
| Brutus | 245 | 1,570 | 5.9% | 11.2 | 9 |
| First Citizen | 82 | 642 | 2.4% | 4.6 | 4 |
| First Senator | 86 | 597 | 2.2% | 4.3 | 9 |
| Third Citizen | 54 | 483 | 1.8% | 3.5 | 2 |
| Third Servingman | 48 | 394 | 1.5% | 2.8 | 1 |
| Lartius | 54 | 353 | 1.3% | 2.5 | 5 |
| Valeria | 40 | 347 | 1.3% | 2.5 | 2 |
| Messenger | 38 | 268 | 1% | 1.9 | 6 |
| Second Servingman | 33 | 255 | 1% | 1.8 | 1 |
| First Servingman | 33 | 236 | 0.9% | 1.7 | 1 |
| Roman | 28 | 235 | 0.9% | 1.7 | 1 |
| Virgilia | 34 | 227 | 0.9% | 1.6 | 5 |
| Second Officer | 20 | 186 | 0.7% | 1.3 | 1 |
| Second Citizen | 25 | 170 | 0.6% | 1.2 | 3 |
| Volsce | 20 | 160 | 0.6% | 1.1 | 1 |
| Second Messenger | 20 | 137 | 0.5% | 1.0 | 2 |
| Second Senator | 20 | 128 | 0.5% | 0.9 | 3 |
| First Officer | 14 | 112 | 0.4% | 0.8 | 1 |
| First Lord | 13 | 88 | 0.3% | 0.6 | 1 |
| Lieutenant | 12 | 86 | 0.3% | 0.6 | 2 |
| Third Conspirator | 12 | 80 | 0.3% | 0.6 | 1 |
| Aedile | 16 | 79 | 0.3% | 0.6 | 3 |
| Second Lord | 9 | 60 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 1 |
| First Conspirator | 8 | 56 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 1 |
| First Soldier | 11 | 56 | 0.2% | 0.4 | 2 |
| Fourth Citizen | 6 | 45 | 0.2% | 0.3 | 1 |
| Herald | 6 | 38 | 0.1% | 0.3 | 1 |
| Second Conspirator | 7 | 38 | 0.1% | 0.3 | 1 |
| Titus | 6 | 31 | 0.1% | 0.2 | 1 |
| All the People | 3 | 22 | 0.1% | 0.2 | 1 |
| Citizen | 4 | 20 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Seventh Citizen | 2 | 18 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Young Marcius | 2 | 17 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| A Patrician | 3 | 14 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 2 |
| Fifth Citizen | 2 | 14 | 0.1% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Sixth Citizen | 2 | 12 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Third Lord | 2 | 12 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |
| All Conspirators | 2 | 10 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Gentlewoman | 1 | 9 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Third Roman | 1 | 8 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |
| All Citizens | 1 | 7 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |
| Senators | 1 | 7 | 0% | 0.1 | 1 |
| First Roman | 1 | 6 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |
| All the Lords | 1 | 5 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |
| Second Patrician | 1 | 5 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |
| Officer | 1 | 3 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |
| Second Roman | 1 | 3 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |
| Second Soldier | 1 | 2 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: 1.1 = Act 1, Scene 1; 1.2 = Act 1, Scene 2; 1.3 = Act 1, Scene 3; 1.4 = Act 1, Scene 4; 1.5 = Act 1, Scene 5; 1.6 = Act 1, Scene 6; 1.7 = Act 1, Scene 7; 1.8 = Act 1, Scene 8; 1.9 = Act 1, Scene 9; 1.10 = Act 1, Scene 10; 2.1 = Act 2, Scene 1; 2.2 = Act 2, Scene 2; 2.3 = Act 2, Scene 3; 3.1 = Act 3, Scene 1; 3.2 = Act 3, Scene 2; 3.3 = Act 3, Scene 3; 4.1 = Act 4, Scene 1; 4.2 = Act 4, Scene 2; 4.3 = Act 4, Scene 3; 4.4 = Act 4, Scene 4; 4.5 = Act 4, Scene 5; 4.6 = Act 4, Scene 6; 4.7 = Act 4, Scene 7; 5.1 = Act 5, Scene 1; 5.2 = Act 5, Scene 2; 5.3 = Act 5, Scene 3; 5.4 = Act 5, Scene 4; 5.5 = Act 5, Scene 5; 5.6 = Act 5, Scene 6.

- **Coriolanus**: 1.1 (572), 1.4 (279), 1.5 (133), 1.6 (372), 1.8 (66), 1.9 (320), 2.1 (123), 2.2 (166), 2.3 (485), 3.1 (1,052), 3.2 (422), 3.3 (339), 4.1 (332), 4.4 (195), 4.5 (442), 5.2 (98), 5.3 (787), 5.6 (242)
- **Menenius**: 1.1 (691), 2.1 (992), 2.2 (241), 2.3 (84), 3.1 (590), 3.2 (122), 3.3 (88), 4.1 (35), 4.2 (28), 4.6 (368), 5.1 (281), 5.2 (439), 5.4 (308)
- **Volumnia**: 1.3 (403), 2.1 (268), 3.2 (592), 4.1 (44), 4.2 (268), 5.3 (821)
- **Aufidius**: 1.2 (217), 1.8 (58), 1.10 (256), 4.5 (428), 4.7 (393), 5.2 (5), 5.3 (59), 5.6 (613)
- **Cominius**: 1.1 (11), 1.6 (288), 1.9 (410), 2.1 (10), 2.2 (373), 3.1 (166), 3.2 (68), 3.3 (70), 4.1 (59), 4.6 (255), 5.1 (239)
- **Sicinius**: 1.1 (94), 2.1 (174), 2.2 (57), 2.3 (357), 3.1 (357), 3.3 (363), 4.2 (86), 4.6 (239), 5.1 (68), 5.4 (75)
- **Brutus**: 1.1 (125), 2.1 (379), 2.2 (77), 2.3 (406), 3.1 (236), 3.3 (157), 4.2 (50), 4.6 (115), 5.1 (25)
- **First Citizen**: 1.1 (500), 2.3 (77), 3.1 (15), 4.6 (50)
- **First Senator**: 1.1 (42), 1.2 (37), 1.4 (66), 2.2 (73), 3.1 (74), 3.2 (17), 3.3 (2), 5.2 (245), 5.5 (41)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Volumnia: “Nay, go not from us thus.” | Act 5, Scene 3 | 432 | 52 |
| Cominius: “I shall lack voice: the deeds of Coriolanus” | Act 2, Scene 2 | 330 | 41 |
| Coriolanus: “My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done” | Act 4, Scene 5 | 303 | 37 |
| Aufidius: “O Marcius, Marcius!” | Act 4, Scene 5 | 273 | 35 |
| Volumnia: “Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment” | Act 5, Scene 3 | 262 | 32 |
| Aufidius: “All places yield to him ere he sits down;” | Act 4, Scene 7 | 250 | 30 |
| Coriolanus: “This last old man,” | Act 5, Scene 3 | 238 | 30 |
| Menenius: “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 harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be known well enough too?” | Act 2, Scene 1 | 189 | 19 |
| Coriolanus: “He that will give good words to thee will flatter” | Act 1, Scene 1 | 188 | 22 |
| Menenius: “Now, you companion, I’ll say an errand for you: You shall know now that I am in estimation; you shall perceive that a Jack guardant cannot office me from my son Coriolanus: guess, but by my entertainment with him, if thou standest not i’ the state of hanging, or of some death more long in spectatorship, and crueller in suffering; behold now presently, and swoon for what’s to come upon thee. The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy particular prosperity, and love thee no worse than thy old father Menenius does! O my son, my son! thou art preparing fire for us; look thee, here’s water to quench it. I was hardly moved to come to thee; but being assured none but myself could move thee, I have been blown out of your gates with sighs; and conjure thee to pardon Rome, and thy petitionary countrymen. The good gods assuage thy wrath, and turn the dregs of it upon this varlet here—this, who, like a block, hath denied my access to thee.” | Act 5, Scene 2 | 175 | 18 |

## Small roles that can be doubled

These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way.

- First Citizen and Third Servingman
- First Citizen and Valeria
- First Citizen and Second Servingman
- First Citizen and First Servingman
- First Citizen and Roman
- First Citizen and Virgilia
- First Citizen and Second Officer
- First Citizen and Volsce
- First Citizen and First Officer
- First Citizen and First Lord
- First Citizen and Lieutenant
- First Citizen and Third Conspirator

## Roles and monologues in depth

- [How many lines does Coriolanus have?](https://www.offbook.com/plays/coriolanus/coriolanus)

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in Coriolanus?

Coriolanus, with about 885 lines and 6,425 words, 24.2% of everything spoken in the play. Menenius is next, with about 580 lines (16.1%).

### How long is Coriolanus?

The full text has 26,546 spoken words, about 190 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in Coriolanus?

54 named roles speak in this edition, across 29 scenes. 45 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-shakespeare/coriolanus) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).