Virgilia

Virgilia is the wife of Coriolanus in William Shakespeare's play "Coriolanus" (1607–1610), in which same play Volumnia is his mother. With respect to the legendary figure Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, some accounts (Brewer 1898) say that his wife's name was actually "Volumnia", probably following the Roman historian Livy. However, in the very influential account of his life, and one familiar to Shakespeare, namely, Plutarch's "Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans", the wife's name is "Virgilia", or in John Dryden's translation, "Vergilia". Virgilia is described by John Ruskin as "perhaps loveliest" of Shakespeare's female characters.

References

* Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham (1898), "Virgilia", in "Brewer's Reader's Handbook", [http://www.bibliomania.com/2/3/174/1132/15074/1.html#V198 Eprint] .

* Plutarch, John Dryden (trans.), "Coriolanus", [http://www.4literature.net/Plutarch/Coriolanus_Plutarch_/ Eprint] .

* John Ruskin: ""