Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, April 24, 2025

 

The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra – from the first folio edition, 1623

This Roman play of Shakespeare has many similarities with Romeo and Juliet, which was also a tragedy about Italian lovers who end up committing suicide. But this play in contrast is about mature love among adults who have already been ‘ploughed’ and ‘cropped,’ had wives and lovers, and seen action at the head of their empires. The military history of the times is combined with the mutual attraction between Antony and Cleopatra which pervades the play.

Cleopatra Sculpture by William Wetmore Story, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

As usual Shakespeare borrows the story from a source, in this case, Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. Plutarch was a Greek biographer and historian who lived from AD 40 to about AD 120. Shakespeare mined the book (in a 1579 English translation by Thomas North) for his Roman plays, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus. How reliable Plutarch was as a historian is a matter of doubt; he was like today’s celebrity journalists, eager to pick up juicy morsels about the great figures of the past who were destined to govern the history of their times. 

Cleopatra – asp at her breast

Nick Walton of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust explains in a 12-min video how Shakespeare made Cleopatra the central character in his play. He says that “Shakespeare added significantly to the mythology around Egypt's last queen. He developed his historical sources to create a woman who is at once powerful, jealous, humorous, stern, intelligent, vain, courageous, vulnerable, stubborn, fickle, loyal, down-to-earth, and otherworldly.”

What an unusual collaboration over 1,600 years between Plutarch and Shakespeare! The former merely mentions that Cleopatra came sailing “her barge in the river of Cydnus, the poop whereof was of gold, the sails of purple and the oars of silver, which kept stroke in rowing after the sound of the music of flutes, howboys, cithernes, viols, and such other instruments as they played upon in the barge.” 

WS turns that account into pure poetry:

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue,

The word barge is in Plutarch, but see how Shakespeare has added the alliteration of burnish’d, burned, and beaten.

The barge she sat in ... was of beaten gold

No less than other plays A&C is full of phrases you will remember once you read it,

– A lass unparalleled

– A morsel for a monarch

– I have / Imortal longings in me 

– Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale /Her infinite variety.

– The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch /Which hurts and is desired.

– My salad days, /When I was green in judgment

– There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned.

As in all the works of Shakespeare puns abound, some bawdy – meant to entertain the playgoers – some adding depth and a layer of added meaning to the play.

Bawdy:
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony

"Horse" refers to Antony’s warhorse (military might) and sexual prowess (horsemanship = riding a lover). The line drips with innuendo—Cleopatra envies the beast that carries him.

I am dying, Egypt, dying.
‘Die’ was Elizabethan slang for orgasm – Antony’s death throes mirror an erotic climax.

Clean:
The band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity.

‘band’ can mean both a unifying bond and a constricting noose.

He wears the rose / Of youth upon him
‘rose’  symbolises both beauty and the fleeting nature of youth (like a flower that withers).

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in the film Cleopatra (1963), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Full Account of the Antony and Cleopatra Session at KRG – April 24, 2025

Following the session the readers were posed some optional Diligent Reader Exercises (DRE): 

1.⁠ ⁠Mention a word or two that WS uses only in this play and nowhere else

2.⁠ ⁠Who or what is Philippan? What’s the origin of the name?

3.⁠ ⁠In which plays of WS  does Mark Antony find mention?

4.⁠ ⁠Name one clean and one bawdy pun in this play that is brimming with puns. Explain the double sense of each pun you choose.

Answers:
1. Words like discandying (Act 3, Scene 13), ribaudred (Act 3, Scene 10), dislimn (Act 4, Scene 14) are candidates for words WS used nowhere else but in this play.

2. Philippan is the name given to Antony’s sword, used in battle to kill Brutus in the Battle of Philippi.

3. Mark Antony as a character in the play occurs in Antony and Cleopatra and in Julius Caesar. His name also finds mention in Henry VI, Part 1 (Act 1, Scene 6), though he is not a character in the play.

4.
(i) Some Clean Puns in A&C:
mare is good one since it is a dual-language pun: mare = sea in Latin and Latin-derived languages; mare also means female horse. If we should serve with horse and mare together, says Enobarbus in Act 3, Scene 7 concerning naval strategy, here meaning hybrid warfare on land and sea.

(ii) Some Bawdy Puns in A&C:

Agrippa in Act 2, Scene 2 says of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra:
He ploughed her, and she cropped.

This farming metaphor is a bawdy pun. Ploughed refers to sexual intercourse, and cropped suggests that Cleopatra bore a child (Caesarion). It plays on agrarian imagery to suggest seduction and conception.

Let Rome in Tiber melt, says Antony in Act 1, Scene 1. Melt means both physical liquefaction (Rome sinking) and sexual surrender (Antony’s resolve dissolving in Cleopatra’s arms).

O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! – In Act 1, Sc 5 Cleopatra exclaims Horse refers to Antony’s warhorse (military might) and sexual prowess (horsemanship = riding a lover). The line drips with sexual innuendo – Cleopatra envies the beast that carries him.

In Act 4, Scene 15Antony while collapsing  says I am dying, Egypt, dying. Die was Elizabethan slang for orgasm—Antony’s death throes are like an erotic climax.

In Act 1, Scene 2 Cleopatra says
He was disposed to bear; but I’ll tell you, 

The bearing of it would have cuckolded him.

Bear = to endure (duty) or to mount sexually (like a beast).

In Act 2, Scene 5 Cleopatra mocks Antony’s Roman duties:

He shall stand and feed among the generals, 

And his good sword will obey his appetite. 
Stand = hold his ground in battle or be sexually aroused (his ‘sword’ obeying lust, not duty)

Pamela

Pamela being called away to Chennai attended by submitting a voice recording in  advance of her passage from Act 1, Scene 2. Cleopatra is jealous that Antony is gone to Rome, and protests her love for Antony:
Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
Bliss in our brows’ bent; none our parts so poor
But was a race of heaven. 

Such a romance cannot be expected among today's young people. Pamela has overheard girls talking to each other: “ This guy is too mushy for me.” The poor guy must have tried a bit too hard to win her. That's the new Gen.

Arundhaty

Arundhaty chose this passage  from Act 1 Sc 5 because she thought it was quite funny. Cleopatra is imagining all kinds of things. How she was irresistible to Julius Caesar:
... Broad-fronted Caesar,

When thou wast here above the ground, I was

A morsel for a monarch. And great Pompey

Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow;

She's interrogating Antony’s  messenger to find out his condition. She's also  dreaming that he is thinking of her just because he's not married or he's sad. Then she also declares that she no longer cares for Caesar and that she is now very much Anthony's man and nobody should pay heed to Caesar any more.

Devika

Devika has chosen this famous scene from Act 2, Scene 2 where Cleopatra comes sailing in a golden barge. When Anthony sees her, he's totally floored by her magnificence. Enobarbus (one of Antony’s companions), describes Queen Cleopatra. This was the passage that Devika had reserved right at the start.

The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

There's a rather agricultural metaphor here, said Joe. It's also a smutty joke.

She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed;

He ploughed her and she cropped.

It's quite raunchy actually, said Devika – like a spicy Mills and Boon.

Enobarbus is eloquent. He gives a commentary on the things that happen. His speech is descriptive and evocative. Joe noted that Shakespeare rarely interjected himself in any of the plays as a bystander, onlooker or commentator. But Enobarbus is good stand-in for him.

Shakespeare endows the play with puns, a figure of speech that was ever-present in his plays and poems, as much to entertain the crowd as to display his own wit. There are many puns in this play.

Geetha & Thomo

Before this passage from Act 3, Scene 13, Anthony has been reading about Caesar and he finally says that his enfranchised bondsman is there in Caesar's place. His name is Hipparchus. Caesar can do what he wants with him. Whip him, kill him, or whatever he wants. But he stops.

And that is when this passage begins and the duo of Geetha as Cleopatra and Thomo as Anthony performed this concluding part of Act 3, Scene 13. Antony is fuelled by a sense of betrayal because Thidias who came as the messenger from Caesar, has kissed Cleopatra's hand. In the previous bit, he demands that Thidias be punished for this impertinence. And that led to a spat between Antony and Cleopatra.

Antony is initially very angry, but ultimately he's reassured by Cleopatra's protests of loyalty. She resolves to continue the war against Octavius Caesar and promises to die for Antony's sake if she ever turned against him.

Thomo wondered what is meant by the expression by the ‘discandying of this pelleted storm’ and discovered a pelleted storm means a hailstorm. The pelleted storm will melt away. Discandying means melting away as sugar candy melts in the mouth, thus taking with it the memory and existence of Cleopatra and her Egyptian people.

Cleopatra uses this phrase in a moment of despair and self-blame. She wishes for a harsh, destructive storm to erase her and her kingdom from its existence, symbolising a complete and utter annihilation.

Joe said he too was also stumped by ‘discandying’, never having seen it used by Shakespeare anywhere else. Just before this scene, Cleopatra does tell that tedious fellow, Thidias, that she's all for Caesar and belongs to Caesar. That's why he kissed her hand.

Talitha

Talitha was in her car somewhere in Kochi on her way back to TVM. Being uncertain, she had sent ahead a voice file but since she was online with a good connection, she decided to read to us live.

She was reading from Act 4, scene 14. This is when Cleopatra sends Mardian with a false message to Antony, that she is dead. She is flailing to save herself. Antony hears this message and he's devastated. The conversation continues between Antony and Mardian

Talitha loved this reading because it contains beautiful lines. As in most of Shakespeare, it can be best appreciated when read aloud. Also the deep feeling and sense of loss lift Antony above the common Roman denunciation of him as “a strumpet's fool.” 

The depth of love he had for Cleopatra is shown in the opening lines of this passage. "Unarm, Eros", he says. There is no point of armour any more, since the battle has been lost. Note the long vowels in the "long day's task", dragged out of him by the news of Cleopatra's supposed death. Everything is over, the day is done and "we must sleep".

These sentiments are echoed in "All length is torture" and the same line echoes that the "torch" is out. There is nothing left but to lie down and go no further. As he says elsewhere, "Here is my stop".

The reference to the "seven-fold shield of Ajax” is fertile in imagination. The shield of the great warrior Ajax was reinforced with seven folds, but even such armour cannot keep the "battery" – the hammer blows of pain and grief from Antony's heart. This is an effective and beautiful image.

The Roman idea of Antony is that he's a ‘strumpet's fool,’ having thrown his kingdom away for a beautiful woman who's just made a fool of him; in Roman eyes Antony looks a bit unserious.

Cleopatra smoulders onscreen, but no one knows what she really looked like. Here is Claudette Colbert as the queen – photo by Contrasto

But here we see that the deep feeling and sense of loss lifts Antony above that popular Roman denunciation of him. The depth of love he had for Cleopatra is shown in the opening lines of this passage, where he says, ‘Unarm, Eros.’ (i.e. take off my armour) Eros is his retainer; there is no point of his wearing armour anymore since the battle has been lost.

Note these long vowels:

Unarm, Eros. The long day’s task is done,

These long vowels seem dragged out of him by the news of Cleopatra's death. Everything is over. The day is done. And one must sleep.

These sentiments are again echoed in the line: 

All length is torture. Since the torch is out,

You can hear the assonance between ‘torture’ and ‘torch is.’

There's an echo from Othello where Othello says 

Put out the light, and then put out the light

– a poignant moment before he murders Desdemona. The phrase symbolises Othello's intention to extinguish both the physical candle he holds and Desdemona's life. 

It's the same idea here. Now that the torch is out, the light is gone. The light is gone and now all length, all the length of his life is just torture. There's nothing left but to lie down and go no further.

The reference to the sevenfold shield of Ajax is a beautiful one. The shield of the great warrior Ajax apparently was reinforced with seven folds. It was not made of metal, perhaps a thick hide. But even such armour cannot keep the battery. The hammer blows of pain and grief from Antony's heart. This is a beautiful and effective image.

Altogether this is a lovely passage and it really rewards close reading. Antony is fantasising that after death he and Cleopatra will be roaming in the Elysian fields and the spirits will come to gaze on them.

Joe asked: does Antony compare themselves as a couple to Dido and Aeneas? Talitha doesn't think so. He says that people will stop looking at Dido and Aeneas and start to look and gaze on them.

Everyone appreciated Talitha’s reading and the exegesis above. KumKum hoped Talitha would choose next year's Shakespeare play as well. Talitha agreed.

Shoba

Shoba continued reading from where Talitha stopped. Anthony is taking off his armour and he asks Eros to kill him with the sword but Eros cannot bring himself to do the deed. Eros falls onto his own sword and kills himself rather than kill his emperor.

Therefore Anthony is left to his devices to commit suicide, so he falls on his own sword but instead of dying immediately he botches the job, and wounds himself grievously. Now he longs to see Cleopatra. He learns that Cleopatra is not dead. He wants to be taken into her presence and he's carried there.

So this is the swan song of Antony. The ending is like that of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo dies first. He kills himself by drinking poison, believing Juliet to be dead. Juliet then wakes up from her long drugged sleep, and finding Romeo dead, kills herself.  Quite similar.

Joe said Antony makes a mess of his own suicide. His attendant knew how to do it, but Antony wasn't practiced in the art.

Joe

Antony’s dead. The passage by Joe was from Act 5, Scene 2. The conversation is between Cleopatra and Dolabella who has been trusted by Octavius Caesar to protect Cleopatra, because he wants to take her back with him to Rome as a spoil of war.

Joe added these comments:

The play Antony and Cleopatra was designed to be the story of the love of two mature adults, both married before, but now besotted with each other. It is clear that Antony is the hopeless case in this match, for Cleopatra retains her self-absorption, her pride, and her desire to dominate Antony through her charms, as she once did Julius Caesar who gave her a son Caesarion. Agrippa (a prominent Roman general and advisor to Octavius Caesar) lewdly states

She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed;

He ploughed her, and she cropped.

It is one thing to have a woman in bed, and frolic with her in the luxury of palaces. The mistake Antony makes is to trust her as a naval commander in the battle at sea. She not only proves inept in command, but actually flees the scene with her ships without engaging. However, Antony recovers and defeats Octavius, his fellow triumvir, in a land battle.

How foolish Antony was  may be deduced from his taking Cleopatra as a partner in a second battle at sea – she does the same disappearing trick at a crucial moment and leaves Antony to face defeat. Meanwhile, she is already two-timing to figure out how she can make it up to Octavius Caesar without losing title to her kingdom.

There is no love between the protagonists. The reckless infatuation on the part of Antony was his downfall. We cannot see in Cleopatra a woman worthy of the love of a distinguished soldier. She is self-absorbed, proud and calculating to the very end.

Her suicide is not at all motivated by wishing to follow Antony’s honourable exit. At the end it is her dread of being paraded through Rome and mocked by the vulgar populace as a spoil of war, that leads her to apply the asp to her breast.

As for poetry, there is very little that Shakespeare blessed Cleopatra with, though she has the longest woman’s part of all his plays. Even her praise of Antony in this passage sounds forced and insincere:

His legs bestrid the ocean, his reared arm

Crested the world. His voice was propertied

This is rather prosaic for Shakespeare describing a hero.  

Richard Burton as Mark Antony

WS in the end did not write a love story at all. He wrote about the wars and misfortunes of a foolish general who lost his senses when confronted by a manipulative, lascivious, exhibitionist.  This is what Plutarch wrote about her:

“Her own beauty, so we are told, was not of that incomparable kind which instantly captivates the beholder. But the charm of her presence was irresistible: and there was an attractiveness in her person and talk, together with a peculiar force of character which pervaded her every word and action, and laid all who associated with her under its spell. It was a delight merely to hear the sound of her voice.” 

Cicero the famous Roman orator wrote this about her:

Reginam odi – I detest the queen.

Cleopatra – Reginam odi, said Cicero

Of course, one can never forget the scene, where Cleopatra enters Rome in the 1963 movie, Cleopatra, with Elizabeth Taylor as the protagonist and Richard Burton as Antony – but that is not Shakespeare’s play but a Hollywood extravaganza focused on two real-life actor-lovers who sold the movie through their own romance.

Burton and Taylor as Antony and Cleopatra

Saras

Saras didn’t add more beyond what Joe said in cutting Cleopatra down to size. Her reading was just a little after Joe's in the same Act 5, Scene 2 when Cleopatra is told by Dolabella that she is going to Rome and will be paraded there as trophy of war.

She sets her mind against such a humiliating outcome of being mocked by the people. She decides to come out and show herself. She has bribed Dollabella to find out what has been planned for her.

And he says: 

Madam, as thereto sworn by your command,

Which my love makes religion to obey,

I tell you this: Caesar through Syria

Intends his journey, and within three days

You with your children will he send before.

Having found out what is to be her fate, she sets about manipulating the men she comes across to serve her own ends. She is able to get exactly what she wants. Saras agrees she manipulated everybody, but then think of a woman queen, surrounded by men who are determining her fate. She uses her strength, what is in her hand, and seduction as a weapon of state. Her brother was useless – he could not keep the kingdom safe.

French actress Sarah Bernhardt as Cleopatra (1891), photographed by Napolean Sarony (1891). The image emphasises her relationship with Charmian, her maid, rather than Antony, and surrounds her with Orientalist exoticism

It was she who did what was needed, and she used her beauty and whatever other appeal she had to keep control in her hands.

In the end she is a bit too cunning and dies this way. She thinks it was a very noble act. Actually, she just didn't want to be humiliated by Caesar and she doesn't want to kill herself – but getting bitten by an asp  is the dramatic way she decides to make an end.

Ultimately, you do have a little sympathy for her, and you do feel for her. She's going to lose everything.

KumKum

KumKum’s short passage comes a few lines later.

Antony is dead. Cleopatra is now a prisoner of Octavius Caesar and is pressured to surrender and go with him to Rome. There she knows she will be paraded through the streets as a symbol of his victory. Rather than endure that disgrace, she chooses to die by her own hand, and reunite with Antony in death, and so preserve her dignity and royal status.

Cleopatra wants to die dressed as a queen, in full royal regalia. This is not mere vanity, it's a bold declaration of her identity. She refuses to be remembered as a conquered woman or a captive, she will die as Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, in full possession of her power and status.

It's a beautiful ending, and KumKum loved the passage beginning with

… I have

Immortal longings in me. Now no more

The juice of Egypt’s grape shall moist this lip.

I have immortal longings in me

These are her famous words. She feels the desire for eternity – not earthly pleasure or power any more, but transcendence. No more wine, no more indulgence. Cleopatra who was once associated with luxury, excess, and seduction, now turns her back on all that. She is elevating herself beyond the physical.

Yare, yare, good Iras, quick. Methinks I hear

Antony call. I see him rouse himself

To praise my noble act. 

She is really queen-like, she doesn’t show her defeated self; she's showing her desire to rise above all this to be eternal. That is how she wants to be remembered. Here is a video of clip showing Cleopatra's death:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvU9ekshctY

Cleopatra’s Death

Cleopatra imagines Antony mocking Caesar, saying his victory is not true greatness – it’s just good luck, a gift from the gods. She suggests that Caesar's triumph is shallow – while she and Antony die on their own terms with honour.

I am fire and air; my other elements

I give to baser life.

This is a vigorous declaration of identity in Shakespeare. According to ancient thought, the body is made up of four elements: earth, water, fire and air. Cleopatra claims that she is made of only Fire (Spirit and Passion) and Air (Soul and Thought). She renounces the lower parts – Earth (body) and Water (Emotion) and gives those to  "baser life", meaning the everyday world she is leaving behind. In this speech Cleopatra asserts her dignity, agency, and identity as a free queen of Egypt in the face of defeat.

Readings

Pamela

Act 1 Sc 3 - lines lines 1-55

CLEOPATRA 

Where is he?

CHARMIAN  I did not see him since.

CLEOPATRA, to Alexas 

See where he is, who’s with him, what he does.

I did not send you. If you find him sad,

Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report

That I am sudden sick. Quick, and return.

Alexas exits.

CHARMIAN 

Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly,

You do not hold the method to enforce

The like from him.

CLEOPATRA  What should I do I do not?

CHARMIAN 

In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing.

CLEOPATRA 

Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him.

CHARMIAN 

Tempt him not so too far. I wish, forbear.

In time we hate that which we often fear.

Enter Antony.

But here comes Antony.

CLEOPATRA  I am sick and sullen.

ANTONY 

I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose—

CLEOPATRA 

Help me away, dear Charmian! I shall fall.

It cannot be thus long; the sides of nature

Will not sustain it.

ANTONY  Now, my dearest queen—

CLEOPATRA 

Pray you stand farther from me.

ANTONY  What’s the matter?

CLEOPATRA 

I know by that same eye there’s some good news.

What, says the married woman you may go?

Would she had never given you leave to come.

Let her not say ’tis I that keep you here.

I have no power upon you. Hers you are.

ANTONY 

The gods best know—

CLEOPATRA  O, never was there queen

So mightily betrayed! Yet at the first

I saw the treasons planted.

ANTONY  Cleopatra—

CLEOPATRA 

Why should I think you can be mine, and true—

Though you in swearing shake the thronèd gods—

Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness,

To be entangled with those mouth-made vows

Which break themselves in swearing!

ANTONY  Most sweet

queen—

CLEOPATRA 

Nay, pray you seek no color for your going,

But bid farewell and go. When you sued staying,

Then was the time for words. No going then!

Eternity was in our lips and eyes,

Bliss in our brows’ bent; none our parts so poor

But was a race of heaven. They are so still,

Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,

Art turned the greatest liar.

ANTONY  How now, lady?

CLEOPATRA 

I would I had thy inches. Thou shouldst know

There were a heart in Egypt.

ANTONY  Hear me, queen:

The strong necessity of time commands

Our services awhile, but my full heart

Remains in use with you.

Arundhaty

Act 1 Sc 5 – lines 22 – 81

CLEOPATRA  O, Charmian,

Where think’st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?

Or does he walk? Or is he on his horse?

O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!

Do bravely, horse, for wot’st thou whom thou

mov’st?

The demi-Atlas of this Earth, the arm

And burgonet of men. He’s speaking now,

Or murmuring “Where’s my serpent of old Nile?”

For so he calls me. Now I feed myself

With most delicious poison. Think on me

That am with Phoebus’ amorous pinches black,

And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar,

When thou wast here above the ground, I was

A morsel for a monarch. And great Pompey

Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow;

There would he anchor his aspect, and die

With looking on his life.

Enter Alexas from Antony.

ALEXAS  Sovereign of Egypt, hail!

CLEOPATRA 

How much unlike art thou Mark Antony!

Yet coming from him, that great med’cine hath

With his tinct gilded thee.

How goes it with my brave Mark Antony?

ALEXAS  Last thing he did, dear queen,

He kissed—the last of many doubled kisses—

This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart.

CLEOPATRA 

Mine ear must pluck it thence.

ALEXAS  “Good friend,” quoth

he,

“Say the firm Roman to great Egypt sends

This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot,

To mend the petty present, I will piece

Her opulent throne with kingdoms. All the East,

Say thou, shall call her mistress.” So he nodded

And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed,

Who neighed so high that what I would have spoke

Was beastly dumbed by him.

CLEOPATRA  What, was he sad, or merry?

ALEXAS 

Like to the time o’ th’ year between th’ extremes

Of hot and cold, he was nor sad nor merry.

CLEOPATRA 

O, well-divided disposition!—Note him,

Note him, good Charmian, ’tis the man! But note

him:

He was not sad, for he would shine on those

That make their looks by his; he was not merry,

Which seemed to tell them his remembrance lay

In Egypt with his joy; but between both.

O, heavenly mingle!—Be’st thou sad or merry,

The violence of either thee becomes,

So does it no man’s else.—Met’st thou my posts?

ALEXAS 

Ay, madam, twenty several messengers.

Why do you send so thick?

CLEOPATRA  Who’s born that day

When I forget to send to Antony

Shall die a beggar.—Ink and paper, Charmian.—

Welcome, my good Alexas.—Did I, Charmian,

Ever love Caesar so?

CHARMIAN  O, that brave Caesar!

CLEOPATRA 

Be choked with such another emphasis!

Say “the brave Antony.”

Devika

Act 2 Scene 2 - lines 226 – 281

Enobarbus describes Queen Cleopatra

Enobarbus: I will tell you.

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,

Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumed that

The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,

It beggar'd all description: she did lie

In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue,

O'erpicturing that Venus where we see

The fancy outwork nature: on each side her

Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,

With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem

To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,

And what they undid did.

Agrippa: O, rare for Antony.

Enobarbus: Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,

So many mermaids, tended her i' th' eyes,

And made their bends adornings. At the helm

A seeming mermaid steers: the silken tackle

Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands

That yarely frame the office. From the barge

A strange invisible perfume hits the sense

Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast

Her people out upon her; and Antony,

Enthroned i' th' marketplace, did sit alone,

Whistling to th' air; which, but for vacancy,

Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,

And made a gap in nature.

Agrippa: Rare Egyptian!

Enobarbus: Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,

Invited her to supper. She replied

It should be better he became her guest;

Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony,

Whom ne'er the word of "No" woman heard speak,

Being barbered ten times o'er, goes to the feast,

And for his ordinary, pays his heart

For what his eyes eat only.

Agrippa: Royal wench!

She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed;

He plowed her, and she cropped.

Enobarbus: I saw her once

Hop forty paces through the public street;

And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted,

That she did make defect perfection,

And, breathless, pow'r breathe forth.

Maecenas: Now Antony must leave her utterly.

Enobarbus: Never; He will not:

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

Her infinite variety. Other women cloy

The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry

Where most she satisfies; for vilest things

Become themselves in her, that the holy priests

Bless her when she is riggish.

Geetha & Thomo

Act 3 Sc 13 – lines 187-235

CLEOPATRA  Have you done yet?

ANTONY 

Alack, our terrene moon is now eclipsed,

And it portends alone the fall of Antony.

CLEOPATRA  I must stay his time.

ANTONY 

To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes

With one that ties his points?

CLEOPATRA  Not know me yet?

ANTONY 

Coldhearted toward me?

CLEOPATRA  Ah, dear, if I be so,

From my cold heart let heaven engender hail

And poison it in the source, and the first stone

Drop in my neck; as it determines, so

Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite,

Till by degrees the memory of my womb,

Together with my brave Egyptians all,

By the discandying of this pelleted storm

Lie graveless till the flies and gnats of Nile

Have buried them for prey!

ANTONY  I am satisfied.

Caesar sits down in Alexandria, where

I will oppose his fate. Our force by land

Hath nobly held; our severed navy too

Have knit again, and fleet, threatening most sealike.

Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear,

lady?

If from the field I shall return once more

To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood.

I and my sword will earn our chronicle.

There’s hope in ’t yet.

CLEOPATRA  That’s my brave lord!

ANTONY 

I will be treble-sinewed, -hearted, -breathed,

And fight maliciously; for when mine hours

Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives

Of me for jests. But now I’ll set my teeth

And send to darkness all that stop me. Come,

Let’s have one other gaudy night. Call to me

All my sad captains. Fill our bowls once more.

Let’s mock the midnight bell.

CLEOPATRA  It is my birthday.

I had thought t’ have held it poor. But since my lord

Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.

ANTONY  We will yet do well.

CLEOPATRA 

Call all his noble captains to my lord.

ANTONY 

Do so; we’ll speak to them, and tonight I’ll force

The wine peep through their scars.—Come on, my

queen,

There’s sap in ’t yet. The next time I do fight

I’ll make Death love me, for I will contend

Even with his pestilent scythe.

Talitha

Act 4, Sc 14 lines 42–64

ANTONY  Dead, then?

MARDIAN  Dead.

ANTONY 

Unarm, Eros. The long day’s task is done,

And we must sleep.—That thou depart’st hence safe

Does pay thy labor richly. Go. (Mardian exits).

Off, pluck off!

Eros begins to remove Antony’s armor.

The sevenfold shield of Ajax cannot keep

The battery from my heart. O, cleave, my sides!

Heart, once be stronger than thy continent;

Crack thy frail case. Apace, Eros, apace!

No more a soldier. Bruisèd pieces, go.

You have been nobly borne.—From me awhile.

Eros exits.

I will o’ertake thee, Cleopatra, and

Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now

Saras

Lie down and stray no farther. Now all labor

Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles

Itself with strength. Seal, then, and all is done.—

Eros!—I come, my queen.—Eros!—Stay for me.

Where souls do couch on flowers, we’ll hand in hand,

And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze.

Dido and her Aeneas shall want troops,

And all the haunt be ours.—Come, Eros, Eros!

Shoba

Act 4 Scene 15 lines 22–78

ANTONY  I am dying, Egypt, dying.

Give me some wine, and let me speak a little.

CLEOPATRA 

No, let me speak, and let me rail so high

That the false huswife Fortune break her wheel,

Provoked by my offense.

ANTONY  One word, sweet queen:

Of Caesar seek your honor with your safety—O!

CLEOPATRA 

They do not go together.

ANTONY  Gentle, hear me.

None about Caesar trust but Proculeius.

CLEOPATRA 

My resolution and my hands I’ll trust,

None about Caesar.

ANTONY 

The miserable change now at my end

Lament nor sorrow at, but please your thoughts

In feeding them with those my former fortunes

Wherein I lived the greatest prince o’ th’ world,

The noblest, and do now not basely die,

Not cowardly put off my helmet to

My countryman—a Roman by a Roman

Valiantly vanquished. Now my spirit is going;

I can no more.

CLEOPATRA  Noblest of men, woo’t die?

Hast thou no care of me? Shall I abide

In this dull world, which in thy absence is

No better than a sty? O see, my women,

The crown o’ th’ Earth doth melt.—My lord!

Antony dies.

O, withered is the garland of the war;

The soldier’s pole is fall’n; young boys and girls

Are level now with men. The odds is gone,

And there is nothing left remarkable

Beneath the visiting moon.

Joe

Act 5, Sc 2 lines 93 – 136

CLEOPATRA 

I dreamt there was an emperor Antony.

O, such another sleep, that I might see

But such another man.

DOLABELLA  If it might please you—

CLEOPATRA 

His face was as the heavens, and therein stuck

A sun and moon, which kept their course and

lighted

The little O, the Earth.

DOLABELLA  Most sovereign creature—

CLEOPATRA 

His legs bestrid the ocean, his reared arm

Crested the world. His voice was propertied

As all the tunèd spheres, and that to friends;

But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,

He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,

There was no winter in ’t; an autumn ’twas

That grew the more by reaping. His delights

Were dolphin-like; they showed his back above

The element they lived in. In his livery

Walked crowns and crownets; realms and islands were

As plates dropped from his pocket.

DOLABELLA  Cleopatra—

CLEOPATRA 

Think you there was, or might be, such a man

As this I dreamt of?

DOLABELLA  Gentle madam, no.

CLEOPATRA 

You lie up to the hearing of the gods!

But if there be nor ever were one such,

It’s past the size of dreaming. Nature wants stuff

To vie strange forms with fancy, yet t’ imagine

An Antony were nature’s piece ’gainst fancy,

Condemning shadows quite.

DOLABELLA  Hear me, good madam.

Your loss is as yourself, great; and you bear it

As answering to the weight. Would I might never

O’ertake pursued success but I do feel,

By the rebound of yours, a grief that smites

My very heart at root.

CLEOPATRA  I thank you, sir.

Know you what Caesar means to do with me?

DOLABELLA 

I am loath to tell you what I would you knew.

CLEOPATRA 

Nay, pray you, sir.

DOLABELLA  Though he be honorable—

CLEOPATRA  He’ll lead me, then, in triumph.

DOLABELLA  Madam, he will. I know ’t.

Saras   

Act 5, Sc 2 lines 245-294

DOLABELLA 

Madam, as thereto sworn by your command,

Which my love makes religion to obey,

I tell you this: Caesar through Syria

Intends his journey, and within three days

You with your children will he send before.

Make your best use of this. I have performed

Your pleasure and my promise.

CLEOPATRA  Dolabella,

I shall remain your debtor.

DOLABELLA  I your servant.

Adieu, good queen. I must attend on Caesar.

CLEOPATRA 

Farewell, and thanks.He exits.

Now, Iras, what think’st thou?

Thou an Egyptian puppet shall be shown

In Rome as well as I. Mechanic slaves

With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers shall

Uplift us to the view. In their thick breaths,

Rank of gross diet, shall we be enclouded

And forced to drink their vapor.

IRAS  The gods forbid!

CLEOPATRA 

Nay, ’tis most certain, Iras. Saucy lictors

Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald rhymers

Ballad us out o’ tune. The quick comedians

Extemporally will stage us and present

Our Alexandrian revels. Antony

Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see

Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness

I’ th’ posture of a whore.

IRAS  O the good gods!

CLEOPATRA  Nay, that’s certain.

IRAS 

I’ll never see ’t! For I am sure mine nails

Are stronger than mine eyes.

CLEOPATRA  Why, that’s the way

To fool their preparation and to conquer

Their most absurd intents.

Enter Charmian.

Now, Charmian!

Show me, my women, like a queen. Go fetch

My best attires. I am again for Cydnus

To meet Mark Antony. Sirrah Iras, go.—

Now, noble Charmian, we’ll dispatch indeed,

And when thou hast done this chare, I’ll give thee

leave

To play till Doomsday.—Bring our crown and all.

Iras exits. A noise within.

Wherefore’s this noise?

Enter a Guardsman.

GUARDSMAN  Here is a rural fellow

That will not be denied your Highness’ presence.

He brings you figs.

CLEOPATRA 

Let him come in.Guardsman exits.

What poor an instrument

May do a noble deed! He brings me liberty.

My resolution’s placed, and I have nothing

Of woman in me. Now from head to foot

I am marble-constant. Now the fleeting moon

No planet is of mine.

KumKum

Act 5, Sc 2 lines 335-353

CLEOPATRA 

Give me my robe. Put on my crown. I have

Immortal longings in me. Now no more

The juice of Egypt’s grape shall moist this lip.

Charmian and Iras begin to dress her.

Yare, yare, good Iras, quick. Methinks I hear

Antony call. I see him rouse himself

To praise my noble act. I hear him mock

The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men

To excuse their after wrath.—Husband, I come!

Now to that name my courage prove my title.

I am fire and air; my other elements

I give to baser life.—So, have you done?

Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.

Farewell, kind Charmian.—Iras, long farewell.

She kisses them. Iras falls and dies.

Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?

If thou and nature can so gently part,

The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch,

Which hurts and is desired. Dost thou lie still?

If thus thou vanishest, thou tell’st the world

It is not worth leave-taking.