Shakespeare\u2019s Antony and Cleopatra Commentary A. J. Drake<\/title><meta name= \"description\" content= \"Antony and Cleopatra commentary addresses major themes, major characters such as Antony, Cleopatra, Octavius, Charmian, literary analysis, drama theory.\"><\/head><\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Commentaries on Shakespeare’s Tragedies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-btn__default-btn uagb-btn-tablet__default-btn uagb-btn-mobile__default-btn uagb-block-4f6cdd05 uag-hide-mob\"><div class=\"uagb-buttons__wrap uagb-buttons-layout-wrap \">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-dcba7b2a wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">HOME<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-9ae5aeea wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/my-olli-courses-at-unlv\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">OLLI<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-2368e1c6 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/shakespeare-questions\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">QUESTIONS<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-040dd0bb wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/shakespeare-commentaries\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">COMMENTARIES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-57f86fdb wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/shakespeare-audio\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">AUDIO<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-1b812369 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/shakespeare-guides\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">GUIDES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-d5da63d7 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/shakespeare-links\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">LINKS<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-btn__default-btn uagb-btn-tablet__default-btn uagb-btn-mobile__default-btn uagb-block-19d28286\"><div class=\"uagb-buttons__wrap uagb-buttons-layout-wrap \">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-69502be5 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act1\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 1<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-0ec42142 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act2\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 2<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-6ac70dcb wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act3\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 3<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-bfd6ecc9 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act4\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 4<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-55716ff6 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#act5\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ACT 5<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-buttons-child uagb-buttons__outer-wrap uagb-block-0246bad9 wp-block-button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__wrapper\"><a class=\"uagb-buttons-repeater wp-block-button__link\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"#endnotes\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" role=\"button\"><div class=\"uagb-button__link\">ENDNOTES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nShakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra.<\/em> (The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies,<\/em> 3rd ed. 982-1060.)<\/p>\n\n\n\nOf Interest: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsc.org.uk\/antony-and-cleopatra\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">RSC Resources<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca\/Library\/Texts\/Ant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ISE Resources<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shakespeare-online.com\/sources\/antonysources.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">S-O Sources<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.folger.edu\/explore\/shakespeare-in-print\/first-folio\/bookreader-68\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1623 Folio 850-78 (Folger)<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/babel.hathitrust.org\/cgi\/pt?id=uc1.b4034287&seq=19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Plutarch\u2019s Life of Marcus Antonius <\/em>(North)<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/penelope.uchicago.edu\/Thayer\/E\/Roman\/Texts\/Appian\/Civil_Wars\/5*.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Appian\u2019s The Roman Civil Wars <\/em>V.18, 41-42, 67-68<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/cgi\/t\/text\/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A19816.0001.001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Tragedy of Cleopatra,<\/em> by Samuel Daniel (1594)<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act1\">ACT 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 1, Scene 1 (983-84, Antony, enjoying his time as a man of the East with Cleopatra, won\u2019t listen to any Roman messengers: at present, she is all that he cares about.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony and Cleopatra are introduced between comments by Antony\u2019s friends and followers Philo and Demetrius. The first thing we hear is Philo\u2019s negative assessment of the pull of Cleopatra and the East on Antony\u2019s Roman soul. The famous general\u2019s \u201cdotage\u201d upon the Egyptian Queen, he says, \u201cO\u2019erflows the measure,\u201d and his eyes now seem fixated on her \u201ctawny front.\u201d His romantic efforts serve to \u201ccool a gypsy\u2019s lust\u201d (983, 1.1.1-2, 6, 10). It is clear from the outset that Shakespeare\u2019s text is going to code this Hellenistic ruler as dark-skinned and therefore, supposedly, unpredictable, changeable, and wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo Philo fears that Antony is losing, or has already lost, control of himself, both in the personal and the political sense. To behold Antony, he says, is to look upon \u201cThe triple pillar of the world transformed \/ Into a strumpet\u2019s fool\u201d (983, 1.1.12-13).<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut before Philo can make this picture even more ominous, we are treated to a dialogue between the two lovers themselves. Antony\u2019s very first words to Cleopatra, who has asked him to tell her how much he loves her, speak of boundlessness: \u201cThere\u2019s beggary in the love that can be reckoned,\u201d he says, and to delimit his, she would need to \u201cfind out new heaven, new earth\u201d (983, 1.1.15, 17). The Norton editor points out that this language echoes Revelation <\/em>21:1 and may also refer to Rome\u2019s expanding empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen a message comes from Rome, Cleopatra teases Antony, but is at least half-serious in her insistence that he must attend to proper Roman matters\u2014what if it\u2019s Octavius on state business, or his wife Fulvia expressing her anger at him? <a href=\"#_edn1\" id=\"_ednref1\">[1]<\/a> Antony\u2019s response may be the most remembered line in the play: \u201cLet Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch \/ Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space\u201d (984, 1.1.34-35). <a href=\"#_edn2\" id=\"_ednref2\">[2]<\/a> The text\u2019s presentation of Antony captures the dual impulse that runs through the man\u2019s character. He is both a Roman and, at the same time, a man of the Near East.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd what is the illustrious Marcus Antonius doing in this exotic space of his? Well, as he says to Cleopatra, \u201cTonight we\u2019ll wander through the streets and note \/ The qualities of people\u201d (984, 1.1.54-55). People-watching! Antony pits \u201cEgyptian\u201d imagination and pleasure against \u201cRoman\u201d political duty and responsibility, and it seems obvious which he prefers, at least for the present time. Still, the opposition, as we\u2019ll see, isn\u2019t simply binary. Both Cleopatra and Antony understand a lot more about each other\u2019s set of values than is immediately apparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNeither Philo nor Demetrius is impressed with the sort of carrying on they have been witnessing. Demetrius complains that the iconic general, by his strange antics and attitude, \u201capproves the common liar who \/ Thus speaks of him at Rome\u201d (984, 1.1.61-62). Mark Antony\u2019s much-reverenced image is at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 1, Scene 2 (985-89, A soothsayer tells the fortunes of Cleopatra\u2019s servants; Antony hears that his wife Fulvia has died; he resolves to go back to Rome and deal with pressing military and political matters; Enobarbus agrees with Antony about prioritizing war and politics over women.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nA soothsayer entertains and bandies insinuations about \u201cfertility\u201d with Cleopatra\u2019s servants Charmian, Alexas, and Iras, with Enobarbus looking on, until Cleopatra herself enters, and says insightfully of Antony that he is absent because \u201con the sudden \/ A Roman thought hath struck him\u201d (986, 1.2.80-81). Antony is open to the pleasures and attractions of Egypt, but it\u2019s just as certain that Roman thoughts will <\/em>strike him when that becomes necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony\u2019s response to the military movements of the treasonous general Quintus Labienus against the Romans and to the death of his wife Fulvia is characteristically complex. (On Labienus, see the Norton editor\u2019s footnote 3 to pg. 987.) With regard to the first issue, Antony says \u201cThese strong Egyptian fetters I must break, \/ Or lose myself in dotage\u201d (987, 1.2.115-16). As for the second, Antony is riven by genuine sympathy for Fulvia, and yet realizes that he had more or less wished this on her: \u201cWhat our contempts doth often hurl from us, \/ We wish it ours again\u201d (988, 1.2.122-23).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony is clearly aware of Cleopatra\u2019s influence on him, and admires her whimsicality, excess, and sense for the absolutism of the dilatory moment as opposed to Roman thoughtfulness and adherence to necessity. <a href=\"#_edn3\" id=\"_ednref3\">[3]<\/a> All the same, he knows he must attend to matters in Rome: \u201cI must from this enchanting queen break off. \/ Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, \/ My idleness doth hatch\u201d (988, 1.2.127-29). Enobarbus, an excellent courtier and soldier, is just as aware, and he thinks women should not be regarded when great political and military matters impend. As he says, \u201cUnder a compelling occasion, let women die\u201d (988, 1.2.135).<\/p>\n\n\n\nBy the end of the second scene, Antony is determined to make his way back to Rome. Among other things, there\u2019s Sextus Pompeius <a href=\"#_edn4\" id=\"_ednref4\">[4]<\/a> to deal with since this son of Pompey the Great is menacing the Second Triumvirate of Antony, Lepidus, and Octavius by sea (989, 1.2.178-87). Antony observes of the Roman people that they are \u201cslippery,\u201d in that their \u201cLove is never linked to the deserver \/ Till his deserts are past \u2026\u201d (989, 1.2.180-82). In any event, Antony feels that he must get Cleopatra\u2019s approval to return to Rome (989, 1.2.172-74).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 1, Scene 3 (989-92, Cleopatra manipulates Antony by accusing him of \u201cacting\u201d and betraying her, but she is a savvy operator herself, and at length gives him permission to get back to Rome.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra manipulates Antony, calling him a dissembler and an actor when it comes to loyalty, saying, \u201cGood now, play one scene \/ Of excellent dissembling, and let it look \/ Like perfect honor\u201d (991, 1.3.78-80). Throughout this third scene, we see Antony justifying his decision to return to Rome to deal with pressing matters, and wheedling the Egyptian Queen with promises of fidelity: \u201cThe strong necessity of time commands \/ Our services awhile, but my full heart \/ Remains in use with you\u201d (990, 1.3.42-44).<\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra, for her part, knows how to speak the language of Roman honor: \u201cYour honor calls you hence\u201d (992, 1.3.98) she says to Antony, and to some extent seems actually to mean it. It\u2019s time to let Antony be Antony. <a href=\"#_edn5\" id=\"_ednref5\">[5]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis scene is subtle in its revelation of what the two lovers know about each other. When Cleopatra declares, \u201cOh, my oblivion is a very Antony, \/ And I am all forgotten\u201d (991, 1.3.91-92), Antony\u2019s response is, \u201cBut that your royalty \/ Holds idleness your subject, I should take you \/ For idleness itself\u201d (991, 1.3.93-95). In other words, he understands that she is just as much an actor as she<\/em> claims he<\/em> is: the \u201cEastern extravagance\u201d pose is something that this female Ptolemy (that is, Greek) employs to her advantage, not something she can\u2019t help but assume. <a href=\"#_edn6\" id=\"_ednref6\">[6]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony\u2019s scene-ending offer to Cleopatra is remarkable: \u201cCome. \/ Our separation so abides and flies, \/ That thou residing her goes yet with me, \/ And I hence fleeting here remain with thee\u201d (992, 1.3.102-05). Such formulations suggest that both lovers know they are as much in love with the idea <\/em>of the other as with the material person.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 1, Scene 4 (992-94, Octavius Caesar airs his complaints about Antony\u2019s reveling and neglect of duty, but also expresses confidence in the man and wants him to return to deal with their mutual antagonists Sextus Pompeius, Menas, and Menecrates.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nHere and elsewhere, we should attend to Octavius\u2019s view of Antony\u2019s conduct in Egypt. Octavius, who defines himself in terms of responsibility, sobriety, and\u2014in spite of his youth\u2014maturity, complains about Antony\u2019s unseemly and even childish behavior, and suggests that he, Octavius (young as he is), knows how to wield power.<\/p>\n\n\n\nStill, Octavius references Antony\u2019s longstanding reputation for valor, which he feels will shame him into returning to the field. \u201cLeave thy lascivious wassails,\u201d he scolds the older man in absentia <\/em>(993, 1.4.56). <\/em>In sum, Octavius expresses confidence to Lepidus that Antony\u2019s shame at abandoning his Roman manner will \u201cDrive him to Rome\u201d (995, 1.4.73). But there is also something of genuine admiration within Octavius for his elder and legendary commander: \u201cOn the Alps \/ It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh \/ Which some did die to look on\u201d (993, 1.4.66-68). Antony exercises a strong influence on Octavius\u2019s imagination. But then, Octavius isn\u2019t the kind of fellow to trust imagination overmuch.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony\u2019s later admission of neglect (see 999, 2.2.97) won\u2019t go over well with Octavius the corporation man, whose model is Aeneas, with a twist of Machiavellian guile to produce the appearance of piety. It has sometimes been said, and with considerable justice, that Octavius was the leader of Rome, Incorporated. <a href=\"#_edn7\" id=\"_ednref7\">[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 1, Scene 5 (994-96, Cleopatra\u2019s love for Antony and extravagant view of him only grow while he\u2019s away in Rome; she receives a fine pearl and a message from him, and vows to send him letters daily until he returns to Egypt.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWe see another side of Cleopatra here, the one that is truly in love with Antony and would just as well \u201csleep out this great gap of time\u201d in his absence (994, 1.5.5). Theirs is not simply a political alliance, it\u2019s more than that, and while Cleopatra\u2019s motives are complex, her connection with Antony is one of the world\u2019s grandest tragic love stories. She muses fondly about him, and mentions her earlier affair with Julius Caesar, who, she is certain, considered her \u201cA morsel for a monarch\u201d (995, 1.5.31).<\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra has an extravagant sense of Antony\u2019s worth, one that fits his sense of himself and that he repays with similar extravagance towards her. Nowhere is this more evident than when she calls him, \u201cThe demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm \/ And burgonet of men\u201d (994, 1.5.23-24). We may not see this godlike Antony in action through most of the play, but a genuinely admiring mutual representation bonds the two lovers together, so much so that they will risk all in the service of this reciprocal admiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Queen\u2019s appreciation for Antony embraces even the most complex aspects of his personality. As she says, \u201cBe\u2019est thou sad or merry, \/ The violence of either thee becomes, \/ So does it no man else\u201d (995, 1.5.61-63). Mark Antony is a man of extremes, and all the while remains himself. This paradoxical unity-in-duality is no doubt partly what Cleopatra loves in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act2\">ACT 2<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 1 (996-97, Sextus Pompeius, Menas, and Varrius consider their situation and the disposition of their foes Octavius and Antony; Pompey feels confident in his victory against them, though he is troubled by the possibility that they might combine their forces.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSextus Pompeius, the son of Pompey the Great, thinks the people love him, while he\u2019s convinced that Octavius wins no hearts with his soulless efficiency and that Antony is wasting his strength with Cleopatra in Egypt (996, 2.1.9-16). Sextus has an illustrious father in the late Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus or \u201cPompey the Great,\u201d <a href=\"#_edn8\" id=\"_ednref8\">[8]<\/a> a member of the unofficial First Triumvirate from 59-53 BCE along with Julius Caesar and Marcus Licinius Crassus. The more official \u201cSecond Triumvirate\u201d from 43-33 BCE <a href=\"#_edn9\" id=\"_ednref9\">[9]<\/a> is the current one in this play, composed of Mark Antony, Julius Caesar\u2019s heir Octavius, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSextus Pompeius is somewhat rattled at Varrius\u2019s report that Antony is in fact on his way to Rome, but his confidence remains intact. As he says, \u201cBut let us rear \/ The higher our opinion, that our stirring \/ Can from the lap of Egypt\u2019s widow pluck \/ The ne\u2019er-lust-wearied Antony\u201d (997, 2.1.36-39). While Sextus correctly praises Antony as a general, this cockiness in the face of the danger that the man presents seems immature and na\u00efve. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 2 (997-1003, Octavius confronts Antony over his shortcomings; Agrippa proposes a match between Antony and Octavius\u2019s sister Octavia; Enobarbus describes Cleopatra grandly and forecasts that Antony will return to Egypt for love of her.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOctavius and Antony confront each other, each bringing his own grievances and assumptions to the table. Octavius\u2019s claims are very ponderous: he tasks Antony with the fact that Fulvia and Antony\u2019s brother Lucius Antonius stirred up a rebellion against him in Antony\u2019s name (998, 2.2.48-50). <a href=\"#_edn10\" id=\"_ednref10\">[10]<\/a> He also insists that Antony ignored his messengers while carousing in Alexandria (999, 2.2.78-81).<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut worst of all, says Octavius, in refusing to assist him with military supplies and money when required, he has broken faith (999, 2.2.87-89, 95-96). Antony\u2019s admission that he \u201cNeglected, rather\u201d (999, 2.2.96) to keep his word doesn\u2019t sit well with Octavius. Antony seems concerned to maintain his gravitas here. The answer he gives Octavius is little better than a deflection, but all the same, self-image is extremely important to Mark Antony, and he doesn\u2019t take kindly to hearing his \u201chonor\u201d questioned by a young man he considers little more than a puppy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile Antony goes around behaving like a wild Greek or luxurious Egyptian, Octavius is a high-level antecedent of the 1950s-era boss of \u201cthe man in the gray flannel suit\u201d: <a href=\"#_edn11\" id=\"_ednref11\">[11]<\/a> he thinks of Rome first and does what\u2019s needed to keep the machinery of state running and the coffers full, and thinks others should always bear in mind the same concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus is mildly rebuked for trying to butt in, but Agrippa helps resolve the tension between them, at least for the present, by successfully proposing a match between Octavius\u2019s sister Octavia and Antony: \u201cThou hast a sister by the mother\u2019s side \u2026\u201d (1000, 2.2.126). Dynastic obligation will bring these two men of very different character together and keep them from tearing the country apart, or at least that\u2019s the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus then talks with Agrippa and Maecenas, offering us a new image of the famous Cleopatra, one that Shakespeare has borrowed from the historian Plutarch\u2019s Lives<\/em>, specifically \u201cThe Life of Marcus Antonius,\u201d which is Shakespeare\u2019s main source for the play. <a href=\"#_edn12\" id=\"_ednref12\">[12]<\/a> Enobarbus describes the Queen almost as a goddess, as a woman beyond description: \u201cThe barge she sat in, like a burnished throne \/ Burned on the water\u2026. \/ \u2026 \/ For her own person, it beggared all description\u201d (1002, 2.2.203-04, 209-210; see 202-217 inclusive).<\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus also mentions how savvy Cleopatra is, how well she plays her charms to her advantage, making Antony visit her rather than the other way around (1003, 2.2.231-33). Cleopatra, he knows, exercises a strong hold over Antony\u2019s imagination and passions. She \u201cmakes hungry \/ Where most she satisfies\u201d (1003, 2.2.249-50), instilling desire that doesn\u2019t lead to satiation (1003, 2.2.249-50). She also sanctifies things that would otherwise be vile. As Enobarbus says, \u201cAge cannot wither her, nor custom stale \/ Her infinite variety\u201d (1003, 2.2.247-48). That capacity is a big part of Cleopatra\u2019s attraction\u2014she is charismatic, larger than life.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra\u2019s trip to Cydnus in 41 BCE is important to an understanding of this deified power couple. Antony and Cleopatra are used to being treated like gods, as Antony has been when in the East\u2014Cydnus is in south-central Asia Minor (Turkey at present), and the Roman general is there to fight the fierce Parthians. It\u2019s his responsibility as one of the Second Triumvirs (43-31 BCE, consisting of Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus). There, Antony is Dionysus. When Cleopatra sails to Cydnus to meet him, she comes dressed and accompanied as Venus, and therefore at least the equal of Antony-Dionysus, the latecomer Bacchic god.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra\u2019s goddess trappings are the power move of a 32-year-old woman who has been \u201csummoned\u201d by a lordly 46-year-old Roman man, just as momentous an occasion as the striking-up of her relationship with Julius Caesar, 31 years her senior, in 48 BCE, when she was an exile of 21. It\u2019s a remarkable testament to Shakespeare\u2019s art that he depicts so convincingly the exalted Antony and Cleopatra as carrying on a passionate, at times troubled, and ultimately tragic human<\/em> love affair. He fills her imagination, and she keeps drawing him back to her, again and again. <a href=\"#_edn13\" id=\"_ednref13\">[13]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 3 (1003-04, Antony promises Octavia that he will behave like a proper husband; a soothsayer tells Antony to stay away from the lucky Octavius Caesar; uneasy, Antony resolves to return to Egypt.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony speaks to a soothsayer, who tells him to stay away from Octavius because this opponent is bound to rise higher than Antony: \u201cIf thou dost play with him at any game, \/ Thou art sure to lose \u2026\u201d (1004, 2.3.24-25). Octavius is almost as much an \u201cevil spirit\u201d for Antony as Julius Caesar was for Brutus on the plain at Philippi in Julius Caesar.<\/em> <a href=\"#_edn14\" id=\"_ednref14\">[14]<\/a> In his presence, the great Roman is afraid, unmanned.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony knows this, and says of Octavius that \u201cthe very dice obey him\u201d (1004, 2.3.32). Fortune seems to be on the younger man\u2019s side, even though Antony is a ladies\u2019 man and ought to be on better terms with Dame Fortune. Antony resolves to return to Egypt: \u201cthough I make this marriage for my peace, \/ I\u2019th\u2019 East my pleasure lies\u201d (1004, 2.3.38-39).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scenes 4-5 (1004-08, Lepidus goes after Sextus Pompeius, and must be late to Misenum and his meeting with the other two triumvirs; Lepidus also tells Maecenas and Agrippa to move up the departure dates of Antony and Octavius Caesar; Cleopatra teases absent Antony about their fishing trips, but is then stricken with jealousy when she hears about his marriage to Octavia: she strikes the messenger who gives her this news.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the fourth scene, we learn that Lepidus will be late on his way to Misenum where the triumvirate will meet. No doubt we are to understand his lateness as symptomatic of his weak position within the Second Triumvirate (1004-05, 2.4.1-10).<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the fifth scene, Cleopatra has fun at Antony\u2019s expense, saying that he\u2019s like the great fish she proposes to catch in the Nile: \u201cI\u2019ll think them every one an Antony\u201d (1005, 2.5.14; see lines 10-14). Charmian reminds Cleopatra of the time when she tricked Antony while they were fishing together, hanging an already dead fish on his hook for him to haul in (1005, 2.5.15-18).<\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra seems to delight in stealing from Antony his masculine symbolic power (the sword with which he earned victory against the conspirators Brutus and Cassius, who killed his friend Julius) and donning it herself: she recounts how she drank him to bed and then \u201cput my tires and mantles on him, whilst \/ I wore his sword Philippan\u201d (1005, 2.5.22-23). She will again play the role of a man, though in deadly earnest then, at the Battle of Actium when she commands her own Egyptian fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Queen soon learns that Antony will marry Octavia, and this causes her to strike the messenger who tells her so (1006, 2.5.62), but then she invites him back to inform her about Octavia\u2019s looks (1007, 2.5.112-15). This \u201cpetty\u201d image of Cleopatra may be the most intimate look we will get throughout the play. To adapt a line from King Henry V, \u201ca Queen is but a woman.\u201d This demigoddess, this female latter-day pharaoh, is for a time reduced to hoping for mockable information about her mortal rival\u2019s height and other physical features.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 6 (1008-11, Sextus Pompeius reconciles with Octavius Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus and accepts their peace terms; Menas and Enobarbus trade wisdom on Sextus as well as Octavius Caesar and Antony\u2014they don\u2019t see Antony\u2019s marriage to Octavia bringing these two men closer together.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSextus Pompeius makes a deal with Octavius in which he\u2019s to take Sicily and Sardinia, but also rid the seas of piracy and send wheat to Rome (1009, 2.6.34-39). He reconciles with Octavius and Antony, and Menas says to Enobarbus, \u201cPompey doth this day laugh away his fortune\u201d (1010, 2.6.103). Enobarbus, for his part, says that Antony \u201cwill to his Egyptian dish again. Then shall the \/ sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Caesar\u201d (1011, 2.6.122-23; see 121-26). Enobarbus realizes that the marriage with Octavia is purely a matter of convenience. As he says, Antony \u201cmarried but his occasion here\u201d (1011, 2.6.126). The great Roman\u2019s heart is in Egypt with Cleopatra, and that is where he will return.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 7 (1011-14, Antony wins a drinking contest with Lepidus and Octavius; Sextus Pompeius puts honor before power and loses the respect of Menas, who has suggested to him that if only he would murder his guests, he could be master of Rome and much of the rest of the world besides.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nLepidus, the weakest member of the Second Triumvirate, is made quite drunk at the meeting between the three and their attendants at Misenum. Antony makes sport of him by answering his silly questions about crocodiles with ludicrous tautologies. He tells Lepidus that the crocodile \u201cis shaped, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it hath \/ breadth\u201d (1012, 2.7.43-44). <\/p>\n\n\n\nMeanwhile, Sextus Pompeius shows himself to be so indebted to the concept of Roman honor that it prevents him from taking Menas\u2019 advice. Why not simply invite the triumvirs on board his ship and kill them? (1013, 2.7.71-74) Pompeius says that the man ought to have done <\/em>this without telling him about it (1013, 2.7.75-77). Menas loses faith in Pompeius because of this rigidity. Such an opportunity, he knows, will not come again: \u201cWho seeks and will not take when once \u2018tis offered \/ Shall never find it more\u201d (1013, 2.7.83-84).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 2, Scene 7 also shows the triumvirs\u2019 attitude towards drinking. As the saying goes, in vino veritas. <\/em>We find out that Lepidus can\u2019t hold his liquor, which suggests that he lacks self-mastery and is a follower, not a leader. Antony, by contrast, bows to nobody as a wassailer, and Octavius would just as well stay sober (1013, 2.7.98-100, 102-03). It\u2019s obvious that he is determined to keep his wits about him, and is more responsible in his relationship to power than Antony. Judgments are being made in this scene about who is the most pragmatic kind of \u201cRoman\u201d and who is, therefore, most likely to succeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWe have seen how other Romans accuse Antony for his propensity to \u201cturn on, tune in, and drop out,\u201d to adapt a line from the 1960s LSD guru Timothy Leary. <a href=\"#_edn15\" id=\"_ednref15\">[15]<\/a> But at this point in the play, Antony seems the strong master of revels. His range of experience and his appeal to others extend beyond Roman austerity and severity of Octavius\u2019s sort. In his openness to experience, Antony is more of an Odyssean Greek than a Roman. <a href=\"#_edn16\" id=\"_ednref16\">[16]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony is sometimes forgetful of himself, to be sure. But as T. S. Eliot writes in his 1921 essay \u201cTradition and the Individual Talent,\u201d \u201conly those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.\u201d <a href=\"#_edn17\" id=\"_ednref17\">[17]<\/a> Octavius probably would not feel his lack of Antony\u2019s qualities as much of a loss or defect\u2014he is entirely another kind of leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act3\">ACT 3<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 1 (1014-15, Ventidius, victorious for Antony\u2019s cause, tells us about the Roman political star system: subordinates must not upstage their commanders; Antony is coming to Athens.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWe might take the first few scenes as a commentary on Roman values. Ventidius in Syria has returned in triumph, having defeated the Parthians who had done so much harm to Roman armies. But he doesn\u2019t pursue the Parthians simply because doing so would mean upstaging his commanding officer, Antony: \u201cI have done enough. A lower place, note well, \/ May make too great an act\u201d (1015, 3.1.12-13). In the fiercely competitive Roman political universe, there is something like a star system in place: subordinates do not upstage their betters, if they know what\u2019s good for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\nVentidius also makes a remark that would probably, if Antony found out about it, get him in trouble. He says to Silius, \u201cCaesar and Antony have ever won \/ More in their officer than person\u201d (1015, 3.1.16-17). In other words, their great standing as generals stems mainly from the brilliant performance of their subordinate commanders. That\u2019s close to Roman-speak for a man\u2019s being \u201cAll hat and no cattle.\u201d Careful, Ventidius!<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 2 (1015-17, Octavius and Octavia express their sadness at parting; Antony sets out for Athens with Octavia; Enobarbus, a realist, says he believes that Antony\u2019s grief over Julius Caesar\u2019s and Brutus\u2019s death alike was sincere, but also that the man acts now with savvy political objectives.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOctavia weeps, and Octavius is sad at parting (1015, 3.2.3-6). He is also more than a little distrustful of the man to whom he has married his sister Octavia, and warns him, \u201cbetter might we \/ Have loved without this mean if on both parts \/ This be not cherished\u201d (1016, 3.2.31-33).<\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus undercuts the notion put forth by Agrippa that Antony wept without complication not only at the death of Julius Caesar but even at the death of the assassin Marcus Brutus. He says, \u201cWhat willingly he did confound he wailed, \/ Believe\u2019t, till I wept too\u201d (1017, 3.2.58-59). Shakespeare seems concerned to remind us that we are dealing with historical events that have become shaded over with mythology, and the view he prefers at some points is the practical, knowing Roman perspective we find in Enobarbus\u2019s clear-eyed statements. <a href=\"#_edn18\" id=\"_ednref18\">[18]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus is suggesting that Antony\u2019s grief over the death of Julius Caesar was doubtless sincere, but also that his political chariot-wheels were spinning all the while. The subject to be determined was how, exactly, Antony was going to position himself in the wake of a sad event such as his own wife\u2019s death. There is nothing implausible in this. Historical agents, and indeed human beings more generally, are more complex than we usually give them credit for. Just as a person who offers too many <\/em>reasons for an action is apt to be treated with suspicion, so, too, is a person who offers too few.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 3 (1017-18, Cleopatra rewards the messenger for reporting that she\u2019s more attractive than Octavia.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra finds out that Octavia isn\u2019t as beautiful as she\u2014in fact, Cleopatra interprets from what the messenger says, the undeniably noble Octavia is \u201cDull of tongue, and dwarfish\u201d (1018, 3.13.16). Cleopatra now rewards the messenger she had earlier struck. It\u2019s good to hear that the Queen doesn\u2019t always <\/em>beat her messengers! This one seems clever enough to adapt his delivery to suit what he knows the receiver wants to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 4 (1018-19, war begins to percolate between Antony and an increasingly hostile Octavius Caesar; Antony allows Octavia to head for Rome so she can try to mend this tear in the fabric of his partnership with Octavius.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWar is brewing between Octavius and Antony, the latter of whom details his grievances to Octavia: Octavius, he says, has \u201cwaged \/ New wars \u2019gainst Pompey; made his will and read it \/ To public ear; spoke scantly of me \u2026\u201d (1018-19, 3.4.3-5). Antony agrees that Octavia might be helpful as a go-between, and he seems genuine in his desire that she should follow her heart in choosing sides, if that becomes necessary. He tells her, \u201cMake your soonest haste, \/ So your desires are yours\u201d (1019, 3.4.27-28, 20-28 inclusive). <\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 5 (1019-20, Octavius has arrested Lepidus, so he and Antony determine their areas of control of the Roman Empire; Antony prepares his navy to sail to Italy.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus hears from Eros that Lepidus and Octavius have made war against Sextus Pompeius, and Octavius has arrested Lepidus (1019, 3.5.10-11). <\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 6 (1020-22, Octavius is angry at Antony\u2019s outrageous Egyptian self-crowning and at his treatment of Octavia: she arrives in Rome and only then is she informed that Antony has left Athens and gone back to Egypt.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the sixth scene, Octavius is outraged when Antony and Cleopatra crown themselves in Asiatic splendor (1020, 3.6.3-5) and has gifted his Egyptian paramour with \u201clower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia\u201d (1020, 3.6.10). The Roman people know of this, says Octavius (1020, 3.6.23-24). Cleopatra shows herself to her people dressed as the goddess Isis. It\u2019s all too much for Octavius, and we can add to this Antony\u2019s carping about supposedly not being accorded his share of Octavius\u2019s spoils from the campaign against Sextus Pompeius, and his insistence that Lepidus should be removed from the Second Triumvirate arrangement and stripped of his gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAt least as unacceptable as all of this, in Octavius\u2019s view, is the fact that his sister Octavia has found it necessary to visit him alone, and without the appropriate ceremony that is due to her when she travels (1021, 3.6.43-47).<\/p>\n\n\n\nOctavius\u2019s contempt for Antony\u2019s conduct shows most when he says of the man, \u201cHe hath given his empire \/ Up to a whore\u201d (1021, 3.6.67-68). Well, Octavius had agreed to the match between his rival and Octavia readily enough in spite of his reservations about Antony\u2019s character. Now he invites Octavia to stay on his side, suggesting that Antony has betrayed her, saying, \u201cYou are abused \/ Beyond the mark of thought\u201d (1022, 3.6.88-89). Octavius has to inform Octavia that Antony isn\u2019t in Athens but with Cleopatra in Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 7 (1022-24, Cleopatra takes offense at Enobarbus\u2019 suggestion to stay out of the wars; Antony goes against the advice of his military commanders and, with Cleopatra\u2019s encouragement, he decides to fight Octavius Caesar by sea; Antony is surprised at the speed and efficiency of Octavius\u2019s forces.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus tells Cleopatra to stay out of the wars, and she\u2019s insulted at the suggestion, especially his remark that her \u201cpresence needs must puzzle Antony\u201d (1022, 3.7.10). She insists, all the same, that she will<\/em> take part in Antony\u2019s wars, and, she says, \u201cA charge we bear i\u2019th\u2019 war, \/ And as the president of my kingdom will \/ Appear there for a man\u201d 1023, 3.7.16-18). She is a ruler and doesn\u2019t accept the role of a \u201cweak woman,\u201d or indeed of a woman at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony now makes the disastrous decision to fight Octavius by sea because the latter has dared him to do so. Enobarbus is aghast at this un-Roman impracticality, at Antony\u2019s preference for \u201cchance and hazard\u201d instead of security (1023, 3.7.48, 35-49 inclusive).<\/p>\n\n\n\nPerhaps Antony is at times foolhardy, but he\u2019s also noble; power sits lightly upon his shoulders. The hair of wise and responsible rulers turns gray quickly, but one senses that such a transformation isn\u2019t likely to overtake Mark Antony. He\u2019s too reckless to be weighed down by the demands of power, and prefers an unstable alliance between honor and hazard to a more stable one of the sort Enobarbus would counsel, and Octavius would certainly maintain. <a href=\"#_edn19\" id=\"_ednref19\">[19]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAt the scene\u2019s end, Antony seems surprised at how briskly Octavius\u2019s forces are moving into position (1023-24, 3.7.57-61). The men around Antony (Canidius in particular) feel that since he\u2019s led by a woman, so are they: \u201cwe are women\u2019s men\u201d (1024, 3.7.71). Canidius also says of Antony that \u201chis whole action grows \/ Not in the power on\u2019t\u201d (1024, 3.7.69-70), which the Norton editor glosses to mean that his military strategy is severed from consideration of his actual resources. We don\u2019t need to be experts on war to know that a huge part of it is logistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scenes 8-10 (1024-26, Octavius Caesar keeps his forces from starting any land battles; Antony prepares his navy squadrons for the offshore fight; Cleopatra\u2019s fleet turns around and flees the battle, and Antony follows her back to land; Canidius decides to desert, but Enobarbus stays on for the time being.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOctavius and Antony strategize, and it\u2019s clear that the former is all about maintaining control over events. His instructions are, \u201cStrike not by land\u2026 \/ \u2026 Do not exceed \/ The prescript of this scroll\u201d (1024, 3.8.3-5). By Act 3, Scene 10, we hear that the Egyptian fleet has cut and run (1025, 3.10.1-3).<\/p>\n\n\n\nScarus laments that Antony\u2019s Romans have \u201ckissed away \/ Kingdoms and provinces\u201d (1025, 3.10.7-8). The charge is that Antony is irresponsible in his deployment of military power. He has allowed his love of Cleopatra to blind him to sound counsel, and Scarus laments, \u201cExperience, manhood, honor ne\u2019er before \/ Did violate so itself\u201d (1025, 3.10.22-23). Incredibly, Antony has followed Cleopatra\u2019s shameful retreat at the first sign of danger. <a href=\"#_edn20\" id=\"_ednref20\">[20]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis kind of mistake has consequences. Canidius decides that he might as well go over to Octavius since Antony has lost control over his own destiny (932, 3.10.32-34). Enobarbus knows what Canidius knows, but still can\u2019t bring himself to abandon his commander: \u201cI\u2019ll yet follow \/ The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason \/ Sits in the wind against me\u201d (1026-27, 3.10.34-36).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 11 (1026-27, a despairing Antony recognizes his grave mistake and the loss of his identity as the legend \u201cMark Antony\u201d; he is furious with Cleopatra, but pardons her for a kiss.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony is horrified\u2014\u201cI have fled myself\u2026,\u201d he says. \u201cI have offended reputation, \/ A most unnoble swerving\u201d (1027, 3.11.48-49). He understands that he has thrown away everything he worked for, and he says to his friends, \u201cI \/ Have lost my way forever. I have a ship \/ Laden with gold. Take that; divide it. Fly, \/ And make your peace with Caesar\u201d (1026, 3.11.3-6). How many modern politicians and military leaders\u2014or ancient ones, for that matter\u2014would be so forthright and generous in defeat?<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat makes the situation even more intolerable is Octavius\u2019s relative lack of martial skill and experience. Antony reminds us that it was he who killed his friend Julius\u2019 assassins while the fledgling stood by: \u201cHe at Philippi kept \/ His sword e\u2019en like a dancer \u2026\u201d (1026, 3.11.35-36). Antony has been a world-historical actor, and now his star is eclipsed by a lesser man, at least in his view. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony is at first furious with Cleopatra, who can say little aside from, \u201cI little thought \/ You would have followed\u201d (1027, 3.11.55-56). But he reconciles with her almost immediately. When she asks pardon, he grants it, considering himself well repaid with a kiss (1027, 3.11.69-71). Antony is quite the romantic. He places Cleopatra above victory on the battlefield, saying grandly, \u201cFall not a tear, I say. One of them rates \/ All that is won and lost\u201d (1027, 3.11.69-70).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 12 (1027-28, Antony petitions Octavius to allow him to live in Egypt, but Caesar turns his petition down; Cleopatra behaves submissively towards Octavius, who, sending Thidias to negotiate with her, demands that she send Antony into exile or kill him outright.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony sends his schoolmaster, Thidias, to treat with Octavius (1027, 3.12.2-6). Cleopatra says she will submit to Octavius and wishes only to remain Queen of Egypt, and while Octavius disregards Antony\u2019s request to live as \u201ca private man in Athens\u201d (1028, 3.12.15), he orders that the Queen be comforted and promised all she wants, so long as she either exiles or kills Antony (1028, 3.12.19-24). He supposes this shift will work because women, as far as he is concerned, are infinitely malleable under the pressure of circumstance. As he puts it, \u201cWomen are not \/ In their best fortunes strong, but want will perjure \/ The ne\u2019er-touched vestal\u201d (1028, 3.12.29-31). <a href=\"#_edn21\" id=\"_ednref21\">[21]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 3, Scene 13 (1028-33, Enobarbus blames Antony for the military disaster, but still can\u2019t bring himself to desert his commander; Antony offers Octavius an absurd challenge to single combat; Cleopatra cooperates with Octavius; Antony tries to recover what Octavius \u201cknew [he] was,\u201d orders Octavius\u2019s messenger whipped, and rages at Cleopatra, though he again reconciles with her; Enobarbus finally decides to desert Antony.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus won\u2019t blame Cleopatra for the military disaster, but says instead that Antony has made \u201chis will \/ Lord of his reason\u201d (1028, 3.13.3-4). <a href=\"#_edn22\" id=\"_ednref22\">[22]<\/a> Antony absurdly challenges Octavius to single combat (1029, 3.13.25-28). Enobarbus is stunned. His illusions about Antony have been stripped away, and he sees that the man has been entirely bereft of sound judgment. He admits with sadness, \u201cMine honesty and I begin to square\u201d (1029, 3.13.41).<\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus continues to mull his relationship with Antony, and thinks his loyalty will earn him a place in the history books: by sticking with Antony yet a while longer, he\u2019ll \u201cconquer\u201d the man who defeated that noble Roman. The loyal friend who does this, he suggests, \u201cearns a place i\u2019th\u2019 story\u201d (1029, 3.13.46; see 41-46). This might be labeled a metadramatic concern because Shakespeare himself is clearly interested in how legends become enmeshed with history.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMuch of this play (to borrow a phrase from the New Historians) <a href=\"#_edn23\" id=\"_ednref23\">[23]<\/a> is about a kind of \u201cself-fashioning\u201d that, if successful, becomes the narrative by which we know the boldest among the ancients. Even in Antony and Cleopatra\u2019s own time, mythmaking <\/em>was at work, and so were its critics. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra seems to be going along with Octavius\u2019s program, flattering him with the words, \u201cHe is a god and knows \/ What is most right\u201d (1030, 3.13.60-61). Her lover, however, is still saying \u201cI am \/ Antony yet\u201d (1031, 3.13. 93-94). Antony wants to re-embrace his identity as a valorous Roman commander, and orders Octavius\u2019s messenger Thidias soundly whipped for too well conveying his master\u2019s attitude towards the conquered general (1031, 3.13.94).<\/p>\n\n\n\nSoon, Antony\u2019s anger again turns towards Cleopatra in the memorable line, \u201cYou have been a boggler ever\u201d (1031, 3.13.111). He accuses her of latching onto and manipulating famous Roman men like Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and himself to enhance her own power, which rests on the different and most un-Roman basis of alliance with divine splendor and awe. \u201cI found you as a morsel cold upon \/ Dead Caesar\u2019s trencher,\u201d he scolds Cleopatra (1031, 3.13.117-18).<\/p>\n\n\n\nWithout a doubt, the Queen of Egypt is the leader of an ancient personality cult, and while her stylistic affinity with Antony\u2019s grandiose dimension is obvious, he now professes to find the whole affair disgusting. Above all, he says, Cleopatra lacks \u201ctemperance\u201d and indeed that she doesn\u2019t even know the meaning of the word (1031, 3.13.122-23). <\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony\u2019s anger also flows toward Octavius for \u201charping on what I am, \/ Not what he knew I was\u201d (1032, 3.13.144-45). The legendary general supposes that the reputation he has justly won entitles him to the continued respect and esteem of those who have overcome him.<\/p>\n\n\n\nReaders familiar with Shakespeare\u2019s history play Richard II <\/em>may recall that King Richard is often left helpless by his deep belief in the sacred nature and significance of his office. The ceremony enfolding his every movement and word isn\u2019t simply a formal matter with him. In a sense, the great Mark Antony\u2019s evident conviction in his own nobility and \u201cRomanness\u201d proves just as troublesome to him, at times robbing him of his proper judgment and blinding him to truth and reality. It\u2019s a risk that the powerful run: they start believing in their own \u201cspecialness\u201d to an unhealthy and even lethal degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe conclusion of Act 3, Scene 13 shows Antony reconciling yet again with Cleopatra (who after all seems to represent a tendency within him more than an external cause or excuse for his failure), and regains his composure: \u201cI am satisfied,\u201d he declares (1033, 3.13.169), and that\u2019s that. Antony calls for a night of drinking and celebration on the eve of the final battle to recover his lost glory, saying, \u201cI and my sword will earn our chronicle. \/ There\u2019s hope in\u2019t yet\u201d (1033, 3.13.177-78). He may yet win at Alexandria.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis strange recovery on Antony\u2019s part is the last straw for Enobarbus: \u201cWhen valor preys on reason, \/ It eats the sword it fights with\u201d (1033, 3.13.200-01), he says, and decides it\u2019s time to desert his old commander at the earliest opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act4\">ACT 4<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scenes 1-6 (1033-38, Octavius scorns Antony\u2019s personal challenge, and readies his forces for battle; Antony is elegiac but resolute, asking his servants to stay with him; Antony\u2019s guards hear music and believe Hercules is abandoning him; Cleopatra and Eros help Antony don his armor; Antony learns that Enobarbus is gone, and generously sends the man\u2019s treasure to Octavius\u2019s camp; Octavius rolls out his new world order through ruthless military arrangements; Enobarbus now despises himself for leaving Antony, and determines to die.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThese brief scenes convey the contrasting attitudes and reactions on the part of Antony and Octavius towards the coming battle. Antony is at times elegiac in tone, as Act 4, Scene 2: \u201cPerchance tomorrow \/ You\u2019ll serve another master,\u201d he tells his men (1035, 4.2.27-28). To the dismay of Enobarbus, he adds, \u201cI hope well of tomorrow\u2026\u201d (1035, 4.2.42).<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Act 4, Scene 3, a soldier takes a noise to be Hercules abandoning Antony (1035, 4.3.21-22), which is especially significant since Antony\u2019s family claimed descent from that demigod. <a href=\"#_edn24\" id=\"_ednref24\">[24]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Act 4, Scene 4, Antony seems resolute: he will lead his men into the battle, and wishes Cleopatra could behold him in all his splendor. He exclaims, \u201cThat thou couldst see my wars today, and knew\u2019st \/ The royal occupation\u201d (1036, 4.4.16-17).<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Act 4, Scene 5, Antony learns that Enobarbus has deserted him, and realizes that his own \u201cfortunes have \/ Corrupted honest men\u201d (1037, 4.5.16-17). He says these words to Eros and not in soliloquy, but they seem heartfelt. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Act 4, Scene 6, Octavius declares that \u201cthe time of universal peace is near\u201d (1038, 4.6.5), yet without compunction he also reveals the true nature of this new world order: he advises his lieutenant to place units recently revolted from Antony at the forefront, so that in the first rounds of the battle, Antony will be killing his own men; he will \u201cspend his fury \/ Upon himself\u201d (1038, 4.6.10-11).<\/p>\n\n\n\nEnobarbus has now come to realize that he has destroyed his self-image in abandoning Antony: \u201cI am alone the villain of the earth \u2026\u201d (1038, 4.6.31). When Antony generously sends him his treasure from camp, the desolation of Enobarbus is complete. He resolves to die as quickly and wretchedly as possible: \u201cI will go seek \/ Some ditch wherein to die\u201d (1038, 4.6.38-39).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scenes 7-11 (1038-41, Antony enjoys a win and marches through Alexandria to celebrate; Enobarbus dies, filled with bitter remorse; Octavius will fight Antony by sea again.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSo far, Antony\u2019s desperate gambit shows signs of success since Octavius seems to have overextended his forces (1038, 4.7.1-3). Eros is able to announce to Antony, \u201cThey are beaten, sir\u201d (1039, 4.8.11). For the moment, Octavius has been driven back to his camp, a fact that Antony trumpets in the ninth scene, with special instructions to inform the Queen of this great feat (1039, 4.8.2).<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Scene 9, Enobarbus dies reasserting his admiration for Antony: \u201cForgive me in thine own particular, \/ But let the world rank me in register \/ A master-leaver and a fugitive,\u201d he prays, and his beloved general\u2019s name is the last word he utters. (1040-41, 4.10.21-23). Friendship between men, or amicitia perfecta,<\/em> <a href=\"#_edn25\" id=\"_ednref25\">[25]<\/a> was among the highest Roman values, and it is this value that Enobarbus realizes he has sordidly betrayed. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn Scene 11, Octavius announces that he will fight Antony at sea one last time (1041, 4.11.1-4). This decision seems as ill-advised as the previous one favoring a sea-fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scene 12 (1041-42, the Egyptian fleet again cuts and runs, deserting Antony, who becomes enraged with Cleopatra and even says he means to kill her.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Egyptian fleet again deserts Antony, even going over to Octavius\u2019s side (1042, 4.12.9-13). Upon this betrayal, Antony declares Cleopatra a \u201cTriple-turned whore\u201d (1042, 4.13.13). He says that he is now betrayed and finished, defeated by a cowardly queen and a journeyman politician: \u201cO sun, thy uprise shall I see no more. \/ Fortune and Antony part here\u201d (1042, 4.13.18-19). He is so infuriated with her that he seethes, \u201cThe witch shall die\u201d (1042, 4.13.47). For a moment, he imagines her at the mercy of the Roman plebeians. He barks at her, \u201cMost monster-like be shown \/ For poor\u2019st diminutives, for dolts \u2026\u201d (1042, 4.13.33-34).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scenes 13 (1043, Charmian advises the frightened Cleopatra to hide inside one of her monuments and play dead to avoid Antony\u2019s wrath.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nCharmian advises Cleopatra to hide in a monument, and send false word of her death: \u201cTo the monument! \/ There lock yourself, and send him word that you are dead\u201d (1043, 4.13.3-4). The Queen agrees to Charmian\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scene 14 (1043-46, Antony believes Cleopatra has committed suicide, and botches his own suicide attempt when Eros refuses to assist him; he now learns that Cleopatra is still alive, and requests that he be conveyed to her; Dercetas takes Antony\u2019s sword to ingratiate himself with Octavius; Diomedes arrives with a message from Cleopatra, but it comes too late.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony continues to lament what he considers Cleopatra\u2019s betrayal, saying, \u201cShe has robbed me of my sword (1043, 4.14.23) and admitting that he \u201cmade these wars\u201d for no one but Egypt and her (1043, 4.15.15). When he hears that she has supposedly committed suicide, however, he is again instantly reconciled: \u201cI will o\u2019ertake thee, Cleopatra, and \/ Weep for my pardon\u201d (1044, 4.15.44-45). In conquering herself, thinks Antony, she has shown him the way (1044, 4.15.57-62). He then makes a botched attempt to fall on his sword after his servant Eros commits suicide rather than assist his master in dying (1045, 4.15.93-94). <\/p>\n\n\n\nNobody will help Antony end his life, and Dercetas even takes his sword as a token with which to ingratiate himself with Octavius (1046, 4.15.112-14). <a href=\"#_edn26\" id=\"_ednref26\">[26]<\/a> Diomedes enters with a message from Cleopatra, who has had second thoughts about the risks involved in her message proclaiming herself dead, but it\u2019s too late to help Antony. The damage is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 4, Scene 15 (1047-49, Antony is hoisted into Cleopatra\u2019s monument, and he and she are together one last time; while he is dying, Cleopatra plans to leave the world in the time-honored Roman way.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony and Cleopatra are together for one final scene, and when he tries to get her to seek safety and honor in Octavius, she bravely points out that \u201chonor\u201d and \u201csafety\u201d don\u2019t go together (1048, 4.15.49). That has long been the creed Antony has followed, for better or for worse. Antony falls back on the classical notion that glory is a matter of what your peers and descendants think of you. <a href=\"#_edn27\" id=\"_ednref27\">[27]<\/a> His wretched present, he trusts, will not blot out the glorious remembrance he has earned by his brave deeds in the past: \u201cplease your thoughts \/ In feeding them with those my former fortunes \u2026\u201d (1048, 4.16.54-55; see 53-61 inclusive).<\/p>\n\n\n\nMoments later, Antony dies. Cleopatra says that she and Charmian, too, will evade the clutches of Octavius. They will, they say, exit the world instead \u201cafter the high Roman fashion \/ And make death proud to take us\u201d (1049, 4.16.91-92). The Egyptian Queen\u2019s final act of self-transformation, of self-fashioning, will be to die like a Roman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"act5\">ACT 5<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAct 5, Scene 1 (1049-51, Octavius, though ruthless, is saddened by Antony\u2019s death; he tells Proculeius to deceive Cleopatra and thereby preserve her for an eventual spot in his triumph.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen Dercetas informs Octavius that Antony is dead, he seems genuinely upset: \u201cThe breaking of so great a thing should make \/ A greater crack!\u201d (1049, 5.1.14-15). Antony lived prodigiously, and yet his passing has been noted as if it were a thing of nothing, no ceremony. Octavius may not be much of a pageantry promoter, but he shows some regard for the rites due to honor. He regrets what his need to maintain and increase his power has led him to do (1050, 5.1.35-48). Which doesn\u2019t, of course, mean that he wouldn\u2019t do it again in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOctavius serves political expediency, but his strength consists partly in the attitude he takes up towards what his station as a public man leads him to do. His ruthless actions are taken in the name of \u201cuniversal peace\u201d and the greater glory of Rome. Octavius sometimes deceives others about the nature of what he does, but he doesn\u2019t deceive himself about the disjunction between his ideals and his deeds. <a href=\"#_edn28\" id=\"_ednref28\">[28]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen Octavius says that he mourns for Antony \u201cWith tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts \u2026\u201d (1050, 5.1.41), most of us will believe him in a hushed theater, but we also bear witness to his devious, mercenary treatment of Cleopatra. He bids Proculeius to treat the Queen kindly and make her what promises he finds suitable, but this is only a shift to bring her in triumph to Rome, where she will be an object of mockery for the rabble: \u201cFor her life in Rome \/ Would be eternal in our triumph\u201d (1050, 5.1.65-66; see 61-68).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe future Augustus Caesar, maker of the Pax Romana, is ruthlessly competitive to the core, and the only way he knows how to play the game of politics is \u201czero sum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAct 5, Scene 2 (1051-60, Cleopatra exalts Antony; Proculeius reassures her, but Roman soldiers capture her; Dolabella warns her of Octavius\u2019s plan to bring her in triumph to Rome, and she determines to meet Antony in death; Octavius asks Cleopatra for a wealth inventory, which she lies about, only to be exposed; a rustic brings Cleopatra a basket of figs that conceals a poisonous asp; she makes the snake bite her; Iras dies, Cleopatra succumbs, then Charmian dies; Octavius orders Antony and Cleopatra buried side-by-side.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra is refashioning herself as heroic in the Roman manner, as one who will take her own life by noble action. We might suppose this is merely a matter of adopting a style. But then, Cleopatra takes style quite seriously, <a href=\"#_edn29\" id=\"_ednref29\">[29]<\/a> and her Pharaonic self-fashioning is no light matter. It wouldn\u2019t be right to take that quality away from her. She is surrounded by Octavius\u2019s soldiers, and now determines that she will not become the sport of the vulgar in Rome. She asks bitterly, \u201cShall they hoist me up \/ And show me to the shouting varletry \/ Of censuring Rome?\u201d (1052, 5.2.54-56)<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the presence of Dolabella, Cleopatra refashions and aggrandizes Antony to the point of deification, musing, \u201cI dreamt there was an Emperor Antony\u201d and \u201cHis legs bestrid the ocean; his reared arm \/ Crested the world \u2026\u201d (1053, 5.2.75, 81-82; see 81-91, 95-99). She has always shown this propensity to exalt Antony\u2019s deeds and reputation, but now that death is closing in, her efforts intensify and take on heightened significance. This is the Antony to whom Cleopatra will soon attempt to return in Elysium, reunited there as an even grander couple than they were on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDolabella plays an honorable role, forewarning Cleopatra of the shameful fate that awaits her in just three days (1053-54, 5.2.99ff). He introduces her to the terrible news with genuine concern, saying, \u201cI am loath to tell you what I would you knew\u201d (1053, 5.2.106). But he must tell her all the same, thereby giving us an excellent instance of Roman honor in its truest sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOctavius enters and plays both gracious conqueror and vicious threatener of Cleopatra\u2019s progeny, if she should follow Antony\u2019s self-destructive course (1054, 5.2.123-32). When Seleucis betrays Cleopatra over holding back some treasure from Octavius, who has demanded a financial accounting from her, she is shocked (1054, 5.2.147). This reaction suggests that she still doesn\u2019t fully understand the dynamics of power: people obey those in whom they find real, actionable strength. They don\u2019t long obey those who have only majesty and divine pomp to back their rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra resents being \u201cworded\u201d by Octavius (1055, 5.2.190-91). She loathes the prospect that he will, as she puts it, let \u201cSome squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness, \/ I\u2019th\u2019 posture of a whore\u201d (1056, 5.2.218-19). <a href=\"#_edn30\" id=\"_ednref30\">[30]<\/a> She has always been an actor, but only in her proper sphere as Egyptian Queen, acting the part of a goddess correlated with the exercise of power. In Rome, what had been world-historical drama would be reduced to an entertaining farce for the multitude. Shakespeare\u2019s audience, of course, would have found much humor in that phrase \u201cboy my greatness\u201d since Shakespeare\u2019s Cleopatra was played by a boy, not a woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCleopatra declares that there will be a final meeting with Antony in death. She declares, \u201cI am again for Cydnus \/ To meet Mark Antony\u201d (1056, 5.2.227-28). The place name refers to her initial seduction of Antony in 41 BCE, when he summoned her to Tarsus and she floated down the river Cydnus on that famous barge we recall from Enobarbus\u2019 description, the one that \u201clike a burnished throne \/ Burned on the water.\u201d <a href=\"#_edn31\" id=\"_ednref31\">[31]<\/a> Cleopatra will accomplish this meeting\u2014essentially a return to an initial triumph\u2014by casting off the supposed weakness of her sex: she declares grandly, \u201cI have nothing \/ Of woman in me\u201d (1057, 5.2.237-38). <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn comes the Clown, with his prayer that Cleopatra may find \u201call joy of the worm\u201d or Nile serpent he has brought her (1057, 5.2.257). It\u2019s worth considering why\u2014aside from the obvious, which is that such an unimportant fellow should easily avoid the attentions of the Roman guards\u2014Shakespeare has chosen to present Cleopatra with her death accompanied by the quizzical words and gestures of this semi-comic, bizarre rustic, who plays a larger role here than he does in North\u2019s translation of Plutarch. <a href=\"#_edn32\" id=\"_ednref32\">[32]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\nPerhaps it has something to do with the utter strangeness of each person\u2019s ending, at least to that person, but the Clown\u2019s presence may also be meant to remind us that Cleopatra lived and risked all for an erotic affair. If so, the Clown\u2019s patently phallic references to \u201cthe worm\u201d end up being as relevant as they are indecorous and impertinent on his part. See, for example, his puns on \u201cdying\u201d as orgasm in particular at (1057, 5.2.244-46, 248-55). A third consideration is that the Clown presents the Queen with one last challenge to her royal and wished-for divine dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBe all that as it may, Cleopatra meets her death bravely, calling upon Antony to witness her masculine courage, saying, \u201cI have \/ Immortal longings in me,\u201d and \u201cI am fire and air. My other elements \/ I give to baser life\u201d (1058, 5.2.276-77, 285-86). <a href=\"#_edn33\" id=\"_ednref33\">[33]<\/a> She dies at 1058, 5.2.309, Iras having preceded her by only a few minutes. <a href=\"#_edn34\" id=\"_ednref34\">[34]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nOctavius, whom Cleopatra considers almost with her last breath an \u201cass \/ Unpolicied\u201d for allowing her to make away with herself, enters the scene after her death and declares it noble and an act of loyalty to Antony (1058, 5.2.303-04). He ratifies Charmian\u2019s dying words that Cleopatra\u2019s death is \u201cwell done and fitting for a princess \/ Descended of so many royal kings\u201d (1059, 5.2.322-23). Octavius also agrees to bury her next to Antony, apparently recognizing the high tragedy of their doomed love match, the \u201cpity\u201d of which equals the \u201cglory\u201d of his current status as military victor and his future as Rome\u2019s sole ruler (1060, 5.2.354-62).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere\u2019s dignity in sublime failure, it seems, as well as in the establishment of peace and long-continued rule. \u201cRome, Inc.\u201d will have its shiny new CEO, and for the future Augustus Caesar, <a href=\"#_edn35\" id=\"_ednref35\">[35]<\/a> apotheosis to heaven can wait. Both Antony and Cleopatra and Octavius are great in their respective ways, but the former are crushed by the modern world in which Octavius moves more deftly, if not with the same tragic glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony and Cleopatra\u2019s manner of dying, and Octavius\u2019s of living and governing, together show a clash of value systems, a fissure in the concept of Romanness. The play doesn\u2019t condemn either system, although it shows the consequences and historical import of both: modern, material politics wins. We should bear in mind the strangeness <\/em>of the final two acts\u2019 tragic arc: Antony\u2019s sudden condemnations and reconciliations, Cleopatra\u2019s dissembling and her final adoption of Roman heroism, Octavius\u2019s recognition of the lasting narrative value of the great pair he has hounded to their demise.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThroughout the play, Antony and Cleopatra have been both each other\u2019s downfall and salvation. In the end, Cleopatra\u2019s initial false suicide taught Antony to do the right thing in earnest, and that <\/em>suicide, in turn, led Cleopatra to exit the world\u2019s stage like the hybrid Egyptian Queen and antique Roman she had become. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is the hint of an imperfectly realized romance pattern in Antony and Cleopatra. <\/em>We might say that this hint is to be found in the fourth act when the royal couple are forced to attempt a transition from the loss of supreme power to a more perfect union as lovers. It\u2019s true that this play, in terms of Shakespeare\u2019s chronology, is crafted at the tail end of his so-called dark period and on the cusp of the romance plays that round off his career. <a href=\"#_edn36\" id=\"_ednref36\">[36]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\nRomance, however, entails selective survival. Even as it provides second chances and near-miraculous reconciliations, instilling in us a sense that the world isn\u2019t quite as harsh as we thought it was, romance requires us to accept the reality that recovery comes only with partial loss and the admission of alterations wrought by time and error. The romance pattern can\u2019t annihilate time or decay, and it doesn\u2019t seem to allow for straightforward exaltation or apotheosis to perfection. In the end, its miracles are profoundly human, tinged with sorrow and mortality.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe historical record in the case of Antony and Cleopatra, of course, makes the romance pattern impossible: that record tells us of the liquidation of a famous couple at the hands of a power-consolidating ruler in Octavius. Shakespeare takes the two lovers in a different direction, one more consonant with tragedy. Their persistent, impressive self-mythologizing and image-projecting lends Antony and Cleopatra a measure of larger-than-lifeness, and they place their love beyond any power that Octavius\u2019s politics and armies can wield against them. They ask for immortality, which is more than Shakespearean romance can or will grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAntony and Cleopatra <\/em>remains firmly in the tragic camp since the relentless pursuit by Octavius at last yields the results he\u2019s been aiming for: sole possession of the world\u2019s first superpower, the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf there\u2019s success for Antony and Cleopatra, it\u2019s that audiences during and since Shakespeare\u2019s time have probably found it difficult to decide between the romantic exaltation of the two great lovers and the historical achievements of the enigmatic Octavius, thereafter to be known as Augustus Caesar.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat we are treated to, then, is not the bittersweet survival and renewal that we encounter in plays such as The Winter\u2019s Tale <\/em>and The Tempest,<\/em> but instead Antony and Cleopatra\u2019s classical attempt by means of soaring words and exuberant perspectives to attain a new and marvelous love beyond the wreckage that was the end of the Roman Republic, with its proscriptions, assassinations, wars and internecine rivalries, and beyond even the birth of the Empire. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThis sounds like a classical apotheosis to the heavens in the manner of ancient Greek heroes who became demigods after their deaths. Such an apotheosis would involve the transposition of a perfect love into another and diviner key. This attempted transformation, at least if we do not grant Cleopatra her metaphysical reunion with Antony, fits the tragic pattern. We are left with the crushing of a magnificent couple\u2019s last-minute attempts to achieve a perpetual match in the heavens and thereby escape their failure in a material world dominated by its Caesars.<\/p>\n\n\n\nEdition.<\/strong> Greenblatt, Stephen et al., editors. The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies + Digital Edition.<\/em> 3rd ed. W. W. Norton, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-0-393-93860-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCopyright \u00a9 2012, revised 2025 Alfred J. Drake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDocument Timestamp: 9\/21\/2025 11:37 AM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"endnotes\">ENDNOTES<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n*To return to exact part of the text referenced by the endnotes below, left-click on the endnote’s numbered link. By contrast, the blue scroll-up button at the bottom right of the page returns to the top of the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref1\" id=\"_edn1\">[1]<\/a> Throughout this commentary, the names \u201cOctavius\u201d and occasionally \u201cOctavius Caesar\u201d will be used to prevent confusion with \u201cJulius Caesar.\u201d The only exceptions will be when a direct quotation refers to Octavius as \u201cCaesar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref2\" id=\"_edn2\">[2]<\/a> It might be said, in anticipation of a contrast between Octavius and Antony, that Antony\u2019s contrarian model of Romanness embraces the supposedly wild, exotic aspects of Egypt without suffering any diminution or deformation on that account. Or at least, that seems to be the case early in the play. But as Rachel Kelly points out in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk\/index.php\/netknow\/article\/download\/42\/42\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Iconography of Mark Antony<\/a>\u201d a direct download available from the open-access Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk<\/a>, the ancients, as reflected in Plutarch\u2019s narrative of Antony, might have seen in Antony\u2019s behavior an unacceptable softness (mollitia<\/em>) and lack of self-control (incontinentia<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref3\" id=\"_edn3\">[3]<\/a> On Cleopatra as a Hellenistic Ptolemaic queen, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/arce.org\/resource\/cleopatra-great-last-power-ptolemaic-dynasty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cleopatra the Great: Last Power of the Ptolemaic Dynasty.<\/a>\u201d ARCE: American Research Center in Egypt. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref4\" id=\"_edn4\">[4]<\/a> On Sextus Pompeius, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/ancientromanhistory31-14.com\/an-end-of-the-republic\/triumvirs\/acts-of-the-triumvirs\/sextus-pompeius-pirate-king\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sextus Pompeius: Pirate King.<\/a>\u201d Ancient Roman History 31 BC \u2013 AD 117: Roman Imperial History Teaching Resource. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref5\" id=\"_edn5\">[5]<\/a> \u201cHonor\u201d would have been encompassed within the several concepts operative in the unwritten mos maiorum <\/em>code that reaffirmed traditional Roman values. Wikipedia\u2019s entry <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mos_maiorum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mos maiorum<\/em><\/a> aptly covers concepts such as virtus, dignitas, <\/em>and fides. <\/em>Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref6\" id=\"_edn6\">[6]<\/a> For a general study, see Millar, Fergus. The Roman Near East: 31 BC \u2013 AD 337.<\/em> Harvard UP, 1995. ISBN-13: 978-0674778863. On the Internet, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/Roman_Egypt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Roman Egypt.<\/a>\u201d World History Encyclopedia at worldhistory.org. Accessed 8\/23\/2024. On the Western notion of the east as exotic, \u201cother,\u201d etc., see Edward Said\u2019s key postcolonialist study, Orientalism. <\/em>Vintage, 1979. ISBN-13: 978-0394740676.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref7\" id=\"_edn7\">[7]<\/a> The phrase appears in a work by humorist and novelist Stanley Bing. Rome, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation. <\/em>W. W. Norton, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0393329452.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref8\" id=\"_edn8\">[8]<\/a> On Pompey the Great, or Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/pompey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pompey.<\/a>\u201d World History Encyclopedia at worldhistory.org. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref9\" id=\"_edn9\">[9]<\/a> See \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/First_Triumvirate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">First Triumvirate<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/Second_Triumvirate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Second Triumvirate.<\/a>\u201d World History Encyclopedia at worldhistory.org. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref10\" id=\"_edn10\">[10]<\/a> This was the so-called Perusine War of 41-40 BCE. The aim was apparently to get Antony to leave Egypt and come home to Rome. On this rebellion against Octavius, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thehistorianshut.com\/2018\/11\/10\/octavians-stolen-luck-at-perusia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Octavian\u2019s Stolen Luck at Perusia<\/a>.\u201d Thehistorianshut.com. Accessed 9\/17\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref11\" id=\"_edn11\">[11]<\/a> Wilson, Sloane. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. <\/em>Da Capo Press, 2002, orig. 1955. ISBN-13: 978-1568582467.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref12\" id=\"_edn12\">[12]<\/a> See Plutarch\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/babel.hathitrust.org\/cgi\/pt?id=uc1.b4034287&seq=51\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Life of Marcus Antonius, <\/em>33 Temple Edition Vol. 9, pp. 33-349<\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref13\" id=\"_edn13\">[13]<\/a> On Cleopatra\u2019s first meeting with Antony in Cydnus, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/penelope.uchicago.edu\/encyclopaedia_romana\/miscellanea\/cleopatra\/alma-tadema.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Antony and Cleopatra<\/a>.\u201d SPQR Encyclopedia Romana. Penelope.uchicago.edu. Accessed 9\/17\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref14\" id=\"_edn14\">[14]<\/a> Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.<\/em> In The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies,<\/em> 3rd ed. 288-343. 334, 4.3.286.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref15\" id=\"_edn15\">[15]<\/a> See \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/psychology.fas.harvard.edu\/people\/timothy-leary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Timothy Leary<\/a>\u201d on Harvard University\u2019s psychology faculty page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref16\" id=\"_edn16\">[16]<\/a> The term \u201copenness to experience\u201d has a Nietzschean quality\u2014the German philosopher valued the wilder, more Dionysian element in the ancient Greeks, seeing it as indispensable for the flourishing of the bright Apollonian element that was more celebrated among nineteenth-century classicists. In this Nietzschean sense, then, Antony seems more \u201cGreek\u201d than Roman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref17\" id=\"_edn17\">[17]<\/a> Eliot, T. S. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/articles\/69400\/tradition-and-the-individual-talent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tradition and the Individual Talent.<\/a>\u201d (poetryfoundation.org.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref18\" id=\"_edn18\">[18]<\/a> Shakespeare may have had very limited knowledge of the Greeks and Romans in comparison with what is known and reasonably surmised by modern historians, but he made the most of what he had, often casting his ancient characters and societies with an impressive understanding of their political sophistication and complex relationship with their own origin-stories. T. J. B. Spencer\u2019s Shakespeare: The Roman Plays <\/em>(Longmans, Green & Co., 1976) is a perceptive study of the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref19\" id=\"_edn19\">[19]<\/a> Antony\u2019s career poses something of a challenge to the Aristotelian \u201cgolden mean\u201d as the touchstone of virtue. For that concept, see Aristotle. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054%3Abekker+page%3D1106a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nichomachean Ethics. <\/em>Becker 1106a26\u2013b28<\/a>. The basic point is that a \u201cvirtue\u201d is to be located at the mean or mid-point between excess of a quality and deficiency. Excessive courage amounts to foolhardiness, for example, and deficiency of it amounts to cowardice. The \u201cgolden mean\u201d indicates just the right amount of the relevant quality in one\u2019s actions. Antony, of course, seems more prone to act in accordance with the extremes of his own character and desires, and yet for much of his life, that way of proceeding seems to have served him well. Perseus Project. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref20\" id=\"_edn20\">[20]<\/a> See \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.livius.org\/articles\/battle\/actium-31-bce\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Battle of Actium<\/a>\u201d at livius.org. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref21\" id=\"_edn21\">[21]<\/a> See \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/article\/659\/the-role-of-women-in-the-roman-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Role of Women in the Roman World.<\/a>\u201d World History Encyclopedia. Worldhistory.org. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref22\" id=\"_edn22\">[22]<\/a> In Renaissance psychology, reason should inform the will before action is undertaken. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/guide_ren_soul.pdf\">Renaissance Soul Guide<\/a> on the current website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref23\" id=\"_edn23\">[23]<\/a> See Veeser, H. Aram, ed. The New Historicism Reader. <\/em>Routledge, 1993. ISBN-13: 978-0415907828.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref24\" id=\"_edn24\">[24]<\/a> Antony\u2019s connection to Hercules. See \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk\/index.php\/netknow\/article\/download\/42\/42\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Iconography of Mark Antony.<\/a>\u201d (This is a direct download to a paper by Rachel Kelly, 2009.) Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, an open access journal. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk<\/a>. See Ovid, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryintranslation.com\/PITBR\/Latin\/OvidFastiBkTwo.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fasti, II.81, or Feb. 15, Lupercalia<\/a> (poetryintranslation.com) for the story of Omphale and Hercules. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref25\" id=\"_edn25\">[25]<\/a> Amicitia perfecta. <\/em>See Shakespeare\u2019s Globe essay \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@shakespearesglobe\/shakespeare-and-friendship-d4dd854e0670\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Shakespeare and Friendship.<\/a>\u201d April 6, 2018. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref26\" id=\"_edn26\">[26]<\/a> On classical-era suicide, see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollector.com\/suicide-noble-death-rome-greece\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">What did \u2018Noble Death\u2019 Mean to Greeks and Romans?<\/a>\u201d TheCollector.com. Accessed 9\/17\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref27\" id=\"_edn27\">[27]<\/a> On classical notions of the afterlife, see, for example, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/article\/29\/the-after-life-in-ancient-greece\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Afterlife in Ancient Greece.<\/a>\u201d World History Encyclopedia. Worldhistory.org. Accessed 8\/23\/2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref28\" id=\"_edn28\">[28]<\/a> Leaders such as Octavius have \u201calways already\u201d familiarized themselves with the Renaissance political writer Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli: shrewd leaders will take care to maintain a reputation for qualities such as fairness, moderation, and piety, though they seldom limit their actual policy and personal conduct to those parameters. Above all, Machiavelli would suggest that naively trusting in the goodness of others opens a ruler up to all sorts of manipulation and eventually leads to disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref29\" id=\"_edn29\">[29]<\/a> It isn\u2019t hard to imagine Cleopatra agreeing with Oscar Wilde\u2019s character Gwendolen in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/844\/844-h\/844-h.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Importance of Being Earnest<\/a> <\/em>that \u201cIn matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.\u201d Gutenberg e-text. Or we might say that for Wilde and Gwendolen, and Cleopatra, style and sincerity are the same. Accessed 9\/18\/2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref30\" id=\"_edn30\">[30]<\/a> This metadramatic line about a boy actor playing a famous Egyptian woman was obviously intended to draw a robust laugh from Shakespeare\u2019s audience since, in his time, women were not allowed to become stage actors. In the larger sense, however, Shakespeare thereby underscores the distance between the complex reality of a Cleopatra and his necessarily much more limited, fictive representation of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"#_ednref31\" id=\"_edn31\">[31]<\/a> Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra.<\/em> In The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies,<\/em> 3rd ed. 982-1060. See 1002, 2.2.202-217.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a id=\"_edn32\" href=\"#_ednref32\">[32]<\/a> See Plutarch. The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans.<\/em> Trans. Thomas North. Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a id=\"_edn33\" href=\"#_ednref33\">[33]<\/a> The Norton editors make this point about Cleopatra\u2019s claim to supposedly masculine virtues on 1058, in footnote 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a id=\"_edn34\" href=\"#_ednref34\">[34]<\/a> On the elements and the four humors\u2014Cleopatra\u2019s invocation of \u201cfire and air\u201d belongs to this complex of ideas\u2014see \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/moonletter.co.uk\/the-story-of-the-four-elements\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Story of the Four Elements.<\/a>\u201d See also the guide available at the present site, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/guide_ren_theory_of_humors_revised.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Theory of the Humours<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a id=\"_edn35\" href=\"#_ednref35\">[35]<\/a> The Roman Senate bestowed the honorific name of Augustus on Octavius Caesar in 27 BCE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a id=\"_edn36\" href=\"#_ednref36\">[36]<\/a> For an introduction to Shakespeare\u2019s romance mode, see the present site\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/the-tempest-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">commentary on The Tempest<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>In a sense, Antony and Cleopatra <\/em>\u201cwants\u201d to become a romance play, but the actual history of the main characters prevents that story arc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakespeare\u2019s Antony and Cleopatra Commentary A. J. Drake Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra. (The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies, 3rd ed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"iawp_total_views":52,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[316,314,320,318,321,315,36,319,225,317,224,30,220,322,245,253,149,130,303],"wf_page_folders":[11],"class_list":["post-239","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-tragic-plays","tag-ancient-egypt","tag-ancient-egyptian-history","tag-asp-snake","tag-augustus-caesar","tag-battle-of-actium","tag-cleopatra","tag-elizabethan-drama","tag-lepidus","tag-mark-antony","tag-octavius","tag-pompey-the-great","tag-roman-empire","tag-roman-republic","tag-second-triumvirate","tag-shakespeares-roman-plays","tag-shakespeares-tragedies","tag-shakespearean-heroines","tag-shakespearean-tragedy","tag-suicide-in-literature"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ajd_shxpr","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/author\/ajd_shxpr\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Shakespeare\u2019s Antony and Cleopatra Commentary A. J. Drake Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra. (The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies, 3rd ed. […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10187,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/239\/revisions\/10187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_page_folders?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":239,"date":"2024-04-13T22:17:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T05:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/?page_id=239"},"modified":"2025-09-21T11:50:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:50:32","slug":"antony-and-cleopatra-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/antony-and-cleopatra-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Antony and Cleopatra"},"content":{"rendered":"