282 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
North’s 1579 translation of
Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble
Grecians and Romans. Thomas
North describes among other
things, “the sails of purple,” the
“pavilion of cloth of gold of tissue,”
and the “pretty fair boys apparelled
as painters do set forth god Cupid,
with little fans in their hands, with
the which they fanned wind upon
her.” By adapting his source
material, Shakespeare added to the
variety of images of Cleopatra, both
in print and paint, that have been
created since her death in 30 BCE.
In Antony’s eyes, Cleopatra is
a woman whom “everything
becomes” (1.1.51); her magnificence
shines through tantrums, laughter,
and tears. For Antony she is the
personification of the country that
she commands; she is an “Egyptian
dish” (2.6.126), and a “serpent of old
Nile” (1.5.25). She is however also
labeled as being a “wrangling
queen” (1.1.50), a “triple-turned
whore” (4.13.13), and “this false soul
of Egypt” (4.13.25). Her temperament
is as fluid as the Nile itself: “If you
find him sad, / Say I am dancing; if
in mirth, report / That I am sudden
sick” (1.3.3–5). One moment she
wishes to hop around the streets,
and the next she wishes to
draw blood from a messenger.
Cleopatra is predictable only
in her changeability.Love or duty
In their first interaction, Cleopatra
badgers Antony to quantify his
love for her. His response plays
to her taste for hyperbole:
“Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the
wide arch / Of the ranged empire
fall. Here is my space. / Kingdoms
are clay. Our dungy earth alike /
Feeds beast as man. The nobleness
of life / Is to do thus; when such a
mutual pair / And such a twain
can do’t—in which I bind / Onpain of punishment the world to
weet—/ We stand up peerless.”
(1.1.35 – 42).
Antony’s words suggest the
extent to which he has fashioned
himself as a convert to the
Egyptians’ way of being. The
Roman Antony is a builder of
empires, one for whom expansion
and growth are key goals and
motivations. But in this early
speech, which serves to establish
Antony’s state of mind, his focus
is upon contraction and reduction
rather than extension. His
conquering ambitions have been
narrowed to the point at which he
can say “Here is my space”
(1.1.36)—here being in Egypt, by
the side of, or in the arms of
Cleopatra. Egypt and its queen
have transformed Antony’s Roman
understanding of honor and
nobility, and have changed him
from a conquering warrior into a
man whose ambition is to be part
of a “mutual pair” (1.1.39). Nothing
could be more romantic, or more
self-centered, depending upon one’s
point of view.
In order to appreciate Antony’s
commitment to a life of pleasure,
Shakespeare presents itsParallel Lives Shakespeare’s main source of
knowledge about the ancient
world was a translation of
Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble
Greeks and Romans (also known
as Parallel Lives). Written in the
1st century CE, the work is a
collection of biographies of Greek
and Roman figures, arranged in
pairs. In each pair, a Roman from
the recent past is compared to a
Greek figure from the remote past.
Plutarch paired Antony with
Demetrius, a military leader who
ruled Macedon from 294–288 BCE.
Demetrius died exactly 200 years
before the birth of Antony.Plutarch says of Demetrius and
Antony that both “abandoned
themselves to luxury and
enjoyment.” However, he judges
Antony more severely. When
preparing for war, Demetrius’s
“spear was not tipped with ivy,
nor did his helmet smell of
myrrh.” By contrast, Antony
was “disarmed by Cleopatra,
subdued by her spells, and
persuaded to drop from his
hands great undertakings and
necessary campaigns, only to
roam about and play with her
on the sea-shores by Canopus
and Taphosiris.”“O, whither hast thou led
me, Egypt?
Antony
Act 3, Scene 11