THE KING’S MAN 285
crowns and crownets. Realms and
islands were / As plates dropped
from his pocket” (5.2.81–91).
The wonder of Cleopatra’s
elaborate and rather fanciful tribute
should have the effect of wiping all
previous remembrances of Antony
from one’s mind: “The crown o’th,
earth doth melt” (4.16.65).
Putting on a show
The Egyptian Queen is a
consummate performer, who flows
from one mood to another with the
ease of an accomplished actress.
She wears many faces during the
course of the play, expressing a
wide range of emotions: love, hate,
fear, jealousy, suspicion, and pride.
Many of her conversations with
Antony are in fact played out in
front of an audience of attendants.
The most private of conversations
Death of Cleopatra
Shakespeare saves Cleopatra’s
greatest performance until
the end of the play. She
orchestrates her death scene,
which is full of theatricality,
ritual, and ceremony. The
final Act, in which Cleopatra
prepares for death, can often
prove one of the play’s most
powerful passages in
performance. Shakespeare
shrinks the scope of his play.
Audiences are no longer
invited to imagine movement
between continents, but are
asked to feel Cleopatra’s grief
and loneliness.
Cleopatra calls for
Charmian and Iras to fetch her
best attire, so that she may
dress for death. Shakespeare
ensures that our final image of
Cleopatra is of the queen in all
of her greatness. Her language
is sexually charged, and in her
final moments she makes an
ecstasy of death itself. She
talks of “immortal longings,”
and figures that “the stroke of
death” is as a “lover’s pinch, /
Which hurts and is desired”
(5.2.290–291). While Antony’s
botched suicide attempt is
awkward and inelegant,
Cleopatra remains in control
of herself, her image, and her
reputation in death as in life.Take up her bed,
And bear her women from
the monument.
She shall be buried by
her Antony.
No grave upon the earth
shall clip in it
A pair so famous.
Caesar
Act 5, Scene 2In Shakespeare’s time, Cleopatra
would have been played by a boy actor.
In a 1999 production at the Globe,
London, that aimed for authenticity,
Mark Rylance took on the role.
are often made public. Having
listened to Antony declare his
undying love for her, Cleopatra
turns to those around her to ask,
“Why did he marry Fulvia and not
love her?” (1.1.43). Shakespeare
perhaps alludes to Antony’s
distaste for Cleopatra’s attention-
seeking showiness when he
ventures that “Tonight we’ll
wander through the streets and
note / The qualities of people”
(1.1.55 –56).
There is the slightest of
suggestions here that Antony
desires Cleopatra’s private
company, away from the crowds
before whom she is constantly
performing. Shakespeare also uses
this line to make the extraordinary
seem familiar. Though Antony and
Cleopatra are powerful leaders
surrounded by wealth and luxury,
they also value love’s simple
pleasures enjoyed by lovers rich
and poor. ■