NOTES ON

SHAKESPEARE’S ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

CONTEXT OF SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY:

SHAKESPEARE THE AUTHOR

William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616. That he was actually the author of most of the works in
the Shakespearean canon is widely accepted; however, there are still some dissenting opinions, most
notably from the Oxford Society.

SHAKESPEARE’S THEATRE
Re-birth of tragedy as a genre in sixteenth century England – from previous Medieval Mystery Plays and
Cycles.

The early modern stage was just arising in England in the latter half of the sixteenth century: that is, a
fixed stage with assigned places for the audience. Before this time, there were various modes of
informal theatrical performance. One of the more formal of these modes was that of the medieval
"mystery play." (On this, see "Middle English Plays.")

• Until 1570’s, no professional playhouses

• “Mystery” plays done by amateurs, guilds
• Also “Morality Plays” in the medieval tradition: Virtue, Vice, Everyman

In 1576, James Burbage builds first theatre ("The Theatre") – outside London to elude repressive city
fathers – who feared sedition spread by theatre – and the Puritan Government resisted the theatre as
an inducement to leisure and idolatry rather than work and piety

Others, such as the Rose (1587, by Philip Henslowe), the Swan (1595, by Francis Langley), and the Globe
(1599, by Cuthbert Burbage) were to follow.

• Achievement of Elizabethans was to create the first permanent stages and professional theatre
groups in England
• Achievement of Shakespeare was to create the first “world” within that theatre and fully
“human” characters within that world – i.e., with many dimensions, not just morality play
virtues and vices

SHAKESPEARE’S CANON
No master or original text: much as with a screenplay, the script is “in process” leading up to and during
production. What is eventually published in Folio, Quarto, or Octavo form is a cobbling of different
“prompt books” and versions (or, in the worst cases, memory)

First Folio (1623) contains 36 plays divided into Comedies, Histories and Tragedies
Most scholars add Pericles and Two Noble Kinsmen to this list as also by Shakespeare – totaling 38 plays

In addition, he may have contributed to other plays, such as Sir Thomas More – collective writing was
common, through the process of changes during different productions; in fact, some of the scenes with
the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth (3.5, 4.1) were most likely added after its first production from
Thomas Middleton’s play The Witch.

He is also known to have composed 4 long lyric poems (or collections of lyrics): Venus and Adonis, the
Sonnets, The Rape of Lucrece and The Phoenix and the Turtle.

GENRE

COMEDY
Deals with the social ordering of desire or love (eros):

▪ Entails, generally, a discord between an older world of adult authority figures (rulers of the
home or the community) and younger lovers
▪ Love as base passion and/or as fickle threatens the order of the community (note: A Midsummer
Night’s Dream and Two Gentlemen of Verona)
▪ In the end, the lovers are brought within the social order and their passions regularised through
the institution of marriage – love is necessary for the perpetuation of the community through
legitimate offspring, but must be ordered in social institutions
▪ Comedies are “socially-focused” – note: none of Shakespeare’s comedies have an individual’s
name in the title

TRAGEDY
Deals with individuals in relation to their own fate or death:

▪ The tragic individual has an insight into real or seeming disorder in the cosmos and in his or her
own existence (for e.g., Lear, Othello) – this insight leads to paralysis and introspection (Hamlet)
or to a resigned unfolding of one’s fate (Macbeth)
▪ The tragic arises when individual human insight (and humanity’s ability for divine-like insight)
outstrips our merely human capability to live without “fictions” (see lecture notes on “Tragedy”)
▪ Tragedy is focused on the individual – all of Shakespeare’s tragedies feature the name of a
character

HISTORY
Deals with the intersection of the individual as a man of political action and the community:

▪ If comedy deals with the social integration of love, history deals with the state as forming itself
out of war

2
 ▪ If tragedy deals with the individual moments of contemplative insight or tragic wisdom, history
deals with the individual as a man of action
▪ Shakespeare’s histories are unique in “mingling Kings and clowns” – that is, showing the whole
register of the community within the order of the state and of the cosmos

The three genres, in Shakespeare’s usage, imply one another: they point to one another and, in
individual cases, the boundaries are crossed.

With comedy, passion is brought within the bounds of the community (e.g., MND), pointing to the
drama of the community and its leaders …

In history, the individual rulers struggle for honour and power; this struggle for honour involves creating
myths and fictions that consecrate the state and its legitimacy. The struggle for honour is ultimately
given over to reason in the figure of the “wise king” (e.g., Henry V), pointing to the drama of the
individual of tragic wisdom …

With tragedy, human reason or insight uncovers the nature of existence in as much as the veils of
political and social fictions are withdrawn (e.g., Hamlet sees beyond the fictions that consecrate
marriage, state etc. and feels that existence is without ultimate meaning)
Aspect of Soul Space Moral Teaching Image
GENRE

Desire (eros) Natural discord of passions brought Ruling of family – Love –

into social order – via idealized nature: community marriage
- Human as green world (oeconomics)
semi-bestial, life
Comedy of love

NATURE

Struggle for honour Social-political discord brought into Ruling of state (politics) War
(thumos) cosmic order – via ideals (fictions) of
political and its individual hero - ruler
- Human as
History between, active
life
SOCIETY

Tragic Wisdom Cosmic – individual discord brought Ruling of oneself Death

(sophos) into order through fate (fatality) (ethics) and one’s
relation to cosmos –
- Human as (metaphysics)
Tragedy semi-divine,
contemplative
life
INDIVIDUAL - DIVINE ORDER

3
ROMAN PLAYS
Could also be called the Roman Histories as opposed to the English Histories that focus on the Wars of
the Roses. The Roman plays are based on histories of Rome Shakespeare was exposed to, primarily via
Plutarch. However, the plays are also all Tragedies in terms of their structure: highlighting the fate of an
individual that leads to a certain irresolvable catastrophe. So:

▪ The Roman plays occupy a space between History and Tragedy, as

▪ The Romances occupy a space between Tragedy and Comedy, as
▪ The Henriad occupies a space between Comedy and History

ROMANCES COMEDIES
• TEMPEST • COMEDY OF ERRORS
• WINTER'S TALE • TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
• PERICLES • TAMING OF THE SHREW
• CYMBELINE • LOVE'S LABOUR LOST
• MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

TRAGEDIES HENRIAD
• ROMEO AND JULIET • 1 HENRY IV
• HAMLET • 2 HENRY IV
• OTHELLO • HENRY V
• KING LEAR
• MACBETH

ROMAN PLAYS HISTORIES

• TITUS ANDRONICUS • HENRY VI (PARTS 1-3)
• JULIUS CAESAR • RICHARD II
• ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA • RICHARD III
• CORIOLANUS • KING JOHN
• HENRY VIII

4
Our assumption is that Shakespeare’s Roman plays deal substantively with Rome in its various periods.
He was aware of the various historical political arrangements of Rome and their respective strengths
and weaknesses. This assumption is in contrast to the oft held belief that Shakespeare’s Roman
characters are merely Elizabethans in togas.

▪ In the classic formulation of Samuel Johnson in his Preface to Shakespeare: “His story requires
Romans …, but he thinks only on men. … A poet overlooks the casual distinctions of country and
condition, as a painter, satisfied with the figure, neglects the drapery”

THEMES:

Within the framework of the Roman plays as between Tragedy and History, Antony and Cleopatra
stands as somewhat anomalous. The concerns of political power and with preventing tyranny are not
expressly dealt with – rather, the play seems more aligned with comedy in terms of the amount of focus
on questions of love and the private realm. Despite not being an explicit concern in the play, the
question of tyranny is still an important lens through which to view the play.

Various dimensions of an “imperial” outlook or of “Tyranny” are explored in Shakespeare’s later plays –
and in Antony and Cleopatra in particular; we can see this at the level of:

▪ Being: a sense of truth as “imperial”, with truth as “veritas” (from Verum = secure) and false
(from falsum = bring to a fall)

▪ The Gods: Gods now as removed, transcendent

▪ The Polis: Political tyranny with one-man rule, reducing Romans to pygmies (as per Longinus); vs
the republican regime wherein citizens were free not slaves

▪ The Soul / Eros: Tyranny of the lovers over the other

Tyranny seems to become more of an issue as Shakespeare’s career progress – perhaps as a function of
the changed Jacobean context of his later works, perhaps in relation to a changed emphasis from
tyranny in relation to the passions of love to an emphasis on political tyranny and the superstitions that
tyrannical rulers are susceptible to. Antony and Cleopatra is an exception to this trend. Political tyranny
is not as prevalent – the word is never used. A concern with the “tyrannies of love”, similar to the early
comedies, seems to be more at work.

5
 Average Occurrence of Key Terms by Genre
Love Commonwealth Tyranny
2.36 0 2.33
0.79 2.82 5.33 5.5 0
4.09 0.25
5.67

80.8 87.0 51.5

41.8 64.4
48.0

Comedy History Roman Plays Antony and Tragedy Lyric

Cleopatra

6
 Speeches Referencing Tyranny (Percentage)
3.50%

3.00% Macbeth
3.14%

2.50%

2.00%

1.50% Winter's Tale

1.23%

Julius Caesar
1.00% 0.78%

Antony + Cleopatra
0.50% 0.00% R² = 0.0234

Coriolanus
0.24%
0.00% 0.00%
1585 1590 1595 1600 1605 1610 1615

Also, the prevalence of references to “Soothsaying” and “Superstition” indicate another dimension of
the play’s focus on tyranny – in that for early modern writers, superstition was seen as a particular
tyranny of a passion over the soul, and in the political realm as potentially leading to tyranny (see Bacon
“On Superstition”)

7
 References (Number) to Superstition in Plays
10.0

Antony and Cleopatra

8.0 Julius Caesar 9.0
8.0

6.0

4.0 Cymbeline
3.0
Macbeth
2.0 R² = 0.0968
2.0

0.0
1585 1590 1595 1600 1605 1610 1615

-2.0

BEING: ONTOLOGY AND TYRANNY

Heidegger outlines a progression of a certain imperial disposition as the history of metaphysics unfolds
with varying translations of the notion of truth.

▪ Greek: Pseudos, the counter-word to truth as alētheia, which we usually translate as “false,” is a
dissembling concealing that is at the same time a showing and bringing into appearance. But
what does “false” mean for subsequent metaphysics?
▪ Latin Translation: Our word “false” comes from the Latin falsum which originally means the
“bringing to a fall.”
▪ In the Latin translation of Greek philosophical terms the “imperial” disposition gains a certain
sway in humanity’s relation to beings as a whole.
▪ “The realm of essence decisive for the development of the Latin falsum is the one of the
imperium and of the ‘imperial.’ . . . Imperium means ‘command’“ (Heidegger 1992, 40).
▪ Understanding Being and truth in terms of the command (imperium) is the “essence of
domination,” of all mastering-knowing. All mastering-knowing and domination of a region of
beings rests on a “commanding-on-high” or a commanding-overseeing (cf. Heidegger 1992, 41).

With the Roman transformation, falsum is essentially related to the true as verum. However, what does
verum mean?

▪ “The stem ver is Indo-Germanic. . . . Ver means to be steady, to keep steady, i.e., not to fall (no
falsum), to remain above, to maintain oneself, to keep one’s head up, to be the head, to
command. Maintaining oneself, standing upright--the upright” (1992, 47).
▪ The Latin verum belongs to the same realm of meaning as the Greek alethes, the uncovered--
precisely by signifying the exact opposite of alethes: the closed off. Secondly, Heidegger asserts

8
 that “because verum is counter to falsum, and because the essential domain of the imperium is
decisive for verum and falsum and their opposites, the sense of ver-, namely enclosure and
cover, becomes basically that of covering for security against. Ver is now the maintaining-
oneself, the being-above; ver becomes the opposite of falling.
▪ Verum is the remaining constant, the upright, that which is directed to what is superior because
it is directing from above. Verum is rectum (regere, “the regime”), the right, iustum” (1992, 48).

The sheltering-concealment of pseudos-lethe that is transformed by the Romans into the securing-
enclosing vantage-point of the imperium (that brings to a fall--falsum) becomes, in the Middle Ages, a
“securing” of salvation--thus preparing the ground for the modern determination of truth as certitudo.
The next step is from the securing-enclosing of the soul to the securing of the “certain-subject” in terms
of its rational judgements. This is the “step” taken by modern metaphysics (cf. Heidegger 1992, 51-2).

Becoming: Nothing is Solid

The Imperial disposition is a securing against that remains constant and commanding; the threat to this
command is that which lacks constancy and is in a state of becoming.

Cleopatra:

But sir, forgive me, / Since my becomings kill me when they do not
Eye well to you (1.3.96-98)

Note too, Cleopatra’s “infinite variety” means that she is never stable and fixed as one thing. This
variety means that she ever feeds desire, rather than satisfying it.

The play is marked by a predominance of images of fluidity, of objects melting and losing their identity.
Part of the tragedy of Antony is that he seems to melt away.

▪ Identities are not constant: Antony and Cleopatra are exceedingly fickle
▪ Political orders and this-worldly concerns are seen as fleeting and as melting
❖ Let Rome in Tiber melt (1.1.34)
▪ In the end, Cleopatra overcomes this world and its frailties in becoming “marble-constant”
(5.2.239) in making herself akin to the most rarefied elements (fire and air) (li 288).

Antony:
Sometime we see a cloud that’s dragonish,
A vapour sometime like a bear or lion,
A towered citadel, a pendent rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon’t that nod unto the world
And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs?
They are black vesper’s pageants.
Eros:

9
 Ay, my lord.
Antony:
That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns and makes it indistinct
As water is in water.
(4.14.3-11)

“here I am Antony, / Yet cannot hold this visible shape (4.14.13-14)

The speech illustrates a concern with losing one’s firm hold on the clarity and distinctness of entities.

▪ According to Paul A. Cantor, this is what happens in the Roman Empire, as opposed to the
Republic, reflecting a sense the world as we know it is dissolving away
▪ Note: the similar scene in Hamlet … reflecting on clouds (3.2)

Powerful poetic symbolism of sea / water:

▪ Fighting on land
▪ Characters too are lost at sea
▪ Roman republic has roads with mile posts

Antony’s own character demonstrates this lack of stable identity or outcome. As Plutarch states:

This book will therefore contain the Lives of Demetrius the City-besieger and Antony the
Imperator, men who bore most ample testimony to the truth of Plato's saying that great natures
exhibit great vices also, as well as great virtues. Both alike were amorous, bibulous, warlike,
munificent, extravagant, and domineering, and they had corresponding resemblances in their
fortunes. For not only were they all through their lives winning great successes, but meeting
with great reverses; making innumerable conquests, but suffering innumerable losses;
unexpectedly falling low, but unexpectedly recovering themselves again; but they also came to
their end, the one in captivity to his enemies, and the other on the verge of this calamity (Life of
Demetrius – in parallel with Life of Antony).

The play has by far the most scenes of all of Shakespeare’s plays (42 / 43) – with the most entrances and
exits.

▪ This means a lot of short speeches and constant movement on the stage:

10
 Average Speech Length (Words)
RICHARD II (1595) 35.3
KING JOHN (1596) 33.4
TITUS ANDRONICUS (1593) 31.3
HENRY VIII (1612) 31.3
HENRY V (1598) 30.6
WINTER'S TALE (1610) 30.6
MERCHANT OF VENICE (1596) 29.5
CYMBELINE (1609) 28.2
HENRY IV, PART I (1597) 27.8
HENRY VI, PART II (1590) 27.6
HENRY VI, PART I (1591) 27.5
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1595) 27.3
HENRY IV, PART II (1597) 26.0
HENRY VI, PART III (1590) 25.6
AS YOU LIKE IT (1599) 24.9
ROMEO AND JULIET (1594) 24.8
PERICLES (1608) 24.5
HAMLET (1600) 24.4
RICHARD III (1592) 23.9
TEMPEST (1611) 23.7
MACBETH (1605) 22.4
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (1602) 22.3
CORIOLANUS (1607) 22.2
COMEDY OF ERRORS (1589) 22.1
KING LEAR (1605) 22.1
MEASURE FOR MEASURE (1604) 22.1
JULIUS CAESAR (1599) 22.0
TAMING OF THE SHREW (1593) 21.8
TIMON OF ATHENS (1607) 20.9
OTHELLO (1604) 20.2
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (1601) 20.1
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1598) 19.9
TWELFTH NIGHT (1599) 19.2
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1594) 19.1
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (1600) 18.8
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (1606) 18.3
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (1594) 18.2
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0

11
THE POLIS: POLITICS AND TYRANNY

Anacyclosis and Shakespearean Republicanism

Our point of departure is that the Regime (Politeia) shapes the characters of individuals. A wide
diversity of types of individual shown in Shakespeare, but they are available in different historical
regimes – in a pagan republic, certain types are possible, but others are not. The treatment of suicide in
the plays is a notable example. In Christian regimes, it is forbidden as a sin. However, in the Roman
regime, it is valued as a noble way to preserve liberty in the face of an adverse fate. Shakespeare
explored these types of being human that various historical regimes enabled – that is, his Romans are
not just Elizabethan Londoners in togas. For instance, he has Horatio highlight this distinction in saying:
“I am more an antique Roman than a Dane”.

Types of Good Regimes:

▪ Simple Regimes, rule by:

❖ ONE (Monarchy)
❖ FEW (Aristocracy)
❖ MANY (Democracy)

For classical theorists, there is an “anacyclosis” in which these benign regimes descend into their
malignant counterparts. According to Polybius (Histories VI.10-18), it proceeds in the following order:

1) Monarchy (Primitive)
2) Kingship
3) Tyranny
4) Aristocracy
5) Oligarchy
6) Democracy
7) Ochlocracy (mob rule)

From Wikipedia: The state begins in a form of primitive monarchy. The state will emerge from
monarchy under the leadership of an influential and wise king; this represents the emergence of
"kingship". Political power will pass by hereditary succession to the children of the king, who will
abuse their authority for their own gain; this represents the degeneration of kingship into
"tyranny".

Some of the more influential and powerful men of the state will grow weary of the abuses of
tyrants, and will overthrow them; this represents the ascendancy of "aristocracy" (as well as the
end of the "rule by the one" and the beginning of the "rule by the few").

12
 Just as the descendants of kings, however, political influence will pass to the descendants of the
aristocrats, and these descendants will begin to abuse their power and influence, as the tyrants
before them; this represents the decline of aristocracy and the beginning of "oligarchy". As
Polybius explains, the people will by this stage in the political evolution of the state decide to
take political matters into their own hands.

This point of the cycle sees the emergence of "democracy", as well as the beginning of "rule by
the many". In the same way that the descendants of kings and aristocrats abused their political
status, so too will the descendants of democrats. Accordingly, democracy degenerates into
"ochlocracy", literally, "mob-rule". In an ochlocracy, according to Polybius, the people of the
state will become corrupted, and will develop a sense of entitlement and will be conditioned to
accept the pandering of demagogues.

Eventually, the state will be engulfed in chaos, and the competing claims of demagogues will
culminate in a single (sometimes virtuous) demagogue claiming absolute power, bringing the
state full-circle back to monarchy.

The political doctrine of anacyclosis (or anakyklosis from Greek: ἀνακύκλωσις) is a cyclical
theory of political evolution. The theory of anacyclosis is based upon the Greek typology of
constitutional forms of rule by the one, the few, and the many. Anacyclosis states that three
basic forms of "benign" government (monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy) are inherently
weak and unstable, tending to degenerate rapidly into the three basic forms of "malignant"
government (tyranny, oligarchy, and ochlocracy). "Ochlocracy" refers to mob rule, not the
concept of democracy created in the late-18th century.

According to the doctrine, "benign" governments have the interests of all at heart, whereas
"malignant" governments have the self-interests of the ruling parties at heart. However, all six
are considered unworkable because the first three rapidly transform into the latter three due to
political corruption.

The idea of anacyclosis influenced theorists of republicanism. Some of them, including Aristotle,
Cicero, Machiavelli, Vico and Kant suggested that mixed government might help to stabilize
republics and prevent permanent anacyclosis.

Shakespearean Republicanism: A question we can pose to ourselves is to what extent, in showing the
decline from the previously well-balanced Republic, is Shakespeare demonstrating “Republican”
leanings? We couple this with his own portrayal of the English Civil Wars, his own Pharsalia to match
Lucan’s Pharsalia on the Roman civil wars – on this point, see Andrew Hadfield, Shakespeare and
Republicanism.

For Machiavelli, the Roman mixed regime:

▪ Combines elements of aristocracy and democracy through the tension of the Senate and
Plebeians

13
 ▪ Aristotle, Politics 1293b-94b; Polybius Histories VI.10-18; Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy I.2; see
Huffman, Coriolanus in Context (on the mixed regime in Elizabethan England)

The strength of the Roman Republic was in its mixed regime, balancing the interests of the landed
gentry (Senate) with the interests of the poor many (Tribunate) and incorporating an element of
kingship (Consul).

▪ Coriolanus dramatizes the founding of the Republic – with the founding of the institution of the
Tribunate and its surviving an early constitutional crisis (see Machiavelli, Discourses I.3 for a
description of the institution of the Tribunes as the founding of the Republic)
▪ Antony and Cleopatra dramatizes the founding of the Empire

The Regime / Politeia forms a man. If you want to see a true warrior or the fully political man, you will
not be able to find this man in a monarchy or an empire. This as the political thesis of Shakepeare’s
Roman Plays and is highlighted in the contrast between: CORIOLANUS vs ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

▪ Republican Greek-Roman Polis (City) as Regime formed man in light of Truth as aletheia – an
unconcealment that gathered and articulated individuals in relation to the larger whole of the
city (polis) and the cosmos – see Heidegger on the polis (IM / Holderlin’s Hymn)
▪ Coriolanus shows us this Republic, there is still a possibility of sacrificing for the common good
▪ Volumnia needing to choose between loyalty to her son Coriolanus and to the city Rome – she
chooses the latter
▪ In Antony and Cleopatra, the Imperial regime forms man in light of Truth as verum – the
securing and commanding of what is to the shape of human will:
❖ Here, Antony and Cleopatra represent the fluidity of that which exceeds the imperial,
closed off position; however, in their tyrannical approach to love, in a way, they also
demonstrate the imperial position of securing the fickle outside world by bringing it to a
fall from a secure, closed off vantage
❖ Their transcendent possibilities of an after-life of love and story are reached only in
Cleopatra and Antony becoming more Roman – securing their fluid identities and
becoming “marble constant”
▪ As opposed to Volumnia’s choice (public vs private loyalty), the choice for Octavia is between
loyalty to her brother Octavius and to her husband Antony – now it is two forms of personal
loyalty that provides the tragic tension
▪ The City offered a principle by which to resolve competing loyalties and interests, with its
absence now all loyalties are all on the same personal level.

In the parallel of Republic and Empire played out in the parallels of the two plays, we can also see
parallel lives in Coriolanus and Antony.

▪ The virtues of the one highlight the vices of the other

▪ Whereas Antony wavers in command, Coriolanus displays a single-mindedness that borders on
fanaticism

14
We can also see a Roman Trilogy in the works of:

▪ Coriolanus (Coriolanus – Volumnia – Virgilia)

▪ Julius Caesar (Brutus – Portia)
▪ Antony and Cleopatra (Ant – Cleo)

We can see the descent of regimes and corresponding individuals especially in the female characters:

▪ Volumnia is the epitome of austerity and the separation of private order

▪ Portia takes on male roles and attempts to know the business of her husband
▪ Cleopatra completely inverts the order – austerity replaced with unbridled eros

Decline of the Commons

This transition in regimes is also marked by a transformation of the common people from citizens to
subjects:

▪ They no longer play a role as they did in Coriolanus and up to a point in Julius Caesar;
▪ They are shown as merely spectators: see Cleopatra on how she’ll be paraded in front of the
stinking masses (5.2)
▪ References to “commons” “commonwealth” etc as lowest in Antony and Cleopatra of all the
Roman Plays.

The Tragedy of Politics

In Hegel’s theory of tragedy, the conflict is between competing goods that need to be accommodated.
Tragedy provides a privileged window on the dialectical unfolding of the Spirit. Antigone, for instance,
presents two competing claims as to what is right – Creon’s claim is rooted in the right claimed by the
polis; Antigone’s claim is rooted in the right claimed by the oikos, or by the gods. Tragedy presents the
confrontation of two historical forces or manifestations of Spirit as right and the dialectical sublation
of these two forces in such a way that a new historical synthesis is pointed to – another example he uses
is the Oresteia. For Hegel, the hamartia arises due to the exclusive attachment of a character to one
moral claim as being the all-encompassing claim, which from the broader perspective of the Spirit as
ethical substance as a whole is a limited claim. In the conflict, which is essentially a conflict of Spirit
(Being) in its unfolding, each claim, although valid in its own way, becomes wrong in that it ignores the
right of the other.

“Tragedy consists in this, that within a collision of this kind both sides of the contradiction, if
taken by themselves, are justified; yet, from a further point of view, they tend to carry into
effect the true and positive content of their end and specific characterization merely as the
negation and violation of the other equally legitimate power, and consequently in their ethical
purport and relatively to this so far fall under condemnation” (Philosophy of Fine Art)

In this way, the hero’s vision is destructive of the moral unity of the community. But this destruction of
the previously myopic vision of right is superseded by a higher sense of order:

15
 “The final result, then, of the development of tragedy conducts us to this issue and only this,
namely, that the twofold vindication of the mutually conflicting aspects is no doubt retained, but
the one-sided mode is cancelled, and the undisturbed ideal harmony brings back again that
condition of the chorus, which attributes without reserve equal honour to all the gods. The true
course of dramatic development consists in the annulment of contradictions viewed as such, in
the reconciliation of the forces of human action, which alternatively strive to negate each other
in their conflict” (Philosophy of Fine Art).

In ancient tragedy the conflicting ethical forces are manifested in distinct characters; whereas in modern
tragedy (e.g., Shak’s Hamlet) the tragedy is the conflict that occurs within the individual himself –
because in the modern age the Spirit manifests itself as self-conscious subjectivity, the contradictions in
Spirit manifest themselves as self-contradictions or conflicts.

In the conflict of the Republican and Imperial virtues of Rome, we see such a tragic conflict unfold:

▪ There is a “Good” that belongs to the republican virtues of older Rome: the devotion to the
community provides a structure to ambition that leads to a common good; however, it narrows
the horizon of man to that of the city – Coriolanus is no Antony in terms of the infinite nature of
his longing
▪ There is a “Good” that belongs to the imperial virtues that are released in an Imperial regime –
allowing a faithful devotion to a remote and infinitely powerful ruler. This broadens the horizon
of man, but means that there are no viable means within the political realm to channel one’s
ambitions.

Ventidius
Parthian threat in the play: last viable enemy of Rome. Crassus had lost the standard to them after being
defeated in killed. Important scene on this (3.1), often omitted from productions, Shakespeare added it
(not in Plutarch) and it does nothing to advance the plot per se. What is going on? Precisely this conflict
of two competing goods:

▪ The good of the city (cultivated in the Republic) and

▪ The good of individual loyalty (cultivated in the Empire).

Silius is congratulating Ventidius on a superb defeat of the Parthians, saying that Antony may give him a
“triumph”. Ventidius’ response shows how a lieutenant under the Imperial regime is not incentivized to
achieve great victories lest he outshine his master (3.1.11-27).

The Republic had encouraged a soldier’s ambition militarily – Contrast Coriolanus 1.1.262: here the
opposite principle is play: if the lieutenant fails in battle, the General will be blamed; if the battle is a
success, the lieutenant will have praise.

Machiavelli on this (Discourses I.30): allows a lot of ambitious military men to achieve and gain honour,
don’t have to fear any one of them, they check one another.

▪ Cf. Plutarch on Ventidius – did get a “triumph” but this is not shown by Shakespeare, who wants
to highlight his limited options in the Empire

16
Ventidius is the kind man who would have become a Consul in the Republic – there could be over forty
living Consuls, but with an Empire there is only room for one man. Ambitious men must channel their
energies in new directions.

▪ 5.2 … “tis paltry to be Caesar” … an enormous disillusionment with politics.

▪ With Consuls, you are honoured by other Consuls; in the Empire one only has the recognition of
slaves.
▪ 2.7.60: Pompey and Menas … politics has become crime in Empire. In the Republic, there were
legitimate routes to power for ambitious men … here only crime, rebellion, assassination.
▪ 3.6.19: Maecenas – “Let Rome be thus informed”

The virtue of the servant within an Empire is FAITHFULLNESS, not doing one’s proper duty for common
good. Personal loyalty is now the highest.

▪ Thus, we see the decline of Antony in terms of the defections in Act 4

▪ Also, the Tragedy of Enobarbus arises from his defection from Antony and subsequent guilt

Rome De-centered
▪ Aeneid, Book 8 – evocations of Rome as once just cow pasture, so too in Coriolanus, a primitive
town susceptible to famine and battling the Volscians.
▪ Rome as the center in Coriolanus and Julius Caesar – with specific locations (Senate etc)
▪ No definite location or civic geography of Rome in Antony and Cleopatra; the play gives the
sense of the sprawling extent and opulence of the Empire
▪ 3.6…unto her he gave the rule of Egypt … line 66ff long catalogue of geographic names,
indicating extent of empire, City is now decentered.
▪ Opening of JC / Cor are both on streets with Plebeians and Tribunes; here with opulent court in
the east.
▪ Unlike Aeneas, Antony does not abandon his African Queen in the name of a noble duty: Rome

In the early Roman Republic, life was focused on the city. Once Rome expanded beyond the borders of
Italy, this focus on the city was lost:

▪ Prolongation of military command beyond the original limit of one year resulted in generals
developing private loyalties in their armies (Machiavelli, Discourses 3.24)
▪ Extension of citizenship to all the peoples of Italy meant new cultures with different spirits were
admitted into the Roman fabric – becoming more cosmopolitan, no longer a single whole:

After this, Rome was no longer a city whose people had but a single spirit, a single love
of liberty, a single hatred or tyranny. … Once the peoples of Italy became its citizens,
each city brought to Rome its genius, its particular interests, and its dependence on
some great protector. The distracted city no longer formed a complete whole. And since
citizens were such only by a kind of fiction, since they no longer had the same
magistrates, the same walls, the same gods, the same temples, and the same graves,
they no longer saw Rome with the same eyes, no longer had the same love of country,

17
 and Roman sentiments were no more (Montesquieu, Considerations on the Causes of
the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline, Trans. David Lowenthal p 91)

Although Rome has conquered the East and Egypt, it is Egyptian culture and oriental excess that seems
to have conquered Roman austerity. This is a negative cultural adoption on the part of the Romans,
unlike that of the Greeks earlier:

▪ “Conquered Greece conquers the wild victor and introduces her arts into rustic Latium” (Horace
Epistles 2.1.156-57; cf. Cicero Brut 73.254)

THE GODS: THEOLOGY OF TYRANNY

In the Republic, religion is concentrated on civic needs. For Machiavelli, the Romans consciously
instituted religious practices as a way of civilizing an unruly people:

▪ “Numa found the Roman people most undisciplined, and since he wanted to bring them to civil
obedience by means of the arts of peace, he turned to religion as an absolutely necessary
institution” (Discourses 1.11)

The Romans of the Republic were marked by their piety and fear of the gods

▪ “for many centuries never was there more fear of God than in that republic – a fact which
greatly facilitated any undertaking that the senate or those great Romans thought of doing”
(Discourses 1.11).
▪ “And anyone who examines the many actions of the Roman people as a whole and of many
individual Romans will discover how these citizens were more afraid of breaking an oath than of
breaking the laws, since they respected the power of God more than that of man”.

Justify the Ways of God to Men

The dialogue on the gods (AC 2.1) is not in the source: Pompey: “If the great gods be just, they shall
assist / The deeds of justest men” (2.1.1-2).

▪ This as the sense of the gods in Coriolanus and the Republic. The gods reward justice.

But in Antony and Cleopatra, the gods seem to respond more randomly

▪ Menecrates responds to Pompey by saying that the gods may only be delaying our reward:
“what they do delay they not deny” (2.1.4)
▪ Or, that we cannot ultimately know what is good for us; so, our hoped for reward may not be
given, and this may in fact be the real reward
▪ “We, ignorant of ourselves, / Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers / Deny us for our
good; so find we profit / By losing of our prayers” (2.1.5-8)

18
 ▪ This is not the kind of worldview that would incite the kind of
▪ Octavius is victor because of his success in chance (tuche), not because of any moral superiority.

Not clear it is even a Roman religion anymore: worshipping Isis (referred to 8 times in the play),
Egyptian princess.

Hercules
Antony and Cleopatra provides the most clear cut case of the existence of the Divine or supernatural in
all of Shakespeare’s plays. All other instances can be questioned:

▪ Report or hearsay
▪ Ghosts, Witches, Soothsayers et al may say more about the psychological condition of the
characters than the character of existence per se

But in Act 4, Scene 3, on the eve of the penultimate battle, Antony’s sentinels are surprised by
supernatural music from “hautboys … under the stage” (S.D. 4.3.11) and then interpret “’Tis the god
Hercules, whom Antony loved, / Now leaves him” (15-16).

The scene contains no major characters and in no way advances the action.

Shakespeare makes changes from his source in Plutarch:

▪ Position in the story – in Plutarch it precedes Antony’s defeat; in Shakespeare it precedes an

Antonine victory
▪ Content – in Plutarch the music is accompanied by sounds of revelry and the god is Bacchus
▪ Here, the spirit of martial valour (thumos) leaves him
▪ Hercules has possessed Antony and he has difficulty securing his identity because of it
▪ Note: Eros (or Cleopatra in the name of Eros) is also a god that possesses – literally arming or
spurring Antony to battle)
▪ Antony ends like Hercules taking his own life because he wears the “shirt of Nessus”

In following Hercules, does Antony in the end choose “Virtue over Pleasure” – an aspect of Hercules’
story that was popular among Renaissance moralists

Soothsayers, Messengers, Lieutenants

Will of the Gods can only be known via Soothsayers, not a sense that they will reward justice – rather,
there is an element of randomness or chance, Octavius just happens to be the one who will always be
on top.

In the republic, soothsayers / auguries are important civic institutions:

▪ “The auguries were … the cause of the well-being of the Roman republic; thus, the Romans took
more care of this institution than any other…. Never would they have set out on an expedition
without first having persuaded their soldiers that the gods had promised them victory”
(Discourses I.14)

In the Rome of Antony and Cleopatra, soothsayers are prevalent, but serve the interests of private
passions (see 1.2).

▪ In Coriolanus, the future is something they are going to make themselves

19
 ▪ In Antony and Cleopatra, the future is left to chance

Just as the Gods and Imperial rulers are distant, so are events and original intentions of speakers – which
can now be received only through the mediation of messengers.

▪ Cleopatra says she will unpeople Egypt and make them all messengers to her parted Antony
(1.5). People are not valued in themselves but only as a message that can be relayed.
▪ Messengers are treated very poorly in the play as a result – seen as equivalent to the news they
bring.
▪ Part of discord between Octavius and Antony at the beginning of the play is caused by Antony
refusing to hear Octavius’ messengers.

Akin to the dilemma of action through Lieutenants:

▪ “The achievements of Demetrius are all his own work. Antony's noblest and greatest victories
were won in his absence by his lieutenants” (Plutarch, Comparison of Demetrius and Antony)

Herod of Jewry
Herod is referred to an inordinate number of times in the play. He is referred to 10 times in all of
Shakespeare’s works:

▪ 6 x in Antony and Cleopatra

▪ 2 x in Henry V
▪ 1 x in Hamlet
▪ 1 x in Merry Wives of Windsor

The references to Herod point to a number of other references to Judeo-Christian religious beliefs that
operate below the surface of the plays:

▪ A new heaven and a new earth

▪ Time of eternal peace

In a way, the play’s trans-political solution and salvation for the two lovers is an allegory for a Christian
salvation that is also dawning at the time of the universal peace of Augustus.

THE SOUL: EROS AND TYRANNY

Antony and Cleopatra’s way of loving is to use ploys to control the emotions of the lover.

▪ Tyranny and love come together as ways of MAKING THE WORLD CONFORM to one’s will
❖ Cleopatra manipulates Antony through deception: “If you find him sad, / Say I am
dancing…” (1.3.3-4); and
❖ Most tragically, by having her death reported to Antony
▪ Virtue becomes one of FAITHFULNESS in love as in politics – rather than doing one’s proper duty

20
Political Eros
In the play, the couple do not eschew political power in favour of a life of private love. Rather, their love
is political.

▪ What makes them unique as a couple is the fact that their whims do, in fact, determine the fate
of thousands
▪ Each also laments the end as they lose their political authority
▪ Eros as a character becomes an almost allegorical figure in some respects – arming Antony or
spurring him to battle

In Plato’s Republic the tyrant is eros incarnate. We see this decline in the form of the myriad passions
that control Antony and Cleopatra

▪ In Coriolanus there is talk of food, but eating or feasting is never dramatized – in fact the play
begins with a famine and an open rebellion for grain
▪ In Antony and Cleopatra, several bouts of feasting and drinking are presented and the revels of
Alexandria are well-known
❖ 1.2.12.13
❖ 4.2.9-10
❖ 2.7 (major feast)
▪ Alexandria is the “feverish city” of the Republic

Eros vs Thumos
The thumotic impulse draws a line in the sand and distinguishes oneself. We see this concern in the
Roman Republic portrayed in Coriolanus.

▪ Coriolanus (5.3.65) opposes his own firm identity with the fickle nature of women: women as
icicles
▪ 1.1.175: You are no surer known than … does not like melting things
▪ 3.1.205: That is the way to lay the city flat … and bury all that distinctly range (in Rome things
and people have distinctions)

In Antony and Cleopatra, we have a world of EROS, where things merge.

▪ If you want to rule an empire, you want to encourage eros, desire, appetite (fat men, not lean
men like Cassius)
▪ These appetites divert them from political ambition
▪ 5.2 … “tis paltry to be Caesar” … an enormous disillusionment with politics.

21
Trans-political Eros and Legend
The limits of political attachment are insufficient in the world of Antony and Cleopatra (“tis paltry to be
Caesar)

As the play progresses, the hyperbolic language of the lovers points to a trans-political realm in which
their love will survive (the afterlife as well as their legendary story that will be preserved):

▪ Enobarbus talks of earning “a place I’ the story” (3.8.46) through the very loyalty he will shortly
abrogate
▪ Antony dies counting himself “a Roman, by a Roman / Valiantly vanquish’d
(4.15.57-58)
▪ Cleopatra commits suicide to deny degrading material to the “quick comedians” (5.2.215)
▪ Caesar, who has been concerned with history all along, finally concedes:

No grave upon the earth shall clip in it

A pair so famous: high events as these
Strike those that make them: and their story is
No less in pity than his glory which
Brought them to be lamented… (5.2.357-61)

The play moves in this way to a world like that of Shakespearean Romance – whose essential quality is,
in Adelman’s phrase, a “sense of the participation of the mythic in human life” (The Common Liar, 117).

Antony sees his transcendental identity in a re-written version of the story of Aeneas and Dido; rather
than deny their love in order to found the political, Antony is an Aeneas who founds a higher order (and
will have more followers in doing so) through the very act of loving that Aeneas was forced to eschew:

Eros! – I come, my queen:--Eros!—Stay for me,

Where souls do couch on flowers, we’ll hand in hand,
And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze:
Dido and her Aeneas, shall want troops,
And all the haunt be ours (4.14.50-54)

Ultimately, Shakespeare’s play is akin to Cleopatra itself – offering us “infinite variety” and never
satisfying the desires it spurs. No one perspective on this play will be able to sum up its totality of
signification.

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STRUCTURAL OPPOSITIONS IN THE PLAY

ROMAN POLE EGYPTIAN POLE NOTES

Being Becoming “But sir, forgive me, / Since my becomings kill me when they
do not / Eye well to you” (1.3.96-98)
Truth (Aletheia) – dis- Truth (Verum) – secure, A+C are fickle lovers, but must secure their afterlife of love by
GODS AND BEING

closure closed off becoming Roman on trans-political plane – “marble constant”

False – unsecured, open,
fluid
Roman Gods (civic/local) Eastern Gods Gods only known via messengers / soothsayers – not as
(transcendent)? rewarding justice; prevalence of Isis
Land Sea Antony chooses to fight at sea during Battle of Actium
EARTH

West East Majority of the play in Egypt

Republic Empire Rome as a specific location seems to be lost in the play – the
City, the republic’s essential limits lost
Citizens Subjects Virtue transformed from Duty to common good to personal
POLIS

Loyalty
The City Cosmo-Polis Note: list of kingdoms arrayed against Rome under the banner
of Antony (3.6.66ff)
Public Private

Reason Passion

Thumos – martial virtue Eros – virtue of fidelity/loyalty

SOUL

Coriolanus Antony
(Old Antony)

Male - manhood Female - weakness

Austerity (Famine) Excess (Feasting) Opening of Coriolanus = Famine

Opening of A+C = Feast
Solidity Fluidity - Vacillating tempers/views of A and C
- Most scenes of any play, most entrances / exits
- Images of that which is solid melting: “Let Rome in Tiber
IMAGES

melt” (1.1.35)

Enobarbus’ blunt honesty Cleopatra’s theatricality

In terms of amount of time spent in each location, Alexandria and Egypt dominate this structural
opposition:

23
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA:
PERCENTAGE OF LINES BY LOCATION

Athens
Actium 2% Syria
4% 1%

Sicily
11%

Rome
18%

Egypt
64%

24
SUMMARY

ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV ACT V

• Antony and • Pompey in Sicily • Report of Caesar vs • Tragedy of • Cleopatra's

Cleopatra in Pompey / Lepidus Enobarbus -- his Monument
Alexandria • Reconciliation • Reconciliation of defection, guilt and
of Antony and Antony and suicide • SUICIDE --
Caesar (marriage Cleopatra (via Octavius Loses
• Conflict of Antony Messenger)
with Caesar in to Octavia) • BATTLE OF
Rome • Conflict of Antony ALEXANDRIA I: • Victory through
• Conflict of and Octavius (via Antony Wins losing
Cleopatra with Messengers)
Antony (via • BATTLE OF
Messenger) • BATTLE OF ACTIUM ALEXANDRIA II:
Caesar Wins
• Reconciliation
with Pompey • Suicide of Eros
Botched suicide of
Antony

• Death of Antony
with Cleopatra

25
 ACT 1 ACT 2 ACT 3 ACT 4 ACT 5
SCENE
1 Alexandria Sicily Syria Caesar’s Camp (Egypt) Caesar’s Camp (Egypt)
▪ Philo on Antony’s ▪ Pompey ▪ Ventidius’ restraint ▪ Caesar laughs at ▪ Messenger from
wantoness anticipates victory of lieutenant Antony’s message Cleo on her fate
2 Alexandria Rome Rome Alexandria Alexandria (Monument)
▪ Soothsayer ▪ Octavius / Antony ▪ Depart of Ant / ▪ Antony morbid ▪ Suicide of
via Octavia Octavia speech w troops Cleopatra (asp)
3 Alexandria Rome Alexandria Alexandria
▪ Antony tells of ▪ Soothsayer on ▪ Messenger on ▪ Strange music
Fulvia’s death Caesar win Octavia as ugly underground
4 Rome Rome Athens Alexandria
▪ Caesar complains ▪ Lepidus/Agrippa, ▪ Octavia torn ▪ Eros / Cleopatra
of Antony prep vs Pompey between Ant/Oct arm Antony
5 Alexandria Alexandria Athens Antony’s Camp (Egypt)
▪ Cleopatra receives ▪ Message Antony ▪ Report of Octavius ▪ Ant sends Enob’s
gift from Antony w/ Octavia over Pomp/Lep treasure
6 Sicily Rome Caesar’s Camp (Egypt)
▪ Pompey w ▪ Octavia learns of ▪ Enob receives
Triumvirs Antony-Cleopatra treasure (guilt)
7 Sicily (Pompey’s Galley) Actium Battlefield (Alexandria)
▪ Treaty celebrated ▪ Antony decides to ▪ Agrippa calls for
(drunkenness) battle at sea retreat
8 Actium Battlefield (Alexandria)
▪ Caesar restrains ▪ Ant victory (valour
army of Scarus)
9 Actium Battlefield (Alexandria)
▪ Antony urges army ▪ Ant victory (they
Central Scenes on will celebrate)
10 (21-22/42) Actium Caesar’s Camp
▪ Report of fleeting ▪ Enob dies (of a
Central Line: ships, shame broken heart)
11 3.6.71 Alexandria Battlefield (Alexandria)
▪ Antony berates ▪ Ant wishes fight on
himself air or fire
12 Caesar’s Camp (Egypt) Battlefield (Alexandria)
▪ Messengers from ▪ Caesar restrains
A+C troops
13 Alexandria Battlefield (Alexandria)
▪ Thidias whipped ▪ Ant loss – berates
Cleopatra
14 Alexandria
▪ Cl plans her death
with her women
15 Alexandria
▪ False report; Ant
botched suicide
16 Alexandria (Monument)
▪ Death of Ant.at
monument

26
WORKS CITED
375 BCE: Plato, The Republic.

350 BCE: Aristotle, Politics.

117 BCE: Polybius, Histories.

30 BCE: Horace, Epistles.

19 BCE: Virgil, The Aeneid.

100 CE: Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans.

1517: Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius.

1734: Montesquieu, Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline,
Trans. David Lowenthal

1765: Samuel Johnson, Preface to Shakespeare.

1942: Martin Heidegger, Parmenides.

1971: C.C. Huffman, Coriolanus in Context.

1973: Janet Adelman, The Common Liar: An Essay on Antony and Cleopatra.

1976: Paul A. Cantor, Shakespeare’s Rome: Republic and Empire.

1993: Allan Bloom, Love and Friendship.

2005: Andrew Hadfield, Shakespeare and Republicanism.

27
Following Summaries based on SparkNotes: Antony and Cleopatra – with my own additional notes.

ACT 1

SCENE 1:
Setting: Alexandria

In Egypt, Philo and Demetrius, two Roman soldiers, discuss how their general, Mark Antony, has fallen in
love with the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, and has lost interest in his proper role as one of the three
leaders (or triumvirs) of the Roman Empire. Cleopatra and Antony enter, the queen imploring Antony to
describe just how much he loves her, when a messenger from Rome greets them. Antony says that he
has little interest in hearing Roman news, but Cleopatra tells him that he must listen. She teases Antony
for possibly turning away a command from young Octavius Caesar or a rebuke from Antony’s wife,
Fulvia. When she urges him to return to Rome, Antony claims that Rome means nothing to him. He says
that his duty requires him to stay in Alexandria and love Cleopatra. Although the queen doubts the
sincerity of his sentiment, her suggestions that Antony hear the news from Rome go unheeded, and the
couple exits together. After the lovers have gone, Philo and Demetrius express shock and despair at
their general’s disrespect for Caesar and the concerns of the empire.

SCENE 2:
Setting: Alexandria

Cleopatra’s attendants ask a soothsayer, or fortune-teller, to reveal their futures. The Soothsayer tells
Charmian and Iras, the queen’s maids, that their fortunes are the same: their pasts will prove better
than their futures, and they shall outlive the queen whom they serve. Cleopatra joins them, complaining
that Antony has suddenly turned his mind toward Rome again. She sends Antony’s follower Enobarbus
to fetch his master, but changes her mind, and as Antony approaches, she leaves to avoid seeing him. A
messenger reports to Antony that Fulvia and Lucius, Antony’s brother, have mounted an army against
Caesar but have lost their battle. When the messenger hesitantly suggests that this event would not
have happened had Antony been in Rome, Antony invites the man to speak openly, to “taunt [his] faults
/ With such full licence as both truth and malice / Have power to utter” (I.ii.96–98). Another messenger
arrives to report that Fulvia is dead. Antony comments that he long desired his wife’s death but now
wishes her alive again.

Enobarbus arrives and tries to comfort Antony with the thought that Fulvia’s death was an event that
should be welcomed rather than mourned. Worried that his idleness and devotion to Cleopatra are
responsible for these events, as well as a battle being waged by Sextus Pompeius, who is currently
attempting to take control of the seas from the triumvirs, Antony decides to break away from Cleopatra
and return to Rome.

28
SCENE 3:
Setting: Alexandria

Cleopatra orders her servant Alexas to fetch Antony. When Antony enters, Cleopatra feigns a fainting
spell, lamenting that Fulvia ever gave Antony leave to come to Egypt. She asks how she can have
believed the vows of a man so willing to break his vows to his wife. Antony tells her of the volatile
political situation in Rome and of Fulvia’s death. Cleopatra notes how little he mourns and predicts that
he will grieve as little after her own death. They argue about the depth and truth of his feelings, until
Antony finally departs, promising that distance will not threaten their love.

SCENE 4:
Setting: Rome

In Rome, young Octavius Caesar complains to Lepidus, the third triumvir, that Antony has abandoned his
responsibilities as a statesman and, in doing so, has also abandoned the better part of his manhood.
Lepidus attempts to defend Antony, suggesting that Antony’s weaknesses for fishing, drinking, and
reveling are traits he inherited rather than ones he has chosen. Caesar remains unconvinced, declaring
that Antony has no business enjoying himself in Egypt during a time of crisis. A messenger arrives with
news that Pompey’s forces are both gathering strength and finding support among those whose prior
allegiance to Caesar arose from fear, not duty. Remembering Antony’s valiant and unparalleled
performance as a soldier, Caesar laments that Antony is not with them. He and Lepidus agree to raise an
army against Pompey.

SCENE 5:
Setting: Alexandria

Cleopatra complains to Charmian that she misses Antony. She wonders what he is doing and whether
he, in turn, is thinking of her. Alexas enters and presents her with a gift from Antony: a pearl. He tells the
queen that Antony kissed the gemstone upon leaving Egypt and ordered it be delivered to Cleopatra as a
token of his love. Cleopatra asks if he appeared sad or happy, and she rejoices when Alexas responds
that Antony seemed neither: to appear sad, Cleopatra says, might have contaminated the moods of his
followers, while a happy countenance could have jeopardized his followers’ belief in his resolve.
Cleopatra orders Alexas to prepare twenty messengers, so that she can write to Antony on each day of
his absence. She promises, if need be, to “unpeople Egypt” by turning all of its citizens into messengers
(I.v.77).

29
ACT 2

SCENE 1:
Setting: Sicily

Pompey discusses the military situation with his lieutenants, Menecrates and Menas. He feels confident
of victory against the triumvirs not only because he controls the sea and is popular with the Roman
people, but also because he believes that Antony, the greatest threat to his power, is still in Egypt.
Menas reports that Caesar and Lepidus have raised an army, and another soldier, Varrius, arrives to tell
them that Antony has come to Rome. Menas expresses his hope that Caesar and Antony’s mutual
enmity will give rise to a battle between the two triumvirs, but Pompey predicts that the two will come
together in order to fend off a common enemy.

SCENE 2:
Setting Rome:

Lepidus tells Enobarbus that Antony should use “soft and gentle speech” when speaking to Caesar
(II.ii.3). Enobarbus answers that Antony will speak as plainly and honestly as any great man should.
Antony and Caesar enter with their attendants and sit down to talk. Caesar complains of the rebellion
that Fulvia and Antony’s brother raised against him. He asks why Antony dismissed his messengers in
Alexandria and accuses Antony of failing in his obligation to provide military aid to the other triumvirs.
Antony defends himself, and Maecenas, one of Caesar’s companions, suggests that they put aside their
bickering in order to face Pompey. Agrippa, another of Caesar’s men, suggests that Antony marry
Caesar’s sister, Octavia. This bond, he claims, would cement the men’s affection for and alliance with
one another. Antony consents. Caesar and Antony shake hands, promising brotherly love, and they
agree to march together toward Pompey’s stronghold on Mount Misenum.

When the triumvirs disperse, Enobarbus tells Agrippa of the good life they lived in Egypt. He describes
how Cleopatra first came to meet Antony, comparing the queen to Venus, the goddess of love. Antony,
he maintains, will never be able to leave her, despite his marriage to Octavia.

SCENE 3:
Setting: Rome

Antony promises Octavia that although his duties will often force him to be away from her, he will avoid
the sexual indiscretions of his past. Octavia and Caesar depart, and Antony is joined by the Egyptian
soothsayer, who predicts Antony’s return to Egypt. Antony asks whether he or Caesar has the brighter
future, and the Soothsayer answers that Caesar’s fortune will rise higher. As long as Antony remains in
Rome, the Soothsayer predicts, he will be overshadowed by Caesar. He advises Antony to leave plenty of
space between himself and Caesar. Antony dismisses the fortune-teller but agrees with his assessment,
and he resigns himself to returning to the East, where his “pleasure lies” (II.iii.38). Antony summons

30
Ventidius, a soldier and friend, and commissions him to go east to make war against the kingdom of
Parthia.

SCENE 4:
Setting: Rome

Meanwhile, Lepidus orders Maecenas and Agrippa to gather their soldiers and meet at Mount Misenum,
where they shall confront Pompey’s army.

SCENE 5:
Setting: Alexandria

In Egypt, Cleopatra amuses herself with her servants Charmian and Mardian, a eunuch. As she
reminisces about Antony, likening him to a fish that she has caught, a messenger arrives from Italy.
Noting his unhappy expression, Cleopatra fears that Antony is dead and threatens the messenger should
he deliver such unwelcome news. The messenger assures the queen that her lover is alive and well, but
admits that Antony has married Octavia. Cleopatra strikes the messenger furiously, but he insists that he
must tell her the truth. Cleopatra admits that it is beneath her station to treat a menial servant so
viciously, but she cannot help upbraiding the man as she forces him to repeat that Antony belongs to
another. She finally dismisses the messenger, then sends him orders to go and see Octavia so that he
may report her features—how old she is, how she acts, even the color of her hair.

SCENE 6:
Setting: Sicily

Before waging a war, Pompey and the triumvirs hold a meeting. Pompey tells Caesar, Lepidus, and
Antony that he is fighting to avenge his father, whose defeat by Julius Caesar led him into Egypt, where
he was killed. Antony informs Pompey that despite the latter’s strength at sea, the triumvirs’ army will
prevail. The three offer Pompey rule over Sicily and Sardinia should he agree to rid the sea of pirates and
to send payments of wheat to Rome as a tax. Pompey admits that he was ready to accept this offer until
Antony offended him by refusing to acknowledge the hospitality he showed Antony’s mother on her
recent visit to Sicily. Antony assures Pompey that he intended to offer a gracious thanks, at which the
men shake hands and make peace.

Pompey invites the Romans aboard his ship for dinner, and the triumvirs join him. Enobarbus and Menas
stay behind discussing their military careers, the current political situation, and Antony’s marriage to
Octavia. Enobarbus repeats that he is sure Antony will inevitably return to Egypt. After the talk, the two
go to dinner.

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SCENE 7:
Setting: Sicily (Pompey’s Galley)

A group of servants discusses Pompey’s dinner party, commenting on Lepidus’s drunkenness in

particular. Pompey enters with his guests as Antony discusses the Nile River. Lepidus babbles on about
crocodiles, which, according to popular belief, formed spontaneously out of the river mud. Lepidus asks
Antony to describe the crocodile, and Antony responds with a humorously circular and meaningless
definition: “It is shaped, sir, like itself, and is as broad as it hath breadth” (II.vii.39–40). Menas pulls
Pompey aside to suggest that they set sail and kill the three triumvirs while they are still drunk and
onboard the boat, thus delivering control of the Western world into Pompey’s hands. Pompey rails
against Menas for sharing this plan with him. Were the deed done without his knowledge, Pompey says,
he would have praised it, but now that he knows, it would violate his honor. In an angry aside, Menas
expresses his disappointment with Pompey and swears that he will leave his master’s service.
Meanwhile, the triumvirs and their host continue their drunken revelry, eventually joining hands,
dancing, and singing before they leave the ship and stumble off to bed.

ACT 3

SCENE 1:
Setting: Syria

Ventidius, fighting for Antony, defeats the Parthians, killing their king’s son. One of Ventidius’s soldiers
urges him to push on into Parthia and win more glory, but Ventidius says he should not. If he were too
successful in war, he explains, he would fall out of Antony’s favor and not be able to advance as a
member of Antony’s forces. Instead, Ventidius halts his army and writes to Antony, informing him of his
victory.

SCENE 2:
Setting: Rome

Agrippa and Enobarbus discuss the current state of affairs: Pompey has gone, Octavia and Caesar are
saddened by their nearing separation, and Lepidus is still sick from his night of heavy drinking. Agrippa
and Enobarbus mock Lepidus, the weakest of the three triumvirs, who trips over himself in order to stay
on good terms with both Antony and Caesar. A trumpet blares, and Lepidus, Antony, and Caesar enter.
Caesar bids farewell to Antony and his sister, urging his new brother-in-law never to mistreat Octavia
and thereby drive a wedge between himself and Antony. Antony implores Caesar not to offend him,
making assurances that he will not justify Caesar’s fears. Antony and Octavia depart, leaving Lepidus and
Caesar in Rome.

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SCENE 3:
Setting: Alexandria

Cleopatra’s messenger returns to report on Antony’s bride. He tells Cleopatra that Octavia is shorter
than she and that Octavia has a low voice and is rather lifeless. This news pleases Cleopatra, who
delights in thinking that Antony’s bride is stupid and short. She decides that, given Octavia’s lack of
positive attributes, Antony cannot possibly enjoy being with her for long. She promises to reward the
messenger for his good service, showers him with gold, and asks him not to think of her too harshly for
her past treatment of him. She then tells Charmian that Antony will almost certainly return to her.

SCENE 4:
Setting: Athens

Antony complains to Octavia that since departing Rome, Caesar has not only waged war against Pompey
but has also belittled Antony in public. Octavia urges Antony not to believe everything he hears, and she
pleads with him to keep the peace with her brother. Were Antony and Caesar to fight, Octavia laments,
she would not know whether to support her brother or her husband. Antony tells her that he must do
what needs to be done to preserve his honor, without which he would be nothing. Nevertheless, he
sends her to Rome to make peace again between Caesar and himself. Meanwhile, he prepares for war
against Pompey.

SCENE 5:
Setting: Athens

Enobarbus converses with Eros, another friend of Antony. The two discuss Caesar’s defeat of Pompey’s
army and the murder of Pompey. Eros reports that Caesar made use of Lepidus’s forces, but then, after
their victory, denied Lepidus his share of the spoils. In fact, Caesar has accused the triumvir of plotting
against him and has thrown him into prison. Enobarbus reports that Antony’s navy is ready to sail for
Italy and Caesar.

SCENE 6:
Setting: Rome

Back in Rome, Caesar rails against Antony. He tells Agrippa and Maecenas that Antony has gone to Egypt
to sit alongside Cleopatra as her king. He has given her rule over much of the Middle East, making her
absolute queen of lower Syria, Cyprus, and Lydia. Caesar reports that Antony is displeased that he has
not yet been allotted a fair portion of the lands that Caesar wrested from Pompey and Lepidus. He will

33
divide his lot, he says, if Antony responds in kind and grants him part of Armenia and other kingdoms
that Antony conquered. No sooner does Maecenas predict that Antony will never concede to those
terms than Octavia enters. Caesar laments that the woman travels so plainly, without the fanfare that
should attend the wife of Antony. Caesar reveals to her that Antony has joined Cleopatra in Egypt,
where he has assembled a large alliance to fight Rome. Octavia is heartbroken, and Maecenas assures
her that she has the sympathy of every Roman citizen.

SCENE 7:
Setting: Actium

Cleopatra plans to go into battle alongside Antony and responds angrily to Enobarbus’s suggestion that
her presence will be a distraction. Enobarbus tries to dissuade her, but she dismisses his objections.
Antony tells his general, Camidius, that he will meet Caesar at sea. Camidius and Enobarbus object,
pointing out that while they have superiority on land, Caesar’s naval fleet is much stronger. -Antony,
however, refuses to listen. Cleopatra maintains that her fleet of sixty ships will win the battle. Antony
leaves to prepare the navy, despite the protests of a soldier who begs him to forgo a doomed sea battle
and advocates fighting on foot. After the general and the queen exit, Camidius complains that they are
all “women’s men,” ruled by Cleopatra (III.vii.70). He comments on the speed of Caesar’s approach, then
goes to prepare the land defenses.

SCENE 8:
Setting: Actium

Caesar orders his army to hold off its attack until the sea battle ends.

SCENE 9:
Setting: Actium

Antony instructs Enobarbus to set their squadrons on a hillside, which will allow them to view the battle
at sea.

SCENE 10:
Setting: Actium

Enobarbus describes the sea fight he has just witnessed: Antony’s forces were winning the battle until
Cleopatra’s ship fled without warning and Antony followed her. The fleet was thrown into confusion,
and the victory went to Caesar. Antony’s soldiers are sickened by the sight, one of them declaring that
he has never seen anything so shameful. Camidius defects to Caesar’s side, bringing his army and

34
following the lead of six of Antony’s royal allies, but Enobarbus, against his better judgment, remains
loyal to his general.

SCENE 11:
Setting: Alexandria

Deeply ashamed of his performance in battle, Antony berates himself, ordering his servants to leave the
service of such an unworthy master. He urges them to abandon Antony as Antony has abandoned his
nobler self. When Cleopatra enters, she finds her lover distraught and alone. She tries to comfort him,
but Antony can remind her only of his valiant past: it was he who won fierce battles, who dealt with the
treacheries of Cassius and Brutus. But now, he determines, such events do not matter. He asks
Cleopatra why she has led him into infamy, and she begs his forgiveness, saying that she never dreamed
that he would follow her retreat. He asks her how she could doubt that he would follow her, when his
heart was tied to her rudder. Antony complains that he must now seek young Caesar’s pardon, but
unable to bear the sight of the queen’s sorrow, he forgives her. As Antony kisses Cleopatra, he remarks
that even her mere kiss repays him for his shame.

SCENE 12:
Setting: Caesar’s Camp (Egypt)

Caesar is with Dolabella and Thidias, two of his supporters, when Antony’s ambassador arrives with his
master’s request: Antony asks to be allowed to live in Egypt or, barring that, to “breathe between the
heavens and earth, / A private man in Athens” (III.xii.14–15). The ambassador further delivers
Cleopatra’s request that Egypt be passed on to her heirs. Caesar dismisses Antony’s requests but
declares that Cleopatra will have a fair hearing so long as she expels Antony from Egypt or executes him.
He sends Thidias to lure Cleopatra to accept these terms, hoping that she will betray her lover.

SCENE 13:
Setting: Alexandria

Enobarbus tells Cleopatra that the defeat was not her fault since Antony could have chosen to follow
reason rather than lust. The ambassador returns with Caesar’s message: Antony declares that he will
challenge his rival to one-on-one combat. Enobarbus meditates on such a course of action, but decides
that if he remains loyal to Antony he might be able to attack Caesar, if Caesar kills Antony. Meanwhile,
Thidias arrives to tell Cleopatra that Caesar will show her mercy if she will relinquish Antony. The queen
concedes that she embraced Antony more out of fear than love and declares Caesar a god to whom she
will bow down. Just then, Antony enters in a fury and demands that Thidias be whipped. He then turns
to Cleopatra and rails at her for betraying him. The queen protests that she would never betray him,
which satisfies Antony. Antony’s fleet has reassembled, and much of his land forces remain intact, ready

35
to attack Caesar again. Enobarbus, who has observed this scene, decides that he has been faithful to
Antony long enough. He feels that Antony’s mind is slipping and that he must abandon his master.

ACT 4

SCENE 1:
Setting: Caesar’s Camp (Egypt)

Caesar, encamped near the Egyptian capital of Alexandria, receives Antony’s challenge and laughs at it.
Maecenas counsels him to take advantage of Antony’s rage, for “[n]ever anger / Made good guard for
itself” (IV.i.9–10). Caesar prepares his army—swelled by deserters from his enemy’s troops—and plans
to crush Antony for good.

SCENE 2:
Setting: Alexandria

Enobarbus brings word to Antony that Caesar has refused to fight him. Antony asks why, and Enobarbus
suggests that Caesar is so sure of success that one-on-one combat seems unfair. Antony declares that he
will fight the next day, whether it brings him victory or death. He thanks his servants for their faithful
service and warns them that this night might be his last night with them. They begin to weep, and
Enobarbus, with tears in his eyes, rebukes Antony for such a morbid speech. Antony says that he did not
mean to cause sorrow, and, as he leads them off toward a bountiful feast, urges them to enjoy their
evening together.

SCENE 3:
Setting: Alexandria

That night, Antony’s soldiers hear strange music resounding from somewhere underground. They
whisper that it is the music of Hercules, the god after whom Antony modeled himself and who they
believe now abandons him.

SCENE 4:
Setting: Alexandria

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The following day, Eros arms Antony for battle, and Cleopatra insists on helping. Antony feels confident
about the coming fight, promising Cleopatra that anyone who attempts to undo his armor before he is
ready to remove it and rest will confront his rage. An armed soldier enters and reports that a thousand
others stand ready for Antony’s command. Antony bids Cleopatra adieu, kisses her, and leads his men
into battle.

SCENE 5:
Setting: Antony’s Camp (Egypt)

Preparing for battle, Antony admits he wishes he had taken the earlier opportunity to oppose Caesar on
land. A soldier comments that had he done so, he would still count Enobarbus as an ally. This report is
the first Antony has heard of his most trusted friend’s desertion, and the news shocks him. At first he
does not believe it, but Eros then points to the “chests and treasure” Enobarbus left behind (IV.v.10).
Antony orders soldiers to deliver Enobarbus’s possessions to him, along with “gentle adieus and
greetings,” and laments that his “fortunes have / Corrupted honest men” (IV.v.14–17).

SCENE 6:
Setting: Caesar’s Camp (Egypt)

Caesar, feeling certain of his victory, orders Agrippa to begin the battle. Caesar orders that the front
lines be fitted with soldiers who have deserted Antony, so that Antony will feel like he that he is wasting
his efforts fighting himself. Enobarbus receives the treasure and is overcome by guilt, realizing that he
has become a common traitor. Deciding that he would rather die than fight against Antony, he declares
himself a villain and goes to seek out a ditch in which to die.

SCENE 7:
Setting: Battlefield (Alexandria)

Agrippa calls for his troops to retreat, declaring that the power of Antony’s forces has exceeded his
expectations.

SCENE 8:
Setting: Battlefield (Alexandria)

Antony’s men win the battle and retake Alexandria with a fierce display of force. Scarus receives a
fantastic wound but will not relent, begging Antony for the chance to chase after the retreating army.

37
SCENE 9:
Setting: Battlefield (Alexandria)

Antony returns from war, vowing to destroy Caesar’s army completely on the following day. He praises
his soldiers for their valor and commands them to regale their families with tales of the day’s battle.
When Cleopatra enters, Antony declares his love for her. He announces that she is the only thing that
can pierce his armor and reach his heart. Antony asks Cleopatra to commend Scarus, one of his bravest
soldiers. The queen promises the man a suit of golden armor that once belonged to a king. Antony leads
his troops and his lover in a triumphant march through the streets of Alexandria to mark the joyous
occasion.

SCENE 10:
Setting: Caesar’s Camp (Egypt)

Caesar’s sentries discuss the coming battle as Enobarbus berates himself nearby. Unaware that he is
being watched, Enobarbus rails against his life, wishing for its end and hoping that history will mark him
as a traitor and a fugitive. After he collapses, the sentries decide to rouse him but discover that he has
died. Because he is an important man, they bear his body to their camp.

SCENE 11:
Setting: Battlefield (Alexandria)

Antony determines that Caesar means to attack him by sea and declares himself ready. He wishes his
enemy were equipped to fight in fire or air, swearing he would meet him in those places if he could.

SCENE 12:
Setting: Battlefield (Alexandria)

Caesar holds his armies back, preparing to attack Antony at sea.

SCENE 13:
Setting: Battlefield (Alexandria)

Anthony has gone with Scarus to watch the naval battle. Scarus, in an aside, condemns Cleopatra’s fleet
as weak, and laments that the soothsayers refuse to share their knowledge regarding the battle’s
outcome. Antony watches as the Egyptian fleet betrays him and defects to Caesar. Realizing his
predicament, Antony commands Scarus to order his army to flee. Alone, the general blames Cleopatra

38
as a deadly enchantress who has beguiled him to a state of absolute loss. When the queen enters,
Antony drives her away, threatening to kill her for her betrayal.

SCENE 14:
Setting: Alexandria

Cleopatra returns to her maids with tales of Antony’s murderous rage. Charmian suggests that her
mistress lock herself in a monument and send Antony word that she has killed herself, to quell his anger.
Abiding by the plan, she bids Mardian deliver the news to Antony and asks him to return with word of
her lover’s reaction.

SCENE 15:
Setting: Alexandria

Antony arms himself to kill his lover, telling Eros that he no longer knows who he is now that Cleopatra’s
love has proven false. Mardian arrives with his false report of the queen’s death, adding that her last
words were “‘Antony! most noble Antony!’” (IV.xv.30). Antony tells Eros to unarm. Overcome with
remorse, he declares that he will join Cleopatra in death and beg her forgiveness for thinking him false.
He asks Eros to kill him. Horrified, Eros refuses, but Antony reminds him of the pledge he made long ago
to follow even Antony’s most extreme wishes. Eros relents. He prepares to stab Antony but stabs
himself instead. Antony praises his soldier’s honor and says he must learn from this example. He falls on
his own sword but fails to kill himself. A group of guardsmen refuses to finish the task, and Diomedes, a
servant of Cleopatra, reports that the queen is alive and well. It is too late, however, to save Antony’s
life. Dying, Antony commands his guards to bear his body to Cleopatra.

SCENE 16:
Setting: Alexandria (Cleopatra’s Monument)

From atop the monument with her maids, Charmian and Iras, Cleopatra declares that she will never
leave her hiding place. Diomedes appears below and calls up to her that Antony’s guard has brought the
wounded Antony. The lovers call to one another. Antony says that he is dying and wishes to embrace
her one last time. She replies that she dares not come down from her monument, lest she be captured
by Caesar and paraded through the streets as a prisoner of war. Instead, Cleopatra asks the soldiers to
heave Antony up to her. As they do so, Cleopatra notes that the strength of Antony’s body has turned to
heaviness. She pulls him to her and kisses him, the onlookers declaring this intimacy “a heavy sight”
(IV.xvi.42). Antony advises the queen to cast herself upon Caesar’s mercy, trusting in the honesty of
Caesar’s friend Proculeius. He then recalls his own greatness and says that he will die gloriously, “a
Roman by a Roman / Valiantly vanquished” (IV.xvi.59–60). He dies, and Cleopatra curses the world as a
suddenly very dull place. Without Antony, she feels that neither life nor she herself is the least bit

39
remarkable: she might as well be a “maid that milks / And does the meanest chores” (IV.xvi.76–77).
After her maids revive her from a fainting spell, Cleopatra decides that they must bury Antony in Roman
fashion and then help her seek her own death.

ACT 5

SCENE 1:
Setting: Caesar’s Camp (Egypt)

Caesar orders Dolabella to deliver to Antony a command for his surrender. After Dolabella leaves,
Decretas, one of Antony’s men, enters carrying Antony’s sword. When Caesar asks why the man would
dare appear before him in such a way, Decretas explains that he was a loyal follower of Antony’s and
now wishes to serve Caesar as faithfully. Caesar questions the meaning of this reversal, and Decretas
explains that his master is dead, taken from this world by the same noble hands that committed the
brave deeds for which Antony is so renowned. Caesar remarks that the passing of such a great man
ought to be marked by great tumult and mourning—after all, the death of Antony, as one of the two
triumvirs, “is not a single doom” but the end of one-half of the world (V.i.18). Agrippa notes the irony of
their mourning Antony’s death after having fought him so fiercely. Caesar and his men agree that
Antony was a great man, and Caesar declares it proper to mourn him.

A messenger arrives from Cleopatra to ask what Caesar intends for the queen. Caesar promises to be
honorable and kind to her, and dispatches Cleopatra’s messenger with assurances, bidding her to be of
good heart. Although Caesar tells Cleopatra that he intends to cause her no shame, he plans to force her
to live in Rome, where she will be his eternal triumph. Toward this end, he orders some of his men, led
by Proculeius, to prevent Cleopatra from committing suicide and thus robbing him of renown.

SCENE 2:
Setting: Alexandria (Cleopatra’s Monument)

Proculeius arrives at the queen’s monument and asks Cleopatra’s terms for giving herself up to Caesar.
Cleopatra remembers that Antony told her to trust Proculeius and tells the Roman she hopes the
emperor will allow her son to rule Egypt. Proculeius assures her that Caesar will be generous and says
that Caesar will soon repay her supplication with kindness. Meanwhile, his soldiers, having slipped into
the monument, move to seize Cleopatra. The queen draws a dagger, hoping to kill herself before being
taken captive, but Proculeius disarms her. He orders the soldiers to guard the queen until Caesar arrives,
and Cleopatra cries that she will never allow herself to be carried through Rome as a trophy of the
empire’s triumph.

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Dolabella arrives and takes over for Proculeius. The queen converses with him, discussing her dreams (in
which she sees a heroic vision of Antony), and then persuades Dolabella to admit that Caesar plans to
display her as a prisoner of war. Caesar arrives and promises to spare Cleopatra’s children and treat her
well if she does not kill herself. She gives him a scroll that hands over all her treasure to him—or so she
says. When Cleopatra asks her treasurer, Seleucus, to confirm that she has given Caesar everything,
Seleucus contradicts her. Cleopatra rails against the treachery of her servant, but Caesar comforts her.
He assures her that he does not desire her wealth, since he is far greater than a mere merchant. When
Caesar leaves, Cleopatra admits to her maids that she doubts his intentions, remarking to her
companions that he is charming her with words, and Iras and Charmian encourage her to follow her plan
toward death. Confirming Cleopatra’s doubts, Dolabella admits that Caesar means to convey the queen
to Rome and encourages the queen to respond to this news as she sees fit.

Rather than succumb to the infamy of being a spectacle for the entertainment of filthy Roman crowds,
Cleopatra resolves to kill herself. She would rather die than see herself imitated by a boy actor, who
would portray her as a common whore. She orders Charmian and Iras to dress her in her most queenly
robes. When they have done so, she admits into her presence a clown, who brings her a basket of figs
that contains asps—poisonous snakes.

Dressed in her finest royal garments, Cleopatra kisses her maids goodbye. Iras falls dead, and Cleopatra
takes a snake from the basket and presses it to her breast. She applies another asp to her arm, and dies.
As the guards rush in to discover the dead queen, Charmian presses the snake to herself and joins her
mistress in death. Dolabella enters, followed by Caesar. They realize the manner of the suicide, and
Caesar orders Cleopatra to be buried next to Antony in a public funeral.

41