5. Antony and Cleopatra, by William Shakespeare, pp. 171-225

[3.1 -- Location: Syria]

In a scene frequently omitted, Ventidius boasts of his victory over the Parthians. Silius urges him to pursue the Parthians who have fled, but Ventidius is afraid that overreaching might offend Antony if it looks like he's becoming a more potent warrior than his general: "I could do more to do Antonius good, / But 'twould offend him, and in his offence / Should my performance perish." Antony, he notes, is on his way to Athens. 

[3.2 -- Location: Rome] 


Agrippa and Enobarbus talk jokingly about how the hung-over Lepidus sang the praises of  Antony and Caesar after the party on Pompey's ship. The triumvirate now enters, accompanied by Octavia, who is taking her leave from Caesar to go with Antony. It's clear that nobody is really happy with the political marriage of Antony and Octavia, but they're trying to put on a good show. 


[3.3 -- Location: Alexandria] 


Cleopatra makes amends with the messenger she abused for bringing the news of Antony's marriage. He assures her that Octavia isn't as tall as she is, and that she is "low-voiced," which Cleopatra is pleased to translate as "Dull of tongue and dwarfish." As for whether Octavia has "majesty in her gait," he opines that "She shows a body rather than a life, / A statue than a breather." Cleopatra observes, "The fellow has good judgement." He mentions that she's a widow and that he thinks she's thirty -- Cleopatra, Wilders notes, was "twenty-nine at this time, but Shakespeare seems to visualize her as older" -- and that her face is "Round, even to faultiness." Cleopatra gives him gold and sends him on his way with letters, assured that Octavia is "no such thing."  After all, she says, "The man hath seen some majesty, and should know." 


[3.4 -- Location: Athens] 


Antony is pissed off that Caesar has begun to "Wage new wars 'gainst Pompey," breaking the terms of the treaty as well as beginning to gain the upper hand in the triumvirate. Octavia tells him how upset it makes her to be torn in loyalty between her husband and her brother. He tells her, "If I lose mine honour, / I lose myself," but encourages her to try to mediate between him and Caesar, even though Antony is preparing to fight against him. 

[3.5 --Location: Alexandria] 

Eros tells Antony that not only has Caesar broken the truce with Pompey, who has been murdered, but he has also stripped Lepidus of his authority, reducing the rule of the empire from a triumvirate to a duo, Caesar and Antony, who are now battling each other for supreme power. The navy has been readied to sail against Caesar. 


[3.6 -- Location: Rome] 


Caesar reports to Maecenas and Agrippa that Antony has staged a great show of authority in Alexandria, appearing with Cleopatra and Caesarion, her son by Julius Caesar, and his own offspring with her. He has made  Cleopatra queen not only of Egypt but also of "lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia" and put other lands in the charge of his sons. Cleopatra was dressed as Isis in this public spectacle. Maecenas and Agrippa suggest that the Roman people should be informed of Antony's arrogance. Caesar says that they already know it, but that Antony has spread accusations against Caesar for breaking the treaty with Pompey and depriving Lepidus of power. 


Octavia enters, and her brother chides her for not making a production of her return to Rome. She tells him that she asked Antony to let her come to Rome to try to make peace between them. He informs her that in the meantime, Antony has reunited with Cleopatra and are marshaling forces against him. She's not happy to hear that. 


[3.7 -- Location: Actium, on the northwest coast of Greece] 


Cleopatra has decided to join her forces with Antony's, and Enobarbus is trying to dissuade her. She'll be a distraction as well as a public-relations disaster: 

Your presence needs must puzzle Antony, 
Take from his heart, take from his brain, from's time 
What should not then be spared. He is already 
Traduced for levity, and 'tis said in Rome 
That Photinius, an eunuch and your maids 
Manage this war. 

Public opinion doesn't matter to her, of course. Antony enters with Canidius, discussing the news that Caesar has made a swift journey to Actium. Caesar is proposing a battle at sea instead of the hand-to-hand combat between him and Antony that Antony proposed. Antony accepts this challenge despite the warnings of Canidius and Enobarbus. The latter says that Antony's sailors are poorly prepared "muleteers, reapers, people / Engrossed by swift impress," whereas Caesar's are more skilled, having fought against Pompey. "No disgrace / Shall fall you for refusing him at sea, / Being prepared for land." Antony stubbornly insists, "By sea, by sea." Cleopatra interjects, "I have sixty sails, Caesar none better." 


A messenger arrives with news that Caesar has taken the town of Toryne, and a soldier enters to try once again to persuade Antony not to fight at sea. Antony ignores him and leaves with Cleopatra and Enobarbus. Canidius tells the soldier that he's right: fighting at sea when the land troops are better prepared is a bad idea. 


[3.8 Location: Actium] 


Caesar orders his lieutenant, Taurus, not to enter into a battle on land until the sea battle is done. 


[3.9 Location: Actium] 


Antony and Enobarbus establish their positions for observing the sea battle. 


[3.10 Location: Actium] 


The opposing armies cross the stage while the noise of the battle at sea is heard. Then Enobarbus enters in distress at seeing the Egyptian fleet leave the battle following the desertion of Cleopatra's ship, the Antoniad. Scarus enters to report, "We have kissed away / Kingdoms and provinces." The battle appeared equal until Cleopatra withdrew: "The breeze upon her, like a cow in June, / Hoists sails and flies." And when he saw this, Antony, "Leaving the fight in height, flies after her. / I never saw an action of such shame." Canidius enters to join in their lament, and to say that he is going to surrender his troops to Caesar: "Six kings already / Show me the way of yielding." Enobarbus tells him, "I'll yet follow / The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason / Sits in the wind against me." 


[3.11 Location: unspecific] 

The defeated Antony tells his followers to divide up the gold in his ship and to "make your peace with Caesar." He sits down alone. Cleopatra enters with Charmian, Iras and Eros, who urges her to go comfort Antony, who is recalling how at the battle of Philippi Caesar "kept / His sword e'en like a dancer" while he, Antony, was slaying Cassius and Brutus -- which is not quite how it happened, since Cassius and Brutus committed suicide. 

Cleopatra hesitates to approach him, and he rebukes her when he finally speaks to her. She claims that she was frightened by the battle, and didn't really think he would follow her. He replies, "Egypt, thou knewest too well / My heart was to thy rudder tied by th' strings / And thou shouldst tow me after." But after her pleas for pardon, he kisses her. 


[3.12 Location: Caesar's camp outside Alexandria] 


Because they have no one of distinction to send to talk to Caesar, Cleopatra and Antony have sent the schoolmaster for their children as their ambassador. He tells Caesar that Antony would like to remain in Egypt, but will accept being allowed to live as "A private man in Athens," and that Cleopatra would like for her children to rule over Egypt. Caesar denies Antony's request, and says he'll consider granting Cleopatra's if she will either banish Antony or kill him. After the schoolmaster-ambassador leaves, Caesar sends Thidias to try to turn Cleopatra against Antony. 


[3.13 Location: Alexandria] 

CLEOPATRA
      What shall we do, Enobarbus? 
ENOBARBUS                                                   Think, and die. 

As beautifully sad a bit of dialogue as Shakespeare ever wrote, as the two people closest to Antony contemplate the future. 


She asks who is to blame for what happened, and Enobarbus, perhaps rather surprisingly, blames Antony. He was a skilled soldier, who shouldn't have let his passion overwhelm his reason when she fled the battle. 

                               Why should he follow? 
The itch of his affection should not then 
Have nicked his captainship, at such a point, 
When half to half the world opposed....
                                 'Twas a shame no less 
Than was his loss, to course your flying flags 
And leave his navy gazing. 

The remarkable thing here is that Cleopatra trusts Enobarbus, recognizes his friendship to Antony and his honesty, and that she for once seems serious and thoughtful. 


Antony enters with the schoolmaster-ambassador and tells Cleopatra of Caesar's demand that she should "To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head, / And he will fill thy wishes to the brim / With principalities." He angrily challenges Caesar to hand-to-hand combat and exits with the ambassador to write a letter to that effect. In an aside, Enobarbus comments on the absurdity of Antony's challenge. And he begins to debate whether he should turn against Antony -- "The loyalty well held to fools does make / Our faith mere folly" -- or remain loyal -- "Yet he that can endure / To follow with allegiance a fallen lord / Does conquer him that did his master conquer, / And earns a place i'th' story." In some ways, Enobarbus is the real tragic figure in the play, because he is endowed with the most self-knowledge and awareness of the consequence of his actions. 


Thidias arrives to persuade Cleopatra to side with Caesar. He says that Caesar knows she didn't really love Antony, but just pretended to because she was afraid of him, and that he doesn't regard her as dishonored since she was compelled to take Antony's side. She plays along with this: "He is a god and knows / What is most right. Mine honour was not yielded / But conquered merely." Enobarbus, shocked by this apparent treachery on Cleopatra's part, leaves to find Antony, who is, he remarks, "so leaky / That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for / Thy dearest quit thee." 


Thidias continues, saying that "it would warm [Caesar's] spirits / To hear from me you had left Antony / And put yourself under his shroud, / The universal landlord." As Wilders notes, the word "shroud" here has "sinister overtones." Cleopatra sends her thanks to Caesar and offers Thidias her hand, just as Antony returns with Enobarbus. Outraged, Antony calls for servants and orders Thidias whipped "Till like a boy you see him cringe his face / And whine aloud for mercy." He then turns his anger on Cleopatra for her submissiveness to Caesar's envoy. The servants return with the whipped Thidias and Antony sends him off to Caesar. 


This done, Antony's anger begins to cool, and Cleopatra chides him for not really knowing her. They reconcile, and, as usual, decide to celebrate their reconciliation. Antony says, 

                                                      Come, 
Let's have one other gaudy night. Call to me 
All my sad captains. Fill our bowls once more. 
Let's mock the midnight bell.

Everyone leaves except Enobarbus, who sees Antony falling into his old pattern: 

                                                 I see still 

A diminution in our captain's brain 

Restores his heart. When valour preys on reason, 

It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek 

Some way to leave him.

_____

The 1974 Trevor Nunn production:


Thidias is played by the young Ben Kingsley:



The 1981 Jonathan Miller production:

4. Antony and Cleopatra, by William Shakespeare, pp. 124-171

[2.1 -- Location: Sicily]

"Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES and MENAS in warlike manner." I love stage directions like that, since I'm not exactly sure what a "warlike manner" would be, but I imagine it involves a lot of bluster. And certainly Pompey is blustery enough when he proclaims that "The people love me, and the sea is mine." He goes on about how Antony "sits at dinner" in Egypt, and Caesar is mainly content with getting money, and Lepidus -- well, nobody takes Lepidus seriously. But now Menas tells Pompey that he's heard Caesar and Lepidus are mobilizing their forces. He's not inclined to believe it, but in any case he feels sure that Antony is still hanging out with Cleopatra. He trusts her to 

Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts; 
Keep his brain fuming. Epicurean cooks 
Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite 
That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour 
Even till a Lethe'd dullness -- 

But no, Varrius enters to tell him that "Mark Antony is every hour in Rome / Expected." That's not good, Pompey figures: "His soldiership / Is twice that the other twain" -- meaning Caesar and Lepidus." Menas opines that Caesar and Antony won't get along well since Fulvia and Antony's brother Lucius turned against Caesar. But Pompey worries that "lesser enmities may give way to greater" -- Pompey being the greater enmity. So they go off to plan how to meet this combined threat.


[2.2 Location: Rome] 


Lepidus, always trying to play the peacemaker, begs Enobarbus to persuade Antony to use "soft and gentle speech" in dealing with Caesar. Enobarbus is having none of it: "I shall entreat him / To answer like himself" -- that is, to deal with Caesar however he sees fit. Lepidus replies that it's not a good time to let personal matters interfere with state business, but Enobarbus remains the pragmatist: "Every time / Serves for the matter that is then born in't." Lepidus gives up trying to persuade Enobarbus, and through him, Antony, to be diplomatic, observing, "Here comes / The noble Antony." To which Enobarbus responds, "And yonder Caesar" -- not modifying Caesar's name with "noble" or any other such epithet. 

So Lepidus steps forth as Antony and Caesar meet, urging them to get along. But immediately Antony and Caesar go into an Alphonse and Gaston routine about which one should sit down first: 

CAESAR     Welcome to Rome. 
ANTONY     Thank you. 
CAESAR     Sit. 
ANTONY     Sit, sir. 
CAESAR     Nay then.      [Caesar sits, then Antony]

Round one goes to Antony. But then Caesar brings up the rebellion of Fulvia and Lucius and they quarrel about how much Antony supported them. And Caesar is still pissed off about the way Antony treated his messengers: "You / Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts / Did gibe my missive out of audience." Antony claims he was tired and irritable because he had been entertaining three kings that day, and that he more or less apologized to the messenger the next day. But Caesar persists with his anger that Antony didn't come to his support when his wife and brother attacked him -- he broke his oath of allegiance to Caesar by not taking his side. This impugns Antony's honor, so Lepidus tries to calm Caesar, but Antony brushes it off. Fulvia was acting up to get Antony to come home from Egypt, he says. He was the "ignorant motive" for her rebellion, and therefore he does "So far ask pardon as befits mine honour / To stoop in such a case." 

Lepidus thinks this is "noble spoken," but Maecenas reminds them that they have more important business at hand than rehearsing old grievances, or as Enobarbus more bluntly puts it: "You shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else to do." Antony tells him to shut up, and Enobarbus replies, "That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot." Antony repeats his order but Enobarbus gets in a last word, calling himself "Your considerate stone" -- as Wilders observes in his note, "Enobarbus means that though he will be silent he won't stop thinking." Bits like this remind us of how brilliantly Shakespeare crafts his dramas, creating a character like Enobarbus who sees keenly through all the pomp and bluster of his supposed superiors, and speaks not only his mind but also that of the audience. 


Caesar wishes for something that would reinforce their unity, and Agrippa comes up with a bright idea: Antony should marry Caesar's sister, Octavia. This is the point at which one wishes Enobarbus would speak up and say what a colossally stupid idea it is, but we know what he's thinking about it: that there will be holy hell to pay when Cleopatra hears about it, and moreover that Antony isn't likely to be bound by any sentiment about family loyalty. He couldn't even keep his late wife and his brother in line. What makes anyone think that a marriage to Caesar's sister is going to make everything fine? But Agrippa insists that he's considered all the angles -- "'tis a studied, not a present thought." 


And then Antony and Caesar go into another "you first, no you first" routine. Antony asks for Caesar's thoughts on the matter, and Caesar wants to hear Antony's first. And Antony decides it's a good idea: "Let me have thy hand," he says to Caesar, and when they shake on it, Caesar says, "A sister I bequeath you." As Wilders points out in his note, Antony uses the familiar "thy," but Caesar sticks to the formal "you." Caesar wins this round. 


That settled -- "Happily," as Lepidus burbles -- they turn their attention to Pompey, going off to plan the campaign and leaving behind Enobarbus, Agrippa and Maecenas. The latter two are eager to confirm all the gossip they've heard about Egypt, including the assertion that eight wild boars were once roasted to feed twelve people at breakfast. That's nothing, Enobarbus assures them. Of course, what they really want to know about is Cleopatra, and Enobarbus obliges them with the great description of her barge on the river Cydnus. Agrippa, who has just engineered the marriage of Antony and Octavia, is all agog: "Rare Egyptian!" he exclaims, and "Royal wench!" Maecenas, however, thinks that the royal marriage will put an end to the dalliance with Cleopatra, but Enobarbus knows otherwise: 

Never! He will not. 
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale 
Her infinite variety. Other women cloy 
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry 
Where most she satisfies; for vilest things 
Become themselves in her, that the holy priests 
Bless her when she is riggish. 

Still, Maecenas is certain that Octavia's "beauty, wisdom, modesty" will win out.


[2.3 -- Location: Rome] 


The lady herself then appears, with her brother and Antony, who is already warning her that "The world and my great office will sometimes / Divide me from your bosom." She assures him that she'll pray for him when he's away, and he tells her that he intends to change his ways: "I have not kept my square, but that to come / Shall all be done by th' rule." This is a good time for the soothsayer to show up and tell him not to be so sure about that, which he does as soon as Octavia and Caesar have left. He warns Antony that his association with Caesar is risky. Antony's daemon -- his guardian angel, if you will -- "is / Noble, courageous, high unmatchable," but is afraid of Caesar's, so it's best to keep his distance from him. "If thou dost play with him at any game, / Thou art sure to lose." Antony sends him away, but admits that it's true: Caesar always wins any game they play. 


[2.4 -- Location: Rome] 


In a scene that's usually omitted in performance, Lepidus, Maecenas and Agrippa prepare to leave for Mount Misena and the encounter with Pompey. 

[2.5 -- Location: Alexandria] 


Cleopatra is restless: She calls for music, but when Mardian enters to perform, she decides she wants to play billiards, and then decides she'd rather go fishing. Every time she hooks a fish, she'll think of Antony, she says. She remembers when they went fishing and she had a swimmer put a salted fish on his line. They laughed and got drunk, and she dressed him in her clothes and she wore the sword he wielded at the battle of Philippi when he and Octavius defeated Cassius and Brutus. 

Then a messenger arrives, and she goes into a panic that he'll tell her Antony's dead. She alternates between promises to reward him for good news and threats of abuse if the news is bad, but the poor man persists, even though her constant interruptions delay his real news: that he has married Octavia. She beats him and threatens to whip him with wire and stew him in brine, and when she draws a knife he makes his escape. Charmian scolds her into calling him back. He returns and confirms what he has reported, gets more verbal abuse, and leaves. Then she sends Alexas to ask the messenger to "Report the feature of Octavia, her years, / Her inclination; let him not leave out / The colour of her hair." After Alexas leaves, she sends Iras to tell Alexas to ask how tall Octavia is, then goes to her chamber. 


[2.6 Location: Mount Misena] 

Pompey meets with the triumvirate for talks before the battle. Antony tells Pompey that despite his naval victories, they still outnumber him on land, but Pompey uses the moment to remind Antony that he now owns Pompey's father's house: "But since the cuckoo builds not for himself, / Remain in't as thou mayst." Lepidus typically tries to avoid such squabbles and asks what Pompey makes of the peace proposal they have sent him. It turns out that Pompey is prepared to accept the terms: He will have Sicily and Sardinia, provided he puts an end to the raids of his allies, the pirates, and sends wheat to Rome. He was going to tell them this before he got so provoked by Antony, whom he reminds that he treated Antony's mother well when she came to Sicily during the rebellion of Antony's wife and brother. Antony thanks him, and they shake hands. Pompey says he didn't expect to meet Antony there, implying that he was surprised that Antony was willing to leave Cleopatra. 


They agree to have a series of feasts to celebrate the truce. Pompey says he is sure that Antony's will be especially elaborate because of "your fine Egyptian cookery," and launches into a rather tactless reference to Julius Caesar's prior dalliance with Cleopatra. Enobarbus realizes how much this is likely to irritate Antony and cuts short Pompey's story about how Cleopatra was delivered to Caesar in a mattress by blurting out the punch line. Pompey recognizes Enobarbus and praises his prowess as a soldier. He then invites Caesar, Antony and Lepidus on board his ship. 


Menas, who is one of the pirates whom Pompey is expected under the terms of the agreement to control, says in an aside that Pompey's father wouldn't have made the treaty, and then engages in conversation with Enobarbus. Menas, too, is surprised that Antony joined the others, and learns from Enobarbus of Antony's marriage to Octavia. "Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together," Menas says, but Enobarbus replies, "If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not prophesy so." So it's a political marriage, not a love match, Menas says. 

ENOBARBUS     I think so too. But you shall find the band that seems to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of their amity. Octavia is of a holy, cold and still conversation. 
MENAS    Who would not have his wife so? 
ENOBARBUS     Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He will to his Egyptian dish again. 

They exit to go have a drink together. 


[2.7 Location: On board Pompey's galley] 


Three servants enter to gossip about the amount Lepidus has drunk, and are followed by the drinking party itself. Antony is telling tales about Egypt, and Lepidus observes, with a pretense of knowledge, "Your serpent of Egypt is bred, now, of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Antony confirms this, and Pompey calls for Lepidus's health to be drunk. Lepidus burbles, "Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises are very goodly things. Without contradiction I have heard that." 

As the others proceed to get Lepidus even drunker, Menas tries to get Pompey, who is amused by Lepidus's state, to have a word with him aside. Finally Menas succeeds in getting Pompey to leave his sea and talk with him, and tries to persuade Pompey that since he has "These three world-sharers" on his ship he should take the opportunity to assassinate the triumvirate. Pompey says that Menas should have done it, but without telling him: "Repent that e'er thy tongue / Hath so betrayed thine act. Being done unknown, / I should have found it afterwards well done, / But must condemn it now."  When Pompey returns to the carousing, Menas says in an aside that he's through working with Pompey. 


Lepidus passes out and is carried off by an attendant. Enobarbus tells Menas that the attendant is a strong man because he "bears the third part of the world." And gradually the drunken party breaks up, with Menas and Enobarbus going off to Menas's cabin. 

_____

Trevor Nunn's 1974 production omits Pompey entirely:





Jonathan Miller's 1981 production includes Pompey, played by Donald Sumpter:




Trevor Nunn talks to Patrick Stewart about playing Enobarbus and speaking the "purple passage":