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1. Antony and Cleopatra has long been a problem for scholars. It appears in the canon next to two dark and antiheroic tragedies, Coriolanus and Timon of Athens, linked to Coriolanus also as a "Roman play." At the same time, many commentators have felt that it looks forward to the romances, the last phase of Shakespeare's career.
| Macbeth | 1605-05 |
| Antony and Cleopatra | 1606-07 |
| Timon of Athens | 1605-08 |
| Coriolanus | 1607-08 |
| Pericles (the 1st Romance) | 1607-08 |
(table adapted from the Signet Classic Shakespeare, ed. Sylvan Barnet)
Although we cannot be sure of the dating, it appears that this is another stage in Shakespeare's career where he is mixing modes of composition. If you think Antony and Cleopatra belongs with the romances, it is just possible to place it between Coriolanus and Pericles if such neatness appeals.
2. As a Roman play, it is the last one in historical order. Coriolanus tells of the Republic, Julius Caesar of its end, and Antony and Cleopatra chronicles the birth of the Empire. Antony and Octavius reappear here long after Julius Caesar, with their roles altered. Established as the triumvirate ruling Rome (with Lepidus), now they are splitting up: Lepidus lives out his life in exile, Antony is defeated, and Caesar Augustus rules the world: "The time of universal peace is near:/ Prove this a prosperous day, the three-nooked world/ Shall bear the olive freely" (4.6.).
3. The great
debate in the play is what to think of the two principal characters. Productions
reflect the debate: Trevor Nunn's cultivates the glorious language of stretched
metaphor we hear from the two lovers, while Jonathan Miller's BBC version presents
us with decidedly unglamorous figures whose extravagant claims of transcendent
experience sound ridiculous. Have they found out "new heaven, new earth"(1.1)?
Or is Antony an extension of the sadly antiheroic figures that decline from
Macbeth to Coriolanus to Timon?
Interpretation: performance and the text.
4. We will see mainly the Nunn production, with a heroic Antony and a glamorous Cleopatra. I choose to present these scenes to give credence to the poetic truth I find in the language of the play. To be fair to the countering argument, however, let's look first at the BBC opening scene. "Mr. Miller explains that in order to avoid showing Cleopatra as some sexy siren, he has used what probably was the Renaissance image of the Egyptian world. The designs and costumes are modeled on paintings of ancient times by artists, in particular the Italian Veronese, who were Shakespeare's contemporaries. This Cleopatra is no exotic vamp."
Trevor Nunn, on the other hand, whom I confess to be my favorite director, paints a stunning visual contrast between the rigid Apollonian, black and white world of Rome and the lush Dionysian Egypt.
5. When Dryden rewrote this story for the Restoration stage, he called his play "All for Love, or The World Well Lost." He took a sentimental view of this famous love affair, but subsequent commentators have not been so kind. Critical dispute centers around the character of Cleopatra, especially her manipulation of Antony. Watch how Shakespeare portrays her handling of Antony as he learns of his Roman wife's death:
There are two things to note here: first, the terse delivery of the news of Fulvia's death and Antony's stoic response. and second, the way Cleopatra capitalizes on the moment to make Antony feel guilty. When she asks, Can Fulvia die?", she encapsulates our central perception of the situation and her own fears. Can Antony leave Apollonian Rome forever?
6. The next scene shows us Rome, colorless and brutal:
(The "Pompey" in this scene is the son of the Pompey defeated by Juilius Caesar.) Octavius is cold and calculating, the opposite of the Antony described in Julius Caesar (1.2) as "gamesome" having a "quick spirit." The Romans think Antony a tragic fool:
Let's grant,
it is not
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy,
To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit
And keep the turn of tippling with a slave,
To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
With knaves that smells of sweat. Say this
becomes him
(As his composure must be rare indeed
Whom these things cannot blemish); yet must Antony
No way excuse his soils, when we do bear
So great weight in his lightness. (1.4.16-25)
He has abandoned his responsibilities and in effect sealed his doom. Subsequent gestures of compromise only delay the inevitable.
7. In the next pair of scenes we see Cleopatra rehearse her liason with Julius Caesar even as she dreams of Antony:
Back in Rome Enobarbus translates her dreamlike appeal for a Roman:
Maecenas.
Now Antony must leave her utterly.
Enobarbus. 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.
Maecenas. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle
The heart of Antony, Octavia is
A blessed lottery to him. (2.2.235-45)
Ironically, Antony is contracting a marriage to Octavia at this very moment to mend his fortunes.
The effect of this on Cleopatra is predictable rage and self-pity, the beginning of the downward spiral of their relationship:
8. We're going to move now to the latter stages of the play, glancing over the political and military aspects in order to focus on the conflicting portraits of the two lovers. Their relationship and their fortunes are doomed by the inexorable march of Roman power and by their own misjudgments and manipulations. Enobarbus becomes the barometer of Antony's fortunes as we hear through him of the naval folly Cleopatra leads Antony into:
Even in the face of disaster, Cleopatra is able to charm Antony:
Negotiations begin with Octavius, although Antony holds out a dream of victory. Enobarbus sees the inevitability of defeat, and cannot endure any longer Cleopatra's hold on Antony. He and others will go over to Caesar:
Slighted by Caesar, struck to the quick by Antony's generosity in sending his personal treasure after him, Enobarbus is the firsat of many suicides in the play:
9. The fatal turn occurs after a blistering condemnation of Cleopatra by Antony. Frightened, she plays one last trick: a false report of her death which Antony will believe and which will precipitate his suicide attempt:
Even Antony's resolve to make a noble gesture through suicide goes awry. His idealized words are undercut by the failed attempt:
My queen
and Eros
Have by their brave instruction got upon me
A nobleness in record. But I will be
A bridegroom in my death, and run into't
As to a lover's bed. (4.14.97-101)
10. In the last movement of the play, Shakespeare gives Antony and Cleopatra their most eloquent poetry. We all will respond to them individually, but even Octavius Caesar can pay tribute to their brilliance. The last two clips include these remarkable passages:
Cleopatra.
Noblest of men, woo't die?
Hast thou no care of me? Shall I abide
In this dull world, which in thy absence is 60
No better than a sty? O, see, my women,
[ Anthony dies.]
The crown o' the earth doth melt. My lord!
O, withered is the garland of the war,
The soldier's pole is fall'n: young boys and girls
Are level now with men. The odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remarkable
Beneath the visiting moon. (4.15.59-68)
Cleopatra.
I dreamt there was an Emperor Antony.
O, such another sleep, that I might see
But such another man.
Dolabella. If it might please ye—
Cleopatra. His face was as the heav'ns, and therein stuck
A sun and moon, which kept their course and lighted
The little O, th' earth.
Dolabella. Most sovereign creature—
Cleopatra. His legs bestrid the ocean: his reared arm
Crested the world: his voice was propertied
As all the tunèd spheres, and that to friends;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty,
There was no winter in't: an autumn 'twas
That grew the more by reaping. His delights
Were dolphinlike, they show'd his back above
The element they lived in. In his livery
Walked crowns and crownets; realms and islands were
As plates dropp'd from his pocket. (5.2.76-92)
Now, Iras,
what think'st thou?
Thou, an Egyptian puppet, shalt be shown
In Rome, as well as I: mechanic slaves
With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers, shall
Uplift us to the view. In their thick breaths,
Rank of gross diet, shall webe enclouded,
And forced to drink their vapor.
Iras. The gods forbid!
Cleopatra. Nay, 'tis most certain, Iras. Saucy lictors
Will catch at us like strumpets and scald rhymers
Ballad us out o' tune. The quick comedians
Extemporally will stage us, and present
Our Alexandrian revels: Antony
Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see
Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness
I' th' posture of a whore. (5.2.207-21)
Cleopatra.
Give me my robe, put on my crown, I have
Immortal longings in me. Now no more
The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip.
Yare, yare, good Iras; quick: methinks I hear
Antony call: I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act. I hear him mock
The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
To excuse their after wrath. Husband, I come:
Now to that name my courage prove my title!
I am fire, and air; my other elements
I give to baser life. So, have you done?
Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian, Iras, long farewell.
[Kisses them. Iras falls and dies.]
Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,
Which hurts, and is desired. (5.2.280-96)
Caesar.
Most probable
That so she died: for her physician tells me
She hath pursued conclusions infinite
Of easy ways to die. Take up her bed,
And bear her women from the monument.
She shall be buried by her Antony.
No grave upon the earth shall clip in it
A pair so famous. 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. (5.2.352-62)
Responses.
Links for Apollonian-Dionysian symbolism
Answers.com
Online Discussion Outline
Man's Extremity
And the Modern Artist (Find menu for "dionysian")
H. L.
Mencken's The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (parody)
Nietzsche,
Friedrich (1844-1900)
Cult, Rite, and the Tragic:
Appropriating Nietzsche's Dionysian
Apollo and Dionysus--some views
on Tragedy
Apollo versus Dionysus
Introduction:
Dionysian Shaw (access from Project Muse database at DiMenna-Nyselius Library)
Remember to quote your sources, and give the page number or web address. Here's a section from the bottom of my home page:
Citation Guides
Research and Documentation Online
Columbia Guide to Online Style
Using Outside Sources in Your Writing
A Guide for Writing Research Papers (MLA style)