Review by Edward Tanguay May 25, 1997

This play is a fair mix of poetry, tragedy, and history, but is it a love story? Antony and Cleopatra's love is a sort of high school lust-power relationship between two people who have more money and power than they know what to do with. Just like a teenager coming onto the dating scene might do, she wants to manipulate Antony him into wanting her:

Cleopatra. See where he is, who's with him, what he does:
I did not send you: if you find him sad,
Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report
That I am sudden sick. Quick, and return.

Their relationship is shallow, self-centered, irresponsible and destructive. Their attraction for each other centers around infatuation and a sort of egoistic rush that they are more important than the world. Romeo and Juliet's relationship was sweet and beyond life. Cleopatra and Antony's relationship is a very worldly one (we do not even know if Cleopatra "applied the asp" because she wanted to be with Antony in death or if she simply could not stand being left with Caesar in life).

G.W. Knight of the Aesthetic school of critics says of Cleopatra that she is "a metaphysical, not moral, good--a good of totality. She is good in the same large way one might say life is good, or the universe is good, not because it contains no suffering or bad times, but because from restropect even these experiences are worth having. Her perfection flowers from totality, not exclusion." You end up liking Cleopatra in this play because she is so robust and sensual and unpredicable and capable of so many strong emotions. Here she bursts out at the messager after he reported that Antony had married:

Cleopatra. What say you? Hence,
Horrible villain! or I'll spurn thine eyes
Like balls before me; I'll unhair thy head,
Thou shalt be whipped with wire, and stewed in brine,
Smarting in ling'ring pickle.

Cleopatra stands for Egyptian way of life: sensual, festive, and robust. Shakespeare contrasts this throughout the play with the Roman way of life: logical, dry, and orderly. Just as Cleopatra represents the Egyptian way of life, Ceasar represents the Roman way of life. He is calm, cool and collected. He was the one who did not drink at the party on the ship. Further, Caesar does not care direcly that Antony is having an emotional fling with an Egyptian; it is the fact that Antony is neglecting his duties to the empire which concerns Caesar. Caesar is the overriding superego in this play. Those which fall somewhere in between these two poles of the Egyptian and Roman way of life are Antony and Enobarbus. Antony is of course torn between them which ultimately ruins him. I liked when Cleopatra remarked that Antony, while enjoying himself in Egypt, was "suddenly struck by a Roman thought." This means that he suddenly felt his Roman stern conscience reflect on his laviscious life in Egypt. (Interestingly, this statement could also be interpreted to mean that he suddenly thought about Rome--where his wife was alone while he was visiting his mistress in Egypt!)

Enobarbus was an interesting dual character in that he showed extreme logical and dry Roman qualities through the play (Cleopatra. What shall we do, Enobarbus? / Enobarbus. Think, and die.), yet he died a romantic death by moonlight after uttering a heart-felt speech which showed that within his hard exterior shell, he actually did have a soft emotional core:

Enobarbus. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me: throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault;
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder,
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular,
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver and a fugitive:
O Antony! O Antony! [dies

You can get a lot of mileage in this play by interpreting the two sexual symbols: the snake and the sword. The sword can be seen as representing Antony's manhood, so that "She's robb'd me of my sword" takes on the meaning that Cleopatra infatuates Antony so much as to cause him to lose his manliness (as he did in the war when he chased her ship). Also, notice the reference to the time when Cleopatra and Antony were fooling around with each other and dressed Antony up in women's clothes while Cleopatra "wore the sword."

I liked Antony's comparison of human life to the clouds, vapor taking on this form and that, and then vanishing altogether. It is a nice analogy of life, and a perfect representation of his life of fluctuating fame and fortune.

I found the switching back and forth of scenes was less like Shakespeare and more like a CNN International Newscast. Wouldn't that be an interesting way to stage this play?

Also when you read Shakespeare, you always have to pay close attention to what the soothsayer says. His words are full of clues as to what is going to happen later in the play (cf. Julius Caesar). In Antony and Cleopatra, the Soothsayer says to Charmian "You shall outlive the lady whom you serve" and Charmian says "O excellent! I love long life better than figs." Well, we find out that Charmian eventually does outlive the lady whom she serves, but only by a few minutes (!), and she dies from an asp hidden in a basket of figs. Ouch.

And of course as always in Shakespeare, the language was beautiful. I like how his language says one thing but refers to something else, such as "Unarm, Eros, the long day's task is done and we must sleep." (sleeping refers to dying) or "I am dying, Egypt, dying." (Egypt refers to Cleopatra), the clown wishes the queen "joy of the worm." (worm refers to the snake and joy to the power of the snake to bring death) And Iras: "Finish, good lady, the bright day is done, And we are for the dark." (day refers to life, and dark to death).

Here is some more language that I liked from the play:

Soothsayer. You shall be more beloving than beloved.
Charmian. I had rather heat my liver with drinking.

Antony. I learn, you take things ill which are
not so;
Or being, concern you not.

Antony. Cold-hearted toward me?
Cleopatra. Ah, dear, if I be so,
From my cold heart let heaven engender hail,
And poison it in the source, and the first stone
Drop in my neck: as it determines, so
Dissolve my life! the next Caesarion smite!
Till by degreees the memory of my womb,
Together with my brave Egyptians all,
By the discandying of this pelleted storm
Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile
Have buried them for prey!

The hand of death hath raught him.

. . . let Patient Octavia plough thy visage up
With her preparéd nails.

. . . fill our bowls once more:
Let's mock the midnight bell.

A 1759 quote about a performance of this play stated that it "did not seem to give ye Audience any great pleasure or draw any applause." I can imagine that. It is not one of the best of Shakespeare's plays, but it does give you a fair share of history, tragedy, and poetry. I think this play is also ripe for 20th century reinterpretation analyzing destructive power relationships. I would like to see a modern staging of it.

Edward Tanguay

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