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What better proof can we have of the individual truth of the character than the admission that Shakspeare's Cleopatra produces exactly the same effect on us that is recorded of the real Cleopatra? She dazzles our faculties, perplexes our judgment, bewilders and bewitches our fancy; from the beginning to the end of the drama, we are conscious of a kind of fascination against which our moral sense rebels, but from which there is no escape. The epithets applied to her perpetually by Antony and others confirm this impression: "enchanting queen!"--"witch"--"spell"--"great fairy"--"c.o.c.katrice"--"serpent of old Nile"--"thou grave charm!"[68] are only a few of them; and who does not know by heart the famous quotations in which this Egyptian Circe is described with all her infinite seductions?
Fie! wrangling queen!
Whom every thing becomes--to chide, to laugh, To weep; whose every pa.s.sion fully strives To make itself, in thee, fair and admired.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety:-- For vilest things Become themselves in her.
And the pungent irony of En.o.barbus has well exposed her feminine arts, when he says, on the occasion of Antony's intended departure,--
Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly: I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment.
ANTONY.
She is cunning past man's thought.
En.o.bARBUS.
Alack, sir, no! her pa.s.sions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters, sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than almanacs can report; this cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she makes a shower of rain as well as Jove.
The whole secret of her absolute dominion over the facile Antony may be found in one little speech:--
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.
CHARMIAN.
Madam, methinks if you did love him dearly, You do not hold the method to enforce The like from him.
CLEOPATRA.
What should I do, I do not?
CHARMIAN.
In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing.
CLEOPATRA.
Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him.
CHARMIAN.
Tempt him not too far.
But Cleopatra is a mistress of her art, and knows better: and what a picture of her triumphant petulance, her imperious and imperial coquetry, is given in her own words!
That time--O times!
I laugh'd him out of patience; and that night I laughed him into patience: and next morn, Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed; Then put my tires and mantles on, whilst I wore his sword, Philippan.
When Antony enters full of some serious purpose which he is about to impart, the woman's perverseness, and the tyrannical waywardness with which she taunts him and plays upon his temper, are admirably depicted.
I know, by that same eye, there's some good news.
What says the married woman?[69] You may go; Would she had never given you leave to come!
Let her not say, 'tis I that keep you here; I have no power upon you; hers you are.
ANTONY.
The G.o.ds best know--
CLEOPATRA.
O, never was there queen So mightily betray'd! Yet at the first, I saw the treasons planted.
ANTONY.
Cleopatra!
CLEOPATRA.
Why should I think you can be mine, and true, Though you in swearing shake the throned G.o.ds, Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, Which break themselves in swearing!
ANTONY.
Most sweet queen!
CLEOPATRA.
Nay, pray you, seek no color for your going, But bid farewell, and go.
She recovers her dignity for a moment at the news of Fulvia's death, as if roused by a blow:--
Though age from folly could not give me freedom, It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die?
And then follows the artful mockery with which she tempts and provokes him, in order to discover whether he regrets his wife.
O most false love!
Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see In Fulvia's death, how mine receiv'd shall be.
ANTONY.
Quarrel no more; but be prepared to know The purposes I bear: which are, or cease, As you shall give th' advice. Now, by the fire That quickens Nilus' shrine, I go from hence Thy soldier, servant, making peace or war, As thou affectest.
CLEOPATRA.
Cut my lace, Charmian, come--But let it be. I am quickly ill, and well.
So Antony loves.
ANTONY.
My precious queen, forbear: And give true evidence to his love which stands An honorable trial.
