Cleopatra films Wikipedia pages

Cleopatra (1912 film)

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Jump to: navigation, search


Cleopatra
Helen Gardner as Cleopatra.jpg
Directed by
Charles L. Gaskill
Produced by
Helen Gardner
Based on
Cléopâtre
 by Victorien Sardou
Starring
Helen Gardner
Cinematography
Lucien Tainguy
Edited by
Helen Gardner (uncredited)

Production
 company

The Helen Gardner Picture Players

Distributed by
United States Film Co. (1912)
 Cleopatra Film Co. (1918 re-release)

Release dates

November 13, 1912


Running time
 88 minutes
Country
United States
Budget
$45,000


File:Cleopatra (1912).webm
Play media


Cleopatra
Cleopatra is a 1912 American silent historical drama starring Helen Gardner in the title role and directed by Charles L. Gaskill. It is the first film to be produced by Gardner's production company, The Helen Gardner Picture Players. The film was based on a play written by Victorien Sardou.[1]
Cleopatra is one of the first six-reel feature films produced in the United States.[2] Promoted with the tagline "The most beautiful motion picture ever made", the film was the first to offer a feature-length depiction of Cleopatra,[3] although there had already been a short film about Antony and Cleopatra earlier.[4]


Contents  [hide]
1 Synopsis
2 Cast
3 Production notes
4 Releases
5 Status
6 References
7 External links

Synopsis[edit]
In a series of elaborately staged tableaux, it depicts Cleopatra and her love affairs, first with handsome fisherman-slave Pharon, then with Mark Antony.
Cast[edit]
Helen Gardner as Cleopatra - Queen of Egypt
Mr. Howard as Pharon - A Greek slave and fisherman
Charles Sindelar as Mark Antony - Triumvir and General
James R. Waite as Venditius - A Roman soldier
Mr. Osborne as Diomedes - A rich Egyptian
Harry Knowles as Kephren - Captain of the Guards to the Queen
Mr. Paul as Octavius - A Triumvir and General
Mr. Brady as Serapian - An Egyptian priest
Mr. Corker as Ixias - Servant to Ventidius
Pearl Sindelar as Iras - An attendant
Miss Fielding as Charmian - An attendant
Miss Robson as Octavia - Wife of Antony
Helene Costello as Nicola - Child
Production notes[edit]
Cleopatra was the first film produced by Helen Gardner's production company, The Helen Gardner Picture Players, located in Tappan, New York.[5] Gardner created the company in 1910 after finding success in a series of Vitagraph shorts in the early 1900s.[2]
The film's budget was $45,000 (approximately $1,181,000 today) and featured lavish sets and costumes (Gardner also served as the film's costume designer and editor). In an unusual move for the time, Gardner used the natural scenery in Tappan for outdoor shots in addition to sets.[2][3]
Releases[edit]
Upon its release, Cleopatra played in opera houses and theatres. The film was also featured in a theatrical roadshow accompanied by a publicist, manager and a lecturer/projectionist.[6]
In 1918, Gardner filmed additional scenes and re-issued the film to compete with the 1917 adaptation released by Fox and starring Theda Bara.[6]
Status[edit]
The 1912 version of Cleopatra still exists in its entirety. Turner Classic Movies had the print restored and commissioned a new musical score for the film. The restored version aired on TCM in August 2002.[2] Link to video
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Ball, Robert Hamilton (2013). Shakespeare on Silent Film: A Strange Eventful History. Routledge. p. 19. ISBN 1-134-98098-1.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c d Wallace Dickinson, Joy (March 25, 2001). "Early Screen Queen Turns Heads Again". orlandosentinel.com.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Wallace Dickinson, Joy. "Few Remember Days When Film Queen Lived Among Us". orlandosentinel.com. p. 1.
4.Jump up ^ "Cléopâtre (1910)". IMDB.
5.Jump up ^ Everson, William K. (2009). American Silent Film. Da Capo Press. p. 57. ISBN 0-786-75094-4.
6.^ Jump up to: a b McCaffrey, Donald W.; Jacobs, Christopher P., ed. (1999). Guide to the Silent Years of American Cinema. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 81. ISBN 0-313-30345-2.
External links[edit]
Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
Cleopatra at the Silent Era



Stub icon This 1910s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


Categories: 1912 films
1910s drama films
American films
American drama films
American historical films
American silent feature films
Black-and-white films
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Depictions of Mark Antony on film
Films based on plays
Films based on works by Victorien Sardou
Films set in ancient Egypt
Films set in the 1st century BC
Films shot in New York
American independent films
1910s drama film stubs






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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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Cleopatra (1912 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Cleopatra
Helen Gardner as Cleopatra.jpg
Directed by
Charles L. Gaskill
Produced by
Helen Gardner
Based on
Cléopâtre
 by Victorien Sardou
Starring
Helen Gardner
Cinematography
Lucien Tainguy
Edited by
Helen Gardner (uncredited)

Production
 company

The Helen Gardner Picture Players

Distributed by
United States Film Co. (1912)
 Cleopatra Film Co. (1918 re-release)

Release dates

November 13, 1912


Running time
 88 minutes
Country
United States
Budget
$45,000


File:Cleopatra (1912).webm
Play media


Cleopatra
Cleopatra is a 1912 American silent historical drama starring Helen Gardner in the title role and directed by Charles L. Gaskill. It is the first film to be produced by Gardner's production company, The Helen Gardner Picture Players. The film was based on a play written by Victorien Sardou.[1]
Cleopatra is one of the first six-reel feature films produced in the United States.[2] Promoted with the tagline "The most beautiful motion picture ever made", the film was the first to offer a feature-length depiction of Cleopatra,[3] although there had already been a short film about Antony and Cleopatra earlier.[4]


Contents  [hide]
1 Synopsis
2 Cast
3 Production notes
4 Releases
5 Status
6 References
7 External links

Synopsis[edit]
In a series of elaborately staged tableaux, it depicts Cleopatra and her love affairs, first with handsome fisherman-slave Pharon, then with Mark Antony.
Cast[edit]
Helen Gardner as Cleopatra - Queen of Egypt
Mr. Howard as Pharon - A Greek slave and fisherman
Charles Sindelar as Mark Antony - Triumvir and General
James R. Waite as Venditius - A Roman soldier
Mr. Osborne as Diomedes - A rich Egyptian
Harry Knowles as Kephren - Captain of the Guards to the Queen
Mr. Paul as Octavius - A Triumvir and General
Mr. Brady as Serapian - An Egyptian priest
Mr. Corker as Ixias - Servant to Ventidius
Pearl Sindelar as Iras - An attendant
Miss Fielding as Charmian - An attendant
Miss Robson as Octavia - Wife of Antony
Helene Costello as Nicola - Child
Production notes[edit]
Cleopatra was the first film produced by Helen Gardner's production company, The Helen Gardner Picture Players, located in Tappan, New York.[5] Gardner created the company in 1910 after finding success in a series of Vitagraph shorts in the early 1900s.[2]
The film's budget was $45,000 (approximately $1,181,000 today) and featured lavish sets and costumes (Gardner also served as the film's costume designer and editor). In an unusual move for the time, Gardner used the natural scenery in Tappan for outdoor shots in addition to sets.[2][3]
Releases[edit]
Upon its release, Cleopatra played in opera houses and theatres. The film was also featured in a theatrical roadshow accompanied by a publicist, manager and a lecturer/projectionist.[6]
In 1918, Gardner filmed additional scenes and re-issued the film to compete with the 1917 adaptation released by Fox and starring Theda Bara.[6]
Status[edit]
The 1912 version of Cleopatra still exists in its entirety. Turner Classic Movies had the print restored and commissioned a new musical score for the film. The restored version aired on TCM in August 2002.[2] Link to video
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Ball, Robert Hamilton (2013). Shakespeare on Silent Film: A Strange Eventful History. Routledge. p. 19. ISBN 1-134-98098-1.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c d Wallace Dickinson, Joy (March 25, 2001). "Early Screen Queen Turns Heads Again". orlandosentinel.com.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Wallace Dickinson, Joy. "Few Remember Days When Film Queen Lived Among Us". orlandosentinel.com. p. 1.
4.Jump up ^ "Cléopâtre (1910)". IMDB.
5.Jump up ^ Everson, William K. (2009). American Silent Film. Da Capo Press. p. 57. ISBN 0-786-75094-4.
6.^ Jump up to: a b McCaffrey, Donald W.; Jacobs, Christopher P., ed. (1999). Guide to the Silent Years of American Cinema. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 81. ISBN 0-313-30345-2.
External links[edit]
Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
Cleopatra at the Silent Era



Stub icon This 1910s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


Categories: 1912 films
1910s drama films
American films
American drama films
American historical films
American silent feature films
Black-and-white films
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Depictions of Mark Antony on film
Films based on plays
Films based on works by Victorien Sardou
Films set in ancient Egypt
Films set in the 1st century BC
Films shot in New York
American independent films
1910s drama film stubs






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This page was last modified on 16 January 2015, at 03:48.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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Cleopatra (1917 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the 1917 film. For other uses, see Cleopatra (disambiguation).

Cleopatra
Cleopatra1917.jpg
Original release poster

Directed by
J. Gordon Edwards
Produced by
William Fox
Written by
Adrian Johnson
William Shakespeare (plays Anthony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar)
Victorien Sardou
Émile Moreau (play Cléopâtre)
Starring
Theda Bara
Fritz Leiber, Sr.
Thurston Hall
Music by
José Martínez
Cinematography
John W. Boyle
Rial Schellinger
George Schneiderman
Edited by
Edward M. McDermott
Distributed by
Fox Film Corporation

Release dates

October 14, 1917


Running time
 125 mins. (11 reels)
Country
United States
Language
Silent
 English intertitles
Budget
$500,000
Cleopatra (1917) was an American silent historical drama film based on H. Rider Haggard's 1889 novel Cleopatra and the plays Cleopatre by Émile Moreau and Victorien Sardou and William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.[1] The film starred Theda Bara in the title role, Fritz Leiber, Sr. as Julius Caesar and Thurston Hall played Mark Antony.


Contents  [hide]
1 Production notes
2 Cast
3 Preservation status
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links

Production notes[edit]



 Theda Bara as Cleopatra
Cleopatra was one of the most elaborate Hollywood films ever produced up to that time, with particularly lavish sets and costumes. According to the studio, the film cost $500,000 (approximately $8.3 million in 2009) to make and employed 2,000 people behind the scenes. Theda Bara appeared in a variety of costumes, some quite risqué. The film was a great success at the time.
The picture was filmed on the Dominquez slough just outside of Long Beach, California. The throne prop used in the film ended up, years later, in the possession of Leon Schlesinger Productions, the production company behind the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons; its disposition after the acquisition of that company by Warner Bros. is unknown.[2]
Cast[edit]
Theda Bara as Cleopatra
Fritz Leiber as Caesar
Thurston Hall as Antony
Albert Roscoe as Pharon
Herschel Mayall as Ventidius
Dorothy Drake as Charmian
Delle Duncan as Iras
Henri De Vries as Octavius Caesar
Art Acord as Kephren
Hector V. Sarno as Messenger
Genevieve Blinn as Octavia
Preservation status[edit]


File:Cleopatra (1917) fragment - J. Gordon Edwards.webm
Play media


 Fragment of Cleopatra
The majority of the film is now considered a lost film,[3][4] as no known complete negatives or prints of it survive. Brief fragments of footage from the film are known to exist today.[5][6]
After the Hays Code was implemented in Hollywood, Cleopatra was judged too obscene to be shown. The last two prints known to exist were destroyed in fires at the Fox studios in 1937 (along with the majority of Bara's other films for Fox) and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[5][7] Only a few fragments survive today.[5]
See also[edit]
List of American films of 1917
Cleopatra VII
List of incomplete or partially lost films
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ McCaffrey, Donald W.; Jacobs, Christopher P. (1999). Guide to the Silent Years of American Cinema. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 82. ISBN 0-313-30345-2.
2.Jump up ^ Magill's Survey of Silent Films, Vol1. A-FLA p.322 edited by Frank N. Magill c.1982 ISBN 0-89356-240-8 (3 book set ISBN 0-89356-239-4) Retrieved December 11, 2014
3.Jump up ^ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog:Cleopatra
4.Jump up ^ Cleopatra at TheGreatStars.com; Lost Films Wanted
5.^ Jump up to: a b c Solomon, Aubrey (2011). The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935: A History and Filmography. McFarland. p. 1. ISBN 0-786-48610-4.
6.Jump up ^ SilentEra entry
7.Jump up ^ Klepper, Robert K. (1996). Silent Films On Video: A Filmography Of Over 700 Silent Features Available On Videocassette, With a Directory Of Sources. McFarland & Co. p. 8. ISBN 0-786-40157-5.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cleopatra (1917 film).
Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
Cleopatra (1917) at SilentEra
Cleopatra at AllMovie
Cleopatra (1917) surviving footage on YouTube


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra






















The Death of Cleopatra arthur.jpg












































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
J. Gordon Edwards














































































  


Categories: 1917 films
1910s romantic drama films
20th Century Fox films
American films
American romantic drama films
American silent feature films
Black-and-white films
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Depictions of Julius Caesar on film
Depictions of Mark Antony on film
Films based on Antony and Cleopatra
Films based on historical novels
Films based on plays
Films based on works by H. Rider Haggard
Films based on works by Victorien Sardou
Films directed by J. Gordon Edwards
Films set in the 1st century BC
Films set in ancient Egypt
Films shot in California
Films based on multiple works
Nudity in film






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This page was last modified on 2 April 2015, at 09:30.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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Cleopatra (1917 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the 1917 film. For other uses, see Cleopatra (disambiguation).

Cleopatra
Cleopatra1917.jpg
Original release poster

Directed by
J. Gordon Edwards
Produced by
William Fox
Written by
Adrian Johnson
William Shakespeare (plays Anthony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar)
Victorien Sardou
Émile Moreau (play Cléopâtre)
Starring
Theda Bara
Fritz Leiber, Sr.
Thurston Hall
Music by
José Martínez
Cinematography
John W. Boyle
Rial Schellinger
George Schneiderman
Edited by
Edward M. McDermott
Distributed by
Fox Film Corporation

Release dates

October 14, 1917


Running time
 125 mins. (11 reels)
Country
United States
Language
Silent
 English intertitles
Budget
$500,000
Cleopatra (1917) was an American silent historical drama film based on H. Rider Haggard's 1889 novel Cleopatra and the plays Cleopatre by Émile Moreau and Victorien Sardou and William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.[1] The film starred Theda Bara in the title role, Fritz Leiber, Sr. as Julius Caesar and Thurston Hall played Mark Antony.


Contents  [hide]
1 Production notes
2 Cast
3 Preservation status
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links

Production notes[edit]



 Theda Bara as Cleopatra
Cleopatra was one of the most elaborate Hollywood films ever produced up to that time, with particularly lavish sets and costumes. According to the studio, the film cost $500,000 (approximately $8.3 million in 2009) to make and employed 2,000 people behind the scenes. Theda Bara appeared in a variety of costumes, some quite risqué. The film was a great success at the time.
The picture was filmed on the Dominquez slough just outside of Long Beach, California. The throne prop used in the film ended up, years later, in the possession of Leon Schlesinger Productions, the production company behind the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons; its disposition after the acquisition of that company by Warner Bros. is unknown.[2]
Cast[edit]
Theda Bara as Cleopatra
Fritz Leiber as Caesar
Thurston Hall as Antony
Albert Roscoe as Pharon
Herschel Mayall as Ventidius
Dorothy Drake as Charmian
Delle Duncan as Iras
Henri De Vries as Octavius Caesar
Art Acord as Kephren
Hector V. Sarno as Messenger
Genevieve Blinn as Octavia
Preservation status[edit]


File:Cleopatra (1917) fragment - J. Gordon Edwards.webm
Play media


 Fragment of Cleopatra
The majority of the film is now considered a lost film,[3][4] as no known complete negatives or prints of it survive. Brief fragments of footage from the film are known to exist today.[5][6]
After the Hays Code was implemented in Hollywood, Cleopatra was judged too obscene to be shown. The last two prints known to exist were destroyed in fires at the Fox studios in 1937 (along with the majority of Bara's other films for Fox) and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[5][7] Only a few fragments survive today.[5]
See also[edit]
List of American films of 1917
Cleopatra VII
List of incomplete or partially lost films
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ McCaffrey, Donald W.; Jacobs, Christopher P. (1999). Guide to the Silent Years of American Cinema. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 82. ISBN 0-313-30345-2.
2.Jump up ^ Magill's Survey of Silent Films, Vol1. A-FLA p.322 edited by Frank N. Magill c.1982 ISBN 0-89356-240-8 (3 book set ISBN 0-89356-239-4) Retrieved December 11, 2014
3.Jump up ^ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog:Cleopatra
4.Jump up ^ Cleopatra at TheGreatStars.com; Lost Films Wanted
5.^ Jump up to: a b c Solomon, Aubrey (2011). The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935: A History and Filmography. McFarland. p. 1. ISBN 0-786-48610-4.
6.Jump up ^ SilentEra entry
7.Jump up ^ Klepper, Robert K. (1996). Silent Films On Video: A Filmography Of Over 700 Silent Features Available On Videocassette, With a Directory Of Sources. McFarland & Co. p. 8. ISBN 0-786-40157-5.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cleopatra (1917 film).
Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
Cleopatra (1917) at SilentEra
Cleopatra at AllMovie
Cleopatra (1917) surviving footage on YouTube


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra






















The Death of Cleopatra arthur.jpg












































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
J. Gordon Edwards














































































  


Categories: 1917 films
1910s romantic drama films
20th Century Fox films
American films
American romantic drama films
American silent feature films
Black-and-white films
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Depictions of Julius Caesar on film
Depictions of Mark Antony on film
Films based on Antony and Cleopatra
Films based on historical novels
Films based on plays
Films based on works by H. Rider Haggard
Films based on works by Victorien Sardou
Films directed by J. Gordon Edwards
Films set in the 1st century BC
Films set in ancient Egypt
Films shot in California
Films based on multiple works
Nudity in film






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Log in



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Read

Edit

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Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Edit links
This page was last modified on 2 April 2015, at 09:30.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
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Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
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Powered by MediaWiki
    
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(1917_film)












Cleopatra (1934 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Cleopatra
PosterCleopatra03.jpg
Directed by
Cecil B. DeMille
Produced by
Cecil B. DeMille
Written by
Waldemar Young
 Vincent Lawrence
Bartlett Cormack (adaptation: historical material)
Starring
Claudette Colbert
Warren William
Henry Wilcoxon
Music by
Rudolph G. Kopp
 Milan Roder (uncredited)
Cinematography
Victor Milner
Edited by
Anne Bauchens (uncredited)
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures

Release dates

October 5, 1934


Running time
 100 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Cleopatra is a 1934 epic film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and distributed by Paramount Pictures, which retells the story of Cleopatra VII of Egypt. It was written by Waldemar Young, Vincent Lawrence and Bartlett Cormack, and produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Claudette Colbert stars as Cleopatra, Warren William as Julius Caesar, and Henry Wilcoxon as Mark Antony.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Academy Awards
6 Home media
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]



 Claudette Colbert
In 48 BC, Cleopatra vies with her brother Ptolemy for control of Egypt. Pothinos (Leonard Mudie) kidnaps her and Apollodorus (Irving Pichel) and strands them in the desert. When Pothinos informs Julius Caesar that the queen has fled the country, Caesar is ready to sign an agreement with Ptolemy when Apollodorus appears, bearing a gift carpet for the Roman. When Apollodorus unrolls it, Cleopatra emerges much to Pothinos' surprise- he tries to deny who she is. However Caesar sees through the deception and Cleopatra soon beguiles Caesar with the prospect of the riches of not only Egypt, but also India. Later, when they are seemingly alone, she spots a sandal peeking out from underneath a curtain and thrusts a spear into the hidden Pothinos, foiling his assassination attempt. Caesar makes Cleopatra the sole ruler of Egypt, and begins an affair with her.
Caesar eventually returns to Rome with Cleopatra to the cheers of the masses, but Roman unease is directed at Cleopatra. Cassius (Ian Maclaren), Casca (Edwin Maxwell), Brutus (Arthur Hohl) and other powerful Romans become disgruntled, rightly suspecting that he intends to abolish the Roman Republic and make himself emperor, with Cleopatra as his empress (after divorcing Calpurnia, played by Gertrude Michael). Ignoring the forebodings of Calpurnia, Cleopatra, and a soothsayer (Harry Beresford) who warns him about the Ides of March, Caesar goes to announce his intentions to the Senate. Before he can do so, he is assassinated. Cleopatra is heartbroken at the news. At first, she wants to go to him, but Apollodorus tells her that Caesar did not love her, only her power and wealth, and that Egypt needs her. They return home.
Bitter rivals Marc Antony and Octavian (Ian Keith) are named co-rulers of Rome. Antony, disdainful of women, invites Cleopatra to meet with him in Tarsus, intending to bring her back to Rome as a captive. Enobarbus (C. Aubrey Smith), his close friend, warns Antony against meeting Cleopatra but he goes anyway. She entices him to her barge and throws a party with many exotic animals and beautiful dancers, however, and soon bewitches him. Together they sail back to Egypt.
King Herod (Joseph Schildkraut) who has secretly allied himself with Octavian, visits the lovers. He informs Cleopatra privately that Rome and Octavian can be appeased if Antony were to be poisoned. Herod also tells Antony the same thing. Antony laughs off his suggestion, but a reluctant Cleopatra, reminded of her duty to Egypt by Apollodorus, tests a poison on a condemned murderer (Edgar Dearing) to see how it works. Before Antony can drink the fatal wine, however, they receive news that Octavian has declared war.
Antony sends orders to his generals and legions to gather, but Enobarbus informs him that they have all deserted out of loyalty to Rome. Enobarbus tells his comrade that he can wrest control of Rome away from Octavian by having Cleopatra killed, but Antony refuses to consider it. Enobarbus bades his friend and comrade Antony goodbye as he will not fight for an Egytian Queen against Rome.
Antony fights on with the Egyptian army, and is defeated. Octavian and his soldiers surround and besiege the palace of Antony and Cleopatra. Antony is mocked when he offers to fight them one by one. Without his knowledge, Cleopatra opens the gate and offers to cede Egypt in return for Antony's life in exile, but Octavian turns her down. Meanwhile, Antony believes that she has deserted him for his rival, and stabs himself. When Cleopatra returns, she is heartbroken to find him dying. They reconcile before he perishes. Then, with the gates breached, Cleopatra kills herself with a poisonous snake and is found sitting on her throne, dead.
Cast[edit]
Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra
Warren William as Julius Caesar
Henry Wilcoxon as Marc Antony
Joseph Schildkraut as King Herod
Ian Keith as Octavian
Gertrude Michael as Calpurnia
C. Aubrey Smith as Enobarbus
Irving Pichel as Apollodorus
Arthur Hohl as Brutus
Edwin Maxwell as Casca
Ian Maclaren as Cassius
Eleanor Phelps as Charmion, Cleopatra's servant
Leonard Mudie as Pothinos
Grace Durkin as Iras, Cleopatra's servant
Claudia Dell as Octavia
Robert Warwick as General Achillas
 Harry Beresford as Soothsayer
Jayne Regan as Lady Vesta (as Jane Regan)
William Farnum as Lepidus
Lionel Belmore as Fidius
Florence Roberts as Lady Flora
Richard Alexander as General Philodemas
Celia Ryland as Lady Leda
William V. Mong as Court physician
George Walsh as Courier
Kenneth Gibson as Scribe
Wedgwood Nowell as Scribe
Bruce Warren as Scribe
Robert Seiter as Aelius (as Robert Manning)
Edgar Dearing as Convict who tests the poison
Ferdinand Gottschalk as Glabrio (scenes deleted)

Production[edit]
In 1934, the Hays code had just taken effect, so DeMille got away with using more risque imagery than he would be able to in his later productions. He opens the film with an apparently naked, but strategically lit slave girl holding up an incense burner in each hand as the title appears on screen.
The film is also memorable for the sumptuous art deco look of its sets (by Hans Dreier) and costumes (by Travis Banton), the atmospheric music composed and conducted by Rudolph George Kopp, and for DeMille's legendary set piece of Cleopatra's seduction of Antony, which takes place on Cleopatra's barge.[citation needed]
Reception[edit]
The film was one of Paramount's biggest hits of the year.[1]
Academy Awards[edit]
Wins[2]Best Cinematography: Victor Milner
NominationsOutstanding Production: Paramount
Best Assistant Director: Cullen Tate [came in second]][3]
Best Film Editing: Anne Bauchens [came in third]
Best Sound Recording: Franklin Hansen
Home media[edit]
It has been released for home viewing several times in the United States of America, including a 75th anniversary DVD edition in 2009 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.[4]
In the United Kingdom, Cleopatra was released in a Dual Format DVD and Blu-ray edition on September 24, 2012 by Eureka as part of their Masters of Cinema range.[5]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Churchill, Douglas W. The Year in Hollywood: 1934 May Be Remembered as the Beginning of the Sweetness-and-Light Era (gate locked); New York Times [New York, N.Y] 30 Dec 1934: X5. Retrieved December, 16, 2013.
2.Jump up ^ "The 7th Academy Awards (1935) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
3.Jump up ^ "Oscars.org -- Cleopatra". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ Chaney, Jen (April 9, 2009). "A Pair of DVDs From a 'Loose' Era". Washington Post (The Washington Post Company). Retrieved April 12, 2009.
5.Jump up ^ http://eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/cleopatra/
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cleopatra (1934 film).
Cleopatra at the American Film Institute Catalog
Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
Cleopatra at the TCM Movie Database
Cleopatra at AllMovie
Cleopatra at Rotten Tomatoes
Greatest Films- Cleopatra: Critique and plot description
CinemaGraphe | Cleopatra 1934: Images and the story of the making of the film


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Cecil B. DeMille


Silent
The Squaw Man (1914) ·
 Brewster's Millions (1914) ·
 The Master Mind (1914) ·
 The Only Son (1914) ·
 The Man on the Box (1914) ·
 The Call of the North (1914) ·
 The Virginian (1914) ·
 What's His Name (1914) ·
 The Man from Home (1914) ·
 Rose of the Rancho (1914) ·
 The Ghost Breaker (1914) ·
 The Girl of the Golden West (1915) ·
 After Five (1915) ·
 The Warrens of Virginia (1915) ·
 The Unafraid (1915) ·
 The Captive (1915) ·
 The Wild Goose Chase (1915) ·
 The Arab (1915) ·
 Chimmie Fadden (1915) ·
 Kindling (1915) ·
 Carmen (1915) ·
 Chimmie Fadden Out West (1915) ·
 The Cheat (1915) ·
 Temptation (1915) ·
 The Golden Chance (1915) ·
 The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1916) ·
 The Heart of Nora Flynn (1916) ·
 Maria Rosa (1916) ·
 The Dream Girl (1916) ·
 Joan the Woman (1916) ·
 Lost and Won (1917) ·
 A Romance of the Redwoods (1917) ·
 The Little American (1917) ·
 The Woman God Forgot (1917) ·
 Nan of Music Mountain (1917) ·
 The Devil-Stone (1917) ·
 The Whispering Chorus (1918) ·
 Old Wives for New (1918) ·
 We Can't Have Everything (1918) ·
 Till I Come Back to You (1918) ·
 The Squaw Man (1918) ·
 Don't Change Your Husband (1919) ·
 For Better, for Worse (1919) ·
 Male and Female (1919) ·
 Why Change Your Wife? (1920) ·
 Something to Think About (1920) ·
 Forbidden Fruit (1921) ·
 The Affairs of Anatol (1921) ·
 Fool's Paradise (1921) ·
 Saturday Night (1922) ·
 Manslaughter (1922) ·
 Adam's Rib (1923) ·
 The Ten Commandments (1923) ·
 Triumph (1924) ·
 Feet of Clay (1924) ·
 The Golden Bed (1925) ·
 The Road to Yesterday (1925) ·
 The Volga Boatman (1926) ·
 The King of Kings (1927) ·
 Walking Back (1928) ·
 The Godless Girl (1929)
 

Sound
Dynamite (1929) ·
 Madam Satan (1930) ·
 The Squaw Man (1931) ·
 The Sign of the Cross (1932) ·
 This Day and Age (1933) ·
 Four Frightened People (1934) ·
 Cleopatra (1934) ·
 The Crusades (1935) ·
 The Plainsman (1936) ·
 The Buccaneer (1938) ·
 Union Pacific (1939) ·
 North West Mounted Police (1940) ·
 Reap the Wild Wind (1942) ·
 The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) ·
 Unconquered (1947) ·
 California's Golden Beginning (1948) ·
 Samson and Delilah (1949) ·
 The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) ·
 The Ten Commandments (1956)
 

  


Categories: 1934 films
English-language films
American films
American biographical films
Black-and-white films
Depictions of Augustus on film
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Depictions of Herod the Great on film
Depictions of Julius Caesar on film
Depictions of Mark Antony on film
American epic films
Films based on Antony and Cleopatra
Films set in the 1st century BC
Films directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
Final War of the Roman Republic films
Paramount Pictures films
Films set in ancient Egypt
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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(1934_film)















Cleopatra (1934 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Cleopatra
PosterCleopatra03.jpg
Directed by
Cecil B. DeMille
Produced by
Cecil B. DeMille
Written by
Waldemar Young
 Vincent Lawrence
Bartlett Cormack (adaptation: historical material)
Starring
Claudette Colbert
Warren William
Henry Wilcoxon
Music by
Rudolph G. Kopp
 Milan Roder (uncredited)
Cinematography
Victor Milner
Edited by
Anne Bauchens (uncredited)
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures

Release dates

October 5, 1934


Running time
 100 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Cleopatra is a 1934 epic film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and distributed by Paramount Pictures, which retells the story of Cleopatra VII of Egypt. It was written by Waldemar Young, Vincent Lawrence and Bartlett Cormack, and produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Claudette Colbert stars as Cleopatra, Warren William as Julius Caesar, and Henry Wilcoxon as Mark Antony.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Academy Awards
6 Home media
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]



 Claudette Colbert
In 48 BC, Cleopatra vies with her brother Ptolemy for control of Egypt. Pothinos (Leonard Mudie) kidnaps her and Apollodorus (Irving Pichel) and strands them in the desert. When Pothinos informs Julius Caesar that the queen has fled the country, Caesar is ready to sign an agreement with Ptolemy when Apollodorus appears, bearing a gift carpet for the Roman. When Apollodorus unrolls it, Cleopatra emerges much to Pothinos' surprise- he tries to deny who she is. However Caesar sees through the deception and Cleopatra soon beguiles Caesar with the prospect of the riches of not only Egypt, but also India. Later, when they are seemingly alone, she spots a sandal peeking out from underneath a curtain and thrusts a spear into the hidden Pothinos, foiling his assassination attempt. Caesar makes Cleopatra the sole ruler of Egypt, and begins an affair with her.
Caesar eventually returns to Rome with Cleopatra to the cheers of the masses, but Roman unease is directed at Cleopatra. Cassius (Ian Maclaren), Casca (Edwin Maxwell), Brutus (Arthur Hohl) and other powerful Romans become disgruntled, rightly suspecting that he intends to abolish the Roman Republic and make himself emperor, with Cleopatra as his empress (after divorcing Calpurnia, played by Gertrude Michael). Ignoring the forebodings of Calpurnia, Cleopatra, and a soothsayer (Harry Beresford) who warns him about the Ides of March, Caesar goes to announce his intentions to the Senate. Before he can do so, he is assassinated. Cleopatra is heartbroken at the news. At first, she wants to go to him, but Apollodorus tells her that Caesar did not love her, only her power and wealth, and that Egypt needs her. They return home.
Bitter rivals Marc Antony and Octavian (Ian Keith) are named co-rulers of Rome. Antony, disdainful of women, invites Cleopatra to meet with him in Tarsus, intending to bring her back to Rome as a captive. Enobarbus (C. Aubrey Smith), his close friend, warns Antony against meeting Cleopatra but he goes anyway. She entices him to her barge and throws a party with many exotic animals and beautiful dancers, however, and soon bewitches him. Together they sail back to Egypt.
King Herod (Joseph Schildkraut) who has secretly allied himself with Octavian, visits the lovers. He informs Cleopatra privately that Rome and Octavian can be appeased if Antony were to be poisoned. Herod also tells Antony the same thing. Antony laughs off his suggestion, but a reluctant Cleopatra, reminded of her duty to Egypt by Apollodorus, tests a poison on a condemned murderer (Edgar Dearing) to see how it works. Before Antony can drink the fatal wine, however, they receive news that Octavian has declared war.
Antony sends orders to his generals and legions to gather, but Enobarbus informs him that they have all deserted out of loyalty to Rome. Enobarbus tells his comrade that he can wrest control of Rome away from Octavian by having Cleopatra killed, but Antony refuses to consider it. Enobarbus bades his friend and comrade Antony goodbye as he will not fight for an Egytian Queen against Rome.
Antony fights on with the Egyptian army, and is defeated. Octavian and his soldiers surround and besiege the palace of Antony and Cleopatra. Antony is mocked when he offers to fight them one by one. Without his knowledge, Cleopatra opens the gate and offers to cede Egypt in return for Antony's life in exile, but Octavian turns her down. Meanwhile, Antony believes that she has deserted him for his rival, and stabs himself. When Cleopatra returns, she is heartbroken to find him dying. They reconcile before he perishes. Then, with the gates breached, Cleopatra kills herself with a poisonous snake and is found sitting on her throne, dead.
Cast[edit]
Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra
Warren William as Julius Caesar
Henry Wilcoxon as Marc Antony
Joseph Schildkraut as King Herod
Ian Keith as Octavian
Gertrude Michael as Calpurnia
C. Aubrey Smith as Enobarbus
Irving Pichel as Apollodorus
Arthur Hohl as Brutus
Edwin Maxwell as Casca
Ian Maclaren as Cassius
Eleanor Phelps as Charmion, Cleopatra's servant
Leonard Mudie as Pothinos
Grace Durkin as Iras, Cleopatra's servant
Claudia Dell as Octavia
Robert Warwick as General Achillas
 Harry Beresford as Soothsayer
Jayne Regan as Lady Vesta (as Jane Regan)
William Farnum as Lepidus
Lionel Belmore as Fidius
Florence Roberts as Lady Flora
Richard Alexander as General Philodemas
Celia Ryland as Lady Leda
William V. Mong as Court physician
George Walsh as Courier
Kenneth Gibson as Scribe
Wedgwood Nowell as Scribe
Bruce Warren as Scribe
Robert Seiter as Aelius (as Robert Manning)
Edgar Dearing as Convict who tests the poison
Ferdinand Gottschalk as Glabrio (scenes deleted)

Production[edit]
In 1934, the Hays code had just taken effect, so DeMille got away with using more risque imagery than he would be able to in his later productions. He opens the film with an apparently naked, but strategically lit slave girl holding up an incense burner in each hand as the title appears on screen.
The film is also memorable for the sumptuous art deco look of its sets (by Hans Dreier) and costumes (by Travis Banton), the atmospheric music composed and conducted by Rudolph George Kopp, and for DeMille's legendary set piece of Cleopatra's seduction of Antony, which takes place on Cleopatra's barge.[citation needed]
Reception[edit]
The film was one of Paramount's biggest hits of the year.[1]
Academy Awards[edit]
Wins[2]Best Cinematography: Victor Milner
NominationsOutstanding Production: Paramount
Best Assistant Director: Cullen Tate [came in second]][3]
Best Film Editing: Anne Bauchens [came in third]
Best Sound Recording: Franklin Hansen
Home media[edit]
It has been released for home viewing several times in the United States of America, including a 75th anniversary DVD edition in 2009 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.[4]
In the United Kingdom, Cleopatra was released in a Dual Format DVD and Blu-ray edition on September 24, 2012 by Eureka as part of their Masters of Cinema range.[5]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Churchill, Douglas W. The Year in Hollywood: 1934 May Be Remembered as the Beginning of the Sweetness-and-Light Era (gate locked); New York Times [New York, N.Y] 30 Dec 1934: X5. Retrieved December, 16, 2013.
2.Jump up ^ "The 7th Academy Awards (1935) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
3.Jump up ^ "Oscars.org -- Cleopatra". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ Chaney, Jen (April 9, 2009). "A Pair of DVDs From a 'Loose' Era". Washington Post (The Washington Post Company). Retrieved April 12, 2009.
5.Jump up ^ http://eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/cleopatra/
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cleopatra (1934 film).
Cleopatra at the American Film Institute Catalog
Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
Cleopatra at the TCM Movie Database
Cleopatra at AllMovie
Cleopatra at Rotten Tomatoes
Greatest Films- Cleopatra: Critique and plot description
CinemaGraphe | Cleopatra 1934: Images and the story of the making of the film


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Cecil B. DeMille


Silent
The Squaw Man (1914) ·
 Brewster's Millions (1914) ·
 The Master Mind (1914) ·
 The Only Son (1914) ·
 The Man on the Box (1914) ·
 The Call of the North (1914) ·
 The Virginian (1914) ·
 What's His Name (1914) ·
 The Man from Home (1914) ·
 Rose of the Rancho (1914) ·
 The Ghost Breaker (1914) ·
 The Girl of the Golden West (1915) ·
 After Five (1915) ·
 The Warrens of Virginia (1915) ·
 The Unafraid (1915) ·
 The Captive (1915) ·
 The Wild Goose Chase (1915) ·
 The Arab (1915) ·
 Chimmie Fadden (1915) ·
 Kindling (1915) ·
 Carmen (1915) ·
 Chimmie Fadden Out West (1915) ·
 The Cheat (1915) ·
 Temptation (1915) ·
 The Golden Chance (1915) ·
 The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1916) ·
 The Heart of Nora Flynn (1916) ·
 Maria Rosa (1916) ·
 The Dream Girl (1916) ·
 Joan the Woman (1916) ·
 Lost and Won (1917) ·
 A Romance of the Redwoods (1917) ·
 The Little American (1917) ·
 The Woman God Forgot (1917) ·
 Nan of Music Mountain (1917) ·
 The Devil-Stone (1917) ·
 The Whispering Chorus (1918) ·
 Old Wives for New (1918) ·
 We Can't Have Everything (1918) ·
 Till I Come Back to You (1918) ·
 The Squaw Man (1918) ·
 Don't Change Your Husband (1919) ·
 For Better, for Worse (1919) ·
 Male and Female (1919) ·
 Why Change Your Wife? (1920) ·
 Something to Think About (1920) ·
 Forbidden Fruit (1921) ·
 The Affairs of Anatol (1921) ·
 Fool's Paradise (1921) ·
 Saturday Night (1922) ·
 Manslaughter (1922) ·
 Adam's Rib (1923) ·
 The Ten Commandments (1923) ·
 Triumph (1924) ·
 Feet of Clay (1924) ·
 The Golden Bed (1925) ·
 The Road to Yesterday (1925) ·
 The Volga Boatman (1926) ·
 The King of Kings (1927) ·
 Walking Back (1928) ·
 The Godless Girl (1929)
 

Sound
Dynamite (1929) ·
 Madam Satan (1930) ·
 The Squaw Man (1931) ·
 The Sign of the Cross (1932) ·
 This Day and Age (1933) ·
 Four Frightened People (1934) ·
 Cleopatra (1934) ·
 The Crusades (1935) ·
 The Plainsman (1936) ·
 The Buccaneer (1938) ·
 Union Pacific (1939) ·
 North West Mounted Police (1940) ·
 Reap the Wild Wind (1942) ·
 The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) ·
 Unconquered (1947) ·
 California's Golden Beginning (1948) ·
 Samson and Delilah (1949) ·
 The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) ·
 The Ten Commandments (1956)
 

  


Categories: 1934 films
English-language films
American films
American biographical films
Black-and-white films
Depictions of Augustus on film
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Depictions of Herod the Great on film
Depictions of Julius Caesar on film
Depictions of Mark Antony on film
American epic films
Films based on Antony and Cleopatra
Films set in the 1st century BC
Films directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
Final War of the Roman Republic films
Paramount Pictures films
Films set in ancient Egypt
Nudity in film







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Edit links
This page was last modified on 21 April 2015, at 02:08.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(1934_film)













Antony and Cleopatra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Antony and Cleopatra (disambiguation).



The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1884
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was probably performed first in about 1607 at Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre by the King's Men.[1][2] Its first known appearance in print was in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Sicilian revolt to Cleopatra's suicide during the Final War of the Roman Republic. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumviri of the Second Triumvirate and the first emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus Caesar. The tragedy is set in Rome and Egypt, characterised by swift, panoramic shifts in geographical locations and in registers, alternating between sensual, imaginative Alexandria and the more pragmatic, austere Rome.
Many consider Cleopatra one of the most complex female characters in Shakespeare's body of work.[3]:p.45 She is frequently vain and histrionic, almost provoking an audience to scorn; at the same time, Shakespeare's efforts invest both her and Antony with tragic grandeur. These contradictory features have led to famously divided critical responses.[4] It is difficult to classify Antony and Cleopatra as belonging to a single genre. It can be described as a history play (though it does not completely adhere to historical account), tragedy (though not completely in Aristotelian terms), comedy, and a romance.


Contents  [hide]
1 Characters
2 Synopsis
3 Sources
4 Date and text
5 Analysis and criticism 5.1 Classical allusions and analogues: Dido and Aeneas from Virgil's Aeneid
5.2 Critical history: changing views of Cleopatra
5.3 Structure: Egypt and Rome 5.3.1 Literary devices used to convey the differences between Rome and Egypt
5.3.2 The characterization of Rome and Egypt
5.3.3 The changing views of critics regarding gender characterization of Egypt and Rome
5.4 Themes and motifs 5.4.1 Ambiguity and opposition 5.4.1.1 Theme of ambivalence
5.4.2 Betrayal
5.4.3 Power dynamics
5.4.4 Performing gender and crossdressing
5.4.5 Empire 5.4.5.1 Sexuality and empire
5.4.5.2 Politics of empire
5.4.5.3 Empire and intertextuality
5.4.6 The happy ending of Antony and Cleopatra
5.4.7 Fortune and chance: politics and nature

6 Adaptations and cultural references 6.1 Selected stage productions
6.2 Films and TV
6.3 Stage adaptations
6.4 Musical adaptations
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links

Characters[edit]
##Mark Antony – Roman general and one of the three joint leaders, or "triumvirs", who rule the Roman Republic after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.
##Octavius Caesar – another triumvir
##Lepidus – another triumvir
##Cleopatra – Queen of Egypt
##Sextus Pompey – rebel against the triumvirate and son of the late Pompey
Antony's party
##Demetrius
##Philo
##Domitius Enobarbus
##Ventidius
##Silius – officer in Ventidius' army
##Eros
##Canidius – Antony's lieutenant-general
##Scarus
##Dercetus
##Schoolmaster – Antony's ambassador to Octavius
##Rannius (non-speaking role)
##Lucilius (non-speaking role)
##Lamprius (non-speaking role)
Octavius' party
##Octavia – Octavius' sister
##Maecenas
##Agrippa – admiral of the Roman navy
##Taurus – Octavius' lieutenant-general
##Dolabella
##Thidias
##Gallus
##Proculeius
Sextus' party
##Menecrates
##Menas
##Varrius
Cleopatra's party
##Charmian – maid of honour
##Iras – maid of honour
##Alexas
##Mardian – a eunuch
##Diomedes – treasurer
##Seleucus – attendant
Other
##Soothsayer
##Clown
##Boy
##Sentry
##Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants
Synopsis[edit]



Cleopatra by John William Waterhouse (1888)
Mark Antony – one of the triumvirs of the Roman Republic, along with Octavius and Lepidus – has neglected his soldierly duties after being beguiled by Egypt's Queen, Cleopatra. He ignores Rome's domestic problems, including the fact that his third wife Fulvia rebelled against Octavius and then died.
Octavius calls Antony back to Rome from Alexandria in order to help him fight against Sextus Pompey, Menecrates, and Menas, three notorious pirates of the Mediterranean. At Alexandria, Cleopatra begs Antony not to go, and though he repeatedly affirms his deep passionate love for her, he eventually leaves.
Back in Rome, a general brings forward the idea that Antony should marry Octavius's younger sister, Octavia, in order to cement the friendly bond between the two men. Antony's lieutenant Enobarbus, though, knows that Octavia can never satisfy him after Cleopatra. In a famous passage, he describes Cleopatra's charms: "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."
A soothsayer warns Antony that he is sure to lose if he ever tries to fight Octavius.
In Egypt, Cleopatra learns of Antony's marriage to Octavia and takes furious revenge upon the messenger that brings her the news. She grows content only when her courtiers assure her that Octavia is homely: short, low-browed, round-faced and with bad hair.
At a confrontation, the triumvirs parley with Sextus Pompey, and offer him a truce. He can retain Sicily and Sardinia, but he must help them "rid the sea of pirates" and send them tributes. After some hesitation Sextus agrees. They engage in a drunken celebration on Sextus' galley, though the austere Octavius leaves early and sober from the party. Menas suggests to Sextus that he kill the three triumvirs and make himself ruler of the Roman Republic, but he refuses, finding it dishonourable. Later, Octavius and Lepidus break their truce with Sextus and war against him. This is unapproved by Antony, and he is furious.
Antony returns to Alexandria, Egypt, and crowns Cleopatra and himself as rulers of Egypt and the eastern third of the Roman Republic (which was Antony's share as one of the triumvirs). He accuses Octavius of not giving him his fair share of Sextus' lands, and is angry that Lepidus, whom Octavius has imprisoned, is out of the triumvirate. Octavius agrees to the former demand, but otherwise is very displeased with what Antony has done.



 In this Baroque vision, Battle of Actium by Laureys a Castro (1672), Cleopatra flees, lower left, in a barge with a figurehead of Fortuna.
Antony prepares to battle Octavius. Enobarbus urges Antony to fight on land, where he has the advantage, instead of by sea, where the navy of Octavius is lighter, more mobile and better manned. Antony refuses, since Octavius has dared him to fight at sea. Cleopatra pledges her fleet to aid Antony. However, during the Battle of Actium off the western coast of Greece, Cleopatra flees with her sixty ships, and Antony follows her, leaving his forces to ruin. Ashamed of what he has done for the love of Cleopatra, Antony reproaches her for making him a coward, but also sets this true and deep love above all else, saying "Give me a kiss; even this repays me."
Octavius sends a messenger to ask Cleopatra to give up Antony and come over to his side. She hesitates, and flirts with the messenger, when Antony walks in and angrily denounces her behavior. He sends the messenger to be whipped. Eventually, he forgives Cleopatra and pledges to fight another battle for her, this time on land.
On the eve of the battle, Antony's soldiers hear strange portents, which they interpret as the god Hercules abandoning his protection of Antony. Furthermore, Enobarbus, Antony's long-serving lieutenant, deserts him and goes over to Octavius' side. Rather than confiscating Enobarbus' goods, which he did not take with him when he fled, Antony orders them to be sent to Enobarbus. Enobarbus is so overwhelmed by Antony's generosity, and so ashamed of his own disloyalty, that he dies from a broken heart.
Antony loses the battle as his troops desert en masse and he denounces Cleopatra: "This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me." He resolves to kill her for the treachery. Cleopatra decides that the only way to win back Antony's love is to send him word that she killed herself, dying with his name on her lips. She locks herself in her monument, and awaits Antony's return.



The Death of Cleopatra by Reginald Arthur (1892)
Her plan fails: rather than rushing back in remorse to see the "dead" Cleopatra, Antony decides that his own life is no longer worth living. He begs one of his aides, Eros, to run him through with a sword, but Eros cannot bear to do it and kills himself. Antony admires Eros' courage and attempts to do the same, but only succeeds in wounding himself. In great pain, he learns that Cleopatra is indeed alive. He is hoisted up to her in her monument and dies in her arms.
Octavius goes to Cleopatra trying to persuade her to surrender. She angrily refuses since she can imagine nothing worse than being led in chains through the streets of Rome, proclaimed a villain for the ages. She imagines that "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." This speech is full of dramatic irony, because in Shakespeare's time Cleopatra really was played by a "squeaking boy" and Shakespeare's play does depict Antony's drunken revels.
Cleopatra is betrayed and taken into custody by the Romans. She gives Octavius what she claims is a complete account of her wealth but is betrayed by her treasurer, who claims she is holding treasure back. Octavius reassures her that he is not interested in her wealth, but Dolabella warns her that he intends to parade her at his triumph.
Cleopatra kills herself using the poison of an asp. She dies calmly and ecstatically, imagining how she will meet Antony again in the afterlife. Her serving maids, Iras and Charmian, also kill themselves. Octavius discovers the dead bodies and experiences conflicting emotions. Antony's and Cleopatra's deaths leave him free to become the first Roman Emperor, but he also feels some kind of sympathy for them: "She shall be buried by her Antony. / No grave upon the earth shall clip in it / A pair so famous..." He orders a public military funeral.
Sources[edit]
The principal source for the story is an English translation of Plutarch's "Life of Mark Antony", from the Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Compared Together. This translation, by Sir Thomas North, was first published in 1579. Many phrases in Shakespeare's play are taken directly from North, including Enobarbus' famous description of Cleopatra and her barge:


I will tell you.
 The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
 Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
 Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
 The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
 Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
 The water which they beat to follow faster,
 As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
 It beggar'd all description: she did lie
 In her pavilion—cloth-of-gold of tissue—
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
 The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
 Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
 With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
 To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
 And what they undid did.

This may be compared with North's text:

"Therefore when she was sent unto by diverse letters, both from Antonius himselfe, and also from his friends, she made so light of it and mocked Antonius so much, that she disdained so set forward otherwise, but to take her barge in the river of Cydnus, the poope whereof was of gold, the sailes of purple, and the oares of silver, which kept stroke in rowing after the sound of musicke of flutes, howboyes cithernes, vials and such other instruments as they played upon the barge. And now for the person of her selfe: she was layed under a pavilion of cloth of gold of tissue, apparelled and attired like the goddesse Venus, commonly drawn in picture: and hard by her, on either hand of her, pretie fair boys apparelled as painters do set foorth god Cupid, with little fans in their hands, with which they fanned wind upon her."
—The Life of Marcus Antonius[5][6][7]
However, Shakespeare also adds scenes, including many portraying Cleopatra's domestic life, and the role of Enobarbus is greatly developed. Historical facts are also changed: in Plutarch, Antony's final defeat was many weeks after the Battle of Actium, and Octavia lived with Antony for several years and bore him two children: Antonia Major, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Nero and maternal grandmother of the Empress Valeria Messalina, and Antonia Minor, the sister-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, mother of the Emperor Claudius, and paternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger.
Date and text[edit]



 The first page of Antony and Cleopatra from the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623.
Many scholars believe it was written in 1606–07,[a] although some researchers have argued for an earlier dating, around 1603–04.[15] Antony and Cleopatra was entered in the Stationers' Register (an early form of copyright for printed works) in May 1608, but it does not seem to have been actually printed until the publication of the First Folio in 1623. The Folio is therefore the only authoritative text we have today. Some scholars speculate that it derives from Shakespeare's own draft, or "foul papers," since it contains minor errors in speech labels and stage directions that are thought to be characteristic of the author in the process of composition.[16]
Modern editions divide the play into a conventional five act structure, but as in most of his earlier plays, Shakespeare did not create these act divisions. His play is articulated in forty separate 'scenes', more than he used for any other play. Even the word 'scenes' may be inappropriate as a description, as the scene changes are often very fluid, almost montage-like. The large number of scenes is necessary because the action frequently switches between Alexandria, Italy, Messina in Sicily, Syria, Athens and other parts of Egypt and the Roman Republic. The play contains thirty-four speaking characters, fairly typical for a Shakespeare play on such an epic scale.
Analysis and criticism[edit]
Classical allusions and analogues: Dido and Aeneas from Virgil's Aeneid[edit]
Many critics have noted the strong influence of Virgil's first-century Roman epic poem, the Aeneid, on Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Such influence should be expected, given the prevalence of allusions to Virgil in the Renaissance culture in which Shakespeare was educated. Moreover, as is well-known, the historical Antony and Cleopatra were the prototypes and antitypes for Virgil's Dido and Aeneas: Dido, ruler of the north African city of Carthage, tempts Aeneas, the legendary exemplar of Roman pietas, to forego his task of founding Rome after the fall of Troy. The fictional Aeneas dutifully resists Dido's temptation and abandons her to forge on to Italy, placing political destiny before romantic love, in stark contrast to Antony, who puts passionate love of his own Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, before duty to Rome.[b] Given the well-established traditional connections between the fictional Dido and Aeneas and the historical Antony and Cleopatra, it is no surprise that Shakespeare includes numerous allusions to Virgil's epic in his historical tragedy. As Janet Adelman observes, "almost all the central elements in Antony and Cleopatra are to be found in the Aeneid: the opposing values of Rome and a foreign passion; the political necessity of a passionless Roman marriage; the concept of an afterlife in which the passionate lovers meet."[17] However, as Heather James argues, Shakespeare's allusions to Virgil's Dido and Aeneas are far from slavish imitations. James emphasises the various ways in which Shakespeare's play subverts the ideology of the Virgilian tradition; one such instance of this subversion is Cleopatra's dream of Antony in Act 5 ("I dreamt there was an Emperor Antony" [5.2.75]). James argues that in her extended description of this dream, Cleopatra "reconstructs the heroic masculinity of an Antony whose identity has been fragmented and scattered by Roman opinion."[18] This politically charged dream vision is just one example of the way that Shakespeare's story destabilises and potentially critiques the Roman ideology inherited from Virgil's epic and embodied in the mythic Roman ancestor Aeneas.
Critical history: changing views of Cleopatra[edit]
Cleopatra, being the complex figure that she is, has faced a variety of interpretations of character throughout history. Perhaps the most famous dichotomy is that of the manipulative seductress versus the skilled leader. Examining the critical history of the character of Cleopatra reveals that intellectuals of the 19th century and the early 20th century viewed her as merely an object of sexuality that could be understood and diminished rather than an imposing force with great poise and capacity for leadership.
This phenomenon is illustrated by the famous poet T.S. Eliot's take on Cleopatra. He saw her as "no wielder of power," but rather that her "devouring sexuality...diminishes her power".[19] His language and writings use images of darkness, desire, beauty, sensuality, and carnality to portray not a strong, powerful woman, but a temptress. Throughout his writing on Antony and Cleopatra, Eliot refers to Cleopatra as material rather than person. He frequently calls her "thing". T.S. Eliot conveys the view of early critical history on the character of Cleopatra.
Other scholars also discuss early critics' views of Cleopatra in relation to a serpent signifying "original sin".[20]:p.12 The symbol of the serpent "functions, at the symbolic level, as a means of her submission, the phallic appropriation of the queen's body (and the land it embodies) by Octavius and the empire".[20]:p.13 The serpent, because it represents temptation, sin, and feminine weakness, is used by 19th and early 20th century critics to undermine Cleopatra's political authority and to emphasise the image of Cleopatra as manipulative seductress.
The postmodern view of Cleopatra is complex. Doris Adler suggests that, in a postmodern philosophical sense, we cannot begin to grasp the character of Cleopatra because, "In a sense it is a distortion to consider Cleopatra at any moment apart from the entire cultural milieu that creates and consumes Antony and Cleopatra on stage. However the isolation and microscopic examination of a single aspect apart from its host environment is an effort to improve the understanding of the broader context. In similar fashion, the isolation and examination of the stage image of Cleopatra becomes an attempt to improve the understanding of the theatrical power of her infinite variety and the cultural treatment of that power."[21] So, as a microcosm, Cleopatra can be understood within a postmodern context, as long as one understands that the purpose for the examination of this microcosm is to further one's own interpretation of the work as a whole. Author L.T. Fitz believes that it is not possible to derive a clear, postmodern view of Cleopatra due to the sexism that all critics bring with them when they review her intricate character. He states specifically, "Almost all critical approaches to this play have been coloured by the sexist assumptions the critics have brought with them to their reading."[22] One seemingly anti-sexist viewpoint comes from Donald C. Freeman's articulations of the meaning and significance of the deaths of both Antony and Cleopatra at the end of the play. Freeman states, "We understand Antony as a grand failure because the container of his Romanness "dislimns": it can no longer outline and define him even to himself. Conversely, we understand Cleopatra at her death as the transcendent queen of "immortal longings" because the container of her mortality can no longer restrain her: unlike Antony, she never melts, but sublimates from her very earthly flesh to ethereal fire and air."[23]
Some postmodern critics also believe that the view of Cleopatra is constantly shifting and can be interpreted in many new and sometimes exciting ways. Francesca T. Royster suggests that contemporary interpretations of Cleopatra consider her African-American traits: "Cleopatra has 'soul'—she provides the proof that there is a locatable black aesthetic transcendent of time and place."[24]
These constant shifts in the perception of Cleopatra are well represented in a review of Estelle Parsons' adaptation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra at the Interart Theatre in New York City. Arthur Holmberg surmises, "What had at first seemed like a desperate attempt to be chic in a trendy New York manner was, in fact, an ingenious way to characterise the differences between Antony's Rome and Cleopatra's Egypt. Most productions rely on rather predictable contrasts in costuming to imply the rigid discipline of the former and the languid self-indulgence of the latter. By exploiting ethnic differences in speech, gesture, and movement, Parsons rendered the clash between two opposing cultures not only contemporary but also poignant. In this setting, the white Egyptians represented a graceful and ancient aristocracy—well groomed, elegantly poised, and doomed. The Romans, upstarts from the West, lacked finesse and polish. But by sheer brute strength they would hold dominion over principalities and kingdoms."[25] This assessment of the changing way in which Cleopatra is represented in modern adaptations of Shakespeare's play is yet another example of how the modern and postmodern view of Cleopatra is constantly evolving.
Cleopatra is a difficult character to pin down because there are multiple aspects of her personality that we occasionally get a glimpse of. However, the most dominant parts of her character seem to oscillate between a powerful ruler, a seductress, and a heroine of sorts. Power is one of Cleopatra's most dominant character traits and she uses it as a means of control. This thirst for control manifested itself through Cleopatra's initial seduction of Antony in which she was dressed as Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and made quite a calculated entrance in order to capture his attention ([26]). This sexualised act extends itself into Cleopatra's role as a seductress because it was her courage and unapologetic manner that leaves people remembering her as a "grasping, licentious harlot" ([27]). However, despite her "insatiable sexual passion" she was still using these relationships as part of a grander political scheme, once again revealing how dominant Cleopatra's desire was for power ([27]). Due to Cleopatra's close relationship with power, she seems to take on the role of a heroine because there is something in her passion and intelligence that intrigues others ([28]). She was an autonomous and confident ruler, sending a powerful message about the independence and strength of women. Cleopatra had quite a wide influence, and still continues to inspire, making her a heroine to many.
Structure: Egypt and Rome[edit]
The relationship between Egypt and Rome in Antony and Cleopatra is central to understanding the plot, as the dichotomy allows the reader to gain more insight into the characters, their relationships, and the ongoing events that occur throughout the play. Shakespeare emphasises the differences between the two nations with his use of language and literary devices, which also highlight the different characterizations of the two countries by their own inhabitants and visitors. Literary critics have also spent many years developing arguments concerning the "masculinity" of Rome and the Romans and the "femininity" of Egypt and the Egyptians. In traditional criticism of Antony and Cleopatra, "Rome has been characterised as a male world, presided over by the austere Caesar, and Egypt as a female domain, embodied by a Cleopatra who is seen to be as abundant, leaky, and changeable as the Nile".[29] In such a reading, male and female, Rome and Egypt, reason and emotion, and austerity and leisure are treated as mutually exclusive binaries that all interrelate with one another. The straightforwardness of the binary between male Rome and female Egypt has been challenged in later 20th-century criticism of the play: "In the wake of feminist, poststructuralist, and cultural-materialist critiques of gender essentialism, most modern Shakespeare scholars are inclined to be far more skeptical about claims that Shakespeare possessed a unique insight into a timeless 'femininity'."[29] As a result, critics have been much more likely in recent years to describe Cleopatra as a character that confuses or deconstructs gender than as a character that embodies the feminine.[30]
Literary devices used to convey the differences between Rome and Egypt[edit]
In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare uses several literary techniques to convey a deeper meaning about the differences between Rome and Egypt. One example of this is his schema of the container as suggested by critic Donald Freeman in his article, "The rack dislimns." In his article, Freeman suggests that the container is representative of the body and the overall theme of the play that "knowing is seeing."[23] In literary terms a schema refers to a plan throughout the work, which means that Shakespeare had a set path for unveiling the meaning of the "container" to the audience within the play. An example of the body in reference to the container can be seen in the following passage:


Nay, but this dotage of our general's
 O'erflows the measure . . .
 His captain's heart,
 Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
 The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper
 And is become the bellows and the fan
 To cool a gypsy's lust. (1.1.1–2, 6–10)
The lack of tolerance exerted by the hard-edged Roman military code allots to a general's dalliance is metaphorised as a container, a measuring cup that cannot hold the liquid of Antony's grand passion.[23] Later we also see Antony's heart-container swells again because it "o'erflows the measure." For Antony, the container of the Rome-world is confining and a "measure," while the container of the Egypt-world is liberating, an ample domain where he can explore.[23] The contrast between the two is expressed in two of the play's famous speeches:


Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
 Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space!
 Kingdoms are clay!
 (1.1.34–36)
For Rome to "melt is for it to lose its defining shape, the boundary that contains its civic and military codes.[23] This schema is important in understanding Antony's grand failure because the Roman container can no longer outline or define him—even to himself. Conversely we come to understand Cleopatra in that the container of her mortality can no longer restrain her. Unlike Antony whose container melts, she gains a sublimity being released into the air.[23]
In her article "Roman World, Egyptian Earth", critic Mary Thomas Crane introduces another symbol throughout the play: The four elements. In general, characters associated with Egypt perceive their world composed of the Aristotelian elements, which are earth, wind, fire and water. For Aristotle these physical elements were the centre of the universe and appropriately Cleopatra heralds her coming death when she proclaims, "I am fire and air; my other elements/I give to baser life," (5.2.289-90).[31] Romans, on the other hand, seem to have left behind that system, replacing it with a subjectivity separated from and overlooking the natural world and imagining itself as able to control it. These differing systems of thought and perception result in very different versions of nation and empire. Shakespeare's relatively positive representation of Egypt has sometimes been read as nostalgia for an heroic past. Because the Aristotelian elements were a declining theory in Shakespeare's time, it can also be read as nostalgia for a waning theory of the material world, the pre-seventeenth-century cosmos of elements and humours that rendered subject and world deeply interconnected and saturated with meaning.[31] Thus this reflects the difference between the Egyptians who are interconnected with the elemental earth and the Romans in their dominating the hard-surfaced, impervious world.
Critics also suggest that the political attitudes of the main characters are an allegory for the political atmosphere of Shakespeare's time. According to Paul Lawrence Rose in his article "The Politics of Antony and Cleopatra", the views expressed in the play of "national solidarity, social order and strong rule"[32] were familiar after the absolute monarchies of Henry VII and Henry VIII and the political disaster involving Mary Queen of Scots. Essentially the political themes throughout the play are reflective of the different models of rule during Shakespeare's time. The political attitudes of Antony, Caesar, and Cleopatra are all basic archetypes for the conflicting sixteenth-century views of kingship.[32] Caesar is representative of the ideal king, who brings about the Pax Romana similar to the political peace established under the Tudors. His cold demeanour is representative of what the sixteenth century thought to be a side-effect of political genius[32] Conversely, Antony's focus is on valour and chivalry, and Antony views the political power of victory as a by-product of both. Cleopatra's power has been described as "naked, hereditary, and despotic,"[32] and it is argued that she is reminiscent of Mary Tudor's reign—implying it is not coincidence that she brings about the "doom of Egypt." This is in part due to an emotional comparison in their rule. Cleopatra, who was emotionally invested in Antony, brought about the downfall of Egypt in her commitment to love, whereas Mary Tudor's emotional attachment to Catholicism fates her rule. The political implications within the play reflect on Shakespeare's England in its message that Impact is not a match for Reason.[32]
The characterization of Rome and Egypt[edit]
Critics have often used the opposition between Rome and Egypt in Antony and Cleopatra to set forth defining characteristics of the various characters. While some characters are distinctly Egyptian, others are distinctly Roman, some are torn between the two, and still others attempt to remain neutral.[33] Critic James Hirsh has stated that, "as a result, the play dramatises not two but four main figurative locales: Rome as it is perceived from a Roman point of view; Rome as it is perceived from an Egyptian point of view; Egypt as it is perceived form a Roman point of view; and Egypt as it is perceived from an Egyptian point of view."[33]:p.175
Rome from the Roman perspective: According to Hirsh, Rome largely defines itself by its opposition to Egypt.[33]:p.167–77 Where Rome is viewed as structured, moral, mature, and essentially masculine, Egypt is the polar opposite; chaotic, immoral, immature, and feminine. In fact, even the distinction between masculine and feminine is a purely Roman idea which the Egyptians largely ignore. The Romans view the "world" as nothing more than something for them to conquer and control. They believe they are "impervious to environmental influence"[31] and that they are not to be influenced and controlled by the world but vice versa.
Rome from the Egyptian perspective: The Egyptians view the Romans as boring, oppressive and strict. They lack passion and creativity preferring strict rules and regulations.[33]:p.177
Egypt from the Egyptian perspective: The Egyptian World view reflects what Mary Floyd-Wilson has called geo-humoralism, or the belief that climate and other environmental factors shapes racial character.[34] The Egyptians view themselves as deeply entwined with the natural "earth". Egypt is not a location for them to rule over, but an inextricable part of them. Cleopatra envisions herself as the embodiment of Egypt because she has been nurtured and moulded by the environment[31] fed by "the dung, / the beggar's nurse and Caesar's" (5.2.7–8). They view life as more fluid and less structured allowing for creativity and passionate pursuits.
Egypt from the Roman perspective: The Romans view the Egyptians essentially as improper. Their passion for life is continuously viewed as irresponsible, indulgent, over-sexualised and disorderly.[33]:p.176–77 The Romans view Egypt as a distraction that can send even the best men off course. This is demonstrated in the following passage describing Antony.


Boys who, being mature in knowledge,
 Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
 And so rebel judgment.
 (1.4.31–33)
Ultimately the dichotomy between Rome and Egypt is used to distinguish two sets of conflicting values between two different locales. Yet, it goes beyond this division to show the conflicting sets of values not only between two cultures but within cultures, even within individuals.[33]:p.180 As John Gillies has argued "the 'orientalism' of Cleopatra's court—with its luxury, decadence, splendour, sensuality, appetite, effeminacy and eunuchs—seems a systematic inversion of the legendary Roman values of temperance, manliness, courage".[35] While some characters fall completely into the category of Roman or Egyptian (Octavius as Roman, Cleopatra Egyptian) others, such as Antony, cannot chose between the two conflicting locales and cultures. Instead he oscillates between the two. In the beginning of the play Cleopatra calls attention to this saying


He was dispos'd to mirth, but on the sudden
 A Roman thought hath strook him.
 (1.2.82–83)
This shows Antony's willingness to embrace the pleasures of Egyptian life, yet his tendency to still be drawn back into Roman thoughts and ideas.
Orientalism plays a very specific, and yet, nuanced role in the story of Antony and Cleopatra. A more specific term comes to mind, from Richmond Barbour, that of proto-orientalism, that is orientalism before the age of imperialism.[36] This puts Antony and Cleopatra in an interesting period of time, one that existed before the West knew much about what would eventually be called the Orient, but still a time where it was known that there were lands beyond Europe. This allowed Shakespeare to use widespread assumptions about the "exotic" east with little academic recourse. It could be said that Antony and Cleopatra and their relationship represent the first meeting of the two cultures in a literary sense, and that this relationship would lay the foundation for the idea of Western superiority vs. Eastern inferiority.[37] The case could also be made that at least in a literary sense, the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra was some people's first exposure to an inter-racial relationship, and in a major way. This plays into the idea that Cleopatra has been made out to be an "other", with terms used to describe her like "gypsy".[38] And it is this otherization that is at the heart of the piece itself, the idea that Antony, a man of Western original and upbringing has coupled himself with the Eastern women, the stereotypical "other".[39]
The changing views of critics regarding gender characterization of Egypt and Rome[edit]
Feminist criticism of Antony and Cleopatra has provided a more in-depth reading of the play, has challenged previous norms for criticism, and has opened a larger discussion of the characterization of Egypt and Rome. However, as Gayle Greene so aptly recognises, it must be addressed that "feminist criticism [of Shakespeare] is nearly as concerned with the biases of Shakespeare's interpretors [sic] – critics, directors, editors – as with Shakespeare himself."[40]
Feminist scholars, in respect to Antony and Cleopatra, often examine Shakespeare's use of language when describing Rome and Egypt. Through his language, such scholars argue, he tends to characterise Rome as "masculine" and Egypt as "feminine." According to Gayle Greene, "the 'feminine' world of love and personal relationships is secondary to the 'masculine' world of war and politics, [and] has kept us from realizing that Cleopatra is the play's protagonist, and so skewed our perceptions of character, theme, and structure."[40] The highlighting of these starkly contrasting qualities of the two backdrops of Antony and Cleopatra, in both Shakespeare's language and the words of critics, brings attention to the characterization of the title characters, since their respective countries are meant to represent and emphasise their attributes.
The feminine categorization of Egypt, and subsequently Cleopatra, was negatively portrayed throughout early criticism. The story of Antony and Cleopatra was often summarised as either "the fall of a great general, betrayed in his dotage by a treacherous strumpet, or else it can be viewed as a celebration of transcendental love."[22]:p.297 In both reduced summaries, Egypt and Cleopatra are presented as either the destruction of Antony's masculinity and greatness or as agents in a love story. Once the Women's Liberation Movement grew between the 1960s and 1980s, however, critics began to take a closer look at both Shakespeare's characterization of Egypt and Cleopatra and the work and opinions of other critics on the same matter.
Jonathan Gil Harris claims that the Egypt vs. Rome dichotomy many critics often adopt does not only represent a "gender polarity" but also a "gender hierarchy".[29]:p.409 Critical approaches to Antony and Cleopatra from the beginning of the 20th Century mostly adopt a reading that places Rome as higher in the hierarchy than Egypt. Early critics like Georg Brandes presented Egypt as a lesser nation because of its lack of rigidity and structure and presented Cleopatra, negatively, as "the woman of women, quintessentiated Eve."[41] Egypt and Cleopatra are both represented by Brandes as uncontrollable because of their connection with the Nile River and Cleopatra's "infinite variety" (2.2.236).
In more recent years, critics have taken a closer look at previous readings of Antony and Cleopatra and have found several aspects overlooked. Egypt was previously characterised as the nation of the feminine attributes of lust and desire while Rome was more controlled. However, Harris points out that Caesar and Antony both possess an uncontrollable desire for Egypt and Cleopatra: Caesar's is political while Antony's is personal. Harris further implies that Romans have an uncontrollable lust and desire for "what they do not or cannot have."[29]:p.415 For example, Antony only desires his wife Fulvia after she is dead:


There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:
 What our contempt doth often hurl from us,
 We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
 By revolution lowering, does become
 The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone:
 The hand could pluck her back that shov'd her on.
 (1.2.119-24)
In this way, Harris is suggesting that Rome is no higher on any "gender hierarchy" than Egypt.
L. T. Fitz outwardly claims that early criticism of Antony and Cleopatra is "colored by the sexist assumptions the critics have brought with them to their reading."[22]:p.297 Fitz argues that previous criticisms place a heavy emphasis on Cleopatra's "wicked and manipulative" ways, which are further emphasised by her association with Egypt and her contrast to the "chaste and submissive" Roman Octavia.[22]:p.301 Finally, Fitz emphasises the tendency of early critics to assert that Antony is the sole protagonist of the play. This claim is apparent in Brandes argument: "when [Antony] perishes, a prey to the voluptuousness of the East, it seems as though Roman greatness and the Roman Republic expires with him."[42] Yet Fitz points out that Antony dies in Act IV while Cleopatra (and therefore Egypt) is present throughout Act V until she commits suicide at the end and "would seem to fulfill at least the formal requirements of the tragic hero."[22]:p.310
These criticisms are only a few examples of how the critical views of Egypt's "femininity" and Rome's "masculinity" have changed over time and how the development of feminist theory has helped in widening the discussion.
Themes and motifs[edit]
Ambiguity and opposition[edit]
Relativity and ambiguity are prominent ideas in the play, and the audience is challenged to come to conclusions about the ambivalent nature of many of the characters. The relationship between Antony and Cleopatra can easily be read as one of love or lust; their passion can be construed as being wholly destructive but also showing elements of transcendence. Cleopatra might be said to kill herself out of love for Antony, or because she has lost political power.[3]:p.127 Octavius can be seen as either a noble and good ruler, only wanting what is right for Rome, or as a cruel and ruthless politician.
A major theme running through the play is opposition. Throughout the play, oppositions between Rome and Egypt, love and lust, and masculinity and femininity are emphasised, subverted, and commented on. One of Shakespeare's most famous speeches, drawn almost verbatim from North's translation of Plutarch's Lives, Enobarbus' description of Cleopatra on her barge, is full of opposites resolved into a single meaning, corresponding with these wider oppositions that characterise the rest of the play:


The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water...
 ...she did lie
 In her pavilion—cloth-of-gold of tissue—
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
 The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
 Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
 With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did. (Act 2, Scene 2)
Cleopatra herself sees Antony as both the Gorgon and Mars (Act 2 Scene 5, lines 118-19).
Theme of ambivalence[edit]
The play is accurately structured with paradox and ambivalence in order to convey the antitheses that make Shakespeare's work remarkable.[43] Ambivalence in this play is the contrasting response of one's own character. It may be perceived as opposition between word and deed but not to be confused with "duality." For example, after Antony abandons his army during the sea battle to follow Cleopatra, he expresses his remorse and pain in his famous speech:


All is lost; This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me: My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
 They cast their caps up and carouse together Like friends long lost. Triple-turn'd whore! 'tis thou Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly;
 For when I am revenged upon my charm, I have done all. Bid them all fly; begone. [Exit SCARUS] O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more: Fortune and Antony part here; even here
 Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark'd, That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am:
 O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,— Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home; Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,— Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose, Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
 What, Eros, Eros! [Enter CLEOPATRA] Ah, thou spell! Avaunt![44] (IV.12.2913–2938)
However, he then strangely says to Cleopatra: "All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss. Even this repays me"[44](3.12.69–70). Antony's speech conveys pain and anger, but he acts in opposition to his emotions and words, all for the love of Cleopatra. Literary critic Joyce Carol Oates explains: "Antony's agony is curiously muted for someone who has achieved and lost so much." This irony gap between word and deed of the characters results in a theme of ambivalence. Moreover, due to the flow of constant changing emotions throughout the play: "the characters do not know each other, nor can we know them, any more clearly than we know ourselves".[45] However, it is believed by critics that opposition is what makes good fiction. Another example of ambivalence in Antony and Cleopatra is in the opening act of the play when Cleopatra asks Anthony: "Tell me how much you love." Prominent professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tzachi Zamir, points out: "The persistence of doubt is in perpetual tension with the opposing need for certainty" and he refers to the persistence of doubt that derives from the contradiction of word and deed in the characters.[46]
Betrayal[edit]
Betrayal is a recurring theme throughout the play. At one time or another, almost every character betrays their country, ethics, or a companion. However, certain characters waver between betrayal and loyalty. This struggle is most apparent among the actions of Cleopatra, Enobarbus, and most importantly Antony. Antony mends ties with his Roman roots and alliance with Caesar by entering into a marriage with Octavia, however he returns to Cleopatra. Historian Diana E. E. Kleiner points out "Anthony's perceived betrayal of Rome was greeted with public calls for war with Egypt".[47] Although he vows to remain loyal in his marriage, his impulses and unfaithfulness with his Roman roots is what ultimately leads to war. It is twice Cleopatra abandons Antony during battle and whether out of fear or political motives, she deceived Antony. When Thidias, Caesar's messenger, tells Cleopatra Caesar will show her mercy if she will relinquish Antony, she is quick to respond:


"Most kind messenger,
 Say to great Caesar this in deputation:
 I kiss his conqu'ring hand. Tell him I am prompt
 To lay my crown at 's feet, and there to kneel."[44] (III.13.75–79)
Shakespeare critic Sara Deats says Cleopatras betrayal fell "on the successful fencing with Octavius that leaves her to be "noble to [herself]".[48] However, she quickly reconciles with Antony, reaffirming her loyalty towards him and never truly submitting to Caesar. Enobarbus, Antony's most devoted friend, betrays Antony when he deserts him in favour for Caesar. He exclaims, "I fight against thee! / No: I will go seek some ditch wherein to die"[44] (IV. 6. 38–39). Although he abandoned Antony, critic Kent Cartwright claims Enobarbus' death "uncovers his greater love" for him considering it was caused by the guilt of what he had done to his friend thus adding to the confusion of the characters' loyalty and betrayal that previous critics have also discovered.[49] Even though loyalty is central to secure alliances, Shakespeare is making a point with the theme of betrayal by exposing how people in power cannot be trusted, no matter how honest their word may seem. The characters' loyalty and validity of promises are constantly called into question. The perpetual swaying between alliances strengthens the ambiguity and uncertainty amid the characters loyalty and disloyalty.
Power dynamics[edit]
As a play concerning the relationship between two empires, the presence of a power dynamic is apparent and becomes a recurring theme. Antony and Cleopatra battle over this dynamic as heads of state, yet the theme of power also resonates in their romantic relationship. The Roman ideal of power lies in a political nature taking a base in economical control.[50] As an imperialist power, Rome takes its power in the ability to change the world.[31] As a Roman man, Antony is expected to fulfill certain qualities pertaining to his Roman masculine power, especially in the war arena and in his duty as a soldier:


Those his goodly eyes,
 That o'er the files and musters of the war
 Have glowed like plated mars, now bend, now turn
 The office and devotion of their view
 Upon a tawny front. His captain's heart,
 Which in the scuffles of greatness hath burst
 The buckles on his breast, reneges all tempers,
 And is becomes the bellows and the fan
 To cool a gipsy's lust.[51]
Cleopatra's character is slightly unpin-able, as her character identity retains a certain aspect of mystery. She embodies the mystical, exotic, and dangerous nature of Egypt as the "serpent of old Nile".[31] Critic Lisa Starks says that "Cleopatra [comes] to signify the double-image of the "temptress/goddess".[52] She is continually described in an unearthly nature which extends to her description as the goddess Venus.


...For her own person,
 It beggared all description. She did lie
 In her pavilion—cloth of god, of tissue—
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
 The fancy outwork nature.[53]
This mysteriousness attached with the supernatural not only captures the audience and Antony, but also, draws all other characters' focus. As a center of conversation when not present in the scene, Cleopatra is continually a central point, therefore demanding the control of the stage.[54]:p.605 As an object of sexual desire, she is attached to the Roman need to conquer.[52] Her mix of sexual prowess with the political power is a threat to Roman politics. She retains her heavy involvement in the military aspect of her rule, especially when she asserts herself as "the president of [her] kingdom will/ Appear there for a man."[55] Where the dominating power lies is up for interpretation, yet there are several mentions of the power exchange in their relationship in the text. Antony remarks on Cleopatra's power over him multiple times throughout the play, the most obvious being attached to sexual innuendo: "You did know / How much you were my conqueror, and that / My sword, made weak by my affection, would / Obey it on all cause."[56]
Use of language in power dynamics
Manipulation and the quest for power are very prominent themes not only in the play but specifically in the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra. Both utilise language to undermine the power of the other and to heighten their own sense of power.
Cleopatra uses language to undermine Antony's assumed authority over her. Cleopatra's "'Roman' language of command works to undermine Antony's authority."[57] By using a Romanesque rhetoric, Cleopatra commands Antony and others in Antony's own style. In their first exchange in Act I, scene 1, Cleopatra says to Antony, "I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved."[58] In this case Cleopatra speaks in an authoritative and affirming sense to her lover, which to Shakespeare's audience would be uncharacteristic for a female lover.
Antony's language suggests his struggle for power against Cleopatra's dominion. Antony's "obsessive language concerned with structure, organization, and maintenance for the self and empire in repeated references to 'measure,' 'property,' and 'rule' express unconscious anxieties about boundary integrity and violation." (Hooks 38)[59] Furthermore, Antony struggles with his infatuation with Cleopatra and this paired with Cleopatra's desire for power over him causes his eventual downfall. He states in Act I, scene 2, "These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,/Or lose myself in dotage."[60] Antony feels restrained by "Egyptian fetters" indicating that he recognises Cleopatra's control over him. He also mentions losing himself in dotage – "himself" referring to Antony as Roman ruler and authority over people including Cleopatra.
Cleopatra also succeeds in causing Antony to speak in a more theatrical sense and therefore undermine his own true authority. In Act I, scene 1, Antony not only speaks again of his empire but constructs a theatrical image: "Let Rome and Tiber melt, and the wide arch/Of the ranged empire fall... The nobleness of life/Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair/And such a twain can do't – in which I bind/On pain of punishment the world to weet/We stand up peerless."[61] Cleopatra immediately says, "Excellent falsehood!" in an aside, indicating to the audience that she intends for Antony to adopt this rhetoric.
Yachnin's article focuses on Cleopatra's usurping of Antony's authority through her own and his language, while Hooks' article gives weight to Antony's attempts to assert his authority through rhetoric. Both articles indicate the lovers' awareness of each other's quests for power. Despite awareness and the political power struggle existent in the play, Antony and Cleopatra both fail to achieve their goals by the play's conclusion.
Performing gender and crossdressing[edit]
The performance of gender
Antony and Cleopatra is essentially a male-dominated play in which the character of Cleopatra takes significance as one of few female figures and definitely the only strong female character. As Oriana Palusci says in her article "When Boys or Women Tell Their Dreams: Cleopatra and the Boy Actor", "Cleopatra constantly occupies the centre, if not of the stage, certainly of the discourse, often charged with sexual innuendos and disparaging tirades, of the male Roman world".[54] We see the significance of this figure by the constant mention of her, even when she is not on stage.
What is said about Cleopatra is not always what one would normally say about a ruler; the image that is created makes the audience expect "to see on stage not a noble Sovereign, but a dark, dangerous, evil, sensual and lewd creature who has harnessed the 'captain's heart".[54]:p.605 This dangerously beautiful woman is difficult for Shakespeare to create because all characters, male or female, were played by men. Phyllis Rackin points out that one of the most descriptive scenes of Cleopatra is spoken by Enobarbus: "in his famous set speech, Enobarbus evokes Cleopatra's arrival on the Cynus".[62] It is an elaborate description that could never possibly be portrayed by a young boy actor. It is in this way that "before the boy [playing Cleopatra] can evoke Cleopatra's greatness, he must remind us that he cannot truly represent it".[62]:p.210 The images of Cleopatra must be described rather than seen on stage. Rackin points out that "it is a commonplace of the older criticism that Shakespeare had to rely upon his poetry and his audience's imagination to evoke Cleopatra's greatness because he knew the boy actor could not depict it convincingly".[62]:p.210
The constant comments of the Romans about Cleopatra often undermine her, representing the Roman thought on the foreign and particularly of Egyptians. From the perceptive of the reason-driven Romans, Shakespeare's "Egyptian queen repeatedly violates the rules of decorum".[62]:p.202 It is because of this distaste that Cleopatra "embodies political power, a power which is continuously underscored, denied, nullified by the Roman counterpart".[54]:p.610 To many of Antony's crew, his actions appeared extravagant and over the top: "Antony's devotion is inordinate and therefore irrational".[62]:p.210 It is no wonder, then, that she is such a subordinated queen.
And yet she is also shown as having real power in the play. When threatened to be made a fool and fully overpowered by Octavius, she takes her own life: "She is not to be silences by the new master, she is the one who will silence herself: 'My resolution and my hands I'll trust/ None about Caesar' (IV. 15.51–52)".[54]:p.606–607 From this, connections can be made between power and the performance of the female role as portrayed by Cleopatra.
Interpretations of crossdressing within the play
Scholars have speculated that Shakespeare's original intention was to have Antony appear in Cleopatra's clothes and vice versa in the beginning of the play. This possible interpretation seems to perpetuate the connections being made between gender and power. Gordon P. Jones elaborates on the importance of this detail:

Such a saturnalian exchange of costumes in the opening scene would have opened up a number of important perspectives for the play's original audience. It would immediately have established the sportiveness of the lovers. It would have provided a specific theatrical context for Cleopatra's later reminiscence about another occasion on which she "put my tires and mantles on him, whilst / I wore his sword Philippan" (II.v.22–23). It would have prepared the ground for Cleopatra's subsequent insistence on appearing "for a man" (III.vii.18) to bear a charge in the war; in doing so, it would also have prepared the audience for Antony's demeaning acquiescence in her usurpation of the male role.[63]
The evidence that such a costume change was intended includes Enobarbus' false identification of Cleopatra as Antony:


DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: Hush! here comes Antony.
 CHARMIAN: Not he; the queen.
Enobarbus could have made this error because he was used to seeing Antony in the queen's garments. It can also be speculated that Philo was referring to Antony cross-dressing in Act 1, scene 1:


PHILO: Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
 He comes too short of that great property
 Which still should go with Antony.
In the context of cross-dressing, "not Antony" could mean "when Antony is dressed as Cleopatra."
If Shakespeare had indeed intended for Antony to crossdress, it would have drawn even more similarities between Antony and Hercules, a comparison that many scholars have noted many times before.[64][65][66] Hercules (who is said to be an ancestor of Antony) was forced to wear Queen Omphale's clothing while he was her indentured servant. The Omphale myth is an exploration of gender roles in Greek society. Shakespeare might have paid homage to this myth as a way of exploring gender roles in his own.[63]:p.65
However, it has been noted that, while women dressing as men (i.e., a boy actor acting a female character who dresses as a man) are common in Shakespeare, the reverse (i.e., a male adult actor dressing as a woman) is all but non-existent, leaving aside Antony's debated case.
Critics' interpretations of boys portraying female characters
Antony and Cleopatra also contains self-references to the crossdressing as it would have been performed historically on the London stage. For instance, in act five scene two, Cleopatra exclaims, "Antony/ Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see/ Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness/ I'th' posture of a whore" (ll. 214–217). Many scholars interpret these lines as a metatheatrical reference to Shakespeare's own production, and by doing so comments on his own stage. Shakespeare critics such as Tracey Sedinger interpret this as Shakespeare's critique of the London stage, which, by the perpetuation of boy actors playing the part of the woman, serves to establish the superiority of the male spectator's sexuality.[67] The male-male relationship, some critics have offered, between the male audience and the boy actor performing the female sexuality of the play would have been less threatening than had the part been played by a woman. It is in this manner that the London stage cultivated in its audience a chaste and obedient female subject, while positioning male sexuality as dominant. Shakespeare critics argue that the metatheatrical references in Antony and Cleopatra seem to critique this trend and the presentation of Cleopatra as a sexually empowered individual supports their argument that Shakespeare seems to be questioning the oppression of female sexuality in London society.[67]:p.63 The crossdresser, then, is not a visible object but rather a structure "enacting the failure of a dominant epistemology in which knowledge is equated with visibility".[67]:p.64 What is being argued here is that the cross-dressing on the London stage challenges the dominant epistemology of Elizabethan society that associated sight with knowledge. The boy actors portraying female sexuality on the London stage contradicted such a simple ontology.
Critics such as Rackin interpret Shakespeare's metatheatrical references to the crossdressing on stage with less concern for societal elements and more of a focus on the dramatic ramifications. Rackin argues in her article on "Shakespeare's Boy Cleopatra" that Shakespeare manipulates the crossdressing to highlight a motif of the play—recklessness—which is discussed in the article as the recurring elements of acting without properly considering the consequences. Rackin cites the same quote, "Antony/ Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see/ Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness/ I'th' posture of a whore" to make the argument that here the audience is reminded of the very same treatment Cleopatra is receiving on Shakespeare's stage (since she is being portrayed by a boy actor) (V.ii.214–217). Shakespeare, utilizing the metatheatrical reference to his own stage, perpetuates his motif of recklessness by purposefully shattering "the audience's acceptance of the dramatic illusion".[62]:p.201
Other critics argue that the crossdressing as it occurs in the play is less of a mere convention, and more of an embodiment of dominant power structures. Critics such as Charles Forker argue that the boy actors were a result of what "we may call androgyny".[68] His article argues that "women were barred from the stage for their own sexual protection" and because "patriarchally acculturated audiences presumably found it intolerable to see English women—those who would represent mothers, wives, and daughters—in sexually compromising situations".[68]:p.10 Essentially, the crossdressing occurs as a result of the patriarchally structured society.
Empire[edit]
Sexuality and empire[edit]
The textual motif of empire within Antony and Cleopatra has strong gendered and erotic undercurrents. Antony, the Roman soldier characterised by a certain effeminacy, is the main article of conquest, falling first to Cleopatra and then to Caesar (Octavius). Cleopatra's triumph over her lover is attested to by Caesar himself, who gibes that Antony "is not more manlike/ Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy/ More womanly than he" (1.4.5–7). That Cleopatra takes on the role of male aggressor in her relationship with Antony should not be surprising; after all, "a culture attempting to dominate another culture will [often] endow itself with masculine qualities and the culture it seeks to dominate with feminine ones"[69]—appropriately, the queen's romantic assault is frequently imparted in a political, even militaristic fashion. Antony's subsequent loss of manhood seemingly "signifies his lost Romanness, and act 3, scene 10, is a virtual litany of his lost and feminised self, his "wounder chance".[69] Throughout the play, Antony is gradually bereaved of that Roman quality so coveted in his nostalgic interludes—by the centremost scenes, his sword (a plainly phallic image), he tells Cleopatra, has been "made weak by his affection" (3.11.67). In act 4, scene 14, "an un-Romaned Antony" laments, "O, thy vile lady!/ She has robb'd me of my sword," (22–23)—critic Arthur L. Little Jr. writes that here "he seems to echo closely the victim of raptus, of bride theft, who has lost the sword she wishes to turn against herself. By the time Antony tries to use his sword to kill himself, it amounts to little more than a stage prop".[69] Antony is reduced to a political object, "the pawn in a power game between Caesar and Cleopatra".[70]
Having failed to perform Roman masculinity and virtue, Antony's only means with which he might "write himself into Rome's imperial narrative and position himself at the birth of empire" is to cast himself in the feminine archetype of the sacrificial virgin; "once [he] understands his failed virtus, his failure to be Aeneas, he then tries to emulate Dido".[69] Antony and Cleopatra can be read as a rewrite of Virgil's epic, with the sexual roles reversed and sometimes inverted. James J Greene writes on the subject: "If one of the seminally powerful myths in the cultural memory of our past is Aeneas' rejection of his African queen in order to go on and found the Roman Empire, than it is surely significant that Shakespeare's [sic]... depicts precisely and quite deliberately the opposite course of action from that celebrated by Virgil. For Antony... turned his back for the sake of his African queen on that same Roman state established by Aeneas".[69] Antony even attempts to commit suicide for his love, falling short in the end. He is incapable of "occupying the... politically empowering place" of the female sacrificial victim.[69] The abundant imagery concerning his person—"of penetration, wounds, blood, marriage, orgasm, and shame"—informs the view of some critics that the Roman "figures Antony's body as queer, that is, as an open male body... [he] not only 'bends' in devotion' but... bends over".[69] In reciprocal contrast, "in both Caesar and Cleopatra we see very active wills and energetic pursuit of goals".[71] While Caesar's empirical objective can be considered strictly political, however, Cleopatra's is explicitly erotic; she conquers carnally—indeed, "she made great Caesar lay his sword to bed;/ He plough'd her, and she cropp'd" (2.2.232–233). Her mastery is unparalleled when it comes to the seduction of certain powerful individuals, but popular criticism supports the notion that "as far as Cleopatra is concerned, the main thrust of the play's action might be described as a machine especially devised to bend her to the Roman will... and no doubt Roman order is sovereign at the end of the play. But instead of driving her down to ignominy, the Roman power forces her upward to nobility".[70] Caesar says of her final deed, "Bravest at the last,/ She levelled at our purposes, and, being royal,/ Took her own way" (5.2.325–327).
Arthur L. Little, in agitative fashion, suggests that the desire to overcome the queen has a corporeal connotation: "If a black—read foreign—man raping a white woman encapsulates an iconographic truth... of the dominant society's sexual, racial, national, and imperial fears, a white man raping a black woman becomes the evidentiary playing out of its self-assured and cool stranglehold over these representative foreign bodies".[69] Furthermore, he writes, "Rome shapes its Egyptian imperial struggle most visually around the contours of Cleopatra's sexualised and racialised black body—most explicitly her "tawny front", her "gipsy's lust", and her licentious climactic genealogy, "with Phoebus' amorous pinches black".[69] In a similar vein, essayist David Quint contends that "with Cleopatra the opposition between East and West is characterised in terms of gender: the otherness of the Easterner becomes the otherness of the opposite sex".[72] Quint argues that Cleopatra (not Antony) fulfils Virgil's Dido archetype; "woman is subordinated as is generally the case in The Aeneid, excluded from power and the process of Empire-building: this exclusion is evident in the poem's fiction where Creusa disappears and Dido is abandoned... woman's place or displacement is therefore in the East, and epic features a series of oriental heroines whose seductions are potentially more perilous than Eastern arms",[72] i.e., Cleopatra.
Politics of empire[edit]
Antony and Cleopatra deals ambiguously with the politics of imperialism and colonization. Critics have long been invested in untangling the web of political implications that characterise the play. Interpretations of the work often rely on an understanding of Egypt and Rome as they respectively signify Elizabethan ideals of East and West, contributing to a long-standing conversation about the play's representation of the relationship between imperializing western countries and colonised eastern cultures.[50] Despite Octavius Caesar's concluding victory and the absorption of Egypt into Rome, Antony and Cleopatra resists clear-cut alignment with Western values. Indeed, Cleopatra's suicide has been interpreted as suggesting an indomitable quality in Egypt, and reaffirming Eastern culture as a timeless contender to the West.[23] However, particularly in earlier criticism, the narrative trajectory of Rome's triumph and Cleopatra's perceived weakness as a ruler have allowed readings that privilege Shakespeare's representation of a Roman worldview. Octavius Caesar is seen as Shakespeare's portrayal of an ideal governor, though perhaps an unfavourable friend or lover, and Rome is emblematic of reason and political excellence.[32] According to this reading, Egypt is viewed as destructive and vulgar; the critic Paul Lawrence Rose writes: "Shakespeare clearly envisages Egypt as a political hell for the subject, where natural rights count for nothing."[32] Through the lens of such a reading, the ascendancy of Rome over Egypt does not speak to the practice of empire-building as much as it suggests the inevitable advantage of reason over sensuality.
More contemporary scholarship on the play, however, has typically recognised the allure of Egypt for Antony and Cleopatra‍ '​s audiences. Egypt's magnetism and seeming cultural primacy over Rome have been explained by efforts to contextualise the political implications of the play within its period of production. The various protagonists' ruling styles have been identified with rulers contemporary to Shakespeare. For example, there appears to be continuity between the character of Cleopatra and the historical figure of Queen Elizabeth I,[73] and the unfavourable light cast on Caesar has been explained as deriving from the claims of various 16th-century historians.[74]
The more recent influence of New Historicism and post-colonial studies have yielded readings of Shakespeare that typify the play as subversive, or challenging the status quo of Western imperialism. The critic Abigail Scherer's claim that "Shakespeare's Egypt is a holiday world"[75] recalls the criticisms of Egypt put forth by earlier scholarship and disputes them. Scherer and critics who recognise the wide appeal of Egypt have connected the spectacle and glory of Cleopatra's greatness with the spectacle and glory of the theatre itself. Plays, as breeding grounds of idleness, were subject to attack by all levels of authority in the 1600s;[76] the play's celebration of pleasure and idleness in a subjugated Egypt makes it plausible to draw parallels between Egypt and the heavily censored theatre culture in England. In the context of England's political atmosphere, Shakespeare's representation of Egypt, as the greater source of poetry and imagination, resists support for 16th century colonial practices.[31] Importantly, King James' sanction of the founding of Jamestown occurred within months of Antony and Cleopatra‍ '​s debut on stage. England during the Renaissance found itself in an analogous position to the early Roman Republic. Shakespeare's audience may have made the connection between England's westward expansion and Antony and Cleopatra‍ '​s convoluted picture of Roman imperialism. In support of the reading of Shakespeare's play as subversive, it has also been argued that 16th century audiences would have interpreted Antony and Cleopatra‍ '​s depiction of different models of government as exposing inherent weaknesses in an absolutist, imperial, and by extension monarchical, political state.[77]
Empire and intertextuality[edit]
One of the ways to read the imperialist themes of the play is through an historical, political context with an eye for intertexuality. Many scholars suggest that Shakespeare possessed an extensive knowledge of the story of Antony and Cleopatra through the historian Plutarch, and used Plutarch's account as a blueprint for his own play. A closer look at this intertextual link reveals that Shakespeare used, for instance, Plutarch's assertion that Antony claimed a genealogy that led back to Hercules, and constructed a parallel to Cleopatra by often associating her with Dionysus in his play.[78] The implication of this historical mutability is that Shakespeare is transposing non-Romans upon his Roman characters, and thus his play assumes a political agenda rather than merely committing itself to an historical recreation. Shakespeare deviates from a strictly obedient observation of Plutarch, though, by complicating a simple dominant/dominated dichotomy with formal choices. For instance, the quick exchange of dialogue might suggest a more dynamic political conflict. Furthermore, certain characteristics of the characters, like Antony whose "legs bestrid the ocean" (5.2.82) point to constant change and mutability.[79] Plutarch, on the other hand, was given to "tendencies to stereotype, to polarise, and to exaggerate that are inherent in the propaganda surrounding his subjects."[80]
Furthermore, because of the unlikelihood that Shakespeare would have had direct access to Plutarch's Greek Lives and probably read them through a French translation from a Latin translation, his play, then, constructs Romans with an anachronistic Christian sensibility that might have been influenced by St. Augustine's Confessions among others. As Miles writes, the ancient world would not have been aware of interiority and the contingence of salvation upon conscience until Augustine.[80] For the Christian world, salvation relied on and belonged to the individual, while the Roman world viewed salvation as political. So, Shakespeare's characters in Antony and Cleopatra, particularly Cleopatra in her belief that her own suicide is an exercise of agency, exhibit a Christian understanding of salvation.
Another example of deviance from the source material is how Shakespeare characterises the rule of Antony and Cleopatra. While Plutarch singles out the "order of exclusive society" that the lovers surrounded themselves with – a society with a specifically defined and clear understanding of the hierarchies of power as determined by birth and status – Shakespeare's play seems more preoccupied with the power dynamics of pleasure as a main theme throughout the play.[81] Once pleasure has become a dynamic of power, then it permeates society and politics. Pleasure serves as a differentiating factor between Cleopatra and Antony, between Egypt and Rome, and can be read as the fatal flaw of the heroes if Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy. For Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, the exclusivity and superiority supplied by pleasure created the disconnect between the ruler and the subjects. Critics suggest that Shakespeare did similar work with these sources in Othello, Julius Caesar, and Coriolanus.
The happy ending of Antony and Cleopatra[edit]
Antony and Cleopatra was never intended to be a tragedy; instead, Shakespeare gave the illusion of the tragedy as the two protagonists set out to become the heroes of the play and neither succeeded. Antony and Cleopatra are seen to have a passionate love for each other up till their demise as both are seen ending their lives for the other. Although the couple was seen as a pair that could not live without the other, it does not take much to be able to point out that the basis of their relationship lies on manipulation and lust. Enobarbus was able to see this as he never believed their love was true but instead a contradiction. Cleopatra always wanted Antony to be in the palm of her hands, to always be in control of his emotions and would thus manipulate him by dancing whenever he was sad or fake a sickness if he were to be happy. This makes Antony only chase after Cleopatra even more in a never-ending cycle. They both try to be much more than they are and show their enemies and the world that they are invincible. Rather than them sacrificing themselves for the other, the two protagonists set out to become the hero of the play and to show that being the last one standing, no hand will bring them down but their own. They did not die for love but for the fame that would come behind that sacrifice and in the end are seen as being noble and self-sacrificing. It does not end in a tragedy but in a bittersweet and almost happy ending.
Both of the lovers' fates are interwoven yet they deceive the other in a fight for dominance that Cleopatra wins for a while as the audience and other characters throughout the play know completely what is going on in the play filled with dramatic irony. Enobarbus once again knows of Antony's unrelenting attachment to Cleopatra and Cleopatra's mind games while the audience knows Cleopatra isn't dead as Antony kills himself over her. They both spent their whole lives trying to achieve higher fame than the other and became notorious for their lust. They are their own Gods and live separate from those that they call normal and watch. The play progresses into the protagonists decline in fame, leaving them to pursue a sure way into that immortality they coveted. They become immortals in death along with even more fame and has as well achieved their goal from the beginning. They die in the name of their love when they really die in the name of fame. A status of nobility higher than us and pity for the tragedy that is their relationship. The tragedy is Antony and Cleopatra's own happy ending as death was a small price to pay to become real gods. They proved that the only death that could touch them were by their own hand, further increasing that godly power they received from the people. Now they are apart from those they watched, now they are above them, and now they will be worshipped as gods.[82][83][84][85][86]
Fortune and chance: politics and nature[edit]
The concept of luck, or Fortune, is frequently referenced throughout Antony and Cleopatra, portrayed as an elaborate "game" that the characters participate in. An element of Fate lies within the play's concept of Chance, as the subject of Fortune/Chance's favour at any particular moment becomes the most successful character. Shakespeare represents Fortune through elemental and astronomical imagery that recalls the characters' awareness of the "unreliability of the natural world".[87] This calls into question the extent to which the characters' actions influence the resulting consequences, and whether the characters are subject to the preferences of Fortune or Chance. Antony eventually realises that he, like other characters, is merely "Fortune's knave," a mere card in the game of Chance rather than a player.[88] This realization suggests that Antony realises that he is powerless in relation to the forces of Chance, or Fortune. The manner in which the characters deal with their luck is of great importance, therefore, as they may destroy their chances of luck by taking advantage of their fortune to excessive lengths without censoring their actions, Antony did.[89] Scholar Marilyn Williamson notes that the characters my spoil their Fortune by, "riding too high" on it, as Antony did by ignoring his duties in Rome and spending time in Egypt with Cleopatra. While Fortune does play a large role in the characters' lives, they do have ability to exercise free will, however; as Fortune is not as restrictive as Fate. Antony's actions suggest this, as he is able to use his free will to take advantage of his luck by choosing his own actions. Like the natural imagery used to describe Fortune, scholar Michael Lloyd characterises it as an element itself, which causes natural occasional upheaval. This implies that fortune is a force of nature that is greater than mankind, and cannot be manipulated. The 'game of chance' that Fortune puts into play can be related to that of politics, expressing the fact that the characters must play their luck in both fortune and politics to identify a victor.[88] The play culminates, however, in Antony's realization that he is merely a card, not a player in this game.
The motif of "card playing" has a political undertone, as it relates to the nature of political dealings.[90] Caesar and Antony take action against each other as if playing a card game; playing by the rules of Chance,[90] which sways in its preference from time to time. Although Caesar and Antony may play political cards with each other, their successes rely somewhat on Chance, which hints at a certain limit to the control they have over political affairs. Furthermore, the constant references to astronomical bodies and "sublunar" imagery[89] connote a Fate-like quality to the character of Fortune, implying a lack of control on behalf of the characters. Although the characters do exercise free will to a certain extent, their success in regards to their actions ultimately depends on the luck that Fortune bestows upon them. The movement of the "moon" and the "tides" is frequently mentioned throughout the play, such as when Cleopatra states that, upon Antony's death, there is nothing of importance left "beneath the moon." The elemental and astronomical "sublunar"[87] imagery frequently referred to throughout the play is thus intertwined with the political manipulation that each character incites, yet the resulting winner of the political "game" relies in part on Chance, which has a supreme quality that the characters cannot maintain control over, and therefore must submit to.
Adaptations and cultural references[edit]
[icon] This section requires expansion. (September 2014)
Selected stage productions[edit]
##1931, John Gielgud as Antony and Ralph Richardson as Enobarbus at The Old Vic.
##1947, Katharine Cornell won a Tony Award for her Broadway performance of Cleopatra opposite the Antony of Godfrey Tearle. It ran for 126 performances, the longest run of the play in Broadway history.
##1951, Laurence Olivier as Antony and Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra in a production that played in repertory with George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra at the St James's Theatre and later on Broadway.
##1953, Michael Redgrave played Antony and Peggy Ashcroft played Cleopatra at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.
##1972, Janet Suzman and Richard Johnson, with Patrick Stewart as Enobarbus in Trevor Nunn's production for the Royal Shakespeare Company
##1981, Timothy Dalton played Antony and Carmen du Sautoy played Cleopatra at the Mermaid Theatre.
##1986, Timothy Dalton and Vanessa Redgrave in the title roles at Clwyd Theatr Cymru and Haymarket Theatre.
##1987, Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench at the Royal National Theatre.
##1999, Alan Bates and Frances de la Tour in title roles, Guy Henry as Octavius (also David Oyelowo and Owen Oakeshott) at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
##1999, Paul Shelley as Antony and Mark Rylance as Cleopatra in an all-male cast production at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.
##2006, Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter in the title roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
##2010, Kim Cattrall and Jeffery Kissoon in the title roles at the Liverpool Playhouse.
##2010, Kate Mulgrew and John Douglas Thompson in a production directed by Tina Landau at Hartford Stage.
##2010, Kathryn Hunter and Darrell D'Silva in the title roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
##2014, Eve Best and Clive Wood in the title roles at Shakespeare's Globe in London. Phil Daniels as Enobarbus.
Films and TV[edit]
##Antony and Cleopatra, 1908[91][92]
##Cleopatra, 1912 Link to the video[93][94]
##Antony and Cleopatra, 1913[95][96]
##Cleopatra, 1917[97][98]
##Anthony and Cleopatra, 1924[99][100]
##Cleopatra, 1963[101]
##Antony and Cleopatra, 1972, directed by and starring Charlton Heston as Antony, Hildegarde Neil as Cleopatra and also featuring Eric Porter as Enobarbus.
##Antony & Cleopatra, 1974, a television production of Trevor Nunn's stage version performed by London's Royal Shakespeare Company. This version was shown in the United States to great acclaim in 1975. It stars Janet Suzman (Cleopatra), Richard Johnson (Antony), and Patrick Stewart (Enobarbus) Link to the video
##Antony & Cleopatra, 1981, a TV production made as part of the BBC Television Shakespeare series. It stars Colin Blakely (Antony), Jane Lapotaire (Cleopatra), and Ian Charleson (Octavius) Link to the video
##Antony and Cleopatra, a 1983 TV movie. It stars Timothy Dalton (Antony) and Lynn Redgrave (Cleopatra).
##Rome, TV Series 2005–2007, featured James Purefoy and Lyndsey Marshal as Antony and Cleopatra.
Stage adaptations[edit]
##John Fletcher and Philip Massinger's The False One (c.1620) was influenced by Shakespeare's play.[102]
##John Dryden's play All for Love (1677) was deeply influenced by Shakespeare's treatment of the subject.[103]
Musical adaptations[edit]
##Samuel Barber's operatic version of the play was premièred in 1966.
Notes[edit]
a.Jump up ^ E. g., Wilders,[8]:p.69–75 Miola,[9]:p.209 Bloom,[10]:p.577 Kermode,[11]:p.217 Hunter,[12]:p.129 Braunmuller,[13]:p.433 and Kennedy.[14]:p.258
b.Jump up ^ On the historical political context of the Aeneid and its larger influence on the Western literary tradition through the seventeenth century, see Quint, David (1993). Epic and Empire: Politics and Generic Form from Virgil to Milton. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691069425.
References[edit]
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5.Jump up ^ Plutarch, editor: F. A. Leo, Four Chapters of North's Plutarch; Photolithographed in the Size of the Original Edition of 1595. Trubner and Company, London 1878. Page 980. [1]
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External links[edit]
##No Fear Shakespeare: the text of the play with a glossary
##Cleopatra on the Web, particularly the Antony and Cleopatra section
##The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra – HTML version of this title.
##Antony and Cleopatra – Full text HTML of the play
##Full text of play
##Antony and Cleopatra at Project Gutenberg
##Antony and Cleopatra – Scene-indexed and searchable version of the play.
##Antony and Cleopatra study guide, themes, quotes, character analyses, teaching guide
##Joyce Carol Oates on Antony and Cleopatra
##Video of a BBC broadcast of Antony and Cleopatra on YouTube
##Marjorie Garber's Harvard Lecture on Antony and Cleopatra on YouTube


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Antony and Cleopatra

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The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1884
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was probably performed first in about 1607 at Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre by the King's Men.[1][2] Its first known appearance in print was in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Sicilian revolt to Cleopatra's suicide during the Final War of the Roman Republic. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumviri of the Second Triumvirate and the first emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus Caesar. The tragedy is set in Rome and Egypt, characterised by swift, panoramic shifts in geographical locations and in registers, alternating between sensual, imaginative Alexandria and the more pragmatic, austere Rome.
Many consider Cleopatra one of the most complex female characters in Shakespeare's body of work.[3]:p.45 She is frequently vain and histrionic, almost provoking an audience to scorn; at the same time, Shakespeare's efforts invest both her and Antony with tragic grandeur. These contradictory features have led to famously divided critical responses.[4] It is difficult to classify Antony and Cleopatra as belonging to a single genre. It can be described as a history play (though it does not completely adhere to historical account), tragedy (though not completely in Aristotelian terms), comedy, and a romance.


Contents  [hide]
1 Characters
2 Synopsis
3 Sources
4 Date and text
5 Analysis and criticism 5.1 Classical allusions and analogues: Dido and Aeneas from Virgil's Aeneid
5.2 Critical history: changing views of Cleopatra
5.3 Structure: Egypt and Rome 5.3.1 Literary devices used to convey the differences between Rome and Egypt
5.3.2 The characterization of Rome and Egypt
5.3.3 The changing views of critics regarding gender characterization of Egypt and Rome
5.4 Themes and motifs 5.4.1 Ambiguity and opposition 5.4.1.1 Theme of ambivalence
5.4.2 Betrayal
5.4.3 Power dynamics
5.4.4 Performing gender and crossdressing
5.4.5 Empire 5.4.5.1 Sexuality and empire
5.4.5.2 Politics of empire
5.4.5.3 Empire and intertextuality
5.4.6 The happy ending of Antony and Cleopatra
5.4.7 Fortune and chance: politics and nature

6 Adaptations and cultural references 6.1 Selected stage productions
6.2 Films and TV
6.3 Stage adaptations
6.4 Musical adaptations
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links

Characters[edit]
##Mark Antony – Roman general and one of the three joint leaders, or "triumvirs", who rule the Roman Republic after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.
##Octavius Caesar – another triumvir
##Lepidus – another triumvir
##Cleopatra – Queen of Egypt
##Sextus Pompey – rebel against the triumvirate and son of the late Pompey
Antony's party
##Demetrius
##Philo
##Domitius Enobarbus
##Ventidius
##Silius – officer in Ventidius' army
##Eros
##Canidius – Antony's lieutenant-general
##Scarus
##Dercetus
##Schoolmaster – Antony's ambassador to Octavius
##Rannius (non-speaking role)
##Lucilius (non-speaking role)
##Lamprius (non-speaking role)
Octavius' party
##Octavia – Octavius' sister
##Maecenas
##Agrippa – admiral of the Roman navy
##Taurus – Octavius' lieutenant-general
##Dolabella
##Thidias
##Gallus
##Proculeius
Sextus' party
##Menecrates
##Menas
##Varrius
Cleopatra's party
##Charmian – maid of honour
##Iras – maid of honour
##Alexas
##Mardian – a eunuch
##Diomedes – treasurer
##Seleucus – attendant
Other
##Soothsayer
##Clown
##Boy
##Sentry
##Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants
Synopsis[edit]



Cleopatra by John William Waterhouse (1888)
Mark Antony – one of the triumvirs of the Roman Republic, along with Octavius and Lepidus – has neglected his soldierly duties after being beguiled by Egypt's Queen, Cleopatra. He ignores Rome's domestic problems, including the fact that his third wife Fulvia rebelled against Octavius and then died.
Octavius calls Antony back to Rome from Alexandria in order to help him fight against Sextus Pompey, Menecrates, and Menas, three notorious pirates of the Mediterranean. At Alexandria, Cleopatra begs Antony not to go, and though he repeatedly affirms his deep passionate love for her, he eventually leaves.
Back in Rome, a general brings forward the idea that Antony should marry Octavius's younger sister, Octavia, in order to cement the friendly bond between the two men. Antony's lieutenant Enobarbus, though, knows that Octavia can never satisfy him after Cleopatra. In a famous passage, he describes Cleopatra's charms: "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."
A soothsayer warns Antony that he is sure to lose if he ever tries to fight Octavius.
In Egypt, Cleopatra learns of Antony's marriage to Octavia and takes furious revenge upon the messenger that brings her the news. She grows content only when her courtiers assure her that Octavia is homely: short, low-browed, round-faced and with bad hair.
At a confrontation, the triumvirs parley with Sextus Pompey, and offer him a truce. He can retain Sicily and Sardinia, but he must help them "rid the sea of pirates" and send them tributes. After some hesitation Sextus agrees. They engage in a drunken celebration on Sextus' galley, though the austere Octavius leaves early and sober from the party. Menas suggests to Sextus that he kill the three triumvirs and make himself ruler of the Roman Republic, but he refuses, finding it dishonourable. Later, Octavius and Lepidus break their truce with Sextus and war against him. This is unapproved by Antony, and he is furious.
Antony returns to Alexandria, Egypt, and crowns Cleopatra and himself as rulers of Egypt and the eastern third of the Roman Republic (which was Antony's share as one of the triumvirs). He accuses Octavius of not giving him his fair share of Sextus' lands, and is angry that Lepidus, whom Octavius has imprisoned, is out of the triumvirate. Octavius agrees to the former demand, but otherwise is very displeased with what Antony has done.



 In this Baroque vision, Battle of Actium by Laureys a Castro (1672), Cleopatra flees, lower left, in a barge with a figurehead of Fortuna.
Antony prepares to battle Octavius. Enobarbus urges Antony to fight on land, where he has the advantage, instead of by sea, where the navy of Octavius is lighter, more mobile and better manned. Antony refuses, since Octavius has dared him to fight at sea. Cleopatra pledges her fleet to aid Antony. However, during the Battle of Actium off the western coast of Greece, Cleopatra flees with her sixty ships, and Antony follows her, leaving his forces to ruin. Ashamed of what he has done for the love of Cleopatra, Antony reproaches her for making him a coward, but also sets this true and deep love above all else, saying "Give me a kiss; even this repays me."
Octavius sends a messenger to ask Cleopatra to give up Antony and come over to his side. She hesitates, and flirts with the messenger, when Antony walks in and angrily denounces her behavior. He sends the messenger to be whipped. Eventually, he forgives Cleopatra and pledges to fight another battle for her, this time on land.
On the eve of the battle, Antony's soldiers hear strange portents, which they interpret as the god Hercules abandoning his protection of Antony. Furthermore, Enobarbus, Antony's long-serving lieutenant, deserts him and goes over to Octavius' side. Rather than confiscating Enobarbus' goods, which he did not take with him when he fled, Antony orders them to be sent to Enobarbus. Enobarbus is so overwhelmed by Antony's generosity, and so ashamed of his own disloyalty, that he dies from a broken heart.
Antony loses the battle as his troops desert en masse and he denounces Cleopatra: "This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me." He resolves to kill her for the treachery. Cleopatra decides that the only way to win back Antony's love is to send him word that she killed herself, dying with his name on her lips. She locks herself in her monument, and awaits Antony's return.



The Death of Cleopatra by Reginald Arthur (1892)
Her plan fails: rather than rushing back in remorse to see the "dead" Cleopatra, Antony decides that his own life is no longer worth living. He begs one of his aides, Eros, to run him through with a sword, but Eros cannot bear to do it and kills himself. Antony admires Eros' courage and attempts to do the same, but only succeeds in wounding himself. In great pain, he learns that Cleopatra is indeed alive. He is hoisted up to her in her monument and dies in her arms.
Octavius goes to Cleopatra trying to persuade her to surrender. She angrily refuses since she can imagine nothing worse than being led in chains through the streets of Rome, proclaimed a villain for the ages. She imagines that "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." This speech is full of dramatic irony, because in Shakespeare's time Cleopatra really was played by a "squeaking boy" and Shakespeare's play does depict Antony's drunken revels.
Cleopatra is betrayed and taken into custody by the Romans. She gives Octavius what she claims is a complete account of her wealth but is betrayed by her treasurer, who claims she is holding treasure back. Octavius reassures her that he is not interested in her wealth, but Dolabella warns her that he intends to parade her at his triumph.
Cleopatra kills herself using the poison of an asp. She dies calmly and ecstatically, imagining how she will meet Antony again in the afterlife. Her serving maids, Iras and Charmian, also kill themselves. Octavius discovers the dead bodies and experiences conflicting emotions. Antony's and Cleopatra's deaths leave him free to become the first Roman Emperor, but he also feels some kind of sympathy for them: "She shall be buried by her Antony. / No grave upon the earth shall clip in it / A pair so famous..." He orders a public military funeral.
Sources[edit]
The principal source for the story is an English translation of Plutarch's "Life of Mark Antony", from the Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Compared Together. This translation, by Sir Thomas North, was first published in 1579. Many phrases in Shakespeare's play are taken directly from North, including Enobarbus' famous description of Cleopatra and her barge:


I will tell you.
 The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
 Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
 Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
 The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
 Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
 The water which they beat to follow faster,
 As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
 It beggar'd all description: she did lie
 In her pavilion—cloth-of-gold of tissue—
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
 The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
 Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
 With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
 To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
 And what they undid did.

This may be compared with North's text:

"Therefore when she was sent unto by diverse letters, both from Antonius himselfe, and also from his friends, she made so light of it and mocked Antonius so much, that she disdained so set forward otherwise, but to take her barge in the river of Cydnus, the poope whereof was of gold, the sailes of purple, and the oares of silver, which kept stroke in rowing after the sound of musicke of flutes, howboyes cithernes, vials and such other instruments as they played upon the barge. And now for the person of her selfe: she was layed under a pavilion of cloth of gold of tissue, apparelled and attired like the goddesse Venus, commonly drawn in picture: and hard by her, on either hand of her, pretie fair boys apparelled as painters do set foorth god Cupid, with little fans in their hands, with which they fanned wind upon her."
—The Life of Marcus Antonius[5][6][7]
However, Shakespeare also adds scenes, including many portraying Cleopatra's domestic life, and the role of Enobarbus is greatly developed. Historical facts are also changed: in Plutarch, Antony's final defeat was many weeks after the Battle of Actium, and Octavia lived with Antony for several years and bore him two children: Antonia Major, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Nero and maternal grandmother of the Empress Valeria Messalina, and Antonia Minor, the sister-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, mother of the Emperor Claudius, and paternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger.
Date and text[edit]



 The first page of Antony and Cleopatra from the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623.
Many scholars believe it was written in 1606–07,[a] although some researchers have argued for an earlier dating, around 1603–04.[15] Antony and Cleopatra was entered in the Stationers' Register (an early form of copyright for printed works) in May 1608, but it does not seem to have been actually printed until the publication of the First Folio in 1623. The Folio is therefore the only authoritative text we have today. Some scholars speculate that it derives from Shakespeare's own draft, or "foul papers," since it contains minor errors in speech labels and stage directions that are thought to be characteristic of the author in the process of composition.[16]
Modern editions divide the play into a conventional five act structure, but as in most of his earlier plays, Shakespeare did not create these act divisions. His play is articulated in forty separate 'scenes', more than he used for any other play. Even the word 'scenes' may be inappropriate as a description, as the scene changes are often very fluid, almost montage-like. The large number of scenes is necessary because the action frequently switches between Alexandria, Italy, Messina in Sicily, Syria, Athens and other parts of Egypt and the Roman Republic. The play contains thirty-four speaking characters, fairly typical for a Shakespeare play on such an epic scale.
Analysis and criticism[edit]
Classical allusions and analogues: Dido and Aeneas from Virgil's Aeneid[edit]
Many critics have noted the strong influence of Virgil's first-century Roman epic poem, the Aeneid, on Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Such influence should be expected, given the prevalence of allusions to Virgil in the Renaissance culture in which Shakespeare was educated. Moreover, as is well-known, the historical Antony and Cleopatra were the prototypes and antitypes for Virgil's Dido and Aeneas: Dido, ruler of the north African city of Carthage, tempts Aeneas, the legendary exemplar of Roman pietas, to forego his task of founding Rome after the fall of Troy. The fictional Aeneas dutifully resists Dido's temptation and abandons her to forge on to Italy, placing political destiny before romantic love, in stark contrast to Antony, who puts passionate love of his own Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, before duty to Rome.[b] Given the well-established traditional connections between the fictional Dido and Aeneas and the historical Antony and Cleopatra, it is no surprise that Shakespeare includes numerous allusions to Virgil's epic in his historical tragedy. As Janet Adelman observes, "almost all the central elements in Antony and Cleopatra are to be found in the Aeneid: the opposing values of Rome and a foreign passion; the political necessity of a passionless Roman marriage; the concept of an afterlife in which the passionate lovers meet."[17] However, as Heather James argues, Shakespeare's allusions to Virgil's Dido and Aeneas are far from slavish imitations. James emphasises the various ways in which Shakespeare's play subverts the ideology of the Virgilian tradition; one such instance of this subversion is Cleopatra's dream of Antony in Act 5 ("I dreamt there was an Emperor Antony" [5.2.75]). James argues that in her extended description of this dream, Cleopatra "reconstructs the heroic masculinity of an Antony whose identity has been fragmented and scattered by Roman opinion."[18] This politically charged dream vision is just one example of the way that Shakespeare's story destabilises and potentially critiques the Roman ideology inherited from Virgil's epic and embodied in the mythic Roman ancestor Aeneas.
Critical history: changing views of Cleopatra[edit]
Cleopatra, being the complex figure that she is, has faced a variety of interpretations of character throughout history. Perhaps the most famous dichotomy is that of the manipulative seductress versus the skilled leader. Examining the critical history of the character of Cleopatra reveals that intellectuals of the 19th century and the early 20th century viewed her as merely an object of sexuality that could be understood and diminished rather than an imposing force with great poise and capacity for leadership.
This phenomenon is illustrated by the famous poet T.S. Eliot's take on Cleopatra. He saw her as "no wielder of power," but rather that her "devouring sexuality...diminishes her power".[19] His language and writings use images of darkness, desire, beauty, sensuality, and carnality to portray not a strong, powerful woman, but a temptress. Throughout his writing on Antony and Cleopatra, Eliot refers to Cleopatra as material rather than person. He frequently calls her "thing". T.S. Eliot conveys the view of early critical history on the character of Cleopatra.
Other scholars also discuss early critics' views of Cleopatra in relation to a serpent signifying "original sin".[20]:p.12 The symbol of the serpent "functions, at the symbolic level, as a means of her submission, the phallic appropriation of the queen's body (and the land it embodies) by Octavius and the empire".[20]:p.13 The serpent, because it represents temptation, sin, and feminine weakness, is used by 19th and early 20th century critics to undermine Cleopatra's political authority and to emphasise the image of Cleopatra as manipulative seductress.
The postmodern view of Cleopatra is complex. Doris Adler suggests that, in a postmodern philosophical sense, we cannot begin to grasp the character of Cleopatra because, "In a sense it is a distortion to consider Cleopatra at any moment apart from the entire cultural milieu that creates and consumes Antony and Cleopatra on stage. However the isolation and microscopic examination of a single aspect apart from its host environment is an effort to improve the understanding of the broader context. In similar fashion, the isolation and examination of the stage image of Cleopatra becomes an attempt to improve the understanding of the theatrical power of her infinite variety and the cultural treatment of that power."[21] So, as a microcosm, Cleopatra can be understood within a postmodern context, as long as one understands that the purpose for the examination of this microcosm is to further one's own interpretation of the work as a whole. Author L.T. Fitz believes that it is not possible to derive a clear, postmodern view of Cleopatra due to the sexism that all critics bring with them when they review her intricate character. He states specifically, "Almost all critical approaches to this play have been coloured by the sexist assumptions the critics have brought with them to their reading."[22] One seemingly anti-sexist viewpoint comes from Donald C. Freeman's articulations of the meaning and significance of the deaths of both Antony and Cleopatra at the end of the play. Freeman states, "We understand Antony as a grand failure because the container of his Romanness "dislimns": it can no longer outline and define him even to himself. Conversely, we understand Cleopatra at her death as the transcendent queen of "immortal longings" because the container of her mortality can no longer restrain her: unlike Antony, she never melts, but sublimates from her very earthly flesh to ethereal fire and air."[23]
Some postmodern critics also believe that the view of Cleopatra is constantly shifting and can be interpreted in many new and sometimes exciting ways. Francesca T. Royster suggests that contemporary interpretations of Cleopatra consider her African-American traits: "Cleopatra has 'soul'—she provides the proof that there is a locatable black aesthetic transcendent of time and place."[24]
These constant shifts in the perception of Cleopatra are well represented in a review of Estelle Parsons' adaptation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra at the Interart Theatre in New York City. Arthur Holmberg surmises, "What had at first seemed like a desperate attempt to be chic in a trendy New York manner was, in fact, an ingenious way to characterise the differences between Antony's Rome and Cleopatra's Egypt. Most productions rely on rather predictable contrasts in costuming to imply the rigid discipline of the former and the languid self-indulgence of the latter. By exploiting ethnic differences in speech, gesture, and movement, Parsons rendered the clash between two opposing cultures not only contemporary but also poignant. In this setting, the white Egyptians represented a graceful and ancient aristocracy—well groomed, elegantly poised, and doomed. The Romans, upstarts from the West, lacked finesse and polish. But by sheer brute strength they would hold dominion over principalities and kingdoms."[25] This assessment of the changing way in which Cleopatra is represented in modern adaptations of Shakespeare's play is yet another example of how the modern and postmodern view of Cleopatra is constantly evolving.
Cleopatra is a difficult character to pin down because there are multiple aspects of her personality that we occasionally get a glimpse of. However, the most dominant parts of her character seem to oscillate between a powerful ruler, a seductress, and a heroine of sorts. Power is one of Cleopatra's most dominant character traits and she uses it as a means of control. This thirst for control manifested itself through Cleopatra's initial seduction of Antony in which she was dressed as Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and made quite a calculated entrance in order to capture his attention ([26]). This sexualised act extends itself into Cleopatra's role as a seductress because it was her courage and unapologetic manner that leaves people remembering her as a "grasping, licentious harlot" ([27]). However, despite her "insatiable sexual passion" she was still using these relationships as part of a grander political scheme, once again revealing how dominant Cleopatra's desire was for power ([27]). Due to Cleopatra's close relationship with power, she seems to take on the role of a heroine because there is something in her passion and intelligence that intrigues others ([28]). She was an autonomous and confident ruler, sending a powerful message about the independence and strength of women. Cleopatra had quite a wide influence, and still continues to inspire, making her a heroine to many.
Structure: Egypt and Rome[edit]
The relationship between Egypt and Rome in Antony and Cleopatra is central to understanding the plot, as the dichotomy allows the reader to gain more insight into the characters, their relationships, and the ongoing events that occur throughout the play. Shakespeare emphasises the differences between the two nations with his use of language and literary devices, which also highlight the different characterizations of the two countries by their own inhabitants and visitors. Literary critics have also spent many years developing arguments concerning the "masculinity" of Rome and the Romans and the "femininity" of Egypt and the Egyptians. In traditional criticism of Antony and Cleopatra, "Rome has been characterised as a male world, presided over by the austere Caesar, and Egypt as a female domain, embodied by a Cleopatra who is seen to be as abundant, leaky, and changeable as the Nile".[29] In such a reading, male and female, Rome and Egypt, reason and emotion, and austerity and leisure are treated as mutually exclusive binaries that all interrelate with one another. The straightforwardness of the binary between male Rome and female Egypt has been challenged in later 20th-century criticism of the play: "In the wake of feminist, poststructuralist, and cultural-materialist critiques of gender essentialism, most modern Shakespeare scholars are inclined to be far more skeptical about claims that Shakespeare possessed a unique insight into a timeless 'femininity'."[29] As a result, critics have been much more likely in recent years to describe Cleopatra as a character that confuses or deconstructs gender than as a character that embodies the feminine.[30]
Literary devices used to convey the differences between Rome and Egypt[edit]
In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare uses several literary techniques to convey a deeper meaning about the differences between Rome and Egypt. One example of this is his schema of the container as suggested by critic Donald Freeman in his article, "The rack dislimns." In his article, Freeman suggests that the container is representative of the body and the overall theme of the play that "knowing is seeing."[23] In literary terms a schema refers to a plan throughout the work, which means that Shakespeare had a set path for unveiling the meaning of the "container" to the audience within the play. An example of the body in reference to the container can be seen in the following passage:


Nay, but this dotage of our general's
 O'erflows the measure . . .
 His captain's heart,
 Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
 The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper
 And is become the bellows and the fan
 To cool a gypsy's lust. (1.1.1–2, 6–10)
The lack of tolerance exerted by the hard-edged Roman military code allots to a general's dalliance is metaphorised as a container, a measuring cup that cannot hold the liquid of Antony's grand passion.[23] Later we also see Antony's heart-container swells again because it "o'erflows the measure." For Antony, the container of the Rome-world is confining and a "measure," while the container of the Egypt-world is liberating, an ample domain where he can explore.[23] The contrast between the two is expressed in two of the play's famous speeches:


Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
 Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space!
 Kingdoms are clay!
 (1.1.34–36)
For Rome to "melt is for it to lose its defining shape, the boundary that contains its civic and military codes.[23] This schema is important in understanding Antony's grand failure because the Roman container can no longer outline or define him—even to himself. Conversely we come to understand Cleopatra in that the container of her mortality can no longer restrain her. Unlike Antony whose container melts, she gains a sublimity being released into the air.[23]
In her article "Roman World, Egyptian Earth", critic Mary Thomas Crane introduces another symbol throughout the play: The four elements. In general, characters associated with Egypt perceive their world composed of the Aristotelian elements, which are earth, wind, fire and water. For Aristotle these physical elements were the centre of the universe and appropriately Cleopatra heralds her coming death when she proclaims, "I am fire and air; my other elements/I give to baser life," (5.2.289-90).[31] Romans, on the other hand, seem to have left behind that system, replacing it with a subjectivity separated from and overlooking the natural world and imagining itself as able to control it. These differing systems of thought and perception result in very different versions of nation and empire. Shakespeare's relatively positive representation of Egypt has sometimes been read as nostalgia for an heroic past. Because the Aristotelian elements were a declining theory in Shakespeare's time, it can also be read as nostalgia for a waning theory of the material world, the pre-seventeenth-century cosmos of elements and humours that rendered subject and world deeply interconnected and saturated with meaning.[31] Thus this reflects the difference between the Egyptians who are interconnected with the elemental earth and the Romans in their dominating the hard-surfaced, impervious world.
Critics also suggest that the political attitudes of the main characters are an allegory for the political atmosphere of Shakespeare's time. According to Paul Lawrence Rose in his article "The Politics of Antony and Cleopatra", the views expressed in the play of "national solidarity, social order and strong rule"[32] were familiar after the absolute monarchies of Henry VII and Henry VIII and the political disaster involving Mary Queen of Scots. Essentially the political themes throughout the play are reflective of the different models of rule during Shakespeare's time. The political attitudes of Antony, Caesar, and Cleopatra are all basic archetypes for the conflicting sixteenth-century views of kingship.[32] Caesar is representative of the ideal king, who brings about the Pax Romana similar to the political peace established under the Tudors. His cold demeanour is representative of what the sixteenth century thought to be a side-effect of political genius[32] Conversely, Antony's focus is on valour and chivalry, and Antony views the political power of victory as a by-product of both. Cleopatra's power has been described as "naked, hereditary, and despotic,"[32] and it is argued that she is reminiscent of Mary Tudor's reign—implying it is not coincidence that she brings about the "doom of Egypt." This is in part due to an emotional comparison in their rule. Cleopatra, who was emotionally invested in Antony, brought about the downfall of Egypt in her commitment to love, whereas Mary Tudor's emotional attachment to Catholicism fates her rule. The political implications within the play reflect on Shakespeare's England in its message that Impact is not a match for Reason.[32]
The characterization of Rome and Egypt[edit]
Critics have often used the opposition between Rome and Egypt in Antony and Cleopatra to set forth defining characteristics of the various characters. While some characters are distinctly Egyptian, others are distinctly Roman, some are torn between the two, and still others attempt to remain neutral.[33] Critic James Hirsh has stated that, "as a result, the play dramatises not two but four main figurative locales: Rome as it is perceived from a Roman point of view; Rome as it is perceived from an Egyptian point of view; Egypt as it is perceived form a Roman point of view; and Egypt as it is perceived from an Egyptian point of view."[33]:p.175
Rome from the Roman perspective: According to Hirsh, Rome largely defines itself by its opposition to Egypt.[33]:p.167–77 Where Rome is viewed as structured, moral, mature, and essentially masculine, Egypt is the polar opposite; chaotic, immoral, immature, and feminine. In fact, even the distinction between masculine and feminine is a purely Roman idea which the Egyptians largely ignore. The Romans view the "world" as nothing more than something for them to conquer and control. They believe they are "impervious to environmental influence"[31] and that they are not to be influenced and controlled by the world but vice versa.
Rome from the Egyptian perspective: The Egyptians view the Romans as boring, oppressive and strict. They lack passion and creativity preferring strict rules and regulations.[33]:p.177
Egypt from the Egyptian perspective: The Egyptian World view reflects what Mary Floyd-Wilson has called geo-humoralism, or the belief that climate and other environmental factors shapes racial character.[34] The Egyptians view themselves as deeply entwined with the natural "earth". Egypt is not a location for them to rule over, but an inextricable part of them. Cleopatra envisions herself as the embodiment of Egypt because she has been nurtured and moulded by the environment[31] fed by "the dung, / the beggar's nurse and Caesar's" (5.2.7–8). They view life as more fluid and less structured allowing for creativity and passionate pursuits.
Egypt from the Roman perspective: The Romans view the Egyptians essentially as improper. Their passion for life is continuously viewed as irresponsible, indulgent, over-sexualised and disorderly.[33]:p.176–77 The Romans view Egypt as a distraction that can send even the best men off course. This is demonstrated in the following passage describing Antony.


Boys who, being mature in knowledge,
 Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
 And so rebel judgment.
 (1.4.31–33)
Ultimately the dichotomy between Rome and Egypt is used to distinguish two sets of conflicting values between two different locales. Yet, it goes beyond this division to show the conflicting sets of values not only between two cultures but within cultures, even within individuals.[33]:p.180 As John Gillies has argued "the 'orientalism' of Cleopatra's court—with its luxury, decadence, splendour, sensuality, appetite, effeminacy and eunuchs—seems a systematic inversion of the legendary Roman values of temperance, manliness, courage".[35] While some characters fall completely into the category of Roman or Egyptian (Octavius as Roman, Cleopatra Egyptian) others, such as Antony, cannot chose between the two conflicting locales and cultures. Instead he oscillates between the two. In the beginning of the play Cleopatra calls attention to this saying


He was dispos'd to mirth, but on the sudden
 A Roman thought hath strook him.
 (1.2.82–83)
This shows Antony's willingness to embrace the pleasures of Egyptian life, yet his tendency to still be drawn back into Roman thoughts and ideas.
Orientalism plays a very specific, and yet, nuanced role in the story of Antony and Cleopatra. A more specific term comes to mind, from Richmond Barbour, that of proto-orientalism, that is orientalism before the age of imperialism.[36] This puts Antony and Cleopatra in an interesting period of time, one that existed before the West knew much about what would eventually be called the Orient, but still a time where it was known that there were lands beyond Europe. This allowed Shakespeare to use widespread assumptions about the "exotic" east with little academic recourse. It could be said that Antony and Cleopatra and their relationship represent the first meeting of the two cultures in a literary sense, and that this relationship would lay the foundation for the idea of Western superiority vs. Eastern inferiority.[37] The case could also be made that at least in a literary sense, the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra was some people's first exposure to an inter-racial relationship, and in a major way. This plays into the idea that Cleopatra has been made out to be an "other", with terms used to describe her like "gypsy".[38] And it is this otherization that is at the heart of the piece itself, the idea that Antony, a man of Western original and upbringing has coupled himself with the Eastern women, the stereotypical "other".[39]
The changing views of critics regarding gender characterization of Egypt and Rome[edit]
Feminist criticism of Antony and Cleopatra has provided a more in-depth reading of the play, has challenged previous norms for criticism, and has opened a larger discussion of the characterization of Egypt and Rome. However, as Gayle Greene so aptly recognises, it must be addressed that "feminist criticism [of Shakespeare] is nearly as concerned with the biases of Shakespeare's interpretors [sic] – critics, directors, editors – as with Shakespeare himself."[40]
Feminist scholars, in respect to Antony and Cleopatra, often examine Shakespeare's use of language when describing Rome and Egypt. Through his language, such scholars argue, he tends to characterise Rome as "masculine" and Egypt as "feminine." According to Gayle Greene, "the 'feminine' world of love and personal relationships is secondary to the 'masculine' world of war and politics, [and] has kept us from realizing that Cleopatra is the play's protagonist, and so skewed our perceptions of character, theme, and structure."[40] The highlighting of these starkly contrasting qualities of the two backdrops of Antony and Cleopatra, in both Shakespeare's language and the words of critics, brings attention to the characterization of the title characters, since their respective countries are meant to represent and emphasise their attributes.
The feminine categorization of Egypt, and subsequently Cleopatra, was negatively portrayed throughout early criticism. The story of Antony and Cleopatra was often summarised as either "the fall of a great general, betrayed in his dotage by a treacherous strumpet, or else it can be viewed as a celebration of transcendental love."[22]:p.297 In both reduced summaries, Egypt and Cleopatra are presented as either the destruction of Antony's masculinity and greatness or as agents in a love story. Once the Women's Liberation Movement grew between the 1960s and 1980s, however, critics began to take a closer look at both Shakespeare's characterization of Egypt and Cleopatra and the work and opinions of other critics on the same matter.
Jonathan Gil Harris claims that the Egypt vs. Rome dichotomy many critics often adopt does not only represent a "gender polarity" but also a "gender hierarchy".[29]:p.409 Critical approaches to Antony and Cleopatra from the beginning of the 20th Century mostly adopt a reading that places Rome as higher in the hierarchy than Egypt. Early critics like Georg Brandes presented Egypt as a lesser nation because of its lack of rigidity and structure and presented Cleopatra, negatively, as "the woman of women, quintessentiated Eve."[41] Egypt and Cleopatra are both represented by Brandes as uncontrollable because of their connection with the Nile River and Cleopatra's "infinite variety" (2.2.236).
In more recent years, critics have taken a closer look at previous readings of Antony and Cleopatra and have found several aspects overlooked. Egypt was previously characterised as the nation of the feminine attributes of lust and desire while Rome was more controlled. However, Harris points out that Caesar and Antony both possess an uncontrollable desire for Egypt and Cleopatra: Caesar's is political while Antony's is personal. Harris further implies that Romans have an uncontrollable lust and desire for "what they do not or cannot have."[29]:p.415 For example, Antony only desires his wife Fulvia after she is dead:


There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it:
 What our contempt doth often hurl from us,
 We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,
 By revolution lowering, does become
 The opposite of itself: she's good, being gone:
 The hand could pluck her back that shov'd her on.
 (1.2.119-24)
In this way, Harris is suggesting that Rome is no higher on any "gender hierarchy" than Egypt.
L. T. Fitz outwardly claims that early criticism of Antony and Cleopatra is "colored by the sexist assumptions the critics have brought with them to their reading."[22]:p.297 Fitz argues that previous criticisms place a heavy emphasis on Cleopatra's "wicked and manipulative" ways, which are further emphasised by her association with Egypt and her contrast to the "chaste and submissive" Roman Octavia.[22]:p.301 Finally, Fitz emphasises the tendency of early critics to assert that Antony is the sole protagonist of the play. This claim is apparent in Brandes argument: "when [Antony] perishes, a prey to the voluptuousness of the East, it seems as though Roman greatness and the Roman Republic expires with him."[42] Yet Fitz points out that Antony dies in Act IV while Cleopatra (and therefore Egypt) is present throughout Act V until she commits suicide at the end and "would seem to fulfill at least the formal requirements of the tragic hero."[22]:p.310
These criticisms are only a few examples of how the critical views of Egypt's "femininity" and Rome's "masculinity" have changed over time and how the development of feminist theory has helped in widening the discussion.
Themes and motifs[edit]
Ambiguity and opposition[edit]
Relativity and ambiguity are prominent ideas in the play, and the audience is challenged to come to conclusions about the ambivalent nature of many of the characters. The relationship between Antony and Cleopatra can easily be read as one of love or lust; their passion can be construed as being wholly destructive but also showing elements of transcendence. Cleopatra might be said to kill herself out of love for Antony, or because she has lost political power.[3]:p.127 Octavius can be seen as either a noble and good ruler, only wanting what is right for Rome, or as a cruel and ruthless politician.
A major theme running through the play is opposition. Throughout the play, oppositions between Rome and Egypt, love and lust, and masculinity and femininity are emphasised, subverted, and commented on. One of Shakespeare's most famous speeches, drawn almost verbatim from North's translation of Plutarch's Lives, Enobarbus' description of Cleopatra on her barge, is full of opposites resolved into a single meaning, corresponding with these wider oppositions that characterise the rest of the play:


The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water...
 ...she did lie
 In her pavilion—cloth-of-gold of tissue—
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
 The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
 Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
 With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did. (Act 2, Scene 2)
Cleopatra herself sees Antony as both the Gorgon and Mars (Act 2 Scene 5, lines 118-19).
Theme of ambivalence[edit]
The play is accurately structured with paradox and ambivalence in order to convey the antitheses that make Shakespeare's work remarkable.[43] Ambivalence in this play is the contrasting response of one's own character. It may be perceived as opposition between word and deed but not to be confused with "duality." For example, after Antony abandons his army during the sea battle to follow Cleopatra, he expresses his remorse and pain in his famous speech:


All is lost; This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me: My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
 They cast their caps up and carouse together Like friends long lost. Triple-turn'd whore! 'tis thou Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly;
 For when I am revenged upon my charm, I have done all. Bid them all fly; begone. [Exit SCARUS] O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more: Fortune and Antony part here; even here
 Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark'd, That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am:
 O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,— Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home; Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,— Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose, Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
 What, Eros, Eros! [Enter CLEOPATRA] Ah, thou spell! Avaunt![44] (IV.12.2913–2938)
However, he then strangely says to Cleopatra: "All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss. Even this repays me"[44](3.12.69–70). Antony's speech conveys pain and anger, but he acts in opposition to his emotions and words, all for the love of Cleopatra. Literary critic Joyce Carol Oates explains: "Antony's agony is curiously muted for someone who has achieved and lost so much." This irony gap between word and deed of the characters results in a theme of ambivalence. Moreover, due to the flow of constant changing emotions throughout the play: "the characters do not know each other, nor can we know them, any more clearly than we know ourselves".[45] However, it is believed by critics that opposition is what makes good fiction. Another example of ambivalence in Antony and Cleopatra is in the opening act of the play when Cleopatra asks Anthony: "Tell me how much you love." Prominent professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tzachi Zamir, points out: "The persistence of doubt is in perpetual tension with the opposing need for certainty" and he refers to the persistence of doubt that derives from the contradiction of word and deed in the characters.[46]
Betrayal[edit]
Betrayal is a recurring theme throughout the play. At one time or another, almost every character betrays their country, ethics, or a companion. However, certain characters waver between betrayal and loyalty. This struggle is most apparent among the actions of Cleopatra, Enobarbus, and most importantly Antony. Antony mends ties with his Roman roots and alliance with Caesar by entering into a marriage with Octavia, however he returns to Cleopatra. Historian Diana E. E. Kleiner points out "Anthony's perceived betrayal of Rome was greeted with public calls for war with Egypt".[47] Although he vows to remain loyal in his marriage, his impulses and unfaithfulness with his Roman roots is what ultimately leads to war. It is twice Cleopatra abandons Antony during battle and whether out of fear or political motives, she deceived Antony. When Thidias, Caesar's messenger, tells Cleopatra Caesar will show her mercy if she will relinquish Antony, she is quick to respond:


"Most kind messenger,
 Say to great Caesar this in deputation:
 I kiss his conqu'ring hand. Tell him I am prompt
 To lay my crown at 's feet, and there to kneel."[44] (III.13.75–79)
Shakespeare critic Sara Deats says Cleopatras betrayal fell "on the successful fencing with Octavius that leaves her to be "noble to [herself]".[48] However, she quickly reconciles with Antony, reaffirming her loyalty towards him and never truly submitting to Caesar. Enobarbus, Antony's most devoted friend, betrays Antony when he deserts him in favour for Caesar. He exclaims, "I fight against thee! / No: I will go seek some ditch wherein to die"[44] (IV. 6. 38–39). Although he abandoned Antony, critic Kent Cartwright claims Enobarbus' death "uncovers his greater love" for him considering it was caused by the guilt of what he had done to his friend thus adding to the confusion of the characters' loyalty and betrayal that previous critics have also discovered.[49] Even though loyalty is central to secure alliances, Shakespeare is making a point with the theme of betrayal by exposing how people in power cannot be trusted, no matter how honest their word may seem. The characters' loyalty and validity of promises are constantly called into question. The perpetual swaying between alliances strengthens the ambiguity and uncertainty amid the characters loyalty and disloyalty.
Power dynamics[edit]
As a play concerning the relationship between two empires, the presence of a power dynamic is apparent and becomes a recurring theme. Antony and Cleopatra battle over this dynamic as heads of state, yet the theme of power also resonates in their romantic relationship. The Roman ideal of power lies in a political nature taking a base in economical control.[50] As an imperialist power, Rome takes its power in the ability to change the world.[31] As a Roman man, Antony is expected to fulfill certain qualities pertaining to his Roman masculine power, especially in the war arena and in his duty as a soldier:


Those his goodly eyes,
 That o'er the files and musters of the war
 Have glowed like plated mars, now bend, now turn
 The office and devotion of their view
 Upon a tawny front. His captain's heart,
 Which in the scuffles of greatness hath burst
 The buckles on his breast, reneges all tempers,
 And is becomes the bellows and the fan
 To cool a gipsy's lust.[51]
Cleopatra's character is slightly unpin-able, as her character identity retains a certain aspect of mystery. She embodies the mystical, exotic, and dangerous nature of Egypt as the "serpent of old Nile".[31] Critic Lisa Starks says that "Cleopatra [comes] to signify the double-image of the "temptress/goddess".[52] She is continually described in an unearthly nature which extends to her description as the goddess Venus.


...For her own person,
 It beggared all description. She did lie
 In her pavilion—cloth of god, of tissue—
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
 The fancy outwork nature.[53]
This mysteriousness attached with the supernatural not only captures the audience and Antony, but also, draws all other characters' focus. As a center of conversation when not present in the scene, Cleopatra is continually a central point, therefore demanding the control of the stage.[54]:p.605 As an object of sexual desire, she is attached to the Roman need to conquer.[52] Her mix of sexual prowess with the political power is a threat to Roman politics. She retains her heavy involvement in the military aspect of her rule, especially when she asserts herself as "the president of [her] kingdom will/ Appear there for a man."[55] Where the dominating power lies is up for interpretation, yet there are several mentions of the power exchange in their relationship in the text. Antony remarks on Cleopatra's power over him multiple times throughout the play, the most obvious being attached to sexual innuendo: "You did know / How much you were my conqueror, and that / My sword, made weak by my affection, would / Obey it on all cause."[56]
Use of language in power dynamics
Manipulation and the quest for power are very prominent themes not only in the play but specifically in the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra. Both utilise language to undermine the power of the other and to heighten their own sense of power.
Cleopatra uses language to undermine Antony's assumed authority over her. Cleopatra's "'Roman' language of command works to undermine Antony's authority."[57] By using a Romanesque rhetoric, Cleopatra commands Antony and others in Antony's own style. In their first exchange in Act I, scene 1, Cleopatra says to Antony, "I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved."[58] In this case Cleopatra speaks in an authoritative and affirming sense to her lover, which to Shakespeare's audience would be uncharacteristic for a female lover.
Antony's language suggests his struggle for power against Cleopatra's dominion. Antony's "obsessive language concerned with structure, organization, and maintenance for the self and empire in repeated references to 'measure,' 'property,' and 'rule' express unconscious anxieties about boundary integrity and violation." (Hooks 38)[59] Furthermore, Antony struggles with his infatuation with Cleopatra and this paired with Cleopatra's desire for power over him causes his eventual downfall. He states in Act I, scene 2, "These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,/Or lose myself in dotage."[60] Antony feels restrained by "Egyptian fetters" indicating that he recognises Cleopatra's control over him. He also mentions losing himself in dotage – "himself" referring to Antony as Roman ruler and authority over people including Cleopatra.
Cleopatra also succeeds in causing Antony to speak in a more theatrical sense and therefore undermine his own true authority. In Act I, scene 1, Antony not only speaks again of his empire but constructs a theatrical image: "Let Rome and Tiber melt, and the wide arch/Of the ranged empire fall... The nobleness of life/Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair/And such a twain can do't – in which I bind/On pain of punishment the world to weet/We stand up peerless."[61] Cleopatra immediately says, "Excellent falsehood!" in an aside, indicating to the audience that she intends for Antony to adopt this rhetoric.
Yachnin's article focuses on Cleopatra's usurping of Antony's authority through her own and his language, while Hooks' article gives weight to Antony's attempts to assert his authority through rhetoric. Both articles indicate the lovers' awareness of each other's quests for power. Despite awareness and the political power struggle existent in the play, Antony and Cleopatra both fail to achieve their goals by the play's conclusion.
Performing gender and crossdressing[edit]
The performance of gender
Antony and Cleopatra is essentially a male-dominated play in which the character of Cleopatra takes significance as one of few female figures and definitely the only strong female character. As Oriana Palusci says in her article "When Boys or Women Tell Their Dreams: Cleopatra and the Boy Actor", "Cleopatra constantly occupies the centre, if not of the stage, certainly of the discourse, often charged with sexual innuendos and disparaging tirades, of the male Roman world".[54] We see the significance of this figure by the constant mention of her, even when she is not on stage.
What is said about Cleopatra is not always what one would normally say about a ruler; the image that is created makes the audience expect "to see on stage not a noble Sovereign, but a dark, dangerous, evil, sensual and lewd creature who has harnessed the 'captain's heart".[54]:p.605 This dangerously beautiful woman is difficult for Shakespeare to create because all characters, male or female, were played by men. Phyllis Rackin points out that one of the most descriptive scenes of Cleopatra is spoken by Enobarbus: "in his famous set speech, Enobarbus evokes Cleopatra's arrival on the Cynus".[62] It is an elaborate description that could never possibly be portrayed by a young boy actor. It is in this way that "before the boy [playing Cleopatra] can evoke Cleopatra's greatness, he must remind us that he cannot truly represent it".[62]:p.210 The images of Cleopatra must be described rather than seen on stage. Rackin points out that "it is a commonplace of the older criticism that Shakespeare had to rely upon his poetry and his audience's imagination to evoke Cleopatra's greatness because he knew the boy actor could not depict it convincingly".[62]:p.210
The constant comments of the Romans about Cleopatra often undermine her, representing the Roman thought on the foreign and particularly of Egyptians. From the perceptive of the reason-driven Romans, Shakespeare's "Egyptian queen repeatedly violates the rules of decorum".[62]:p.202 It is because of this distaste that Cleopatra "embodies political power, a power which is continuously underscored, denied, nullified by the Roman counterpart".[54]:p.610 To many of Antony's crew, his actions appeared extravagant and over the top: "Antony's devotion is inordinate and therefore irrational".[62]:p.210 It is no wonder, then, that she is such a subordinated queen.
And yet she is also shown as having real power in the play. When threatened to be made a fool and fully overpowered by Octavius, she takes her own life: "She is not to be silences by the new master, she is the one who will silence herself: 'My resolution and my hands I'll trust/ None about Caesar' (IV. 15.51–52)".[54]:p.606–607 From this, connections can be made between power and the performance of the female role as portrayed by Cleopatra.
Interpretations of crossdressing within the play
Scholars have speculated that Shakespeare's original intention was to have Antony appear in Cleopatra's clothes and vice versa in the beginning of the play. This possible interpretation seems to perpetuate the connections being made between gender and power. Gordon P. Jones elaborates on the importance of this detail:

Such a saturnalian exchange of costumes in the opening scene would have opened up a number of important perspectives for the play's original audience. It would immediately have established the sportiveness of the lovers. It would have provided a specific theatrical context for Cleopatra's later reminiscence about another occasion on which she "put my tires and mantles on him, whilst / I wore his sword Philippan" (II.v.22–23). It would have prepared the ground for Cleopatra's subsequent insistence on appearing "for a man" (III.vii.18) to bear a charge in the war; in doing so, it would also have prepared the audience for Antony's demeaning acquiescence in her usurpation of the male role.[63]
The evidence that such a costume change was intended includes Enobarbus' false identification of Cleopatra as Antony:


DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS: Hush! here comes Antony.
 CHARMIAN: Not he; the queen.
Enobarbus could have made this error because he was used to seeing Antony in the queen's garments. It can also be speculated that Philo was referring to Antony cross-dressing in Act 1, scene 1:


PHILO: Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
 He comes too short of that great property
 Which still should go with Antony.
In the context of cross-dressing, "not Antony" could mean "when Antony is dressed as Cleopatra."
If Shakespeare had indeed intended for Antony to crossdress, it would have drawn even more similarities between Antony and Hercules, a comparison that many scholars have noted many times before.[64][65][66] Hercules (who is said to be an ancestor of Antony) was forced to wear Queen Omphale's clothing while he was her indentured servant. The Omphale myth is an exploration of gender roles in Greek society. Shakespeare might have paid homage to this myth as a way of exploring gender roles in his own.[63]:p.65
However, it has been noted that, while women dressing as men (i.e., a boy actor acting a female character who dresses as a man) are common in Shakespeare, the reverse (i.e., a male adult actor dressing as a woman) is all but non-existent, leaving aside Antony's debated case.
Critics' interpretations of boys portraying female characters
Antony and Cleopatra also contains self-references to the crossdressing as it would have been performed historically on the London stage. For instance, in act five scene two, Cleopatra exclaims, "Antony/ Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see/ Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness/ I'th' posture of a whore" (ll. 214–217). Many scholars interpret these lines as a metatheatrical reference to Shakespeare's own production, and by doing so comments on his own stage. Shakespeare critics such as Tracey Sedinger interpret this as Shakespeare's critique of the London stage, which, by the perpetuation of boy actors playing the part of the woman, serves to establish the superiority of the male spectator's sexuality.[67] The male-male relationship, some critics have offered, between the male audience and the boy actor performing the female sexuality of the play would have been less threatening than had the part been played by a woman. It is in this manner that the London stage cultivated in its audience a chaste and obedient female subject, while positioning male sexuality as dominant. Shakespeare critics argue that the metatheatrical references in Antony and Cleopatra seem to critique this trend and the presentation of Cleopatra as a sexually empowered individual supports their argument that Shakespeare seems to be questioning the oppression of female sexuality in London society.[67]:p.63 The crossdresser, then, is not a visible object but rather a structure "enacting the failure of a dominant epistemology in which knowledge is equated with visibility".[67]:p.64 What is being argued here is that the cross-dressing on the London stage challenges the dominant epistemology of Elizabethan society that associated sight with knowledge. The boy actors portraying female sexuality on the London stage contradicted such a simple ontology.
Critics such as Rackin interpret Shakespeare's metatheatrical references to the crossdressing on stage with less concern for societal elements and more of a focus on the dramatic ramifications. Rackin argues in her article on "Shakespeare's Boy Cleopatra" that Shakespeare manipulates the crossdressing to highlight a motif of the play—recklessness—which is discussed in the article as the recurring elements of acting without properly considering the consequences. Rackin cites the same quote, "Antony/ Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see/ Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness/ I'th' posture of a whore" to make the argument that here the audience is reminded of the very same treatment Cleopatra is receiving on Shakespeare's stage (since she is being portrayed by a boy actor) (V.ii.214–217). Shakespeare, utilizing the metatheatrical reference to his own stage, perpetuates his motif of recklessness by purposefully shattering "the audience's acceptance of the dramatic illusion".[62]:p.201
Other critics argue that the crossdressing as it occurs in the play is less of a mere convention, and more of an embodiment of dominant power structures. Critics such as Charles Forker argue that the boy actors were a result of what "we may call androgyny".[68] His article argues that "women were barred from the stage for their own sexual protection" and because "patriarchally acculturated audiences presumably found it intolerable to see English women—those who would represent mothers, wives, and daughters—in sexually compromising situations".[68]:p.10 Essentially, the crossdressing occurs as a result of the patriarchally structured society.
Empire[edit]
Sexuality and empire[edit]
The textual motif of empire within Antony and Cleopatra has strong gendered and erotic undercurrents. Antony, the Roman soldier characterised by a certain effeminacy, is the main article of conquest, falling first to Cleopatra and then to Caesar (Octavius). Cleopatra's triumph over her lover is attested to by Caesar himself, who gibes that Antony "is not more manlike/ Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy/ More womanly than he" (1.4.5–7). That Cleopatra takes on the role of male aggressor in her relationship with Antony should not be surprising; after all, "a culture attempting to dominate another culture will [often] endow itself with masculine qualities and the culture it seeks to dominate with feminine ones"[69]—appropriately, the queen's romantic assault is frequently imparted in a political, even militaristic fashion. Antony's subsequent loss of manhood seemingly "signifies his lost Romanness, and act 3, scene 10, is a virtual litany of his lost and feminised self, his "wounder chance".[69] Throughout the play, Antony is gradually bereaved of that Roman quality so coveted in his nostalgic interludes—by the centremost scenes, his sword (a plainly phallic image), he tells Cleopatra, has been "made weak by his affection" (3.11.67). In act 4, scene 14, "an un-Romaned Antony" laments, "O, thy vile lady!/ She has robb'd me of my sword," (22–23)—critic Arthur L. Little Jr. writes that here "he seems to echo closely the victim of raptus, of bride theft, who has lost the sword she wishes to turn against herself. By the time Antony tries to use his sword to kill himself, it amounts to little more than a stage prop".[69] Antony is reduced to a political object, "the pawn in a power game between Caesar and Cleopatra".[70]
Having failed to perform Roman masculinity and virtue, Antony's only means with which he might "write himself into Rome's imperial narrative and position himself at the birth of empire" is to cast himself in the feminine archetype of the sacrificial virgin; "once [he] understands his failed virtus, his failure to be Aeneas, he then tries to emulate Dido".[69] Antony and Cleopatra can be read as a rewrite of Virgil's epic, with the sexual roles reversed and sometimes inverted. James J Greene writes on the subject: "If one of the seminally powerful myths in the cultural memory of our past is Aeneas' rejection of his African queen in order to go on and found the Roman Empire, than it is surely significant that Shakespeare's [sic]... depicts precisely and quite deliberately the opposite course of action from that celebrated by Virgil. For Antony... turned his back for the sake of his African queen on that same Roman state established by Aeneas".[69] Antony even attempts to commit suicide for his love, falling short in the end. He is incapable of "occupying the... politically empowering place" of the female sacrificial victim.[69] The abundant imagery concerning his person—"of penetration, wounds, blood, marriage, orgasm, and shame"—informs the view of some critics that the Roman "figures Antony's body as queer, that is, as an open male body... [he] not only 'bends' in devotion' but... bends over".[69] In reciprocal contrast, "in both Caesar and Cleopatra we see very active wills and energetic pursuit of goals".[71] While Caesar's empirical objective can be considered strictly political, however, Cleopatra's is explicitly erotic; she conquers carnally—indeed, "she made great Caesar lay his sword to bed;/ He plough'd her, and she cropp'd" (2.2.232–233). Her mastery is unparalleled when it comes to the seduction of certain powerful individuals, but popular criticism supports the notion that "as far as Cleopatra is concerned, the main thrust of the play's action might be described as a machine especially devised to bend her to the Roman will... and no doubt Roman order is sovereign at the end of the play. But instead of driving her down to ignominy, the Roman power forces her upward to nobility".[70] Caesar says of her final deed, "Bravest at the last,/ She levelled at our purposes, and, being royal,/ Took her own way" (5.2.325–327).
Arthur L. Little, in agitative fashion, suggests that the desire to overcome the queen has a corporeal connotation: "If a black—read foreign—man raping a white woman encapsulates an iconographic truth... of the dominant society's sexual, racial, national, and imperial fears, a white man raping a black woman becomes the evidentiary playing out of its self-assured and cool stranglehold over these representative foreign bodies".[69] Furthermore, he writes, "Rome shapes its Egyptian imperial struggle most visually around the contours of Cleopatra's sexualised and racialised black body—most explicitly her "tawny front", her "gipsy's lust", and her licentious climactic genealogy, "with Phoebus' amorous pinches black".[69] In a similar vein, essayist David Quint contends that "with Cleopatra the opposition between East and West is characterised in terms of gender: the otherness of the Easterner becomes the otherness of the opposite sex".[72] Quint argues that Cleopatra (not Antony) fulfils Virgil's Dido archetype; "woman is subordinated as is generally the case in The Aeneid, excluded from power and the process of Empire-building: this exclusion is evident in the poem's fiction where Creusa disappears and Dido is abandoned... woman's place or displacement is therefore in the East, and epic features a series of oriental heroines whose seductions are potentially more perilous than Eastern arms",[72] i.e., Cleopatra.
Politics of empire[edit]
Antony and Cleopatra deals ambiguously with the politics of imperialism and colonization. Critics have long been invested in untangling the web of political implications that characterise the play. Interpretations of the work often rely on an understanding of Egypt and Rome as they respectively signify Elizabethan ideals of East and West, contributing to a long-standing conversation about the play's representation of the relationship between imperializing western countries and colonised eastern cultures.[50] Despite Octavius Caesar's concluding victory and the absorption of Egypt into Rome, Antony and Cleopatra resists clear-cut alignment with Western values. Indeed, Cleopatra's suicide has been interpreted as suggesting an indomitable quality in Egypt, and reaffirming Eastern culture as a timeless contender to the West.[23] However, particularly in earlier criticism, the narrative trajectory of Rome's triumph and Cleopatra's perceived weakness as a ruler have allowed readings that privilege Shakespeare's representation of a Roman worldview. Octavius Caesar is seen as Shakespeare's portrayal of an ideal governor, though perhaps an unfavourable friend or lover, and Rome is emblematic of reason and political excellence.[32] According to this reading, Egypt is viewed as destructive and vulgar; the critic Paul Lawrence Rose writes: "Shakespeare clearly envisages Egypt as a political hell for the subject, where natural rights count for nothing."[32] Through the lens of such a reading, the ascendancy of Rome over Egypt does not speak to the practice of empire-building as much as it suggests the inevitable advantage of reason over sensuality.
More contemporary scholarship on the play, however, has typically recognised the allure of Egypt for Antony and Cleopatra‍ '​s audiences. Egypt's magnetism and seeming cultural primacy over Rome have been explained by efforts to contextualise the political implications of the play within its period of production. The various protagonists' ruling styles have been identified with rulers contemporary to Shakespeare. For example, there appears to be continuity between the character of Cleopatra and the historical figure of Queen Elizabeth I,[73] and the unfavourable light cast on Caesar has been explained as deriving from the claims of various 16th-century historians.[74]
The more recent influence of New Historicism and post-colonial studies have yielded readings of Shakespeare that typify the play as subversive, or challenging the status quo of Western imperialism. The critic Abigail Scherer's claim that "Shakespeare's Egypt is a holiday world"[75] recalls the criticisms of Egypt put forth by earlier scholarship and disputes them. Scherer and critics who recognise the wide appeal of Egypt have connected the spectacle and glory of Cleopatra's greatness with the spectacle and glory of the theatre itself. Plays, as breeding grounds of idleness, were subject to attack by all levels of authority in the 1600s;[76] the play's celebration of pleasure and idleness in a subjugated Egypt makes it plausible to draw parallels between Egypt and the heavily censored theatre culture in England. In the context of England's political atmosphere, Shakespeare's representation of Egypt, as the greater source of poetry and imagination, resists support for 16th century colonial practices.[31] Importantly, King James' sanction of the founding of Jamestown occurred within months of Antony and Cleopatra‍ '​s debut on stage. England during the Renaissance found itself in an analogous position to the early Roman Republic. Shakespeare's audience may have made the connection between England's westward expansion and Antony and Cleopatra‍ '​s convoluted picture of Roman imperialism. In support of the reading of Shakespeare's play as subversive, it has also been argued that 16th century audiences would have interpreted Antony and Cleopatra‍ '​s depiction of different models of government as exposing inherent weaknesses in an absolutist, imperial, and by extension monarchical, political state.[77]
Empire and intertextuality[edit]
One of the ways to read the imperialist themes of the play is through an historical, political context with an eye for intertexuality. Many scholars suggest that Shakespeare possessed an extensive knowledge of the story of Antony and Cleopatra through the historian Plutarch, and used Plutarch's account as a blueprint for his own play. A closer look at this intertextual link reveals that Shakespeare used, for instance, Plutarch's assertion that Antony claimed a genealogy that led back to Hercules, and constructed a parallel to Cleopatra by often associating her with Dionysus in his play.[78] The implication of this historical mutability is that Shakespeare is transposing non-Romans upon his Roman characters, and thus his play assumes a political agenda rather than merely committing itself to an historical recreation. Shakespeare deviates from a strictly obedient observation of Plutarch, though, by complicating a simple dominant/dominated dichotomy with formal choices. For instance, the quick exchange of dialogue might suggest a more dynamic political conflict. Furthermore, certain characteristics of the characters, like Antony whose "legs bestrid the ocean" (5.2.82) point to constant change and mutability.[79] Plutarch, on the other hand, was given to "tendencies to stereotype, to polarise, and to exaggerate that are inherent in the propaganda surrounding his subjects."[80]
Furthermore, because of the unlikelihood that Shakespeare would have had direct access to Plutarch's Greek Lives and probably read them through a French translation from a Latin translation, his play, then, constructs Romans with an anachronistic Christian sensibility that might have been influenced by St. Augustine's Confessions among others. As Miles writes, the ancient world would not have been aware of interiority and the contingence of salvation upon conscience until Augustine.[80] For the Christian world, salvation relied on and belonged to the individual, while the Roman world viewed salvation as political. So, Shakespeare's characters in Antony and Cleopatra, particularly Cleopatra in her belief that her own suicide is an exercise of agency, exhibit a Christian understanding of salvation.
Another example of deviance from the source material is how Shakespeare characterises the rule of Antony and Cleopatra. While Plutarch singles out the "order of exclusive society" that the lovers surrounded themselves with – a society with a specifically defined and clear understanding of the hierarchies of power as determined by birth and status – Shakespeare's play seems more preoccupied with the power dynamics of pleasure as a main theme throughout the play.[81] Once pleasure has become a dynamic of power, then it permeates society and politics. Pleasure serves as a differentiating factor between Cleopatra and Antony, between Egypt and Rome, and can be read as the fatal flaw of the heroes if Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy. For Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, the exclusivity and superiority supplied by pleasure created the disconnect between the ruler and the subjects. Critics suggest that Shakespeare did similar work with these sources in Othello, Julius Caesar, and Coriolanus.
The happy ending of Antony and Cleopatra[edit]
Antony and Cleopatra was never intended to be a tragedy; instead, Shakespeare gave the illusion of the tragedy as the two protagonists set out to become the heroes of the play and neither succeeded. Antony and Cleopatra are seen to have a passionate love for each other up till their demise as both are seen ending their lives for the other. Although the couple was seen as a pair that could not live without the other, it does not take much to be able to point out that the basis of their relationship lies on manipulation and lust. Enobarbus was able to see this as he never believed their love was true but instead a contradiction. Cleopatra always wanted Antony to be in the palm of her hands, to always be in control of his emotions and would thus manipulate him by dancing whenever he was sad or fake a sickness if he were to be happy. This makes Antony only chase after Cleopatra even more in a never-ending cycle. They both try to be much more than they are and show their enemies and the world that they are invincible. Rather than them sacrificing themselves for the other, the two protagonists set out to become the hero of the play and to show that being the last one standing, no hand will bring them down but their own. They did not die for love but for the fame that would come behind that sacrifice and in the end are seen as being noble and self-sacrificing. It does not end in a tragedy but in a bittersweet and almost happy ending.
Both of the lovers' fates are interwoven yet they deceive the other in a fight for dominance that Cleopatra wins for a while as the audience and other characters throughout the play know completely what is going on in the play filled with dramatic irony. Enobarbus once again knows of Antony's unrelenting attachment to Cleopatra and Cleopatra's mind games while the audience knows Cleopatra isn't dead as Antony kills himself over her. They both spent their whole lives trying to achieve higher fame than the other and became notorious for their lust. They are their own Gods and live separate from those that they call normal and watch. The play progresses into the protagonists decline in fame, leaving them to pursue a sure way into that immortality they coveted. They become immortals in death along with even more fame and has as well achieved their goal from the beginning. They die in the name of their love when they really die in the name of fame. A status of nobility higher than us and pity for the tragedy that is their relationship. The tragedy is Antony and Cleopatra's own happy ending as death was a small price to pay to become real gods. They proved that the only death that could touch them were by their own hand, further increasing that godly power they received from the people. Now they are apart from those they watched, now they are above them, and now they will be worshipped as gods.[82][83][84][85][86]
Fortune and chance: politics and nature[edit]
The concept of luck, or Fortune, is frequently referenced throughout Antony and Cleopatra, portrayed as an elaborate "game" that the characters participate in. An element of Fate lies within the play's concept of Chance, as the subject of Fortune/Chance's favour at any particular moment becomes the most successful character. Shakespeare represents Fortune through elemental and astronomical imagery that recalls the characters' awareness of the "unreliability of the natural world".[87] This calls into question the extent to which the characters' actions influence the resulting consequences, and whether the characters are subject to the preferences of Fortune or Chance. Antony eventually realises that he, like other characters, is merely "Fortune's knave," a mere card in the game of Chance rather than a player.[88] This realization suggests that Antony realises that he is powerless in relation to the forces of Chance, or Fortune. The manner in which the characters deal with their luck is of great importance, therefore, as they may destroy their chances of luck by taking advantage of their fortune to excessive lengths without censoring their actions, Antony did.[89] Scholar Marilyn Williamson notes that the characters my spoil their Fortune by, "riding too high" on it, as Antony did by ignoring his duties in Rome and spending time in Egypt with Cleopatra. While Fortune does play a large role in the characters' lives, they do have ability to exercise free will, however; as Fortune is not as restrictive as Fate. Antony's actions suggest this, as he is able to use his free will to take advantage of his luck by choosing his own actions. Like the natural imagery used to describe Fortune, scholar Michael Lloyd characterises it as an element itself, which causes natural occasional upheaval. This implies that fortune is a force of nature that is greater than mankind, and cannot be manipulated. The 'game of chance' that Fortune puts into play can be related to that of politics, expressing the fact that the characters must play their luck in both fortune and politics to identify a victor.[88] The play culminates, however, in Antony's realization that he is merely a card, not a player in this game.
The motif of "card playing" has a political undertone, as it relates to the nature of political dealings.[90] Caesar and Antony take action against each other as if playing a card game; playing by the rules of Chance,[90] which sways in its preference from time to time. Although Caesar and Antony may play political cards with each other, their successes rely somewhat on Chance, which hints at a certain limit to the control they have over political affairs. Furthermore, the constant references to astronomical bodies and "sublunar" imagery[89] connote a Fate-like quality to the character of Fortune, implying a lack of control on behalf of the characters. Although the characters do exercise free will to a certain extent, their success in regards to their actions ultimately depends on the luck that Fortune bestows upon them. The movement of the "moon" and the "tides" is frequently mentioned throughout the play, such as when Cleopatra states that, upon Antony's death, there is nothing of importance left "beneath the moon." The elemental and astronomical "sublunar"[87] imagery frequently referred to throughout the play is thus intertwined with the political manipulation that each character incites, yet the resulting winner of the political "game" relies in part on Chance, which has a supreme quality that the characters cannot maintain control over, and therefore must submit to.
Adaptations and cultural references[edit]
[icon] This section requires expansion. (September 2014)
Selected stage productions[edit]
##1931, John Gielgud as Antony and Ralph Richardson as Enobarbus at The Old Vic.
##1947, Katharine Cornell won a Tony Award for her Broadway performance of Cleopatra opposite the Antony of Godfrey Tearle. It ran for 126 performances, the longest run of the play in Broadway history.
##1951, Laurence Olivier as Antony and Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra in a production that played in repertory with George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra at the St James's Theatre and later on Broadway.
##1953, Michael Redgrave played Antony and Peggy Ashcroft played Cleopatra at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.
##1972, Janet Suzman and Richard Johnson, with Patrick Stewart as Enobarbus in Trevor Nunn's production for the Royal Shakespeare Company
##1981, Timothy Dalton played Antony and Carmen du Sautoy played Cleopatra at the Mermaid Theatre.
##1986, Timothy Dalton and Vanessa Redgrave in the title roles at Clwyd Theatr Cymru and Haymarket Theatre.
##1987, Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench at the Royal National Theatre.
##1999, Alan Bates and Frances de la Tour in title roles, Guy Henry as Octavius (also David Oyelowo and Owen Oakeshott) at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
##1999, Paul Shelley as Antony and Mark Rylance as Cleopatra in an all-male cast production at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.
##2006, Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter in the title roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
##2010, Kim Cattrall and Jeffery Kissoon in the title roles at the Liverpool Playhouse.
##2010, Kate Mulgrew and John Douglas Thompson in a production directed by Tina Landau at Hartford Stage.
##2010, Kathryn Hunter and Darrell D'Silva in the title roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
##2014, Eve Best and Clive Wood in the title roles at Shakespeare's Globe in London. Phil Daniels as Enobarbus.
Films and TV[edit]
##Antony and Cleopatra, 1908[91][92]
##Cleopatra, 1912 Link to the video[93][94]
##Antony and Cleopatra, 1913[95][96]
##Cleopatra, 1917[97][98]
##Anthony and Cleopatra, 1924[99][100]
##Cleopatra, 1963[101]
##Antony and Cleopatra, 1972, directed by and starring Charlton Heston as Antony, Hildegarde Neil as Cleopatra and also featuring Eric Porter as Enobarbus.
##Antony & Cleopatra, 1974, a television production of Trevor Nunn's stage version performed by London's Royal Shakespeare Company. This version was shown in the United States to great acclaim in 1975. It stars Janet Suzman (Cleopatra), Richard Johnson (Antony), and Patrick Stewart (Enobarbus) Link to the video
##Antony & Cleopatra, 1981, a TV production made as part of the BBC Television Shakespeare series. It stars Colin Blakely (Antony), Jane Lapotaire (Cleopatra), and Ian Charleson (Octavius) Link to the video
##Antony and Cleopatra, a 1983 TV movie. It stars Timothy Dalton (Antony) and Lynn Redgrave (Cleopatra).
##Rome, TV Series 2005–2007, featured James Purefoy and Lyndsey Marshal as Antony and Cleopatra.
Stage adaptations[edit]
##John Fletcher and Philip Massinger's The False One (c.1620) was influenced by Shakespeare's play.[102]
##John Dryden's play All for Love (1677) was deeply influenced by Shakespeare's treatment of the subject.[103]
Musical adaptations[edit]
##Samuel Barber's operatic version of the play was premièred in 1966.
Notes[edit]
a.Jump up ^ E. g., Wilders,[8]:p.69–75 Miola,[9]:p.209 Bloom,[10]:p.577 Kermode,[11]:p.217 Hunter,[12]:p.129 Braunmuller,[13]:p.433 and Kennedy.[14]:p.258
b.Jump up ^ On the historical political context of the Aeneid and its larger influence on the Western literary tradition through the seventeenth century, see Quint, David (1993). Epic and Empire: Politics and Generic Form from Virgil to Milton. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691069425.
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78.Jump up ^ Williamson, Marilyn (1970). "Political Context in Antony and Cleopatra". Shakespeare Quarterly 21 (3): 241–251. doi:10.2307/2868701.
79.Jump up ^ Wolf, William D. (1982). ""New Heaven, New Earth": The Escape from Mutability In Antony and Cleopatra". Shakespeare Quarterly 33 (3): 328–335. doi:10.2307/2869736. JSTOR 2869736.
80.^ Jump up to: a b Miles, Gary B. (Autumn 1989). "How Roman are Shakespeare's "Romans"?". Shakespeare Quarterly 40 (3): 257–283. doi:10.2307/2870723. JSTOR 2870723.
81.Jump up ^ Potter, Lois (2007). "Assisted Suicides: Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus in 2006-7". Shakespeare Quarterly 58 (4): 509–529. doi:10.1353/shq.2007.0064.
82.Jump up ^ Oates, Joyce Carol. "The Tragedy of Imagination: Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra." – University of San Francisco (USF). Bucknell Review, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. http://www.usfca.edu/jco/tragedyofimagination
83.Jump up ^ Blissett, William. "Dramatic Irony in Antony and Cleopatra". Shakespeare Quarterly (1967): 151–16
84.Jump up ^ Spencer, Benjamin. "Shakespeare Quarterly." Shakespeare Quarterly 9.3 (2011). 373–378. jstor.org. Web. 23 Mar. 2014
85.Jump up ^ "Antony and Cleopatra: A Non-tragic Study of Shakespeare's Tragedy". Web log post. Word Press. Word Press, 11 Aug. 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. http://ryanpfields.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/antony-and-cleopatra-a-non-tragic-study-of-shakespeare's-tragedy
86.Jump up ^ Benarzi, Alex. "The Tragedy of Antony, and Cleopatra." Now My Charms Are All Oerthrown. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. http://drowningmybooks.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/the-tragedy-of-antony-and-cleopatra/
87.^ Jump up to: a b Hallet
88.^ Jump up to: a b Lloyd
89.^ Jump up to: a b Williamson
90.^ Jump up to: a b Thomas
91.Jump up ^ http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/A/AntonyAndCleopatra1908.html
92.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000634/
93.Jump up ^ http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cleopatra1912.html
94.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0002101/
95.Jump up ^ http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/A/AntonyAndCleopatra1913.html
96.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184703/
97.Jump up ^ http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cleopatra1917.html
98.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0007801/
99.Jump up ^ http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/A/AnthonyAndCleopatra1924.html
100.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0321247/
101.Jump up ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056937/
102.Jump up ^ Maxwell, Baldwin. Studies in Beaumont, Fletcher and Massinger. Chapel Hill: University of North Caroline Press, 1939: 169
103.Jump up ^ Case, A. E., ed. British Dramatists from Dryden to Sheridan. Boston: Riverside Press, 1939: 6
External links[edit]
##No Fear Shakespeare: the text of the play with a glossary
##Cleopatra on the Web, particularly the Antony and Cleopatra section
##The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra – HTML version of this title.
##Antony and Cleopatra – Full text HTML of the play
##Full text of play
##Antony and Cleopatra at Project Gutenberg
##Antony and Cleopatra – Scene-indexed and searchable version of the play.
##Antony and Cleopatra study guide, themes, quotes, character analyses, teaching guide
##Joyce Carol Oates on Antony and Cleopatra
##Video of a BBC broadcast of Antony and Cleopatra on YouTube
##Marjorie Garber's Harvard Lecture on Antony and Cleopatra on YouTube


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Cleopatra (Rider Haggard novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Cleopatra (1889 novel))
Jump to: navigation, search




[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.




##This article needs additional citations for verification.  (January 2011)




##This article possibly contains original research.  (January 2011)


Cleopatra
Cleopatra haggard.jpg
Cover of the first edition

Author
H. Rider Haggard
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Genre
Adventure novel
Publisher
Longmans

Publication date
 1889
Media type
Print (Hardback)
Pages
316 pp
ISBN
1-55521-122-4
OCLC
16862670
Cleopatra: Being an Account of the Fall and Vengeance of Harmachis is a novel written by the author H. Rider Haggard, the author of King Solomon's Mines and She.
The book was first printed in 1889.
The story is set in the Ptolemaic era of Ancient Egyptian history and revolves around the survival of a dynasty bloodline protected by the Priesthood of Isis. The main character Harmachis (the living descendant of the pharaoh's bloodline) is charged by the Priesthood to overthrow the supposed impostor Cleopatra, drive out the Romans and restore Egypt to its golden era.
As is the case with the majority of Haggard's works, the story draws heavily upon adventure and exotic concepts. The story, told from the point of view of the Egyptian priest Harmachis, is recounted in biblical language, being in the form of papyrus scrolls found in a tomb. Haggard's portrait of Cleopatra is quite stunning, revealing her wit, her treachery, and her overwhelming presence. All of the characters are mixtures of good and evil, and evoke both sympathy and loathing. While much of the material on ancient Egyptian ritual is overdone,[citation needed] the often brilliant dialogue and the fateful interactions between the principal characters make the book quite unforgettable in comparison to Haggard's better known but more conventional adventure novels. The character of Mark Antony, introduced in the later part of the book, is fleeting and lacks importance, though historically it seems that the book has some importance as the references made are based on facts about the romance between Cleopatra and Mark Antony and the fall of both from power.[citation needed] Cleopatra goes unrecognized in most discussions of Haggard—perhaps because of its stilted language.[citation needed]
Boucher and McComas gave the novel a mixed review, saying that it combined "a not always believable portrait" of its title heroine with a "fascinating, wholly convincing" story line.[1]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Novels portal
Harmachis
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Recommended Reading," F&SF, September 1953, p. 100.
Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 112.
External links[edit]
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Cleopatra (Haggard)

Cleopatra at Project Gutenberg


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Novels set in Ancient Egypt
Cultural depictions of Cleopatra
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Cleopatra (Rider Haggard novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Cleopatra (1889 novel))
Jump to: navigation, search




[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.




##This article needs additional citations for verification.  (January 2011)




##This article possibly contains original research.  (January 2011)


Cleopatra
Cleopatra haggard.jpg
Cover of the first edition

Author
H. Rider Haggard
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Genre
Adventure novel
Publisher
Longmans

Publication date
 1889
Media type
Print (Hardback)
Pages
316 pp
ISBN
1-55521-122-4
OCLC
16862670
Cleopatra: Being an Account of the Fall and Vengeance of Harmachis is a novel written by the author H. Rider Haggard, the author of King Solomon's Mines and She.
The book was first printed in 1889.
The story is set in the Ptolemaic era of Ancient Egyptian history and revolves around the survival of a dynasty bloodline protected by the Priesthood of Isis. The main character Harmachis (the living descendant of the pharaoh's bloodline) is charged by the Priesthood to overthrow the supposed impostor Cleopatra, drive out the Romans and restore Egypt to its golden era.
As is the case with the majority of Haggard's works, the story draws heavily upon adventure and exotic concepts. The story, told from the point of view of the Egyptian priest Harmachis, is recounted in biblical language, being in the form of papyrus scrolls found in a tomb. Haggard's portrait of Cleopatra is quite stunning, revealing her wit, her treachery, and her overwhelming presence. All of the characters are mixtures of good and evil, and evoke both sympathy and loathing. While much of the material on ancient Egyptian ritual is overdone,[citation needed] the often brilliant dialogue and the fateful interactions between the principal characters make the book quite unforgettable in comparison to Haggard's better known but more conventional adventure novels. The character of Mark Antony, introduced in the later part of the book, is fleeting and lacks importance, though historically it seems that the book has some importance as the references made are based on facts about the romance between Cleopatra and Mark Antony and the fall of both from power.[citation needed] Cleopatra goes unrecognized in most discussions of Haggard—perhaps because of its stilted language.[citation needed]
Boucher and McComas gave the novel a mixed review, saying that it combined "a not always believable portrait" of its title heroine with a "fascinating, wholly convincing" story line.[1]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Novels portal
Harmachis
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Recommended Reading," F&SF, September 1953, p. 100.
Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 112.
External links[edit]
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Cleopatra (Haggard)

Cleopatra at Project Gutenberg


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Works by Sir Henry Rider Haggard





















































































































Stub icon This article about a historical novel of the 1880s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


Categories: 1889 novels
Novels by H. Rider Haggard
English historical novels
Novels set in Ancient Egypt
Cultural depictions of Cleopatra
1880s novel stubs
Historical novel stubs










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This page was last modified on 7 January 2015, at 08:46.
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The Memoirs of Cleopatra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

The Memoirs of Cleopatra
The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George.jpg
First edition

Author
Margaret George
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Historical fiction
Publisher
St. Martin's Press

Publication date
 April 1997
Media type
Print
ISBN
0312154305
OCLC
36121002
The Memoirs of Cleopatra is a 1997 historical fiction novel written by American author Margaret George, detailing the purported life of Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt. Published on April 15, 1997, it landed on The New York Times Best Seller list for Fiction Hardcover. In 1999, the American network ABC adapted it for television, and released it as a four-part miniseries entitled Cleopatra starring the French-Chilean actress Leonor Varela alongside Timothy Dalton and Billy Zane.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Development and release
3 Reception
4 Miniseries adaptation
5 References

Plot summary[edit]
The story follows Cleopatra VII, from her early life under the rule of her father Ptolemy XII Auletes, to her eventual suicide. When Cleopatra is a young girl, Ptolemy is overthrown by his two elder daughters, Cleopatra VI and Berenice, and requires the help of Rome to save his throne, increasing his country's debt. Cleopatra VII is named co-ruler with her father, and when he dies, her young brother Ptolemy XIII is named in his stead. In accordance with tradition, she marries him. Later, Ptolemy overthrows his sister under the advice of his advisers. Cleopatra seeks out the nearby Julius Caesar. She hides in a rug and has herself secretly presented to him, beginning a tryst. She falls in love with him.
With his help, at the age of seventeen, she becomes queen of Egypt, but feels betrayed when her brother is ordered back as her co-regent. Cleopatra and Caesar tour the country, and she becomes pregnant. They marry and he returns home, while she gives birth of a son named Ptolemy Caesar. Caesar acknowledges the boy, but is assassinated soon after. Cleopatra meets Marcus Antonius, and the two begin an affair that will last years. Together, they fight to withstand the aggression of Caesar's successor, Octavian.
Development and release[edit]
Author Margaret George read about Cleopatra as a young girl, and had always had an interest in the classics. George related to the historical figure because they were both dark-haired, in an era when most images of beauty seemed to be blonde. She spent two and a half years writing The Memoirs of Cleopatra,[1] traveling to Egypt four times to research it.[2] Referring to the many incorrect presentations of the legendary queen, George considers her novel to be "the most historically accurate version within the limits of the medium."[3] She viewed Cleopatra fundamentally as a "political leader" who suffered from centuries of Roman propaganda and Shakespearean plays, each of whom sought to depict her as "flighty". George said, "She was obviously very appealing but not this bimbo that the Romans would like you to think she was."[3]
The finished novel was 964 pages; George describes this as "big, but it's not padded."[4] By 1997, George was a successful author who had published popular historical novels about Henry VIII of England and Mary, Queen of Scots. Assuming her latest novel would also be popular, St. Martin's Press ordered 200,000 copies.[2] The Memoirs of Cleopatra was published by St. Martin's Press in March 1997.[5] George launched a national book tour in April,[6] and it landed on The New York Times Best Seller list for fiction hardcover in May and June.[7][8] By May 1999, it had sold 180,000 copies.[4]
Reception[edit]
Megan Harlan of Entertainment Weekly graded the novel with an A- and called it an "absorbing, meticulous cast-of-thousands epic".[9] Harlan added that while "long swaths of Roman civil warfare might prove skimmable for some... the rest of The Memoirs of Cleopatra is completely absorbing, as if ancient frescoes had sprung alive."[9] Publishers Weekly also gave a positive review, lauding her "palpably real" settings and ability to depict the era's many battles with "skill and passion."[10] They added that "in nearly a thousand pages, [George] creates countless memorable moments... Readers looking to be transported to another place and time will find their magic carpet here."[10] Kirkus Reviews compared The Memoirs of Cleopatra to her novel on Mary, Queen of Scots, writing that "unlike George's Mary, based on that sovereign's letters and diaries, Cleopatra's voice is lost in the sands of time, and its echo here is curiously bland."[11] The reviewer added, "As for the power boys—Caesar and Antony—both lack the steely tang of Colleen McCullough's portraits."[11]
Miniseries adaptation[edit]



 French-Chilean actress Leonor Varela starred as Cleopatra in the television adaptation of George's novel.
Main article: Cleopatra (1999 film)
The American network ABC optioned the novel even before its completion.[1] A four-hour television miniseries adaptation of The Memoirs of Cleopatra was broadcast in 1999, entitled Cleopatra. One of the most expensive television productions ever, it was adapted by Anton Diether and Stephen Harrigan, whom George became friends with.[4] She served as a minor consultant for the miniseries. Filmed in North Africa and London,[4] it starred the "purposely unknown" French-Chilean actress Leonor Varela as the titular character, along with costars Timothy Dalton and Billy Zane as her respective lovers Caesar and Antony.[3][12] The adaptation, which received mixed to negative reviews,[12][13] deviated from the novel in several significant ways, including its condensing of Cleopatra's relationship with Antony.[4] George has stated that "they 'telescoped' it in the interest of time. They kept the psychology, and they kept the motivation. But they rearranged some things."[4] She also added that she thinks

"they did well considering that they had to condense things so much. My book has everything in it—her childhood, her children, her battle strategies. It's encyclopedic. But I think they have the spirit of it. They've preserved the essential psychology of it."[14]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Schultz, Susy (June 29, 1997). "Author tells of research agony and Cleopatra". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
2.^ Jump up to: a b Wineke, William R. (March 30, 1997). "Book Groups, Strong Sales Prove Reading is Not a Lost Pastime". The Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
3.^ Jump up to: a b c Williams, Wendy J. (May 22, 1999). "The costliest miniseries ever?". The Boston Globe. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
4.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Alesia, Tom (May 23, 1999). "Cleopatra; Local Author's Weighty Tome Turned into Epic TV Movie". The Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
5.Jump up ^ "George, Margaret 1943-". Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. January 1, 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
6.Jump up ^ "Books of the Times". The Capital Times. April 25, 1997. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
7.Jump up ^ "Best Sellers: Fiction Hardcover". The New York Times. May 25, 1997. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
8.Jump up ^ "Best Sellers: Fiction Hardcover". The New York Times. June 8, 1997. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Harlan, Megan (May 16, 1997). "Book Review: The Memoirs of Cleopatra". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
10.^ Jump up to: a b "Fiction book review: Memoirs of Cleopatra". Publishers Weekly. March 31, 1997. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
11.^ Jump up to: a b "The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George". Kirkus Reviews. March 15, 1997. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
12.^ Jump up to: a b Garron, Barry (May 21, 1999). "'Cleopatra'". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
13.Jump up ^ Pergament, Alan (May 20, 1999). "'Cleopatra'". The Buffalo News. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
14.Jump up ^ Brennan, Patricia (May 23, 1999). "The Book on the Egyptian Queen". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
  


Categories: 1997 novels
Novels set in Ancient Egypt
American novels adapted into films
Cultural depictions of Cleopatra
Novels set in the 1st century BC




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The Memoirs of Cleopatra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

The Memoirs of Cleopatra
The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George.jpg
First edition

Author
Margaret George
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Historical fiction
Publisher
St. Martin's Press

Publication date
 April 1997
Media type
Print
ISBN
0312154305
OCLC
36121002
The Memoirs of Cleopatra is a 1997 historical fiction novel written by American author Margaret George, detailing the purported life of Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt. Published on April 15, 1997, it landed on The New York Times Best Seller list for Fiction Hardcover. In 1999, the American network ABC adapted it for television, and released it as a four-part miniseries entitled Cleopatra starring the French-Chilean actress Leonor Varela alongside Timothy Dalton and Billy Zane.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Development and release
3 Reception
4 Miniseries adaptation
5 References

Plot summary[edit]
The story follows Cleopatra VII, from her early life under the rule of her father Ptolemy XII Auletes, to her eventual suicide. When Cleopatra is a young girl, Ptolemy is overthrown by his two elder daughters, Cleopatra VI and Berenice, and requires the help of Rome to save his throne, increasing his country's debt. Cleopatra VII is named co-ruler with her father, and when he dies, her young brother Ptolemy XIII is named in his stead. In accordance with tradition, she marries him. Later, Ptolemy overthrows his sister under the advice of his advisers. Cleopatra seeks out the nearby Julius Caesar. She hides in a rug and has herself secretly presented to him, beginning a tryst. She falls in love with him.
With his help, at the age of seventeen, she becomes queen of Egypt, but feels betrayed when her brother is ordered back as her co-regent. Cleopatra and Caesar tour the country, and she becomes pregnant. They marry and he returns home, while she gives birth of a son named Ptolemy Caesar. Caesar acknowledges the boy, but is assassinated soon after. Cleopatra meets Marcus Antonius, and the two begin an affair that will last years. Together, they fight to withstand the aggression of Caesar's successor, Octavian.
Development and release[edit]
Author Margaret George read about Cleopatra as a young girl, and had always had an interest in the classics. George related to the historical figure because they were both dark-haired, in an era when most images of beauty seemed to be blonde. She spent two and a half years writing The Memoirs of Cleopatra,[1] traveling to Egypt four times to research it.[2] Referring to the many incorrect presentations of the legendary queen, George considers her novel to be "the most historically accurate version within the limits of the medium."[3] She viewed Cleopatra fundamentally as a "political leader" who suffered from centuries of Roman propaganda and Shakespearean plays, each of whom sought to depict her as "flighty". George said, "She was obviously very appealing but not this bimbo that the Romans would like you to think she was."[3]
The finished novel was 964 pages; George describes this as "big, but it's not padded."[4] By 1997, George was a successful author who had published popular historical novels about Henry VIII of England and Mary, Queen of Scots. Assuming her latest novel would also be popular, St. Martin's Press ordered 200,000 copies.[2] The Memoirs of Cleopatra was published by St. Martin's Press in March 1997.[5] George launched a national book tour in April,[6] and it landed on The New York Times Best Seller list for fiction hardcover in May and June.[7][8] By May 1999, it had sold 180,000 copies.[4]
Reception[edit]
Megan Harlan of Entertainment Weekly graded the novel with an A- and called it an "absorbing, meticulous cast-of-thousands epic".[9] Harlan added that while "long swaths of Roman civil warfare might prove skimmable for some... the rest of The Memoirs of Cleopatra is completely absorbing, as if ancient frescoes had sprung alive."[9] Publishers Weekly also gave a positive review, lauding her "palpably real" settings and ability to depict the era's many battles with "skill and passion."[10] They added that "in nearly a thousand pages, [George] creates countless memorable moments... Readers looking to be transported to another place and time will find their magic carpet here."[10] Kirkus Reviews compared The Memoirs of Cleopatra to her novel on Mary, Queen of Scots, writing that "unlike George's Mary, based on that sovereign's letters and diaries, Cleopatra's voice is lost in the sands of time, and its echo here is curiously bland."[11] The reviewer added, "As for the power boys—Caesar and Antony—both lack the steely tang of Colleen McCullough's portraits."[11]
Miniseries adaptation[edit]



 French-Chilean actress Leonor Varela starred as Cleopatra in the television adaptation of George's novel.
Main article: Cleopatra (1999 film)
The American network ABC optioned the novel even before its completion.[1] A four-hour television miniseries adaptation of The Memoirs of Cleopatra was broadcast in 1999, entitled Cleopatra. One of the most expensive television productions ever, it was adapted by Anton Diether and Stephen Harrigan, whom George became friends with.[4] She served as a minor consultant for the miniseries. Filmed in North Africa and London,[4] it starred the "purposely unknown" French-Chilean actress Leonor Varela as the titular character, along with costars Timothy Dalton and Billy Zane as her respective lovers Caesar and Antony.[3][12] The adaptation, which received mixed to negative reviews,[12][13] deviated from the novel in several significant ways, including its condensing of Cleopatra's relationship with Antony.[4] George has stated that "they 'telescoped' it in the interest of time. They kept the psychology, and they kept the motivation. But they rearranged some things."[4] She also added that she thinks

"they did well considering that they had to condense things so much. My book has everything in it—her childhood, her children, her battle strategies. It's encyclopedic. But I think they have the spirit of it. They've preserved the essential psychology of it."[14]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Schultz, Susy (June 29, 1997). "Author tells of research agony and Cleopatra". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
2.^ Jump up to: a b Wineke, William R. (March 30, 1997). "Book Groups, Strong Sales Prove Reading is Not a Lost Pastime". The Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
3.^ Jump up to: a b c Williams, Wendy J. (May 22, 1999). "The costliest miniseries ever?". The Boston Globe. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
4.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Alesia, Tom (May 23, 1999). "Cleopatra; Local Author's Weighty Tome Turned into Epic TV Movie". The Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
5.Jump up ^ "George, Margaret 1943-". Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. January 1, 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
6.Jump up ^ "Books of the Times". The Capital Times. April 25, 1997. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
7.Jump up ^ "Best Sellers: Fiction Hardcover". The New York Times. May 25, 1997. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
8.Jump up ^ "Best Sellers: Fiction Hardcover". The New York Times. June 8, 1997. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Harlan, Megan (May 16, 1997). "Book Review: The Memoirs of Cleopatra". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
10.^ Jump up to: a b "Fiction book review: Memoirs of Cleopatra". Publishers Weekly. March 31, 1997. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
11.^ Jump up to: a b "The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George". Kirkus Reviews. March 15, 1997. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
12.^ Jump up to: a b Garron, Barry (May 21, 1999). "'Cleopatra'". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
13.Jump up ^ Pergament, Alan (May 20, 1999). "'Cleopatra'". The Buffalo News. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
14.Jump up ^ Brennan, Patricia (May 23, 1999). "The Book on the Egyptian Queen". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 4, 2014. (subscription required)
  


Categories: 1997 novels
Novels set in Ancient Egypt
American novels adapted into films
Cultural depictions of Cleopatra
Novels set in the 1st century BC




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Cleopatra (1963 soundtrack)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Cleopatra: The Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Soundtrack album by Alex North

Released
1963 (composition; initial vinyl releases)
 1997 (original CD release)
 2001 (complete Varèse Sarabande release)
Recorded
1963
Genre
Soundtrack
Length
74:27
Label
Tsunami
Producer
Alex North
The soundtrack of Cleopatra was composed by Alex North and was recorded and produced in 1963. This article focuses on the remastered, digital-era re-releases of the soundtrack, rather than the initial vinyl selection of pieces from the score.


Contents  [hide]
1 Releases
2 1997 Tsunami album
3 2001 Varèse Sarabande album 3.1 Disc one
3.2 Disc two
4 Nomination and ratings
5 See also
6 References

Releases[edit]
The soundtrack of Cleopatra was released on Compact Disc in two different versions at two different times. The original vinyl selection of tracks had long gone out of print before digital restorations of the soundtrack was released.[1] The versions are as follows:
The limited edition 1997 Tsunami Records (an independent German record label) release, which contained selected tracks, not representing the complete range of tracks heard in the film. The Tsunami release is also considered to be of an inferior sound quality and was made redundant by the complete Varèse Sarabande release.[1]
The 2001 Varèse Sarabande album, by far the most popular release of the soundtrack of Cleopatra. Running over 151 minutes, the album contains the entire score heard in the film in chronological order. It was released over two discs.
1997 Tsunami album[edit]
1."Overture" – 2:45
2."Caesar and Cleopatra" – 2:35
3."The Head of Pompeius" – 2:58
4."A Gift for Caesar" – 1:49
5."The Palace of Alexandria" – 2:58
6."The Fire Burns, The Fire Burns" – 2:03
7."Taste of Death" – 1:46
8."A Queen's Bedroom" – 4:59
9."Conspirations and Conflicts" – 3:55
10."Anthony and Calpurnia" – 2:05
11."Caesar's Farewell" – 3:47
12."Cleopatra Enters Rome" – 6:03
13."Caesar's Assassination" – 4:38
14."Epilogue (Act 1)" – 2:24
15."Anthony and Cleopatra" – 2:20
16."We Shall Meet in Egypt" – 2:40
17."Cleopatra's Barge" – 3:02
18."Anthony's Victory" – 3:22
19."Love and Hate" – 2:17
20."My Love is My Master" – 2:12
21."Anthony's Farewell" – 2:40
22."Grant Me an Honourable Way to Die" – 2:39
23."Dying is Less than Love" – 4:31
24."Anthony... Wait" – 3:59
2001 Varèse Sarabande album[edit]

Cleopatra: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Cover for the 2001 Varèse Sarabande release.

Soundtrack album by Alex North

Released
1963 (composition; initial vinyl releases)
 1997 (original CD release)
 2001 (complete Varèse Sarabande release)
Recorded
1963
Genre
Soundtrack
Length
151:23
Label
Varèse Sarabande
Producer
Alex North

Professional ratings

Review scores

Source
Rating
Allmusic 4.5/5 stars [2]
Disc one[edit]
1."Overture" – 2:42
2."Main Title" – 2:51
3."Pharsalia" – 1:17
4."Caesar to Egypt" – 1:57
5."The VIPs/King Ptolemy" – 0:59
6."Pompey's Ring" – 2:53
7."A Gift for Caesar" – 1:51
8."Only Yesterday" – 1:31
9."Epilepsy" – 3:20
10."Great Library" – 2:05
11."Moon Gate" – 4:20
12."Taste of Death" – 1:47
13."Sympathy" – 1:45
14."Coronation" – 1:51
15."Fertility" – 4:49
16."Alexander's Tomb" – 3:45
17."Calpurnia" – 1:59
18."The Fire Burns/Son of Caesar" – 3:43
19."Caesar's Departure" – 3:40
20."Cleopatra Enters Rome" – 6:49
21."By Divine Right" – 2:06
22."Death in the Garden" – 1:44
23."Caesar's Assassination" – 4:57
24."Requiem" – 1:32
25."Farewell" – 1:39
26."Entr'acte (Caesar & Cleopatra)" – 2:32
27."Hail Antony" – 3:12
28."Isis" – 1:23
29."Love Theme (Reprise)" – 0:30
Disc two[edit]
1."Cleopatra's Barge" – 2:54
2."Most Becoming" – 1:38
3."Food" – 0:54
4."Antony and Cleopatra in Tarses" – 3:38
5."Bacchus" – 2:41
6."Antony and Cleopatra's Love" – 3:10
7."One Breath Closer" – 2:40
8."Love and Hate" – 2:16
9."Athens" – 2:37
10."Cleopatra's Ambition" – 1:15
11."War" – 0:44
12."Interlude/Sea Battle" – 14:36
13."My Love is My Master" – 4:17
14."Two Heads" – 0:46
15."Better Late than Never" – 2:37
16."Cleopatra's Son/Antony's Camp" – 2:19
17."Never Fear" – 3:16
18."Grant Me an Honorable Way to Die" – 2:37
19."Antony's Retreat/Transitions" – 2:02
20."Dying is Less than Love" – 4:26
21."Octavian the Victor" – 4:05
22."Antony... Wait" – 3:55
23."Epilogue" – 2:25
24."Exit Music (Antony & Cleopatra)" – 2:26
Nomination and ratings[edit]
The film was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. On the site Filmtracks.com, the soundtrack is rated 5/5.[1] Allmusic rates the soundtrack 4.5/5.
See also[edit]
Cleopatra (1963 film)
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c "Filmtracks: Cleopatra (Alex North)". Filmtracks. March 24, 2001. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
2.Jump up ^ Cleopatra (1963 soundtrack) at AllMusic
  


Categories: Film soundtracks
1963 soundtracks
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Cultural depictions of Cleopatra
Varèse Sarabande soundtracks
Alex North soundtracks
Albums produced by Alex North




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Cleopatra (1963 soundtrack)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search


Cleopatra: The Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Soundtrack album by Alex North

Released
1963 (composition; initial vinyl releases)
 1997 (original CD release)
 2001 (complete Varèse Sarabande release)
Recorded
1963
Genre
Soundtrack
Length
74:27
Label
Tsunami
Producer
Alex North
The soundtrack of Cleopatra was composed by Alex North and was recorded and produced in 1963. This article focuses on the remastered, digital-era re-releases of the soundtrack, rather than the initial vinyl selection of pieces from the score.


Contents  [hide]
1 Releases
2 1997 Tsunami album
3 2001 Varèse Sarabande album 3.1 Disc one
3.2 Disc two
4 Nomination and ratings
5 See also
6 References

Releases[edit]
The soundtrack of Cleopatra was released on Compact Disc in two different versions at two different times. The original vinyl selection of tracks had long gone out of print before digital restorations of the soundtrack was released.[1] The versions are as follows:
The limited edition 1997 Tsunami Records (an independent German record label) release, which contained selected tracks, not representing the complete range of tracks heard in the film. The Tsunami release is also considered to be of an inferior sound quality and was made redundant by the complete Varèse Sarabande release.[1]
The 2001 Varèse Sarabande album, by far the most popular release of the soundtrack of Cleopatra. Running over 151 minutes, the album contains the entire score heard in the film in chronological order. It was released over two discs.
1997 Tsunami album[edit]
1."Overture" – 2:45
2."Caesar and Cleopatra" – 2:35
3."The Head of Pompeius" – 2:58
4."A Gift for Caesar" – 1:49
5."The Palace of Alexandria" – 2:58
6."The Fire Burns, The Fire Burns" – 2:03
7."Taste of Death" – 1:46
8."A Queen's Bedroom" – 4:59
9."Conspirations and Conflicts" – 3:55
10."Anthony and Calpurnia" – 2:05
11."Caesar's Farewell" – 3:47
12."Cleopatra Enters Rome" – 6:03
13."Caesar's Assassination" – 4:38
14."Epilogue (Act 1)" – 2:24
15."Anthony and Cleopatra" – 2:20
16."We Shall Meet in Egypt" – 2:40
17."Cleopatra's Barge" – 3:02
18."Anthony's Victory" – 3:22
19."Love and Hate" – 2:17
20."My Love is My Master" – 2:12
21."Anthony's Farewell" – 2:40
22."Grant Me an Honourable Way to Die" – 2:39
23."Dying is Less than Love" – 4:31
24."Anthony... Wait" – 3:59
2001 Varèse Sarabande album[edit]

Cleopatra: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Cover for the 2001 Varèse Sarabande release.

Soundtrack album by Alex North

Released
1963 (composition; initial vinyl releases)
 1997 (original CD release)
 2001 (complete Varèse Sarabande release)
Recorded
1963
Genre
Soundtrack
Length
151:23
Label
Varèse Sarabande
Producer
Alex North

Professional ratings

Review scores

Source
Rating
Allmusic 4.5/5 stars [2]
Disc one[edit]
1."Overture" – 2:42
2."Main Title" – 2:51
3."Pharsalia" – 1:17
4."Caesar to Egypt" – 1:57
5."The VIPs/King Ptolemy" – 0:59
6."Pompey's Ring" – 2:53
7."A Gift for Caesar" – 1:51
8."Only Yesterday" – 1:31
9."Epilepsy" – 3:20
10."Great Library" – 2:05
11."Moon Gate" – 4:20
12."Taste of Death" – 1:47
13."Sympathy" – 1:45
14."Coronation" – 1:51
15."Fertility" – 4:49
16."Alexander's Tomb" – 3:45
17."Calpurnia" – 1:59
18."The Fire Burns/Son of Caesar" – 3:43
19."Caesar's Departure" – 3:40
20."Cleopatra Enters Rome" – 6:49
21."By Divine Right" – 2:06
22."Death in the Garden" – 1:44
23."Caesar's Assassination" – 4:57
24."Requiem" – 1:32
25."Farewell" – 1:39
26."Entr'acte (Caesar & Cleopatra)" – 2:32
27."Hail Antony" – 3:12
28."Isis" – 1:23
29."Love Theme (Reprise)" – 0:30
Disc two[edit]
1."Cleopatra's Barge" – 2:54
2."Most Becoming" – 1:38
3."Food" – 0:54
4."Antony and Cleopatra in Tarses" – 3:38
5."Bacchus" – 2:41
6."Antony and Cleopatra's Love" – 3:10
7."One Breath Closer" – 2:40
8."Love and Hate" – 2:16
9."Athens" – 2:37
10."Cleopatra's Ambition" – 1:15
11."War" – 0:44
12."Interlude/Sea Battle" – 14:36
13."My Love is My Master" – 4:17
14."Two Heads" – 0:46
15."Better Late than Never" – 2:37
16."Cleopatra's Son/Antony's Camp" – 2:19
17."Never Fear" – 3:16
18."Grant Me an Honorable Way to Die" – 2:37
19."Antony's Retreat/Transitions" – 2:02
20."Dying is Less than Love" – 4:26
21."Octavian the Victor" – 4:05
22."Antony... Wait" – 3:55
23."Epilogue" – 2:25
24."Exit Music (Antony & Cleopatra)" – 2:26
Nomination and ratings[edit]
The film was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. On the site Filmtracks.com, the soundtrack is rated 5/5.[1] Allmusic rates the soundtrack 4.5/5.
See also[edit]
Cleopatra (1963 film)
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c "Filmtracks: Cleopatra (Alex North)". Filmtracks. March 24, 2001. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
2.Jump up ^ Cleopatra (1963 soundtrack) at AllMusic
  


Categories: Film soundtracks
1963 soundtracks
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Cultural depictions of Cleopatra
Varèse Sarabande soundtracks
Alex North soundtracks
Albums produced by Alex North




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This page was last modified on 13 May 2014, at 07:31.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(1963_soundtrack)













Cleopatra (1963 film)

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Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2014)

Cleopatra
Cleopatra poster.jpg
Original theatrical release poster

Directed by
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Produced by
Walter Wanger
Screenplay by
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Ranald MacDougall
Sidney Buchman
Based on
The Life and Times of Cleopatra
 by C.M. Franzero
 Histories
 by Plutarch, Suetonius, and Appian
Starring
Elizabeth Taylor
Richard Burton
Rex Harrison
Roddy McDowall
Martin Landau
Hume Cronyn
George Cole
Music by
Alex North
Cinematography
Leon Shamroy
Edited by
Dorothy Spencer
Distributed by
20th Century-Fox

Release dates

June 12, 1963 (New York, premiere)
July 31, 1963 (United Kingdom)


Running time
 248 minutes[1]
Country
United Kingdom
 United States
 Switzerland
Language
English
Budget
$31.115 million[2]
Box office
$57,777,778 (US)[3]
Cleopatra is a 1963 epic historical drama film chronicling the struggles of Cleopatra VII, the young Queen of Egypt, to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome. It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and shot in the 70 mm Todd-AO format, with a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, and Martin Landau.
Cleopatra achieved notoriety during its production for its massive cost overruns and production troubles, which included changes in director and cast, a change of filming locale, sets that had to be constructed twice, lack of a firm shooting script, and personal scandal around its co-stars. It was the most expensive film ever made up to that point and almost bankrupted 20th Century-Fox.
It received mixed reviews from critics, although critics and audiences alike generally praised Taylor and Burton's performances. It was the highest grossing film of 1963, earning US$26 million ($57.7 million total; equivalent to $444.48 million in 2015), yet made a loss due to its production and marketing costs of $44 million (equivalent to $338.94 million in 2015), making it the only film ever to be the highest grossing film of the year yet to run at a loss.[4] Cleopatra later won four Academy Awards, and was nominated for five more, including Best Picture (which it lost to Tom Jones).


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Historical accuracy
5 Soundtrack
6 Reception and impact
7 References in other works
8 Awards and nominations
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

Plot[edit]
After the Battle of Pharsalus where Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) has defeated Pompey, Pompey flees to Egypt, hoping to enlist the support of the young Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII (Richard O'Sullivan) and his sister Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor). The Romans hold, and the armies of Mithridates arrive on Egyptian soil. The following day, Caesar passes judgment. He sentences Ptolemy's lord chamberlain to death for arranging an assassination attempt on Cleopatra. Cleopatra is crowned Queen of Egypt. She dreams of ruling the world with Caesar. When their son Caesarion is born, Caesar accepts him publicly, which becomes the talk of Rome and the Senate.
After he is made dictator for life, Caesar sends for Cleopatra. She arrives in Rome in a lavish procession and wins the adulation of the Roman people. The Senate grows increasingly discontented amid rumors that Caesar wishes to be made king, which is anathema to the Romans. On the Ides of March in 44 BC, the Senate is preparing to vote on whether to award Caesar additional powers. They kill Caesar and split up the empire: Lepidus receives Africa, Octavian Spain and Gaul, while Antony will take control of the eastern provinces. However, the rivalry between Octavian and Antony is becoming apparent.
While planning a campaign against Parthia in the east, Antony realizes he needs money and supplies, and cannot get enough from anywhere but Egypt. After refusing several times to leave Egypt, Cleopatra gives in and meets him in Tarsus. Antony becomes drunk during a lavish feast. Cleopatra sneaks away, leaving a slave dressed as her, but Antony discovers the trick and confronts the queen. The war is decided at the naval Battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BC where Octavian's fleet, under the command of Agrippa, defeats the Anthony-Egyptian fleet. Cleopatra assumes he is dead and orders the Egyptian forces home. Antony follows, leaving his fleet leaderless and soon defeated. Several months later, Cleopatra manages to convince Antony to retake command of his troops and fight Octavian's advancing army. However, Antony's soldiers have lost faith in him and abandon him during the night; Rufio (Martin Landau), the last man loyal to Antony, kills himself. Antony tries to goad Octavian into single combat, but is finally forced to flee into the city.
When Antony returns to the palace, Apollodorus, not believing that Antony is worthy of his queen, convinces him that she is dead, whereupon Antony falls on his own sword. Apollodorus falls unconscious, and is discovered by Octavian as he enters the palace. She sends her servant Charmian to give Octavian a letter. In the letter she asks to be buried with Antony. Octavian realizes that she is going to kill herself and he and his guards burst into Cleopatra's chamber and find her dressed in gold, and dead, along with her servant Eiras, while an asp crawls along the floor.
Charmion is found kneeling next to the altar Cleopatra is lying on, and Agrippa asks of her: ""Was this well done of your lady?" She replies: "Extremely well. As befitting the last of so many noble rulers." She then drops dead as Agrippa looks on.
Cast[edit]
##Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra
##Richard Burton as Mark Antony
##Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar
##Roddy McDowall as Octavian, alias Augustus
##Martin Landau as Rufio
##Hume Cronyn as Sosigenes
##George Cole as Flavius
##Carroll O'Connor as Servilius Casca
##Andrew Keir as Agrippa
##Gwen Watford as Calpurnia Pisonis
##Kenneth Haigh as Brutus
##Pamela Brown as the High Priestess
##Cesare Danova as Apollodorus
##Francesca Annis as Eiras
##Richard O'Sullivan as Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII
##Gregoire Aslan as Pothinus
##Martin Benson as Ramos
##Jean Marsh as Octavia Minor
##John Hoyt as Cassius
##Desmond Llewelyn as a Roman senator
##Peter Grant as a palace guard
Production[edit]
The eventual production costs of Cleopatra almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox. Originally budgeted at $2 million,[5] the film ended up costing $31 million, making it the most expensive film ever made at the time.[2] This was partly owing to the fact that the film's elaborate, complicated sets, costumes and props had to be constructed twice, first during an abandoned shoot in London and once more when the production relocated to Rome.
Filming began in London in 1960 under Rouben Mamoulian. Mankiewicz was brought into the production after Mamoulian's departure. Leon Shamroy replaced Jack Hildyard as cinematographer. Mankiewicz inherited a film which was already $5 million over budget and had no usable footage to show for it. This was in part because the actors originally chosen to play Julius Caesar (Peter Finch) and Mark Antony (Stephen Boyd) left owing to other commitments. Mankiewicz was later fired during the editing phase, only to be rehired when no one else could piece the film together (since Mankiewicz was hired so late in the production, he was rewriting the screenplay during principal photography; there was never a finished shooting script as such).
Elizabeth Taylor was awarded a record-setting contract of $1 million. This amount eventually swelled to $7 million because of the delays of the production, ($53.9 million as of 2015).[6] Taylor became very ill during the early filming and was rushed to hospital, where a tracheotomy had to be performed to save her life. The resulting scar can be seen in some shots. All of this resulted in the film being shut down. The production was moved to Rome after six months as the English weather proved detrimental to her recovery, as well as being responsible for the constant deterioration of the costly sets and exotic plants required for the production. (The English sets were utilized for the British comedy Carry On Cleo.) During filming, Taylor met Richard Burton and the two began a very public affair, which made headlines worldwide since both were married to others. Moral outrage over the scandal brought bad publicity to an already troubled production.
The cut of the film which Mankiewicz screened for the studio was six hours long. This was cut to four hours for its initial premiere, but the studio demanded (over the objections of Mankiewicz) that the film be cut once more, this time to just barely over three hours to allow theaters to increase the number of showings per day. As a result, certain details are left out of the film, such as Rufio's death and the recurring theme of Cleopatra's interaction with the gods of Egypt.[7] Mankiewicz unsuccessfully attempted to convince the studio to split the film in two in order to preserve the original cut. These were to be released separately as Caesar and Cleopatra followed by Antony and Cleopatra. The studio wanted to capitalize on the publicity of the intense press coverage the Taylor-Burton romance was generating, and felt that pushing Antony and Cleopatra to a later release date was too risky. The film has been released to home video formats in its 248-minute premiere version, and efforts are under way to locate the missing footage (some of which has been recovered).
Historical accuracy[edit]
On the whole the film followed the history of the period fairly closely, and took fewer liberties with historical accuracy than several other epics. However there are a few minor inaccuracies:
##Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator and his head scholar are spared by Caesar - in reality, Ptolemy died during the Battle of Alexandria, drowning as he tried to cross the Nile.
##Ptolemy XIV and Arsinoe IV are 'missing' - This is especially apparent with the former, who in reality was named as co-ruler with Cleopatra between 47 and 44 BC.
##The film features Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, first as an admiral under Julius Caesar, then later under Octavian. Agrippa (Andrew Keir) appears to be the same age as Caesar and much older than Octavian. Historically, Agrippa was about the same age as Octavian (as were Keir and Roddy McDowall).
##Following the assassination of Caesar, Agrippa is depicted in two scenes as seated in the Curia wearing a senatorial toga. In reality, Agrippa was a hereditary member of the Equestrian order and therefore prohibited under Republican law from either non-invitational attendance in the Curia, or the wearing of patrician insignia. ##Likewise, prior to Caesar's death and his succession, Octavian is seen seated in the Curia, when he himself would only appear if he was invited.
##The claim that Caesar wanted to be made Emperor is false. Though Caesar was hailed by the title of imperator during his lifetime, the Roman sense of the term was far different from that denoted by the word "Emperor," being used to describe a great military commander rather than a supreme monarch.
##Cicero never attended the Senate during the period of Caesar's dictatorship, nor was he actively involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar.
##The position of Dictator was not symbolic, nor did he need to have his actions ratified by the Senate, as claimed in the movie.
##Caesar picking up his child Caesarion in front of other Romans would not have been sufficient to have the boy become a Roman citizen, and consequently Caesar's heir. For that, both parents would have had to be Roman citizens themselves, and Caesar never acknowledged him as his son.
##The scenes of Cleopatra's magnificent entry into Rome are enacted in front of (and through) a detailed and life-size replica of the Arch of Constantine, built in AD 315 – more than three and a half centuries after the event.
##The arch was never in the Forum.
##Her arrival and procession would not have entered the Roman Forum itself, as portrayed in the movie, since during the Republic, all foreign rulers were prohibited from crossing the Pomerium, the sacred boundary of the city, into Rome proper.
##Several scenes include philodendrons, plants of South America that were unknown in the Roman world.
##When Rome declares war on Ptolemaic Egypt, Octavian (Roddy McDowall) is portrayed exiting the Curia and spearing Cleopatra's ambassador Sosigenes of Alexandria (Hume Cronyn). There is no historical basis for this depiction, or even Sosigenes being a prime functionary for Cleopatra's regime (he was an astronomer).
##Much of the interior decor of Cleopatra's palace in Alexandria is anachronistic. Some items of furniture are exact copies of those found in the tomb of queen Hetepheres I (c. 2600 BC). Statues seen on Cleopatra's barge are copies of one found in the tomb of Tutankhamun (c. 1330 BC).[8]
##Caesarion is depicted as being around the age of 10 when he leaves Egypt for his own safety. In reality, Caesarion was at least in his early teens after Cleopatra's death, and he also didn't leave Egypt, instead taking Cleopatra's place as King of Egypt.
##Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene II and Ptolemy Philadelphus are all 'missing', and no mention is made to the Donations of Alexandria.
Soundtrack[edit]
Main article: Cleopatra (1963 soundtrack)
The music of Cleopatra was scored by Alex North. It was released several times, first as an original album, and later versions were extended. The most popular of these was the Deluxe Edition or 2001 Varèse Sarabande album.
Reception and impact[edit]
The film earned Elizabeth Taylor a Guinness World Record title, "Most costume changes in a film"; Taylor made 65 costume changes. This record was beaten in 1996 in the film Evita by Madonna with 85 costume changes.
Critics remain divided about the film; Rotten Tomatoes reports 48% of 27 critics reviewed it positively.[9] A New York Times review called it "one of the great epic films of our day,"[10] while Judith Crist dubbed it "a monumental mouse."[11] Newsweek stated: "At six hours, Cleopatra might have been a movie. But for now, it's a series of coming attractions for something that will never come."[10] A reviewer for Time said, "As drama and as cinema, Cleopatra is riddled with flaws. It lacks style both in image and in action."[9] American film critic Emanuel Levy said, "Much maligned for various reasons, [...] Cleopatra may be the most expensive movie ever made, but certainly not the worst, just a verbose, muddled affair that is not even entertaining as a star vehicle for Taylor and Burton."[9]
Even Elizabeth Taylor found it wanting. She had said, "They had cut out the heart, the essence, the motivations, the very core, and tacked on all those battle scenes. It should have been about three large people, but it lacked reality and passion. I found it vulgar."[12]
Positive reactions came from such publications as American entertainment-trade magazine Variety, who wrote, "Cleopatra is not only a supercolossal eye-filler (the unprecedented budget shows in the physical opulence throughout), but it is also a remarkably literate cinematic recreation of an historic epoch."[9] Billy Mowbray for the website of British digital channel Film4 remarked that the film is "A giant of a movie that is sometimes lumbering, but ever watchable thanks to its uninhibited ambition, size and glamour."[9]
Rex Harrison as Caesar was the only one of the three principal actors to receive unanimous good reviews for the film. Harrison was also the only one to receive an Oscar Nomination.
The film was shown as part of the Cannes Classics section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival,[13] to commemorate the film's 50th Anniversary.
References in other works[edit]
The French comic book Asterix and Cleopatra, published first in serial form the same year the film was released, parodies the film. In particular, the cover of the comic book mocks the film's massive casts and sets by claiming it is the "Greatest story ever drawn" and that "14 litres of India ink, 30 brushes, 62 soft pencils, 1 hard pencil, 27 rubbers, 1984 sheets of paper, 16 typewriter ribbons, 2 typewriters, 366 pints of beer went into its creation!" Cleopatra herself is drawn to look somewhat like Elizabeth Taylor.
The Italian comedy film Totò e Cleopatra ("Totò and Cleopatra", 1963), directed by Fernando Cerchio, is a parody of the original classic, featuring Italian comedy star Totò as Mark Antony and French actress Magali Noël as Cleopatra. Although a farce from beginning to end and completely deviating from both the plot of the original and historical events, the film does effectively satirize some of Cleopatra's elements, such as the lavish and costly production and the tormented nature of Antony and Cleopatra's relationship.
Awards and nominations[edit]
The film won four Academy Awards and was nominated for five more:[14][15]
1963 Academy Awards##Best Picture – Walter Wanger (nominated)
##Best Actor in a Leading Role – Rex Harrison (nominated)
##Best Cinematography, Color – Leon Shamroy (WON)
##Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Color – John DeCuir, Jack Martin Smith, Hilyard Brown, Herman A. Blumenthal, Elven Webb, Maurice Pelling, and Boris Juraga (Art Direction); Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox, and Ray Moyer (Set Decoration) (WON)
##Best Costume Design, Color – Irene Sharaff, Vittorio Nino Novarese, and Renie (WON)
##Best Sound Mixing – James Corcoran (Twentieth Century Fox Sound Department) and Fred Hynes (Todd-AO Sound Department) (nominated)
##Best Film Editing – Dorothy Spencer (nominated)
##Best Special Effects – Emil Kosa, Jr. (WON)
##Best Music, Score – Substantially Original – Alex North (nominated)
1963 Golden Globes##Best Motion Picture - Drama
##Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama – Rex Harrison
##Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture – Roddy McDowall
##Best Director - Motion Picture – Joseph L. Mankiewicz
See also[edit]
##List of American films of 1963
##Roman Republic
##Ancient Egypt
##Ptolemaic dynasty
##Sword and sandal epics
##Carry On Cleo
##List of historical drama films
##List of films set in ancient Rome
##List of longest films by running time
##List of films based on military books (pre-1775)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "CLEOPATRA (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. 1963-05-30. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Hall, Sheldon; Neale, Stephen (2010). Epics, spectacles, and blockbusters: a Hollywood history. Wayne State University Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-8143-3008-1. "With top tickets set at an all-time high of $5.50,Cleopatra had amassed as much as $20 million in such guarantees from exhibitors even before its premiere. Fox claimed the film had cost in total $44 million, of which $31,115,000 represented the direct negative cost and the rest distribution, print and advertising expenses. (These figures excluded the more than $5 million spent on the production's abortive British shoot in 1960–61, prior to its relocation to Italy.) By 1966 worldwide rentals had reached $38,042,000 including $23.5 million from the United States."
3.Jump up ^ "Cleopatra (1963)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ John Patterson "Cleopatra, the film that killed off big-budget epics", The Guardian, 15 July 2013
5.Jump up ^ Null, Christopher. Cleopatra Review
6.Jump up ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2014. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
7.Jump up ^ Cleopatra from Johnny Web
8.Jump up ^ compare: File:Tutanhkamun tomb statue edit 1.jpg with File:1963 Cleopatra trailer screenshot (63).jpg
9.^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Cleopatra - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Burns, Kevin; Zacky, Brent. "Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood." American Movie Classics. 3 April 2001. Television.
11.Jump up ^ 1963: Movies as Art. Columbia Journalism School. [1]
12.Jump up ^ Rice, E. Lacey. "Cleopatra (1963)". Turner Classic Movies.
13.Jump up ^ "Cannes Classics 2013 line-up unveiled". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2013-04-30.
14.Jump up ^ "The 36th Academy Awards (1964) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
15.Jump up ^ "NY Times: Cleopatra". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-12-25.
##Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood, a 2001 television documentary
##Ilias Chrissochoidis (ed.), The Cleopatra Files: Selected Documents from the Spyros P. Skouras Archive (Stanford, 2013).
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cleopatra (1963 film).
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: Cleopatra (1963 film)
##Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
##Cleopatra at the TCM Movie Database
##Cleopatra at Box Office Mojo
##Cleopatra at Rotten Tomatoes
##The Restored Cleopatra


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Cleopatra (1963 film)

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Cleopatra
Cleopatra poster.jpg
Original theatrical release poster

Directed by
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Produced by
Walter Wanger
Screenplay by
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Ranald MacDougall
Sidney Buchman
Based on
The Life and Times of Cleopatra
 by C.M. Franzero
 Histories
 by Plutarch, Suetonius, and Appian
Starring
Elizabeth Taylor
Richard Burton
Rex Harrison
Roddy McDowall
Martin Landau
Hume Cronyn
George Cole
Music by
Alex North
Cinematography
Leon Shamroy
Edited by
Dorothy Spencer
Distributed by
20th Century-Fox

Release dates

June 12, 1963 (New York, premiere)
July 31, 1963 (United Kingdom)


Running time
 248 minutes[1]
Country
United Kingdom
 United States
 Switzerland
Language
English
Budget
$31.115 million[2]
Box office
$57,777,778 (US)[3]
Cleopatra is a 1963 epic historical drama film chronicling the struggles of Cleopatra VII, the young Queen of Egypt, to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome. It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and shot in the 70 mm Todd-AO format, with a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, and Martin Landau.
Cleopatra achieved notoriety during its production for its massive cost overruns and production troubles, which included changes in director and cast, a change of filming locale, sets that had to be constructed twice, lack of a firm shooting script, and personal scandal around its co-stars. It was the most expensive film ever made up to that point and almost bankrupted 20th Century-Fox.
It received mixed reviews from critics, although critics and audiences alike generally praised Taylor and Burton's performances. It was the highest grossing film of 1963, earning US$26 million ($57.7 million total; equivalent to $444.48 million in 2015), yet made a loss due to its production and marketing costs of $44 million (equivalent to $338.94 million in 2015), making it the only film ever to be the highest grossing film of the year yet to run at a loss.[4] Cleopatra later won four Academy Awards, and was nominated for five more, including Best Picture (which it lost to Tom Jones).


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Historical accuracy
5 Soundtrack
6 Reception and impact
7 References in other works
8 Awards and nominations
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

Plot[edit]
After the Battle of Pharsalus where Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) has defeated Pompey, Pompey flees to Egypt, hoping to enlist the support of the young Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII (Richard O'Sullivan) and his sister Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor). The Romans hold, and the armies of Mithridates arrive on Egyptian soil. The following day, Caesar passes judgment. He sentences Ptolemy's lord chamberlain to death for arranging an assassination attempt on Cleopatra. Cleopatra is crowned Queen of Egypt. She dreams of ruling the world with Caesar. When their son Caesarion is born, Caesar accepts him publicly, which becomes the talk of Rome and the Senate.
After he is made dictator for life, Caesar sends for Cleopatra. She arrives in Rome in a lavish procession and wins the adulation of the Roman people. The Senate grows increasingly discontented amid rumors that Caesar wishes to be made king, which is anathema to the Romans. On the Ides of March in 44 BC, the Senate is preparing to vote on whether to award Caesar additional powers. They kill Caesar and split up the empire: Lepidus receives Africa, Octavian Spain and Gaul, while Antony will take control of the eastern provinces. However, the rivalry between Octavian and Antony is becoming apparent.
While planning a campaign against Parthia in the east, Antony realizes he needs money and supplies, and cannot get enough from anywhere but Egypt. After refusing several times to leave Egypt, Cleopatra gives in and meets him in Tarsus. Antony becomes drunk during a lavish feast. Cleopatra sneaks away, leaving a slave dressed as her, but Antony discovers the trick and confronts the queen. The war is decided at the naval Battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BC where Octavian's fleet, under the command of Agrippa, defeats the Anthony-Egyptian fleet. Cleopatra assumes he is dead and orders the Egyptian forces home. Antony follows, leaving his fleet leaderless and soon defeated. Several months later, Cleopatra manages to convince Antony to retake command of his troops and fight Octavian's advancing army. However, Antony's soldiers have lost faith in him and abandon him during the night; Rufio (Martin Landau), the last man loyal to Antony, kills himself. Antony tries to goad Octavian into single combat, but is finally forced to flee into the city.
When Antony returns to the palace, Apollodorus, not believing that Antony is worthy of his queen, convinces him that she is dead, whereupon Antony falls on his own sword. Apollodorus falls unconscious, and is discovered by Octavian as he enters the palace. She sends her servant Charmian to give Octavian a letter. In the letter she asks to be buried with Antony. Octavian realizes that she is going to kill herself and he and his guards burst into Cleopatra's chamber and find her dressed in gold, and dead, along with her servant Eiras, while an asp crawls along the floor.
Charmion is found kneeling next to the altar Cleopatra is lying on, and Agrippa asks of her: ""Was this well done of your lady?" She replies: "Extremely well. As befitting the last of so many noble rulers." She then drops dead as Agrippa looks on.
Cast[edit]
##Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra
##Richard Burton as Mark Antony
##Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar
##Roddy McDowall as Octavian, alias Augustus
##Martin Landau as Rufio
##Hume Cronyn as Sosigenes
##George Cole as Flavius
##Carroll O'Connor as Servilius Casca
##Andrew Keir as Agrippa
##Gwen Watford as Calpurnia Pisonis
##Kenneth Haigh as Brutus
##Pamela Brown as the High Priestess
##Cesare Danova as Apollodorus
##Francesca Annis as Eiras
##Richard O'Sullivan as Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII
##Gregoire Aslan as Pothinus
##Martin Benson as Ramos
##Jean Marsh as Octavia Minor
##John Hoyt as Cassius
##Desmond Llewelyn as a Roman senator
##Peter Grant as a palace guard
Production[edit]
The eventual production costs of Cleopatra almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox. Originally budgeted at $2 million,[5] the film ended up costing $31 million, making it the most expensive film ever made at the time.[2] This was partly owing to the fact that the film's elaborate, complicated sets, costumes and props had to be constructed twice, first during an abandoned shoot in London and once more when the production relocated to Rome.
Filming began in London in 1960 under Rouben Mamoulian. Mankiewicz was brought into the production after Mamoulian's departure. Leon Shamroy replaced Jack Hildyard as cinematographer. Mankiewicz inherited a film which was already $5 million over budget and had no usable footage to show for it. This was in part because the actors originally chosen to play Julius Caesar (Peter Finch) and Mark Antony (Stephen Boyd) left owing to other commitments. Mankiewicz was later fired during the editing phase, only to be rehired when no one else could piece the film together (since Mankiewicz was hired so late in the production, he was rewriting the screenplay during principal photography; there was never a finished shooting script as such).
Elizabeth Taylor was awarded a record-setting contract of $1 million. This amount eventually swelled to $7 million because of the delays of the production, ($53.9 million as of 2015).[6] Taylor became very ill during the early filming and was rushed to hospital, where a tracheotomy had to be performed to save her life. The resulting scar can be seen in some shots. All of this resulted in the film being shut down. The production was moved to Rome after six months as the English weather proved detrimental to her recovery, as well as being responsible for the constant deterioration of the costly sets and exotic plants required for the production. (The English sets were utilized for the British comedy Carry On Cleo.) During filming, Taylor met Richard Burton and the two began a very public affair, which made headlines worldwide since both were married to others. Moral outrage over the scandal brought bad publicity to an already troubled production.
The cut of the film which Mankiewicz screened for the studio was six hours long. This was cut to four hours for its initial premiere, but the studio demanded (over the objections of Mankiewicz) that the film be cut once more, this time to just barely over three hours to allow theaters to increase the number of showings per day. As a result, certain details are left out of the film, such as Rufio's death and the recurring theme of Cleopatra's interaction with the gods of Egypt.[7] Mankiewicz unsuccessfully attempted to convince the studio to split the film in two in order to preserve the original cut. These were to be released separately as Caesar and Cleopatra followed by Antony and Cleopatra. The studio wanted to capitalize on the publicity of the intense press coverage the Taylor-Burton romance was generating, and felt that pushing Antony and Cleopatra to a later release date was too risky. The film has been released to home video formats in its 248-minute premiere version, and efforts are under way to locate the missing footage (some of which has been recovered).
Historical accuracy[edit]
On the whole the film followed the history of the period fairly closely, and took fewer liberties with historical accuracy than several other epics. However there are a few minor inaccuracies:
##Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator and his head scholar are spared by Caesar - in reality, Ptolemy died during the Battle of Alexandria, drowning as he tried to cross the Nile.
##Ptolemy XIV and Arsinoe IV are 'missing' - This is especially apparent with the former, who in reality was named as co-ruler with Cleopatra between 47 and 44 BC.
##The film features Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, first as an admiral under Julius Caesar, then later under Octavian. Agrippa (Andrew Keir) appears to be the same age as Caesar and much older than Octavian. Historically, Agrippa was about the same age as Octavian (as were Keir and Roddy McDowall).
##Following the assassination of Caesar, Agrippa is depicted in two scenes as seated in the Curia wearing a senatorial toga. In reality, Agrippa was a hereditary member of the Equestrian order and therefore prohibited under Republican law from either non-invitational attendance in the Curia, or the wearing of patrician insignia. ##Likewise, prior to Caesar's death and his succession, Octavian is seen seated in the Curia, when he himself would only appear if he was invited.
##The claim that Caesar wanted to be made Emperor is false. Though Caesar was hailed by the title of imperator during his lifetime, the Roman sense of the term was far different from that denoted by the word "Emperor," being used to describe a great military commander rather than a supreme monarch.
##Cicero never attended the Senate during the period of Caesar's dictatorship, nor was he actively involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar.
##The position of Dictator was not symbolic, nor did he need to have his actions ratified by the Senate, as claimed in the movie.
##Caesar picking up his child Caesarion in front of other Romans would not have been sufficient to have the boy become a Roman citizen, and consequently Caesar's heir. For that, both parents would have had to be Roman citizens themselves, and Caesar never acknowledged him as his son.
##The scenes of Cleopatra's magnificent entry into Rome are enacted in front of (and through) a detailed and life-size replica of the Arch of Constantine, built in AD 315 – more than three and a half centuries after the event.
##The arch was never in the Forum.
##Her arrival and procession would not have entered the Roman Forum itself, as portrayed in the movie, since during the Republic, all foreign rulers were prohibited from crossing the Pomerium, the sacred boundary of the city, into Rome proper.
##Several scenes include philodendrons, plants of South America that were unknown in the Roman world.
##When Rome declares war on Ptolemaic Egypt, Octavian (Roddy McDowall) is portrayed exiting the Curia and spearing Cleopatra's ambassador Sosigenes of Alexandria (Hume Cronyn). There is no historical basis for this depiction, or even Sosigenes being a prime functionary for Cleopatra's regime (he was an astronomer).
##Much of the interior decor of Cleopatra's palace in Alexandria is anachronistic. Some items of furniture are exact copies of those found in the tomb of queen Hetepheres I (c. 2600 BC). Statues seen on Cleopatra's barge are copies of one found in the tomb of Tutankhamun (c. 1330 BC).[8]
##Caesarion is depicted as being around the age of 10 when he leaves Egypt for his own safety. In reality, Caesarion was at least in his early teens after Cleopatra's death, and he also didn't leave Egypt, instead taking Cleopatra's place as King of Egypt.
##Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene II and Ptolemy Philadelphus are all 'missing', and no mention is made to the Donations of Alexandria.
Soundtrack[edit]
Main article: Cleopatra (1963 soundtrack)
The music of Cleopatra was scored by Alex North. It was released several times, first as an original album, and later versions were extended. The most popular of these was the Deluxe Edition or 2001 Varèse Sarabande album.
Reception and impact[edit]
The film earned Elizabeth Taylor a Guinness World Record title, "Most costume changes in a film"; Taylor made 65 costume changes. This record was beaten in 1996 in the film Evita by Madonna with 85 costume changes.
Critics remain divided about the film; Rotten Tomatoes reports 48% of 27 critics reviewed it positively.[9] A New York Times review called it "one of the great epic films of our day,"[10] while Judith Crist dubbed it "a monumental mouse."[11] Newsweek stated: "At six hours, Cleopatra might have been a movie. But for now, it's a series of coming attractions for something that will never come."[10] A reviewer for Time said, "As drama and as cinema, Cleopatra is riddled with flaws. It lacks style both in image and in action."[9] American film critic Emanuel Levy said, "Much maligned for various reasons, [...] Cleopatra may be the most expensive movie ever made, but certainly not the worst, just a verbose, muddled affair that is not even entertaining as a star vehicle for Taylor and Burton."[9]
Even Elizabeth Taylor found it wanting. She had said, "They had cut out the heart, the essence, the motivations, the very core, and tacked on all those battle scenes. It should have been about three large people, but it lacked reality and passion. I found it vulgar."[12]
Positive reactions came from such publications as American entertainment-trade magazine Variety, who wrote, "Cleopatra is not only a supercolossal eye-filler (the unprecedented budget shows in the physical opulence throughout), but it is also a remarkably literate cinematic recreation of an historic epoch."[9] Billy Mowbray for the website of British digital channel Film4 remarked that the film is "A giant of a movie that is sometimes lumbering, but ever watchable thanks to its uninhibited ambition, size and glamour."[9]
Rex Harrison as Caesar was the only one of the three principal actors to receive unanimous good reviews for the film. Harrison was also the only one to receive an Oscar Nomination.
The film was shown as part of the Cannes Classics section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival,[13] to commemorate the film's 50th Anniversary.
References in other works[edit]
The French comic book Asterix and Cleopatra, published first in serial form the same year the film was released, parodies the film. In particular, the cover of the comic book mocks the film's massive casts and sets by claiming it is the "Greatest story ever drawn" and that "14 litres of India ink, 30 brushes, 62 soft pencils, 1 hard pencil, 27 rubbers, 1984 sheets of paper, 16 typewriter ribbons, 2 typewriters, 366 pints of beer went into its creation!" Cleopatra herself is drawn to look somewhat like Elizabeth Taylor.
The Italian comedy film Totò e Cleopatra ("Totò and Cleopatra", 1963), directed by Fernando Cerchio, is a parody of the original classic, featuring Italian comedy star Totò as Mark Antony and French actress Magali Noël as Cleopatra. Although a farce from beginning to end and completely deviating from both the plot of the original and historical events, the film does effectively satirize some of Cleopatra's elements, such as the lavish and costly production and the tormented nature of Antony and Cleopatra's relationship.
Awards and nominations[edit]
The film won four Academy Awards and was nominated for five more:[14][15]
1963 Academy Awards##Best Picture – Walter Wanger (nominated)
##Best Actor in a Leading Role – Rex Harrison (nominated)
##Best Cinematography, Color – Leon Shamroy (WON)
##Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Color – John DeCuir, Jack Martin Smith, Hilyard Brown, Herman A. Blumenthal, Elven Webb, Maurice Pelling, and Boris Juraga (Art Direction); Walter M. Scott, Paul S. Fox, and Ray Moyer (Set Decoration) (WON)
##Best Costume Design, Color – Irene Sharaff, Vittorio Nino Novarese, and Renie (WON)
##Best Sound Mixing – James Corcoran (Twentieth Century Fox Sound Department) and Fred Hynes (Todd-AO Sound Department) (nominated)
##Best Film Editing – Dorothy Spencer (nominated)
##Best Special Effects – Emil Kosa, Jr. (WON)
##Best Music, Score – Substantially Original – Alex North (nominated)
1963 Golden Globes##Best Motion Picture - Drama
##Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama – Rex Harrison
##Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture – Roddy McDowall
##Best Director - Motion Picture – Joseph L. Mankiewicz
See also[edit]
##List of American films of 1963
##Roman Republic
##Ancient Egypt
##Ptolemaic dynasty
##Sword and sandal epics
##Carry On Cleo
##List of historical drama films
##List of films set in ancient Rome
##List of longest films by running time
##List of films based on military books (pre-1775)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "CLEOPATRA (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. 1963-05-30. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Hall, Sheldon; Neale, Stephen (2010). Epics, spectacles, and blockbusters: a Hollywood history. Wayne State University Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-8143-3008-1. "With top tickets set at an all-time high of $5.50,Cleopatra had amassed as much as $20 million in such guarantees from exhibitors even before its premiere. Fox claimed the film had cost in total $44 million, of which $31,115,000 represented the direct negative cost and the rest distribution, print and advertising expenses. (These figures excluded the more than $5 million spent on the production's abortive British shoot in 1960–61, prior to its relocation to Italy.) By 1966 worldwide rentals had reached $38,042,000 including $23.5 million from the United States."
3.Jump up ^ "Cleopatra (1963)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
4.Jump up ^ John Patterson "Cleopatra, the film that killed off big-budget epics", The Guardian, 15 July 2013
5.Jump up ^ Null, Christopher. Cleopatra Review
6.Jump up ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2014. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
7.Jump up ^ Cleopatra from Johnny Web
8.Jump up ^ compare: File:Tutanhkamun tomb statue edit 1.jpg with File:1963 Cleopatra trailer screenshot (63).jpg
9.^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Cleopatra - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Burns, Kevin; Zacky, Brent. "Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood." American Movie Classics. 3 April 2001. Television.
11.Jump up ^ 1963: Movies as Art. Columbia Journalism School. [1]
12.Jump up ^ Rice, E. Lacey. "Cleopatra (1963)". Turner Classic Movies.
13.Jump up ^ "Cannes Classics 2013 line-up unveiled". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2013-04-30.
14.Jump up ^ "The 36th Academy Awards (1964) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
15.Jump up ^ "NY Times: Cleopatra". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-12-25.
##Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood, a 2001 television documentary
##Ilias Chrissochoidis (ed.), The Cleopatra Files: Selected Documents from the Spyros P. Skouras Archive (Stanford, 2013).
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cleopatra (1963 film).
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: Cleopatra (1963 film)
##Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
##Cleopatra at the TCM Movie Database
##Cleopatra at Box Office Mojo
##Cleopatra at Rotten Tomatoes
##The Restored Cleopatra


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Cleopatra (miniseries)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Cleopatra (1999 film))
Jump to: navigation, search


Cleopatra
Cleopatra-DVD cover.jpg
Directed by
Franc Roddam
Produced by
Robert Halmi Jr.
Robert Halmi Sr.
Steve Harding
Dyson Lovell
Steven North
Written by
Margaret George (novel)
Stephen Harrigan (teleplay)
Anton Diether (teleplay)
Starring
Leonor Varela
Timothy Dalton
Billy Zane
Rupert Graves
Sean Pertwee
Bruce Payne
John Bowe
Art Malik
Nadim Sawalha
Owen Teale
Richard Armitage
David Schofield
Music by
Trevor Jones
Distributed by
Hallmark Entertainment

Release dates
 May 23, 1999 -
 May 24, 1999

Running time
 177 minutes
Language
English
Cleopatra is a 1999 miniseries adaptation of Margaret George's 1997 historical fiction novel The Memoirs of Cleopatra. Produced by Hallmark Entertainment, it stars Leonor Varela as the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, Timothy Dalton as Julius Caesar, Billy Zane as Mark Antony, Rupert Graves as Octavius, Sean Pertwee as Brutus and Bruce Payne as Cassius. Cleopatra was shown first on television in two parts and then released on videotape and DVD.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 See also
4 External links

Plot[edit]


 This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (July 2011)
The film begins in Alexandria with Cleopatra VII, Egypt's rightful Queen, in exile, while her sister Arsinoe and brother, Ptolemy have stolen the throne. Roman general Julius Caesar comes to collect Egypt's tax debt. After conversing with a courtesan, Cleopatra smuggles herself into the palace wrapped in a carpet; a gift from her to Caesar. He accepts the gift and the young queen is revealed to Caesar. The two spend the night together, and the next morning, Cleopatra and Ptolemy are betrothed to marry by Caesar. Shortly after the siblings are wed, Cleopatra is proclaimed Queen of Egypt, forcing Ptolemy to join forces with Arsinoe and drive their sister out of Alexandria.
A war breaks out between the Romans and Ptolemy's Egyptian forces, and in the process, Alexandria's great library is burned to the ground. Even with this loss, Cleopatra soon celebrates the return of her Roman lover, the death of her brother, and the capture of her traitor sister. The two take a 2-month journey down the Nile aboard one of the Queen's elegant ships. Upon their return, Caesar breaks the news that he must leave for Rome. Unbeknownst to him, Caesar leaves Cleopatra pregnant with his child. A son is born to the queen roughly nine months later; he is named Caesarion, in honor of his father.
Back in Rome, believing that he should hold the same status as his Egyptian lover, Caesar demands he be declared King of Rome. Although they are hesitant to do so, the senate eventually grants Caesar's request. Now having been declared king, Caesar invites Cleopatra to stay at one of his villas, just outside Rome. With her, she brings the couple's infant son. In front of his people (including wife Calpurnia), Cleopatra declares that Caesar is her son's father, publicly forcing his hand, and demanding that her son be allowed to rule both Egypt and Rome invoking the consternation of Brutus and Cassius.
Although he accepts Caesarion as his child, Caesar denies the queen's request, explaining that Egypt is only free from Rome because he wishes it to be. Just before her return to Egypt, Cleopatra soon learns that Caesar has been assassinated at the hands of Brutus, Cassius and other senators. The burdens of ruling fall on the shoulders of Caesar's Roman heir and nephew, Octavian. With his ascendancy, Octavian and his friend Mark Antony have a war against Brutus and Cassius. In the process, both Cassius and Brutus commit suicide. This means Octavian's forces win.
Octavian also plans to rid himself of his rival, Cleopatra's baby boy, Caesarion, who, as Caesar's only child, threatens his reign. Renaming himself Caesar Augustus, Octavian sends soldiers to Egypt to find and kill Caesar's son. In the meantime, Antony is sent to Alexandria to protect Caesarion and Queen Cleopatra. In spending time with together, Antony and Cleopatra fall in love. Although they wish to marry, Antony reveals that he wed Octavian's sister, Octavia, in order to strengthen his alliance and co-ruling with the new emperor. Defying his Roman beliefs against polygamy, Antony marries Cleopatra in Antioch, claiming that her son, Caesarion, is heir to not only Egypt, but also Rome.
Upon hearing of Antony's claim, Octavian wages war against the two lovers, trapping Cleopatra in her own city. Threatening suicide if Octavian does not let her son go, Cleopatra learns that she has lost Antony, who killed himself in battle after losing to Octavian's army. Octavian arrives in Egypt, demanding that Cleopatra join him in Rome as his prisoner. She refuses and demands that her son be allowed to rule Egypt. Octavian does not agree to this, but allows Antony to have an Egyptian burial. After sending her son to India, Cleopatra's plan goes through, as she has an asp in a basket of figs brought to her heavily guarded tomb. There, she lets the asp bite her, and dies shortly after. Her handmaidens quickly follow their queen's example. Octavian's men break through the doors, only to discover that the queen is dead. After they discover that Cleopatra is dead, Octavian then takes over Egypt about two years later after Cleopatra's death. At the end of the film, Octavian (realizing that Cleopatra's dead) says "You have won, Cleopatra" and then leaves.
Cast[edit]
Leonor Varela - Cleopatra
Timothy Dalton- Julius Caesar
Billy Zane - Marc Antony
Rupert Graves - Octavius
Sean Pertwee - Brutus
Bruce Payne - Cassius
David Schofield- Casca
John Bowe - Rufio
Art Malik- Olympos
Nadim Sawalha - Mardian
Owen Teale - Grattius
Philip Quast - Cornelius
Daragh O'Malley - Ahenobarbus
Omid Djalili - Store Master
Richard Armitage - Epiphanes
Denis Quilley - Senator
See also[edit]
Cleopatra (1963 film) featuring Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra
List of historical drama films
List of films set in ancient Rome
External links[edit]
Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
Official site at Hallmark Entertainment


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Franc Roddam












[show]
v ·
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 e
 
1990s US miniseries


































































































































  


Categories: English-language films
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Films based on American novels
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Depictions of Julius Caesar on film
Depictions of Mark Antony on film
Depictions of Augustus on film
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Films set in ancient Egypt
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Cleopatra (miniseries)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Cleopatra (1999 film))
Jump to: navigation, search


Cleopatra
Cleopatra-DVD cover.jpg
Directed by
Franc Roddam
Produced by
Robert Halmi Jr.
Robert Halmi Sr.
Steve Harding
Dyson Lovell
Steven North
Written by
Margaret George (novel)
Stephen Harrigan (teleplay)
Anton Diether (teleplay)
Starring
Leonor Varela
Timothy Dalton
Billy Zane
Rupert Graves
Sean Pertwee
Bruce Payne
John Bowe
Art Malik
Nadim Sawalha
Owen Teale
Richard Armitage
David Schofield
Music by
Trevor Jones
Distributed by
Hallmark Entertainment

Release dates
 May 23, 1999 -
 May 24, 1999

Running time
 177 minutes
Language
English
Cleopatra is a 1999 miniseries adaptation of Margaret George's 1997 historical fiction novel The Memoirs of Cleopatra. Produced by Hallmark Entertainment, it stars Leonor Varela as the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, Timothy Dalton as Julius Caesar, Billy Zane as Mark Antony, Rupert Graves as Octavius, Sean Pertwee as Brutus and Bruce Payne as Cassius. Cleopatra was shown first on television in two parts and then released on videotape and DVD.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 See also
4 External links

Plot[edit]


 This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (July 2011)
The film begins in Alexandria with Cleopatra VII, Egypt's rightful Queen, in exile, while her sister Arsinoe and brother, Ptolemy have stolen the throne. Roman general Julius Caesar comes to collect Egypt's tax debt. After conversing with a courtesan, Cleopatra smuggles herself into the palace wrapped in a carpet; a gift from her to Caesar. He accepts the gift and the young queen is revealed to Caesar. The two spend the night together, and the next morning, Cleopatra and Ptolemy are betrothed to marry by Caesar. Shortly after the siblings are wed, Cleopatra is proclaimed Queen of Egypt, forcing Ptolemy to join forces with Arsinoe and drive their sister out of Alexandria.
A war breaks out between the Romans and Ptolemy's Egyptian forces, and in the process, Alexandria's great library is burned to the ground. Even with this loss, Cleopatra soon celebrates the return of her Roman lover, the death of her brother, and the capture of her traitor sister. The two take a 2-month journey down the Nile aboard one of the Queen's elegant ships. Upon their return, Caesar breaks the news that he must leave for Rome. Unbeknownst to him, Caesar leaves Cleopatra pregnant with his child. A son is born to the queen roughly nine months later; he is named Caesarion, in honor of his father.
Back in Rome, believing that he should hold the same status as his Egyptian lover, Caesar demands he be declared King of Rome. Although they are hesitant to do so, the senate eventually grants Caesar's request. Now having been declared king, Caesar invites Cleopatra to stay at one of his villas, just outside Rome. With her, she brings the couple's infant son. In front of his people (including wife Calpurnia), Cleopatra declares that Caesar is her son's father, publicly forcing his hand, and demanding that her son be allowed to rule both Egypt and Rome invoking the consternation of Brutus and Cassius.
Although he accepts Caesarion as his child, Caesar denies the queen's request, explaining that Egypt is only free from Rome because he wishes it to be. Just before her return to Egypt, Cleopatra soon learns that Caesar has been assassinated at the hands of Brutus, Cassius and other senators. The burdens of ruling fall on the shoulders of Caesar's Roman heir and nephew, Octavian. With his ascendancy, Octavian and his friend Mark Antony have a war against Brutus and Cassius. In the process, both Cassius and Brutus commit suicide. This means Octavian's forces win.
Octavian also plans to rid himself of his rival, Cleopatra's baby boy, Caesarion, who, as Caesar's only child, threatens his reign. Renaming himself Caesar Augustus, Octavian sends soldiers to Egypt to find and kill Caesar's son. In the meantime, Antony is sent to Alexandria to protect Caesarion and Queen Cleopatra. In spending time with together, Antony and Cleopatra fall in love. Although they wish to marry, Antony reveals that he wed Octavian's sister, Octavia, in order to strengthen his alliance and co-ruling with the new emperor. Defying his Roman beliefs against polygamy, Antony marries Cleopatra in Antioch, claiming that her son, Caesarion, is heir to not only Egypt, but also Rome.
Upon hearing of Antony's claim, Octavian wages war against the two lovers, trapping Cleopatra in her own city. Threatening suicide if Octavian does not let her son go, Cleopatra learns that she has lost Antony, who killed himself in battle after losing to Octavian's army. Octavian arrives in Egypt, demanding that Cleopatra join him in Rome as his prisoner. She refuses and demands that her son be allowed to rule Egypt. Octavian does not agree to this, but allows Antony to have an Egyptian burial. After sending her son to India, Cleopatra's plan goes through, as she has an asp in a basket of figs brought to her heavily guarded tomb. There, she lets the asp bite her, and dies shortly after. Her handmaidens quickly follow their queen's example. Octavian's men break through the doors, only to discover that the queen is dead. After they discover that Cleopatra is dead, Octavian then takes over Egypt about two years later after Cleopatra's death. At the end of the film, Octavian (realizing that Cleopatra's dead) says "You have won, Cleopatra" and then leaves.
Cast[edit]
Leonor Varela - Cleopatra
Timothy Dalton- Julius Caesar
Billy Zane - Marc Antony
Rupert Graves - Octavius
Sean Pertwee - Brutus
Bruce Payne - Cassius
David Schofield- Casca
John Bowe - Rufio
Art Malik- Olympos
Nadim Sawalha - Mardian
Owen Teale - Grattius
Philip Quast - Cornelius
Daragh O'Malley - Ahenobarbus
Omid Djalili - Store Master
Richard Armitage - Epiphanes
Denis Quilley - Senator
See also[edit]
Cleopatra (1963 film) featuring Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra
List of historical drama films
List of films set in ancient Rome
External links[edit]
Cleopatra at the Internet Movie Database
Official site at Hallmark Entertainment


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Franc Roddam












[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
1990s US miniseries


































































































































  


Categories: English-language films
1999 television films
American television films
American television miniseries
Films based on American novels
Depictions of Cleopatra VII on film
Depictions of Julius Caesar on film
Depictions of Mark Antony on film
Depictions of Augustus on film
Films set in the 1st century BC
Films set in ancient Egypt
Ancient Alexandria in art and culture
Sonar Entertainment films
Films set in ancient Rome
American biographical films
Films set in Rome
Films set in Alexandria
Final War of the Roman Republic films
German television films





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Español
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Edit links
This page was last modified on 26 February 2015, at 14:45.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(miniseries)