Chapter II

_ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA_, A HISTORY, TRAGEDY, AND LOVE POEM; AS SHOWN BY ITS RELATIONS WITH PLUTARCH

The obligations to Plutarch, though very great, are of a somewhat peculiar kind. Shakespeare does not borrow so largely or so repeatedly from the diction of North as in _Coriolanus_ or even in _Julius Caesar_. His literal indebtedness is for the most part confined to the exploitation here and there of a few short phrases or sentences, generally of a not very distinctive character. Thus Octavia is described as “having an excellent grace, wisedom and honestie, joined unto so rare a beawtie”; which suggests her “beauty, wisdom, modesty,” in the play (II. ii. 246). Thus, after the scourging of Thyreus, Antony sends Caesar the message:

“If this mislike thee,” said he, “thou hast Hipparchus[198]
one of my infranchised bondmen with thee: hang him if thou
wilt, or whippe him at thy pleasure, that we may cry quittaunce.”

[198] The irony of the proposal, which Plutarch indicates but does not stress, is entirely lost in Shakespeare. We have already been told that Hipparchus “was the first of all his (_i.e._ Antony’s) infranchised bondmen that revolted from him and yelded unto Caesar”; so Caesar is invited to retaliate on one of his own adherents.

This becomes:

If he mislike
My speech and what is done, tell him he has
Hipparchus, my enfranchised bondman, whom
He may at pleasure whip, or hang, or torture,
As he shall like, to quit me.
(III. xiii. 147.)

So, too, Plutarch says of Dolabella’s disclosure to Cleopatra:

He sent her word secretly as she had requested him, that
Caesar determined to take his journey through Suria, and
that within three dayes he would sende her away before with
her children.

The words are closely copied in Dolabella’s statement:

Caesar through Syria
Intends his journey, and within three days
You with your children will he send before:
Make your best use of this: I have perform’d
Your pleasure and my promise.
(V. ii. 200.)

It is only now and then that such small loans stand out as examples of the “happy valiancy of style” that characterises the drama as a whole. For instance, at the end when Cleopatra is dead and Charmian has applied the asp, the brief interchange of question and answer which Plutarch reports could not be bettered even by Shakespeare.

One of the souldiers seeing her, angrily sayd unto her: “Is
that well done, Charmion?” “Verie well,” sayd she againe,
“and meete for a Princes discended from a race of so many
noble Kings.”

Shakespeare knows when he is well off and accepts the goods the gods provide.

_1st Guard._ Charmian, is this well done?
_Charmian._ It is well done and fitting for a princess
Descended from so many royal kings.
(V. ii. 238.)

Perhaps the noblest and one of the closest of these paraphrases is in the scene of Antony’s death. With his last breath he persuades her

that she should not lament nor sorowe for the miserable
chaunge of his fortune at the end of his dayes: but rather
that she should thinke him the more fortunate, for the
former triumphes and honors he had received, considering
that while he lived he was the noblest and greatest Prince
of the world, and that now he was overcome, not cowardly but
valiantly, a Romane by an other Romane.

Shakespeare’s Antony says:

The miserable change now at my end
Lament nor sorrow at: but please your thoughts
In feeding them with those my former fortunes
Wherein I lived, the greatest prince o’ the world,
The noblest: and do now not basely die,
Not cowardly put off my helmet to
My countryman,—a Roman by a Roman
Valiantly vanquish’d.
(IV. xv. 51.)

As a rule, however, even these short reproductions are not transcripts. Shakespeare’s usual method is illustrated in his recast of Antony’s pathetic protest to Caesar that

he made him angrie with him, bicause he shewed him selfe
prowde and disdainfull towards him, and now specially when
he was easie to be angered, by reason of his present miserie.

Shakespeare gives a more bitter poignancy to the confession.

Look, thou say
He makes me angry with him, for he seems
Proud and disdainful, _harping on what I am,
Not what he knew I was: he makes me angry_;
And at this time most easy ’tis to do ’t,
_When my good stars, that were my former guides,
Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires
Into the abysm of hell_.
(III. xiii. 140.)

Much the same estimate holds good of the longer passages derived from North, which for the rest are but few. The most literal are as a rule comparatively unimportant. A typical specimen is the list of complaints made by Antony against Octavius, and Octavius’ rejoinder:

And the chiefest poyntes of his accusations he charged
him with, were these: First, that having spoyled Sextus
Pompeius in Sicile, he did not give him his parte of the
Ile. Secondly, that he did deteyne in his handes the shippes
he lent him to make that warre. Thirdly, that having put
Lepidus their companion and triumvirate out of his part
of the Empire, and having deprived him of all honors: he
retayned for him selfe the lands and revenues thereof, which
had been assigned to him for his part.... Octavius Caesar
aunswered him againe: that for Lepidus, he had in deede
deposed him, and taken his part of the Empire from him,
bicause he did overcruelly use his authoritie. And secondly,
for the conquests he had made by force of armes, he was
contented Antonius should have his part of them, so that he
would likewise let him have his part of Armenia.

Shakespeare copies even Caesar’s convenient reticence as to the borrowed vessels.

_Agrippa._ Who does he accuse?
_Caesar._ Caesar: and that, having in Sicily
Sextus Pompeius spoil’d, we have not rated him
His part o’ the isle: then does he say, he lent me
Some shipping unrestored: lastly, he frets
That Lepidus of the triumvirate
Should be deposed; and, being, that we detain
All his revenue.
_Agrippa._ Sir, this should be answer’d.
_Caesar._ ’Tis done already, and the messenger gone.
I have told him Lepidus was grown too cruel:
That he his high authority abused,
And did deserve his change: for what I have conquer’d
I grant him part: but then, in his Armenia,
And other of his conquer’d kingdoms, I
Demand the like.
(III. vi. 23.)

Less matter-of-fact, because more vibrant with its fanfare of names, but still somewhat of the nature of an official schedule, is the list of tributaries in Antony’s host.

(He) had with him to ayde him these kinges and subjects
following: Bocchus king of Lybia, Tarcondemus king of high
Cilicia, Archelaus king of Cappadocia, Philadelphus king
of Paphlagonia, Mithridates king of Comagena, and Adallas
king of Thracia. All the which were there every man in
person. The residue that were absent sent their armies, as
Polemon king of Pont, Manchus king of Arabia, Herodes king
of Iury; and furthermore, Amyntas king of Lycaonia, and of
the Galatians: and besides all these he had all the ayde the
king of Medes sent unto him.

The long bead-roll of shadowy potentates evidently delights Shakespeare’s ear as it would have delighted the ear of Milton or Victor Hugo[199]:

He hath assembled
Bocchus, the king of Libya; Archelaus
Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos king
Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas;
King Malchus of Arabia; king of Pont;
Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king
Of Comagene; Polemon and Amyntas,
The kings of Mede and Lycaonia,
With a more larger list of sceptres.
(III. vi. 68.)

[199] It is interesting to note that it had already caught the fancy of Jodelle, though being more faithful to the text in enumerating only the kings who were actually present and taking no liberties with the names and titles, he failed to get all the possible points out of it. Agrippa says to Octavian:

Le Roy Bocchus, le Roy Cilicien
Archelaus, Roy Capadocien,
Et Philadelphe, et Adalle de Thrace,
Et Mithridate, usoyent-ils de menace
Moindre sus nous que de porter en joye
Nostre despouille et leur guerriere proye,
Pour a leurs Dieux joyeusement les pendre
Et maint et maint sacrifice leur rendre?
Acte II.

Still, of the longer passages that show throughout a real approximation to North’s language, the two already quoted, the soothsayer’s warning to Antony, and the description of Cleopatra on the Cydnus are the most impressive: and even they, and especially the latter, have been touched up and revised. Shakespeare’s general procedure in the cases where he borrows at all is a good deal freer, and may be better illustrated from the passage in which Octavius recalls the bygone fortitude of Antony.

These two Consuls (Hircius and Pansa) together with Caesar,
who also had an armye, went against Antonius that beseeged
the citie of Modena, and there overthrew him in battell: but
both the Consuls were slaine there. Antonius flying upon
this overthrowe, fell into great miserie all at once: but
the chiefest want of all other, and that pinched him most,
was famine. Howbeit he was of such a strong nature, that
by pacience he would overcome any adversitie, and the
heavier fortune lay upon him, the more constant shewed he
him selfe.... It was a wonderfull example to the souldiers,
to see Antonius that was brought up in all finenes and
superfluitie, so easily to drink puddle water, and to eate
wild frutes and rootes: and moreover it is reported, that
even as they passed the Alpes, they did eate the barcks of
trees, and such beasts, as never man tasted of their flesh
before.

This is good, but Shakespeare’s version visualises as well as heightens Antony’s straits and endurance, and brings them into contrast with his later effeminacy.

When thou once
Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew’st
Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
Did famine follow: whom thou fought’st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink
The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign
The roughest berry on the rudest hedge:
Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed’st; on the Alps
It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: and all this—
It wounds thine honour that I speak it now—
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank’d not.
(I. iv. 56.)

But including such elaborations, the number of passages repeated or recast from North is not considerable. In the whole of the first act this description of the retreat from Modena is the only one of any consequence, and though the percentage increases as the play proceeds, and they are much more frequent in the second half, even in the fifth act, the proportion of easily traceable lines is fifty-seven to four hundred and forty-six, or barely more than an eighth.

Much more numerous and generally much more noteworthy than the strictly verbal suggestions are those that, conveyed altogether in Shakespeare’s phrase, give such immediate life to the play, whether they supply episodes for acting or merely material for the dialogue. Sometimes a whole paragraph is distilled into a sentence, like that famous bit of domestic chit-chat that must have impressed Plutarch when a boy.

I have heard my grandfather Lampryas report, that one
Philotas a Physition, born in the citie of Amphissa, told
him that he was at the present time in Alexandria, and
studied physicke: and that having acquaintance with one of
Antonius cookes, he tooke him with him to Antonius house,
(being a young man desirous to see things) to shew him the
wonderfull sumptuous charge and preparation of one only
supper. When he was in the kitchin, and saw a world of
diversities of meates, and amongst others eight wilde boares
rosted whole: he began to wonder at it, and sayd, “Sure
you have a great number of ghestes to supper.” The cooke
fell a-laughing, and answered him: “No,” (quoth he), “not
many ghestes, nor above twelve in all: but yet all that is
boyled or roasted must be served in whole, or else it would
be marred straight. For Antonius peradventure will suppe
presently, or it may be in a pretie while hence, or likely
enough he will deferre it longer, for that he hath dronke
well to-day, or else hath had some other great matters in
hand: and therefore we doe not dresse one supper only, but
many suppers, bicause we are uncerteine of the houre he will
suppe in.”

In what strange ways has the gossip of the inquisitive medical student been transmitted through Lampryas and his grandchild to furnish an arabesque for Shakespeare’s tapestry! And, when we know its history, what a realistic touch does this anecdote lend to Mecaenas’ badinage, though Shakespeare has raised the profuse to the sublime by transferring the banquet from the evening to the morning, suppressing the fact of the relays, and insinuating that this was nothing out of the common!

_Mecaenas._ Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast,
and but twelve persons there: is this true?
_Enobarbus._ This was but as a fly by an eagle: we had
much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily
deserved noting.
(II. ii. 183.)

Or again we are told of Cleopatra’s precautions after Actium.

Now to make proofe of those poysons which made men dye with
least paine, she tried it upon condemned men in prison. For
when she saw the poysons that were sodaine and vehement, and
brought speedy death with grievous torments: and in contrary
manner, that suche as were more milde and gentle, had not
that quicke speede and force to make one dye sodainly: she
afterwardes went about to prove the stinging of snakes and
adders, and made some to be applied unto men in her sight,
some in one sorte, and some in an other. So when she had
dayly made divers and sundrie proofes, she found none of all
them she had proved so fit as the biting of an Aspicke, the
which only causeth a heavines of the head, without swounding
or complaining, and bringeth a great desire also to sleepe,
with a little swet on the face, and so by little and little
taketh away the sences and vitall powers, no living creature
perceiving that the pacientes feele any paine. For they are
so sorie when any bodie waketh them, and taketh them up; as
those that being taken out of a sound sleepe, are very heavy
and desirous to sleepe.

This leaves a trace only in three lines of Caesar’s reply when the guard detects the aspic’s trail; but these lines gain in significance if we remember the fuller statement.

Most probable
That so she died: for her physician tells me
She hath pursued conclusions infinite
Of easy ways to die.
(V. ii. 356.)

Apart from the great pivots and levers of the action Plutarch has supplied numbers of these minor fittings. Including with them the more literal loans, from which they cannot always be discriminated, we find in addition to the instances already cited the following unmistakable reminiscences: in Act I., Antony’s proposal to roam the streets with Cleopatra; in Act II., the motive assigned for Fulvia’s rising, Antony’s ambiguous position as widower, Sextus Pompeius’ courtesy to Antony’s mother, Charmian’s description of the fishing, the conditions of peace offered to Pompey, Pompey’s flout at the seizure of his father’s house, the bantering of Antony in regard to Cleopatra, the banquet on the galley, Menas’ suggestion and Pompey’s reply; in