ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA - Contextual Question 8
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below it.
[Enter THIDIAS.]
Cleopatra. Caesar’s will?
Thidias. Hear it apart.
Cleopatra. None but friends. Say boldly.
Thidias. Say, haply, are they friends to Antony.
Enobarbus. He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has, Or needs not us.
If Caesar please, our master
Will leap to be his friend. For us, you know,
Whose he is, we are, and that is Caesar’s.
Thidias. So. Thus then, thou most renowned, Caesar entreats
Not to consider in what case thou stand’st
Further than he is Caesar.
Cleopatra. Go on: right royal.
Thidias. He knows that you embraced not Antony
As you did love, but as you feared him.
The scars upon your honour, therefore, he
Does pity as constrained blemishes,
Not as deserved.
Cleopatra. He is a god, and knows.
What is most right. Mine honour was not yielded,
But conquered merely.
Enobarbus [aside]: To be sure of that,
I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky
That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for
Thy dearest quit thee.
[Exit ENOBARBUS.]
Thidias. Shall I say to Caesar
What you require of him?
For he partly begs
To be desired to give.
It much would please him
That of his fortunes you should make a staff
To lean upon. But it would warm his spirits
To hear from me you had left Antony,
And put yourself under his shroud,
The universal landlord.
Cleopatra. What’s your name?
Thidias. My name is Thidias.
Cleopatra. 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.
Tell him, from his all-obeying breath I hear
The doom of Egypt.
Thidias. ‘Tis your noblest course.
Wisdom and fortune combating together,
If that the former dare but what it can,
No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay
My duty on your hand.
Cleopatra. Your Caesar’s father oft,
When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in,
Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place,
As it rained kisses.
[Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS.]
Antony. Favours? By jove that thunders!
What art thou fellow?
Thidias. One that but performs
The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest
To have command obeyed.
Enobarbus [aside]: You will be whipped.
Antony [calling for SERVANTS]: Approach there!-Ah, you kite-
Now, gods and devils! Authority melts from me.
Of late, when I cried “Ho!”
Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth
And cry “Your will?” Have you no ears?
I am Antony yet.
[Enter SERVANTS.]
Take hence this Jack, and whip him.
Enobarbus [aside]: ‘Tis better playing with a lion’s whelp,
Than with an old one dying.
Antony. Moon and stars!
Whip him! Were’t twenty of the greatest tributaries
That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them
So saucy with the hand of she here-what’s her name
Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows,
Till like a boy you see him cringe his face
And whine aloud for mercy. Take him hence.
Thidias. Mark Antony!
Antony. Tug him away! Being whipped,
Bring him again. This Jack of Caesar’s shall
Bear us an errand to him.
[Exit SERVANTS with THIDIAS.]
You were half blasted ere I knew you. Ha?
Have I my pillow left unpressed in Rome,
Forborne the getting of a lawful race,
And by a gem of women, to be abused
By one that looks on feeders?
Cleopatra. Good my lord,-
Antony. You have been a boggler ever,
But when we in our viciousness grow hard-
O misery on’t!-the wise gods seel our eyes,
In our own filth drop our clear judgements, make us
Adore our errors, laugh at’s while we strut
To our confusion.
Cleopatra. O, is’t come to this?
Consider the dramatic effectiveness of this extract. Discuss the extent to which Enobarbus’ function here is characteristic of his role throughout the play.