A. “These strong Egyptian fetters I must break Or lose myself in dotage.”
To what extent, in your opinion, does Antony “lose” himself in Egypt?
B. Discuss the view that much of what Cleopatra says and does can appear ambiguous to an audience.
Comment on the dramatic effectiveness of this passage which comes from near the end of the play. (In your answer you should consider staging methods, relation to the play as a whole, character development, language and handling of themes.)
Antony. When I did make thee free, swor’st thou not then
To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once,
Or thy precedent services are all
But accidents unpurposed. Draw, and come.
Eros. Turn from me then that noble countenance
Wherein the worship of the whole world lies.
Antony.Lo thee!
He turns from him
Eros. My sword is drawn.
Antony. Then let it do at once
The thing why thou has drawn it.
Eros. My dear master,
My captain, and my emperor, let me say,
Before I strike this bloody stroke, farewell.
ANTONY. ‘Tis said, man, and farewell.
Eros. Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike now?
Antony. Now, Eros.
Eros. Why, there then! Thus I do escape the sorrow
Of Antony’s death. He kills himself.
Antony. Thrice nobler than myself,
Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what
I should, and thou couldst not. My queen and Eros
Have by their brave instruction got upon me
A nobleness in record. But I will be
A bridegroom in my death, and run into’t
As to a lover’s bed. Come then; and, Eros,
Thy master dies thy scholar. To do thus I learned of thee.
[He falls on his sword.]
How? Not dead? Not dead?
The guard, ho! O, dispatch me!
[Enter Dercetas and a company of the Guard.]
First Guard. What’s the noise?
Antony. I have done my work ill, friends. O, make an end
Of what I have begun.
Second Guard. The star is fallen.
First Guard. And time is at his period.
All the Guards. Alas, and woe!
Antony. Let him that loves me strike me dead.
First Guard. Not I.
Second Guard. Nor I.
Third Guard. Nor anyone. [Exit Guards.]
Dercetas. Thy death and fortunes bid thy followers fly.
This sword but shown to Caesar, with this tidings,
Shall enter me with him.
[Enter Diomedes.]
Diomedes. Where’s Antony?
Dercetas. There, Diomed, there.
Diomedes. Lives he?
Wilt thou not answer, man? [Exit Dercetas.]
Antony. Art thou there, Diomed?
Draw thy sword, and give me
Sufficing strokes for death.
Diomedes. Most absolute lord,
My mistress Cleopatra sent me to thee.
Antony. When did she send thee?
Diomedes. Now, my lord.
Antony. Where is she?
Diomedes. Locked in her monument.
She had a prophesying fear
Of what hath come to pass; for when she saw-
Which never shall be found - you did suspect
She had disposed with Caesar, and that your rage
Would not be purged, she sent you word she was dead;
But, fearing since how it might work, hath sent
Me to proclaim the truth, and I am come,
I dread, too late.
Antony. Too late, good Diomed. Call my guard, I prithee.
Diomedes. What ho! The Emperor’s guard! The guard! what ho! Come, your lord calls!
[Enter four or five of the Guard of Antony]
Antony. Bear me, good friends, where Cleopatra bides.
‘Tis the last service that I shall command you.
First Guard. Woe, woe are we, sir, you may not live to wear
All your true followers out.
All the Guards. Most heavy day!
Antony. Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate
To grace it with your sorrows. Bid that welcome
Which comes to punish us, and we punish it,
Seeming to bear it lightly. Take me up.
I have led you oft; carry me now, good friends,
And have my thanks for all.
[Exit, bearing Antony.]
Read carefully the passage below and discuss the extent to which Shakespeare’s presentation of the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra in this passage is typical of how he presents it in the rest of the play.
Antony. Most sweet queen.
Cleopatra: Nay, pray you seek no colour for your going,
But bid farewell, and go. When you sued staying,
Then was the time for words. No going then!
Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
Bliss in our brows’ bent; none our parts so poor
But was a race of heaven. They are so still,
Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world,
Art turned the greatest liar.
Antony. How now, lady!
Cleopatra. I would I had thy inches. Thou shouldst know
There were a heart in Egypt.
Antony. Hear me, Queen.
The strong necessity of time commands
Our services awhile; but my full heart
Remains in use with you. Our Italy
Shines o’er with civil swords. Sextus Pompeius
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome.
Equality of two domestic powers
Breed scrupulous faction; the hated, grown to strength,
Are newly grown to love. The condemned Pompey,
Rich in his father’s honour, creeps apace
Into the hearts of such as have not thrived
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
By any desperate change. My more particular,
And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is Fulvia’s death.
Cleopatra. Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die?
Antony. She’s dead, my queen.
Look here,[he gives her the letter)
and at thy sovereign leisure read
The garboils she awaked. At the last, best,
See when and where she died.
Cleopatra. O most false love!
Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill
With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see,
In Fulvia’s death, how mine received shall be.
Antony. Quarrel no more, but be prepared to know
The purposes I bear; which are, or cease,
As you shall give th’advice. By the fire
That quickens Nilus’ slime, I go from hence
Thy soldier-servant, making peace or war
As thou affects.
Cleopatra. Cut my lace, Charmian, come.
But let it be. I am quickly ill and well,
So Antony loves.
Antony. My precious queen, forbear,
And give true evidence to his love, which stands
An honourable trial.
Cleopatra. So Fulvia told me.
I prithee turn aside and weep for her;
Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears
Belong to Egypt. Good now, play one scene
Of excellent dissembling, and let it look
Like perfect honour.
Antony. You’ll heat my blood; no more.
Cleopatra. You can do better yet; but this is meetly.
Antony. Now by my sword
Cleopatra. And target. Still he mends.
But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian,
How this Herculean Roman does become
The carriage of his chafe.
Antony. I’ll leave you, lady.
Cleopatra. Courteous lord, one word.
Sir, you and I must part, but that’s not it.
Sir, you and I have loved, but there’s not it.
That you know well. Something it is I would
O, my oblivion is a very Antony,
And I am all forgotten.
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.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions below it.
[Alexandria. A room in CLEOPATRA’s palace. Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO.]
Nay, but his dotage of our general’s
O’erflows the measure: 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 scumes of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy’s lust.
[Flourish. Enter ANTONY,CLEOPATRA, her Ladies, the Train with Eunuchs fanning her.]
Look, where they come.
Take but good note, and you shall see in him
The triple pillar of the world transformed
Into a strumpet’s fool. Behold and see.
Cleopatra. If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
Antony. There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned.
Cleopatra. I’ll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
Antony. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
[Enter an ATTENDANT.]
Attendant. News, my good lord, from Rome.
Anthony. Grates me. The sum.
Cleopatra. Nay, hear them, Antony.
Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows
If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, “Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that.
Perferm’t or else we damn thee”.
Antony. How, my love?
Cleopatra. Perchance? Nay, and most like.
You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from from Casar; therefore, hear it, Antony.
Where’s Fulvia’s process? Caesar’s I would say. Both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s Queen,
Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Caesar’s homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
Antony. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the rang’d empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life
Is to do thus, when such a mutual pair,
And such a train can do’t, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.
Cleopatra. Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I’ll seem the fool I am not; Antony will be himself.
Antony. But stirred by Cleopatra
Now for the love of Love, and her soft hours,
Let’s not confound the time with conference harsh.
There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?
Cleopatra. Hear the ambassadors.
Antony. Fie, wrangling Queen!
Whom everything becomes-to chide, to laugh,
To weep-whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admired.
No messenger but thine, and all alone,
Tonight we’ll wander through the streets, and note
The qualities of people. Come, my Queen;
Last night you did desire it.
[To the Attendant]: Speak not to us
[Exit all except DEMETRIUS and PHILO]
Demetrius. Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?
Philo. Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
He comes too short of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.
Demetrius. I am full sorry
That he approves the common liar, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope
Of better deeds tomorrow. Rest you happy.
In the passage, Philo’s commentary is followed by a conversation between Antony and Cleopatra. Suggest why Shakespeare has constructed the opening scene in this way and consider the extent to which the passage prepares us for the major concerns of the play as a whole.
Cleopatra. Nay, hear them, Antony:
Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows
If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, ” Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
Perform’t, or else we damn thee.”
Antony. How, my love?
Cleopatra. Perchance? Nay, and most like:
You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.
Where’s Fulvia’s process? Caesar’s I would say? Both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt’s queen,
Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine
Is Caesar’s homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
Antony. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair [embracing]
And such a twain can do’t, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.
Cleopatra. Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I’ll seem the fool I am not; Antony
Will be himself.
Antony. But stirred by Cleopatra.
Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
Let’s not confound the time with conference harsh:
There’s not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure new. What sport to-night?
Cleopatra. Hear the ambassadors.
A. Indicate briefly the occasion on which these lines were spoken.
B. Write an explanatory note on:
the world to weet
We stand up peerless. (lines 22-23)
C. What do we learn about the characters of Antony and Cleopatra from this dialogue?
D. Discuss the quality or qualities of Shakespeare’s dramatic art that the passage illustrates.
A. Shakespeare is not criticizing Coriolanus’s contempt for the mob. He is showing the cost of his hero’s inability to conceal it.’ With close reference to the text, say how adequate you find this view of Coriolanus’s role in the play.
B. By what means and how successfully does Shakespeare seem to have made drama out of history in Coriolanus? You are not required to consider the source material of the play.
C. Either, (1) “His nature is too noble for the world.” “He’s poor in no one fault, but stored with all.” Discuss these two comments on Coriolanus, examining and criticizing the attitudes towards his character and tragic predicament which they represent.
Or, (2) “Quarrelling and fighting scarcely cease from beginning to end, yet they only reflect, never dominate, the fundamental stresses in Coriolanus.” Discuss, with illustrations.
Or, (3) “Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end o’ the table; no question asked him by any of the senators but they Stand bald before him. Our general himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself with’s hand, and turns up the white o’ th’ eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i’ th’ middle and but one half of what he was yesterday, for the other has half by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He’ll go, he says, and sowl the porter of Rome’s gates by th’ ears; he will mow all down before him, and leave his passage polled.”
D. Either, (1) “In Coriolanus, the dramatic conflict lies less in the military and political struggles than in the struggles within and between individuals.” How far do you agree with this view of “dramatic conflict” of the play?
Or, (2) How successful is Shakespeare in creating scenes of (a) war, and (b) popular feeling in Coriolanus, and to what dramatic purposes does he put them?
E. Either, (1) In your view, is Coriolanus truly a tragedy?
Or, (2) What are the interest and significance of Menenius and Volumnia in the drama and themes of Coriolanus?
A. By whom and in what circumstances is the passage spoken? (Use not more than 50 words.)
B. What is the dramatic significance of the subject matter of the passage?
C. What do you consider to be the interest and importance of the way in which this subject matter is expressed? (In this section you are expected to comment on such matters as diction, imagery and verse.)
VOL. I pray you, daughter, sing, or express yourself in a more comfortable sort. If my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the embracements of his bed where he would show most love. When yet he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of my womb; when youth with comeliness pluck’d all gaze his way; when, for a day of kings’ entreaties, a mother should not sell him an hour from her beholding; I, considering how honour would become such a person—that it was no better than picture-like to hang by th’ wall, if renown made it not stir— was pleas’d to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him, from whence he return’d his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.
VIR. But had he died in the business, madam, how then?
VOL. Then his good report should have been my son; I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.
[Enter a Gentlewoman]
GENT. Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you.
VIR. Beseech you give me leave to retire myself.
VOL. Indeed you shall not. Methinks I hear hither your husband’s drum;
See him pluck Aufidius down by th’ hair;
As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him.
Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus:
‘Come on, you cowards! You were got in fear,
Though you were born in Rome’. His bloody brow
With his mail’d hand then wiping, forth he goes,
Like to a harvest-man that’s task’d to mow
Or all or lose his hire.
VIR. His bloody brow? O Jupiter, no blood!
VOL. Away, you fool! It more becomes a man
Than gilt his trophy. The breasts of Hecuba,
When she did suckle Hector, look’d not lovelier
Than Hector’s forehead when it spit forth blood
40 At Grecian sword, contemning. Tell Valeria
We are fit to bid her welcome. [Exit Gentlewoman.]
VIR. Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius!
VOL. He’ll beat Aufidius’ head below his knee
And tread upon his neck.
[Re-enter Gentlewoman, with VALERIA and an Usher.]
VALERIA. My ladies both, good day to you.
VOL. Sweet madam!
VIR. I am glad to see your ladyship.
VALERIA. How do you both? You are manifest housekeepers.
What are you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith.
How does your little son?
VIR. I thank your ladyship; well, good madam.
VOL He had rather see the swords and hear a drum than look upon his schoolmaster.
VALERIA. O’ my word, the father’s son! I’ll swear ’tis a very pretty boy. O’ my troth, I look’d upon him a Wednesday half an hour together; has such a confirm’d countenance! I saw him run after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it he let it go again, and after it again, and over and over he comes, and up again, catch’d it again; or whether his fall enrag’d him, or how ’twas, he did so set his teeth and tear it. O, I warrant, how he mammock’d it!
VOL. One on’s father’s moods.
65 VALERIA. Indeed, la, ’tis a noble child.
A. By whom and in what circumstances is the passage spoken? (Use not more than 50 words.)
B. What is the dramatic significance of the subject matter of the passage?
C. What do you consider to be the interest and importance of the way in which this subject matter is expressed? (In this section you are expected to comment on such matters as diction, imagery and verse.)
(1) Well, I must do’t.
Away, my disposition, and possess me
Some harlot’s spirit! My throat of war be turn’d,
Which quier’d with my drum, into a pipe
5 Small as an eunuch or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of knaves
Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys’ tears take up
The glasses of my sight! A beggar’s tongue
Make motion through my lips, and my arm’d knees,
10 Who bow’d but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath receiv’d an alms! I will not do’t,
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth,
And by my body’s action teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.
(2) O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn,
Whose double bosoms seems to wear one heart,
Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise
Are still together, who twin, as ’twere, in love
5 Unseparable, shall within this hour,
On a dissension of a doit, break out
To bitterest enmity; so fellest foes,
Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep
To take the one the other, by some chance,
10 Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends
And interjoin their issues. So with me:
My birthplace hate I, and my love’s upon
This enemy town. I’ll enter. If he slay me,
He does fair justice; if he give me way,
15 I’ll do his country service.
A. By whom and in what circumstances is the passage spoken? (Use not more than 50 words.)
B. What is the dramatic significance of the subject matter of the passage?
C. What do you consider to be the interest and importance of the way in which this subject matter is expressed? (In this section you are expected to comment on such matters as diction, imagery and verse.)
[Flourish.]
ALL. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus.
CORIOLANUS. No more of this, it does offend my heart.
Pray now, no more.
COM. Look, sir, your mother!
5 CORIOLANUS. 0, You have, I know, petition’d all the gods
For my prosperity! [Kneels.]
VOL. Nay, my good soldier, up;
My gentle Marcius, worthy Caius, and
10 By deed-achieving honour newly nam’d—
What is it? Coriolanus must I call thee?
But, O, thy wife!
CORIOLANUS. My gracious silence, hail!
Wouldst thou have laugh’d had I come coffin’d home,
15 That weep’st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear,
Such eyes the widows in Corioli wear,
And mothers that lack sons.
MEN. Now the gods crown thee!
CORIOLANUS. And live you yet? [To Valeria] O my sweet lady, pardon
20 VOL. I know not where to turn.
0, welcome home! And welcome, General.
And y’are welcome all.
MEN. A hundred thousand welcomes. I could weep
And I could laugh; I am light and heavy. Welcome!
25 A curse begin at very root on’s heart
That is not glad to see thee! You are three
that Rome should dote on
We have some old crab trees here at home that will not
Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors.
30 We call a nettle a nettle, and
The faults of fools but folly.
COM. Ever right.
CORIOLANUS. Menenius ever, ever.
HER. Give way there, and go on.
CORIOLANUS [To his wife and mother]. Your hand, and yours.
Ere in our own house I do shade my head,
The good patricians must be visited;
From whom I have received not only greetings
But with them change of honours.
VOL. I have lived
To see inherited my very wishes,
And the buildings of my fancy; only
There’s one thing wanting, which I doubt not but
Our Rome Will cast upon thee.
CORIOLANUS: Know, good mother,
I had rather be their servant in my way
Than sway with them in theirs.
COM. On to the Capitol.
[FLOURISH. CORNETS. EXIT IN STATE, AS BEFORE. BRUTUS AND SICINIUS COME FORWARD.]
BRUTUS: All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights
Are spectacled to see him. Your prattling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry
While she chats him; the kitchen malkin pins
Her richest lockram ‘bout her reechy neck,
Clamering the walls to seye him; stalls, bulks, windows,
Are smothered up, leads filled and ridges horsed,
With variable complexions, all agreeing
In earnestness to see him. Seld-shown flamens
Do press among the popular throngs and puff
To win a vulgar station; our veil’d dames
60 Commit the war of white and damask in
Their nicely gawded cheeks to th’ wanton spoil
Of Phoebus’ burning kisses. Such a pother,
As if that whatsoever god who leads him
Were slily crept into his human powers,
65 And gave him graceful posture.