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The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare Project Lecture) (Patreon)

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2024-06-08 20:53:25
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Content

'I am fire and air; my other elements, I give to baser life.'

Our journey through the works of William Shakespeare continues with the sublime masterpiece that is Antony and Cleopatra.

We’re discussing the inexhaustibility of Cleopatra's consciousness, Shakespeare's defiance of the classical unities, sublime subtext, the bard's love of history, jealous love, plays as perspective pictures, and much more.

Timestamps:

0:00 crowning jewel in the bard’s canon

2:00 histories, comedies, tragedies

4:00 Shakespeare’s source material

6:00 how Shakespeare presents the tragic pair

8:00 do we know the lovers or ourselves?

10:00 ‘how you see is who you are’

12:00 bringing the gods down to earth

14:00 Shakespeare’s sublime perspective pictures

15:00 Cleopatra seen as Egyptian goddess

17:00 ‘left unseen a wonderful piece of work’

19:00 Antony’s dotage overflows the measure

20:00 appreciating sublime Shakespearean subtext

21:00 a grand defiance of the classical unities

23:00 relationship between Rome & Egypt

25:00 Shakespeare’s sequel to Julius Caesar

27:00 reading Shakespeare as a grand saga

28:00 what has Mark Antony become?

30:00 ‘these strong Egyptian fetters I must break’

31:00 the triple pillar of the world/triumvirate

33:00 common body rotting itself with motion

35:00 ‘if it be love indeed, tell me how much’

37:00 Cleopatra speaks to Antony’s male ego

39:00 ‘I’ll seem the fool I am not’

40:00 who inspired Cleopatra’s character?

42:00 difference between Juliet & Cleopatra

44:00 ‘the barge she sat in like a burnished throne’

46:00 ‘she did make defect perfection’

48:00 the volatile anxiety of Cleopatra

50:00 teaching like a fool the way to lose him

52:00 when characters use each other’s words

54:00 metatheatrical exploration of gender

56:00 feeling sympathy/pity for Cleopatra

58:00 ‘my oblivion is a very Antony’

1:00:00 the marriage of Antony and Octavia

1:03:00 when Cleopatra learns the news

1:06:00 desiring the world to melt away

1:08:00 ‘if I lose mine honour, I lose myself’

1:09:00 ‘he ploughed her, and she cropped’

1:10:00 returning to the good old battle plays

1:11:00 Mark Antony warned not to fight at sea

1:12:00 the climactic Battle of Actium

1:13:00 making one’s will lord of reason

1:14:00 the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra

1:15:00 Antony cannot hold this visible shape

1:16:00 Cleopatra as elements of fire and air

1:17:00 appreciating my personal one passage

1:18:00 what did you make of this tragedy?

1:19:00 my personal ranking of the plays

Recommended Resources:

Adaptations: Charlton Heston's 1972 film adaptation, with Hildegard Neil as Cleopatra, is well worth watching. There is also Trevor Nunn's 1974 adaptation, with Janet Suzman's sublime Cleopatra and a tremendous Enobarbus from Patrick Stewart. BBC 3 also put out a brilliant radio drama in 2014 with Kenneth Branagh and Alex Kingston.

Film Appreciation: Although not an adaptation of Shakespeare's play, I would highly recommend you treat yourself to a viewing of the 1963 film Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton because it is truly magnificent and immersive. At over four hours, the story is quite the saga. I adore this film, so let us know what you make of it if you watch it!

Arden Edition: The Arden edition of this play is excellent. The critical introduction and annotations are incredibly insightful. If you would like a slimmer, more minimalist edition, then the Penguin paperback is also superb and has a wonderful introduction.

Source Appreciation: Plutarch's Lives is one of the most significant influences upon Shakespeare, and one can see that the bard stuck close to his Life of Antony, whilst also injecting vitalistic poetry and psychological complexity. You might find it rewarding to use this tragedy as a gateway into the historical biographies of Plutarch.

Inspiration: If you really fell in love with the play, you might find it interesting to see John Dryden's attempt to confine the work within the classical unities with his 1677 adaptation All for Love, which focuses on the last hours of the lovers' lives.

Biography: Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra is an incredible biography for anyone interested in learning more about the fascinating Cleopatra. For a great documentary about her rise to power, History Hit has an enthralling documentary here.

Our Journey Thus Far: If you want to jump into any specific play, you can check out the works we've enjoyed thus far as part of our read-through here.

Questions for You:

1) What do you make of the characters of Antony and Cleopatra?

2) How does this play compare with the other tragedies?

3) What line, passage, idea, or character most resonated with you? And what is your personal grading for Antony and Cleopatra?

Happy reading, Bardolators!

Files

Previews only

Comments

Serena

This is one of the best lectures yet. How can these talks keep getting better? I had to backtrack through the whole first hour so often to take it all in that it took me over two hours to finish. Although I love hearing about the history, the theatrical background, and the literary and mythological roots of the play, I’m a little torn. The lecture was breathtaking, and the enthusiasm about Shakespeare is exciting. But I’m exhausted. I missed dinner. It’s almost beyond my capacity to take it all in in one sitting, but one sitting is all I’ve got. Listening to the lecture, of course, got me a little stirred up and has me thinking— even if I have yet to reread the play after many decades. Was Antony not so much addicted to Cleopatra as he was mired in his own fantasies of being a god? Talk about the ultimate powerful male general’s teenage dream. Cleopatra offered Antony what the Serpent offered Eve: “You will be like God.” Cleopatra could give Anthony what no own else could: divinity. Antony was already powerful, but now he could be omnipotent. Antony was already famous, but now he could have unlimited glory. Antony could probably have slept with many women, but he’d never slept with a goddess before. Cleopatra, who so deluded herself into thinking that she was a real goddess, was probably very compelling. Those narcissists cling pathologically to the false self they create. Cleo was probably extremely convincing. Pharoahs of Egypt at that time had real godlike powers over others. Cleopatra couldn’t offer Antony all the kingdoms of the world, but the power and the glory she had to offer were substantial. Eventually, all illusions crumble or are demolished by human limitations and boundaries. How devastating when the goddess turns and runs. She was not, after all, a goddess, nor was he a god any more. Could the shock of ripping away one’s world view, of losing one’s illusions instantaneously in the middle of a major war, have sucked all fire into back draft? When we’re unrealistic, “I think I can.” and “I believe I can.” only go so far. And not very far when we lose our powerful identity. When we’re suddenly not a god who are we? We must feel small. We do not have any certain victory anymore. And when the god with us runs, and we’re in a battle on their turf, not our own, where are we? And why did we come here? We have lost our motive and means. We’re alone. And we’re lost. It’s similar to the Apostle Peter’s denying Christ after his sword war taken from him. When he had his weapon, he fought for Christ and cut off Malchus’ ear. But he had an identity crisis and lost his nerve when he could no longer battle the only way he knew how. Luckily, he later adapted. Really, though, this was a spectular lecture.

Brock Eldon

REVIEW / LETTER TO WILL: Hmm . . . Okay, so THIRD read through here. I have some problems with this play which I expect are more about ME than WILL. If I were in a cool tavern or pub with will I would be very honest . . . I love the scope and the scale of this work, but - frankly - (WILL, my sweetest friend) you do NOT humanise these characters any more than Homer does the Greek gods. This is a great fault I have found upon every reading and it does not change. WILL!! I love you, but these do not feel like real people to me. The gods and goddesses of Homer frankly feel more real. I have borderline Zack Snyder-like imagery in my mind and your Antony and Cleopatra feel like MCU characters. WILL - I mean if affectionately; I admire your ambition endlessly - but this is a niche work to say the least. At worst, its the most scatterbrained of your Jacobean tragedies. It's so disjointed . . . What happened to your sense of unity of setting? It's one thing to have scenes on battlefields in various locales in "Henry V" but your play falls apart here in Act IV because you're scaling geographic spaces that simply defy what the stage is capable of (as well as most readers' minds). You have some of your most exquisite lines here but you MUST redraft this for focus and you must discipline yourself on centering your action. Frankly, WILL, I wish I could show you the films of - in particular - Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino at their "heights" to show you that (sometimes) less is indeed more. I understand this may have been the peak of your financial success and that you may have had more free reign here than ever but "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Julius Caesar" is the difference between "The Hateful Eight" (loose, baggy, self-indulgent, despite some great moments) and "Reservoir Dogs." You're a brilliant artist, WILL, but you also need someone over your shoulder to keep you in check. Yes: I love elements of it, but you fell for the most common of traps here. Bigger does not mean better and you know that. Its very generous that this play receives the praise that it does. This woek reminds me more of your "Henry VI" trilogy than anything else. You took a major step BACKWARD here - PARTOCULARLY compared to your previous work. You've isolated a huge part of your audience with this work. I think it warrants a re-write. My notes for you are: a.) Ground your characters in reality; b.) Narrow the lens you are looking at events through. You are a master of this genre but you had too much money or not enough people looking over your shoulder here to maturely guide you. Read out of sequence, I might mistake this for a much earlier work. Sorry, Billy oi - but you needed an editor here. Your passion is clear but it's your worst enemy in this case. GRADE: C+

Clare Shepherd

I am ambivalent about Anthony and Cleopatra, yet on the whole it is up there with the greatest of Shakespeare's plays. Ben's advocacy convinced me, and prompted a quick reread. As usual Ben's lecture casts further light on the play. I realised the read of all the plays was going to go overtime, and as I'm retired I finished about Christmas. But when Ben's lectures come up I reread the play. One can't fail to get more out of these plays the more you read them. This has been a fabulous project.

Phil
>>140715143

This is brutal, Brock. I admire the balls and boldness. A few of my reactions… I think Will’s point was to indeed cast our pair as Homeric, larger than life, and other-worldly. This was indeed Hercules and Isis. Also, the storyline, plot, events were not at all his creation as he is re-telling the same exact story as that of Plutarch. I concede there are quite a bit of scenes and he does shatter the unities, but that was by design. I appreciate your remarks and would love to see how your opinion evolves over time with continuous re-reads.

Clare Shepherd
>>140718915

I smiled to myself over you reply. I too felt odd, even slightly bereaved when I finished W.S. until I thought that he's always there to revisit. I hope you enjoy rereading A&C.

Wyatt K.

I've long been awaiting this one.

Phil

Ben what are “some of the difficult passages in Macbeth” you refer to? I am interested in exploring them. Thanks!

Phil

Deliciously memorable quotes from the lecture; “Shakespeare’s plays are sublime perspective pictures—that’s why we reread and rewatch them. Each fresh immersion gives you another angle; and you take your new seat in the theater of your mind by virtue of your lived experience since your last engagement with the play.” (“take your new seat in the theater of your mind” —- I love that!) What’s reflected is projected, how you see is who you are The greatest influence on the playwright is the playwright himself When it comes to astonishing cognitive power and a sense of real existence, these characters feel more real than almost anyone we actually encounter in our real lives outside the theater Where are we watching the same play here? Othello moves me like only music can When does history stop and fiction begin ? Much of what we think we know about Henry the fifth is inflected by the ink that spilled from Will’s pen Your explanation of Octavius’ vagabond quote is brilliant: People always wish for their leaders to gain power until they actually have gained power and fallen leaders are not loved until they are no longer worth loving and they become dear to people because they are gone and so the common body —that’s us— the common people is like “a vagabond flag upon the stream”” —like a loose piece of cloth floating on the tide —the tides of time we might say— the common body simply goes back and forth, rocking itself with motion, ebb and flow back-and-forth and nothing ever changes. Thank you for your incredible eloquence Benjamin!

Emma S.

While I enjoyed this one it's not a top grade play for me. I found it difficult to connect to any of the characters and got a bit lost in the middle. I found the lecture so interesting though. I do agree that Antony and Cleopatra have a god like status, and I wonder if that's why they felt not quite real to me, but more like mythical beings. I would like to see a performance of A&C, as I'm curious to see how it would be staged. I see that the national theatre at home have a performance you can watch as does the globe website so I will pick one to enjoy later in the week!

Walker Rowe

Per the schedule I picked this up but was not clear headed apparently when I read it so put it down. But one month later. I read Julius Caesar and then Antony and Cleopatra. Now I find it as clear as the Mediterranean Sea. And I was pleased to when listening to Harold Bloom speaking on YouTube to say Cleopatra is one of his favorite characters. She is certainly funny when the messenger comes to tell him of Antony's marriage. Anyway it makes sense to read Julius Caesar then A&C. Because now it's Caesar, again, but Octavius Caesar and not Julius, and Pompey again, but not Julius Caesar's enemy but his (Pompey's) son.

Craig Mckissick

I’ve found this play the most challenging out of the Shakespeare I’ve engaged in. The lack of soliloquies is odd coming off the other plays and the scope of the play is huge. It also feels like the changing scenes are so rapid fire, you are coming in mid conversation a lot and it can be jarring if you don’t know the story or history beforehand. I feel like this could easily be a multi season adaptation in the modern version and I would like to have seen an uncut series of novels from Shakespeare if that was the done thing at the time but we have what we have and it is impressive. I think the most impressive thing is how much of Plutarch is covered versus Julius Caesar, I’m definitely going to be reading more Plutarch before reading the Shakespeare in the future, the notes on the Arden edition must be at least 50% quotes from the North translation of Plutarch. From a character perspective, we have some of Shakespeares best work here, Cleopatra really is a goddess in the classical Greek sense, she is Juno, Venus and Minerva with some Egyptian spiciness rolled into one unforgettable character, that feels all too real. Some of Bens observations make me question how healthy my relationship is with my wife 😆 as Antony and Cleopatras relationship feels a bit too relatable in some ways but that is the power of Shakespeare reeling people in from every conceivable angle. For Antony he represents the alpha work hard play hard squady who has been softened by lust and love and ultimately these aspects of his personality vie for the forefront until he doesn’t know who he is anymore, resulting in his false intentioned noble Roman suicide to join Cleopatra in the afterlife. Caesar is represented as the cocky prodigy who creates his own luck and runs with it, with things always working out for him, always managing to raise his station seemingly unmerited. I find it funny how negatively he comes across in the play as he is remembered in history for being the greatest emperor but maybe that’s the mirror reflecting back at me. I also enjoy Agrippa’s representation in the play and find him quite unexpectedly humorous. I don’t think one read of this play is enough, I don’t think going to see it once would have been enough. This is truly one to ponder over for a long time. One of the undercurrents is the biblical themes that tie in chronologically with the play which is very interesting. I love the idea that in the Metamorphoses we go from Gods to Heroes to the present day and we can see in the play the elements that make Antony and Cleopatra (and Caesar) Gods and Goddesses also shows that we have that residing within us which is empowering. The theme of having different personalities for different worlds and when the worlds collide you have to choose one personality and allow the other to die or you yourself will die is truly a timeless human conflict and one that many will encounter. We see in Caesar there is only one desire which is to control and have power and he allows this to control any other aspects of his life rather than be corrupted by love which leads to his effortless success. In this we see the extremely rare personality type of the ruthless businessmen who rule our capitalist world today, however Caesar is known to have laid the foundation for one of the most prosperous passages of human history so he is not potentially as cold as Shakespeare portrays him. Yeah, whether Shakespeare was conscious of how endless his writings would be is an interesting thought in itself. The fact that we are closer to Shakespeare’s time than he was to Caesar’s is quite a jarring thought as his own times customs are so strongly impressed upon the play that in many ways Plutarch feels more modern than this as a text, despite Shakespeare’s extrapolations being much more endlessly thought provoking. I didn’t find myself enjoying this play much in the first few acts but before I knew it I was finished so stick with this one, it’s worth engaging with, you get out what you put in.