Part 18 (1/2)

SHAKESPEARE'S _ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA_

SHAKESPEARE'S _ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA_[1]

Coleridge's one page of general criticism on _Antony and Cleopatra_ contains some notable remarks 'Of all Shakespeare's historical plays,'

he writes, '_Antony and Cleopatra_ is by far the most wonderful There is not one in which he has followed history so minutely, and yet there are fehich he ith so ly This is greatly owing to the hout' In a later sentence he refers to the play as 'this astonishi+ng drama' In another he describes the style: '_feliciter audax_ is the motto for its style comparatively with that of Shakespeare's other works' And he translates this e's assertion that in _Antony and Cleopatra_ Shakespeare followed history ht well be disputed; and his statement about the style of this drama requires some qualification in view of the results of later criticism as to the order of Shakespeare's works The style is less individual than he iined

On the whole it is coh in _Antony and Cleopatra_, probably the earliest of them, its development is not yet complete And we must add that this style has certain special defects, une, as well as the quality which he points out in it But it is true that here that quality is almost continuously present; and in the phrase by which he describes it, as in his other phrases, he has signalised once for all some of the most salient features of the drama

It is curious to notice, for example, alike in books and in conversation, how often the first epithets used in reference to _Antony and Cleopatra_ are 'wonderful' and 'astonishi+ng' And the elic strength' or 'fiery force' of which Coleridge wrote The first of these two phrases is, I think, the more entirely happy Except perhaps towards the close, one is not so conscious of fiery force as in certain other tragedies; but one is astonished at the apparent ease hich extraordinary effects are produced, the ease, if Iwith a wave of the hand that heavy matter which n ease in conte Shakespeare's picture of the world--a vast canvas, croith figures, gloith colour and a superb ani one spectator of Paul Veronese and another of Rubens We feel it again e observe (as we can even without consulting Plutarch) the nature of the material; how bulky it was, and, in soh he could not treat history like legend or fiction, seems to push whole masses aside, and to shi+ft and refashi+on the re (at ti similar is felt even in the portrait of Cleopatra Marvellous as it is, the drawing of it suggests not so much the passionate concentration or fiery force of _Macbeth_, as that sense of effortless and exultant mastery which we feel in the portraits of Mercutio and Falstaff And surely it is a total mistake to find in this portrait any trace of the distempered mood which disturbs our pleasure in _Troilus and Cressida_ If the sonnets about the dark lady were, as need not be doubted, in soraphical, Shakespeare may well have used his personal experience both when he drew Cressida and when he drew Cleopatra And, if he did, the story in the later play was the nearer to his own; for Antony ht well have said what Troilus could never say,

When my love swears that she is h I know she lies

But in the later play, not only is the poet's vision unclouded, but his whole nature, emotional as well as intellectual, is free The subject no more embitters or seduces him than the aelic strength of which Coleridge speaks If we quarrelled with the phrase at all, it would be because we fancied we could trace in Shakespeare's attitude soether suit our conception of an angel

I have still another sentence to quote frohest praise, or rather form of praise, of this play which I can offer in my own mind, is the doubt which the perusal always occasions in me, whether the ”Antony and Cleopatra” is not, in all exhibitions of a giant power in its strength and vigour of maturity, a formidable rival of ”Macbeth,”

”Lear,” ”Hamlet,” and ”Othello”' Now, unless the clause here about the 'giant power' elic strength, Coleridge's doubt seeedy as a rival of the fae or in the study, is surely an error The world certainly has not so regarded it; and, though the world's reasons for its verdicts on works of art may be worth little, its mere verdict is worth much

Here, it seems to me, that verdict_Antony and Cleopatra_ wonderful or astonishi+ng, we appear to be thinking first of the artist and his activity, while in the case of the four fa presented, that first engrosses us I know that I a this difference too sharply, but I believe that it is often felt; and, if this is so, the fact is significant It ih _Antony and Cleopatra_ reatest of Shakespeare's plays, it has not an equal value Besides, in the atte more, and more important, than an error in valuation There is a failure to discriminate the peculiar marks of _Antony and Cleopatra_ itself, edies, make it decidedly different If I speak first of some of these differences it is because they thus contribute to the individuality of the play, and because they seem often not to be distinctly apprehended in criticis, is _Antony and Cleopatra_, though so wonderful an achieveedy, it is not painful Though unfit for children, it cannot be called indecent; so of the heroine's part as ht confidently be expected, would leave it perfectly presentable It is, no doubt, in the third and fourth Acts, very defective in construction

Even on the Elizabethan stage, where scene followed scene without a pause, this must have been felt; and in our theatres it would be felt much more There, in fact, these two and forty scenes could not possibly be acted as they stand But defective construction would not distress the bulk of an audience, if the matter presented were that of _Hamlet_ or _Othello_, of _Lear_ or _Macbeth_ Thewhich is present in those tragedies; and it isto this difference in substance that _Antony and Cleopatra_ has never attained their popularity either on the stage or off it

Most of Shakespeare's tragedies are draeneral sense, fro and i forces towards a terrible issue, but from time to time there co on this issue, appeal s--scenes of action or passion which agitate the audience with alar syhts in _Ro of Mercutio and Tybalt, the rapture of the lovers, and their despair when Rohost-scenes in the first Act of _Hamlet_, the passion of the early soliloquies, the scene between Ha at prayer, the killing of Polonius

Is not _Haard it, the best melodrama in the world? Think at your leisure of _Othello_, _Lear_, and _Macbeth_ from the saedies which, as dealing with Roman history, are companions of _Antony and Cleopatra_ Recall in _Julius Caesar_ the first suggestion of thefire,' the murder itself, the speech of Antony over the corpse, and the tumult of the furious crowd; in _Coriolanus_ the bloody battles on the stage, the scene in which the hero attains the consulshi+p, the scene of rage in which he is banished And reedies the matter referred to is contained in the first three Acts

In the first three Acts of our play what is there rese People converse, discuss, accuse one another, excuse thee, meet and part; but they do not kill, do not even tremble or weep We see hardly one violent movement; until the battle of Actium is over itness scarcely any vehement passion; and that battle, as it is a naval action, we do not see Even later, Enobarbus, when he dies, simply dies; he does not kill himself[2] We hear wonderful talk; but it is not talk, like that of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, or that of Othello and Iago, at which we hold our breath The scenes that we remember first are those that portray Cleopatra; Cleopatra coquetting, tor her lover to stay; Cleopatra left with her wo the news of his er about Octavia's personal appearance But this is to say that the scenes we remember first are the least indispensable to the plot One at least is not essential to it at all And this, the astonishi+ng scene where she storer on hie in the first half of the drama that contains either an explosion of passion or an exciting bodily action Nor is this all The first half of the play, though it forebodes tragedy, is not decisively tragic in tone Certainly the Cleopatra scenes are not so We read thehted wonder and even with amusement The only scene that can vie with theh full of reat part humorous

Enobarbus, in this part of the play, is always hu, the whipping of Thyreus, in spite of Antony's rage, moves mirth A play of which all this can truly be said may well be as htful; but, in the greater part of its course, it cannot possibly excite the saard it as though it made this attempt is to miss its specific character and the intention of its author

That character depends only in part on Shakespeare's fidelity to his historical authority, a fidelity which, I erated For Shakespeare did not h it occupied perhaps one fifth of that time, nor did he merely invent freely, but in critical places he effected startling changes in the order and co with a history so famous, he could not well ic And this is true so far as mere situations and events are concerned But, if he had chosen, he htened the tone and tension in another way He ht have e, and the story of his relapse, extre with all his force the severity of the struggle and the nitude of the fatal step

And the structure of the play , Antony is shown al of his infatuation; for Cleopatra is not sure of her power over him, exerts all her fascination to detain him, and plays the part of the innocent victim who has yielded to passion and must now expect to be deserted by her seducer Alarmed and ashamed at the news of the results of his inaction, he rouses himself, tears hi is enough to frighten Pompey into peace He reconciles hiood and beautiful Octavia, see aainst the passion that threatened him with ruin At this point his power, the world's peace, and his own peace, appear to be secured; his fortune has mounted to its apex But soon (very much sooner than in Plutarch's story) comes the doard turn or counter-stroke New causes of offence arise between the brothers-in-law

To remove them Octavia leaves her husband in Athens and hurries to Rome

I himself at once and wholly to her enchantment is quickly driven to his doom

Now Shakespeare, I say, with his ht have made this story, even where it could not furnish hiic e so, he would have departed from his authority merely in his conception of the hero's character But he does no such thing till the catastrophe is near Antony breaks away from Cleopatra without any strenuous conflict No serious doubt of his return is perh the ilih the absence of any doubt in Enobarbus, through scenes in Alexandria which display Cleopatra and display her irresistible And, finally, the doard turn itself, the fatal step of Antony's return, is shoithout the slightest emphasis Nay, it is not shown, it is only reported; and not a line portrays any inward struggle preceding it On this side also, then, the draedies; and it was essential to its own peculiar character and its most transcendent effects that this attempt should not be made, but that Antony's passion should be represented as a force which he could hardly even desire to resist By the very schereat volue of the conflict; while the main interest, down to the battle of Actiu and even, in the wider sense, dramatic, but not overtly either terrible or piteous: on the one hand, to the political aspect of the story; on the other, to the personal causes which helped to make the issue inevitable