Antony and Cleopatra - Act II

“If the great gods be just, they shall assist

The deeds of justest men.” ~Pompey

The problem was, which one of them were the ‘justest’?

Scene I – Messina. Pompey’s House

Pompey was discussing with Menecrates and Menas his chance in the coming battle against the Triumvirs. Pompey tended to underestimate the Triumvirs at first. He—just as Caesar—doubted that Antony would really leave Egypt for the war. Moreover, they hoped to use the internal dispute among the Triumvirs as one of their weapons.

Scene II – Rome. The House of Lepidus

* Lepidus was between the dispute of Caesar and Antony. Here we met again the harsh comments of Enobarbus:

“Or, if you borrow one another’s love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again. You shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else to do.”

Don’t you just want to slap him in the face? :|

* In this scene Mark Antony obviously overshadowed Caesar in their quarrel. Instead of Caesar demanding Antony’s conduct in Egypt, it seemed more like Antony pointed how absurd it was to relate his brother and Fulvia’s war to him (Antony), and how more unreasonable it was to fuss over a woman’s offense. Caesar here looked like a crying child, while Antony a noble gentleman. Bravo Antony!

“Truth is that Fulvia,

To have me out of Egypt, made wars here,

For which myself, the ignorant motive, do

So far ask pardon as befits mine honor

To stoop in such a case.”

And on top of their dispute, Agrippa came with a perfect idea, which is to marry Mark Antony with Octavia—Caesar’s beloved sister; which Antony agreed it. A brilliant idea from Agrippa it seemed at the moment perhaps, but we know that it was useless, because one ship cannot have two captains. Moreover, it’s a great risk—considering how Caesar loved Octavia dearly, and how Antony had passionately fallen in love with Cleopatra, that if someday he left Octavia for Cleopatra, his relationship with Caesar would be in a much greater danger than at that present time.

* Enobarbus’ description of Cleopatra and her luxurious barge at the moment of her first meeting with Antony was amazing, it portrayed Egyptian exoticness quite perfectly.

* I don’t quite agree with Enobarbus here:

“And for his ordinary pays his heart, for what his eyes eat only.” I still believe Antony was really falling in love with Cleopatra, and not the other way round.

Scene III – Rome. Caesar’s House

* Right after his marriage with Octavia, Antony planned to return to Egypt. Partly because I think his heart remained there, and partly after he considered what the soothsayer told him about how he would have been destroyed whenever he was near Caesar.

* I believe that Parthian war would become Antony’s first expansion campaign to the East, which in the future will be the cause of his separation with Octavius (if I remember it quite well).

Scene IV – Rome. A Street

* Lepidus would take a different path to Messina. And though he was the weakest among the triumvirs, Lepidus was the one who depart earliest. I often pity him, crushed between Octavius and Antony, a good statesman with less ambition. Just like Brutus, you’re not supposed to plunge into politics at all, o poor Lepidus! 

Scene V – Alexandria. Cleopatra’s Palace

* I don’t know why Shakespeare made Cleopatra looked like a teenager who was madly in love. Even if her love to Antony was real —which I doubt—Cleopatra looked really ridiculous with how she did not know what she wanted to do (from listening to music, playing billiard, to fishing) and all other madness (seriously…playing billiard? Cleopatra??). Could you imagine the mighty queen of Egypt actually did that? What she did to the messenger from Rome who brought news about Antony’s marriage did show her ruthlessness, but the way she carried it on was rather comical than wicked.

Scene VI – Near Misenum

* This was where bargains were made, if it was accepted, war could be avoided. And I was surprised that Pompey accepted the treaty very quickly—even Menas criticized it—and then followed by four feast with each leader hosted his own feast. Was it only a strategy? Let’s see what happen next…

Scene VII – On Board Pompey’s Galley, Off Misenium

On the feast Lepidus was drunk, and the servants commented on him of being the weakest in the Triumvirs, and prophesied Lepidus’ future’s fall in the hand of the two others. And they were so true by saying: “To be call’d into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in’t, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks”

* I don’t like how Caesar and Antony talked about Lepidus:

Caesar : (aside to Antony) Will this description satisfy him?

Antony: (aside to Caesar) With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure.

But then, I believe they have taken advantage from poor Lepidus from the beginning. Both Caesar and Antony were ambitious guys who—despite of agreeing on building a Triumvirate—always wanted to be the sole leader of Rome.

* Menas suggested Pompey to kill the Triumvirs while they were feasting on their boat, but Pompey declined the idea as dishonorable—although he added if Menas have done it without Pompey knowing it, he would have agreed to it. Can you call it honorable?... :|

A Classics Challenge November Prompt

As we are approaching the end of 2012, November’s prompt for A Classics Challenge is asking us to summarize our classics reading during this year. I’m going to answer all of them…

Of all the Classics you've read this year is there an author or movement that has become your new favorite?

It’s Shakespeare! As a non-English speaker, and not having learned about any classics literature in school, my experience with the Bard was practically zero, until this year. Months ago I have decided to try Shakespeare’s comedy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, however without any success. I almost got lost about what’s going on or what’s so funny about it, being a comedy. But then I realized that maybe I have read it in a wrong way. That’s why I gave Shakespeare a second chance by hosting Let’s Read Plays reading event, where most of the themes are dedicated to the Bard. This time I’m going to read Shakespeare’s works as they should be praised. And it works! I have just finished Julius Caesar, which I loved dearly—or maybe it’s because I’m an ancient Rome history’s fan? Anyway..I think this was only the beginning, I am now reading Antony and Cleopatra, and I’m more and more falling in love with Shakespeare’s smart and witty writing.

Which book did you enjoy the most?

This is always the toughest question in every meme, but if I have to choose only one book, it’s Emile Zola’s Germinal. This books is perfect in many categories of my favorite books; the story was intense and emotional, it has a hope at the ending (not a depressing hopeless ones as most of Zola’s), and I love how Zola wrote it.

Or were baffled by?

Notes From Underground (Dostoyevsky). I’m almost totally lost of what the narrator (the underground man) was complaining. When it seems I begin to vaguely get to it, the man would babble about something else, and I’m lost again. I’m around 20% of it now, and pessimistic I can ever finish it… :(

Who's the best character?

Etienne Lantier from Germinal. I have featured him in one of my Character Thursdays. 

The most exasperating (character)?

Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With The Wind. Haha…you’ve probably known about this already. This is the only main character I couldn’t find any positive personality from all books I’ve ever read.

From reading other participants' posts which book do you plan to read and are most intrigued by?

There are a lot of them, but from several suggestions in my Classics Club November meme (most intimidating classics), I’m most intrigued to read Dante’s The Divine Comedy. I can’t wait to read it next year for Listra’s Narrative Poem Reading Challenge!

Brutus in Julius Caesar

Marcus Junius Brutus was one of the senators who conspired against the dictator of Rome, Julius Caesar. Brutus was a noble and honest man. Unlike others in the conspirator group, Brutus’ main aim in the conspiracy was to bring freedom to Rome, instead of his own greediness. This was admitted by Caesar’s friend, Mark Antony:

“This was the noblest Roman of them all.

All the conspirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;

He only, in a general honest thought

And common good to all, made one of them.”

When he was first approached by Cassius to become the conspirators’ chief, he did not agree at once, but he took time to reflect it. He did not seek fame, and he was far from ambitious.

“Brutus had rather be a villager,

Than to repute himself a son of Rome”

If he finally agreed to lead the conspiracy, it was for Romans sake, because he felt Caesar had become more ambitious, and this would endanger Rome. Brutus was one of the straight men in Rome—Cicero was the other I have in mind—who really cared about his country’s moral corruption. I don’t think a noble man like Brutus would think about killing others, but he did stabbed Caesar because he thought it ought to be done for Rome. Moreover, Brutus condemned a senator called Lucius Pella for bribery, although Cassius—his friend—defended him. Brutus was not reluctant either to warn Cassius of his greediness.

Brutus was an affectionate husband, and unlike most of Romans at that time, he respected his wife, Portia. He treated her as an equal companion. He shared many things with his wife and had not any objection when Portia suggested things to him; he valued her opinions. Brutus valued a true friendship too. He was sad and disappointed when he was told that Cassius did not welcome Brutus’ man with warm affection as usual.

“When love begins to sicken and decay

It useth an envorced ceremony.

There are no tricks in plain and simple faith;

But hollow men, like horse hot at hand,

Make gallant show and promise of their mettle;

But when they should endure the bloody spur,

They fall their crests and like deceitful jades

Sink in the trial.”

Ercole di Roberti, c. 1490
[source]

If Brutus had a weakness, it was that he was too straight and naïve that he did not realized Cassius’ taking advantage of him. When Brutus was weighing whether he should kill Caesar or not, Cassius’ false letters came, and I believe those letters helped Brutus to make decision. Brutus was born as a noble man, but he should have never involved in politics!

If It Be Love Indeed, Tell Me How Much: Antony and Cleopatra - Act I

Scene I – Alexandria. Cleopatra’s Palace

Demetrius and Philo—two of Mark Antony’s friends—opened this play by remarking how Mark Antony has completely changed from a great general of Rome to be the love slave of Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. Mark Antony, who was poised by his love to Cleopatra, even dared to reject a messenger from Rome—whom Cleopatra took as a beckoning from either Fulvia (Antony’s wife) or Octavius the Caesar. All the same, Antony rejected to hear the message, which astonished Demetrius and Philo who thought that as a sign of Antony’s disrespect towards Caesar.

Notes:

* Well, after listening to Mark Antony’s great speech at Julius Caesar’s funeral, now I must admit that Antony has never lost his skill when he was falling in love. Look at his smart replies when Cleopatra asked him to measure his love.

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.”

He’s still that clever man with the skill of pouring the right words in the right situation, eh?

* I think it’s Mark Antony who was crazy in love with Cleopatra, while Cleopatra was just using Antony.

“Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?

I’ll seem the fool I am not. Antony

Will be himself.”

Scene II – Alexandria. Cleopatra’s Palace

This was a funny dialog between Cleopatra’s servants, who were listening to prophecies from a soothsayer. The soothsayer prophesied that a husband would be cheated by his wife, but when Charmian asked the soothsayer to tell about her fortune, came these witty dialog:

Soothsayer: “You shall be yet far fairer than you are.”

Charmian:    (to the others) “He means in flesh.”

Iras:             “No, you shall paint when you are old.”

Charmian:    “Wrinkles forbid!”

Antony finally listened to the messengers (three of them) anyway, who sent bad messages about a Labienus had conquered Asia, and the worst one was the news of Fulvia’s death. Antony realized that he had wasting his time in his lust towards Cleopatra while everything has gone worse. He then decided to leave for Rome. Moreover, Pompey’s son Sextus Pompeius had received more attention from citizens, and Antony knew that they must handle it before Sextus gain more power.

Notes:

* Funnier pieces in this scene:

“Good now, some excellent fortune!

Let me be married to three kings in a forenoon and widow them all.

Let me have a child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage.”

A witty-smart piece from the Bard! :) But was ‘Herod of Jewry’ here represented the event of King Herod ordering slaughter of infants in Betlehem to kill the prophesied child who would become the King of Israel? But then, Jesus Christ was born on Tiberius’ reign who was Octavius’ successor; and thus Charmian would not have known about it at that time, right? Oh, whatever it was, that was still funny :)

* Another witty piece of dialog was the one between Enobarbus and Antony. Enobarbus suggested that Antony should be thankful to the god that Fulvia was dead so that he could replace her with Cleopatra. The way Enobarbus using metaphor of cloth was really funny, not to mention what he said about shedding tears!

“Your old smock brings forth a new petticoat;

and indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow.”

Well, that was very funny! :))

Scene III – Alexandria. Cleopatra’s Palace

Cleopatra, who was afraid that Antony would leave him, used old trick of ‘just-go-if-you-don’t-love-me-anymore’ as suggested by Charmian to make Antony stay. Antony determined to leave Egypt, and Cleopatra determined to make Antony stay. At the end, Antony had a better idea, why wouldn’t both of them—for their loves were inseparable—go together to Rome?

Notes:

* This is an interesting ‘battle’ between Antony and Cleopatra, and the winner was… Cleopatra! :) Thanks to Charmian’s advice, Cleopatra played her part very well; she let Antony thought that she did not want to dissuade his leaving, but she was tortured by the thought that Antony would soon forget her. Antony grew impatient at first, but he soon melted on Cleopatra’s ‘heroic sacrifice’, that he ended this act beautifully:

“Our separation so abides and flies

That thou, residing here, goes yet with me,

And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee.”

The stage performance of Scene I and II, Timothy Dalton played as Mark Antony

Scene IV – Rome. Caesar’s House

Octavius was furious at Antony’s lustful business at Egypt and his indifference of his tasks in Rome, while Lepidus was more mildly forgave Antony. In the meantime people started to gather around Sextus Pompeius.

Octavius described people’s behavior so well:

“That he which is was wished until he were,

And the ebb’d man, ne’er lov’d till ne’er worth love,

Comes dear’d by being lack’d. This common body,

Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide

To rot itself with motion.”

But then, it represented all politicians and senators in Rome, right? Won’t you act the same had you weren’t the present Caesar, Octavius?

Two famous pirates, Menecrates and Menas, who were approaching Rome just added the Triumvirs’ headaches; they were preparing for a war.

Scene V – Alexandria. Cleopatra’s Palace

I just knew from this play that Cleopatra was also Pompey’s son's lover! (besides Julius Caesar and Mark Antony). Was that really historical?

When Cleopatra said:

“By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth

If thou with Caesar paragon again

My man of men.”

I just wonder whom she regarded as “my man of men”. Of course, it supposed to be Antony, for this play was about him and Cleopatra, but I’m just curious, which one of her two lovers whom she really loved the most. Or both of them were merely her political tools?

Weekend Quote 11: Julius Caesar

From Julius Caesar I learned that Brutus was a loveable and loyal friend. However, it was a bit of ironic that he was sad when his relationship with Cassius grown cold, after what he had done to his other intimate friend: Julius Caesar. Anyway, what Brutus said about friendship is deserves our reflection, because it is so true….

When love begins to sicken and decay, It useth an enforced ceremony. There are no tricks in plain and simple faith. But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, Make gallant show and promise of their mettle.

Be careful if one of your friends suddenly changes his/her behavior! :)

This Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

• Give the context of the quote
• Give your opinion whether you agree or disagree with it
• Share your experience related to the quote
• Share similar quotes you remember
• Or anything else. Just have fun with the quote.

Back To The Classics Challenge 2012 – Wrap Up

This is my wrap up for Back To The Classics Challenge 2012 hosted by Sarah.

Any 19th Century Classic -- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Any 20th Century Classic -- Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Reread a classic of your choice -- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

A Classic Play -- A Midsummer Night's Dream -- by William Shakespeare

Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction -- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Classic Romance -- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Read a Classic that has been translated from its original language to your language -- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (translated to Bahasa Indonesia)

Classic Award Winner -- Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Pulitzer)

Read a Classic set in a Country that you (realistically speaking) will not visit during your lifetime -- Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

I wrote this post as soon as I have finished all the readings (this is the first challenge I have completed this year), there are many others I still have to complete.. :(

And I’d like to thank Sarah for this challenge, it’s been fun, although I haven’t got the chance to hop to each of other participants posts.

Pearl in The Scarlet Letter: Character Thursday (37)

Little Pearl is one of the most interesting characters I have featured here in Character Thursday. First, she was just a little girl—around seven years old—however she played a major role in The Scarlet Letter. She was Hester Pryne’s daughter, a child that born from adultery.

Just after I finished the book, I realized that Pearl’s most important role is as a mere symbol. Pearl was a product of her parent’s passionate sins, and Hawthorne often used her to criticize or even to point out the moral essence of this story. Throughout the story, Pearl’s character was often preternatural. She was sometimes described as a nymph or elf, and other mystical creatures. Maybe Hawthorne did use her as a symbol, instead of creating a true character, but I prefer to see her as a child.

To me, Pearl’s life from the beginning was not an ordinary one, especially at that era. She grew up without a father, and from her childhood, she was constantly encircled with hatred and loneliness. She lived with her mother in a secluded cottage, and whenever they were strolling on the street, people avoided them. I imagine Pearl often heard how people talked to Hester in condescending tones, without any respect. Pearl might have caught their scrutinizing eyes upon her mother, or—perhaps—even their slightly disgusting looks on her and her mother.

Moreover, Little Pearl did not have any friends to play with. She used to play by herself or with her imagining friends. Children of her age (got examples from their parents) used to throw pebbles to Pearl and her mother while they were passing by neighbors’ houses. In short, those treatments affected Little Pearl much more than Hester. I believe those conditions built the evil or wicked temperament in Pearl. While you were surrounded by negative atmosphere, the same sense will root in your soul too.

However, beyond that, I think Hester’s love had an effect too to Little Pearl. With their solitude life, they had been depending to one another, and they pour their loves to one another, because they had no one else. This soften Pearl’s hear, that sometimes when she was in good mood, she could appear as a little loveable angel. And look what she did when some children were throwing pebbles to Hester, she defended her mother by chasing those bigger kids out of their way. Ha!

And when they left New England, stayed away from negative influences of Puritan’s unfair system, Pearl could finally live a happy normal life. Good for Pearl!