- A. P. Rierner
"Here you shall make acquaintance with Cleopatra,
that Being of Flame whose
shaped the destinies of whole Empires."
are we likely to do any better?"
- Harold Bloom
"Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra must needs be
intolerable to the true Puritan."
- G.B. Shaw
Whilst studying some astonishing works of literature and art for my dissertation in 2012/13, which explored the question of whether the image of the femme fatale in mid to late 19th century literature and art was empowering or repressive to women, there was one historical and fictional character that began to emerge with increasing regularity in my research, and this person/persona soon began to take on mythological status in my ever enquiring mind: Cleopatra. And then, to my eternal delight, about seven or eight years ago, I was able to undertake a mesmeric in-depth study of Shakespeare's magisterial play, Antony & Cleopatra, and truly inspired, got the idea to do a series of pictures that I could use for my Artist of the Month series that I'd been invited to do at our wonderful, local vegan cafe. My exhibition piece was a great success, and, due to the huge enthusiasm with which it was received, I thought it would be more than appropriate to write an accompanying blog post to describe the relevance of the pictures that I took, and discuss the extraordinary amount of criticism that has been penned, not only about Shakespeare's magnificent play, which will never diminish in power, but also the magnificent character/persona of Cleopatra herself. Dear reader, if you are unaware of this play, I can confidently assure you it is a mesmerising, glamorous, romantic, and utterly devastating piece of literature.
Shakespeare's version of Antony and Cleopatra (their story has been written by many other writers, too), tells, in principle, the story of the fiery, passionate relationship between Antony and Cleopatra, approximately dated as being around 30 BCE, with the backdrop being the unstable, tumultuous relationship between Egypt and Rome. Over different periods of history, Shakespeare's Cleopatra has been viewed in many different ways. In former times, she has been described as a gypsy, a strumpet, a slave, a royal wench, a boggler, and, my absolute favourite, "a lass unparalleled," which makes her sound like a Disco Queen from Dewsbury, swigging pints of Boddingtons bitter whilst driving all the boys (and ladies!) wild with her flashing, kohl-lined eyes, low-cut sparkling mini-dresses, and flirty dancing. But, over time, and especially in more recent years, Cleopatra has become something of a feminist icon. Instead of seeing her through some of those insecure, sometimes misogynistic spectacles I have just described, she is now often viewed through a different lens. Actors and artists now portray Cleopatra as a thoroughly modern woman, one who is sharp of mind and wit, resilient rather than soft, and one who is in possession of immense intelligence, and who is a skilled diplomatic communicator, rather than the one previously viewed as being little more than a creature dominated by uncontrollable and overwhelming passions. The more modern view also sees her as an exploration of sensuality as power, and I'm pretty sure James Brown would count her among those who he celebrates in his song 'Hot Pants', I.e., one of those fabulous ladies who are courageous and sassy enough, especially in a patriarchal society where the odds are already stacked against them, and who, just like our enchanting queen, "use what she got to get what she wants." Amen to that! This more favourable, contemporary view of Cleopatra also places her as a key player in challenging the notion of strict gender roles and of playing with identity. And, I would suggest, Shakespeare actually did even more than this. For in his play, what he is really demanding of the reader/viewer is that they take sides in what is primarily a struggle between two very different approaches to life.
On the one hand there is the way of Imperial Rome. This is a male world, governed by strict rules, centred around the conquest of the natural world, waging war and invading other territories, and with an emphasis on individual discipline and duty. On the opposite side is the world of Cleopatra and Egypt: a soft, feminine space dedicated to the senses, the emotional and the playful. And unlike Rome, a space that is also closer to nature. This is a realm dedicated to euphoric pleasure, role play, and is a place (inner and outer) where life is oceanic and performative, and where performance is celebrated as eagerly as songbirds embrace with ecstasy their instinctive desire to sing.
Into this situation Shakespeare places Antony, a Roman soldier who has fallen deeply in love with Cleopatra and the lifestyle that she and Egypt offers, in opposition to the stern, conquer and rule business world of Caesar and Rome. He is torn between his duties as a Roman general and his wish to live his life with Cleopatra, and the glorious pleasures that Egypt has to offer. And it's not only Antony who is faced with this, for the play seems to demand an answer in the mind of the reader/viewer as well. For as the play unfolds, Shakespeare suggests that there can be no middle ground here, as the two value systems are simply too incompatible with each other to melt into one. You, as reader or viewer, must choose which one you side with. And Antony, despite his fierce inner struggles, already knows, beyond question, that his heart belongs completely to Cleopatra and Egypt:
I am actually of the opinion that Shakespeare, for all his gallant attempts at neutrality, without doubt sides with Cleopatra and Egypt. It is a thoroughly modern play, and many of the descriptions about Cleopatra are spoken by Roman soldiers and generals, who are quite obviously wracked with bitter resentment (Nietzsche's ressentiment in full flow), and soul crushing jealousy of Cleopatra, Antony, and Egypt, and spend much of their down time bitching for all their worth like Twitter/X or Facebook trolls on heat. In this famous description of the voluptuous magnificence of Cleopatra, however, Shakespeare has Antony's best friend, Enobarbus, evoke this extraordinary Egyptian Queen, to Maecenas and a gaggle of soldiers who are quite literally begging him to describe what she is really like. It is a passage that both Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Oscar Wilde declared as being their favourite in the whole of Shakespeare's writings, and, dearest reader and companion in the search for beauty, it is truly sublime:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
It beggar'd all description: she did sit
In her pavilion...,
O'erpicturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature."
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As the play unfolds, it is clear that Cleopatra certainly knows which of Antony's buttons to press, and she teases him mercilessly, egging him on continually to greater heights, and encouraging him to surrender to the true greatness in his soul, showing how playfulness can have profound affects as he experiences life in a different way than had seemed possible:
The sultry, luxuriating atmosphere that Antony finds himself in changes him imperceptibly. He embraces androgyny, and Cleopatra continually challenges him to understand life from her and Egypt's perspective, something to which he surrenders with relish. The gossips in Rome chatter and twitter, but, in Egypt, the serious fact of the matter is that Cleopatra is proving to Antony that she is every bit as powerful in her way as he is. And, of course, Antony proves a more than willing leading man, revelling in the gender fluidity and role play that Cleopatra teases out of him:
I laughed him out of patience, and that night
I laughed him into patience, and next morn,
Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed,
Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst
I wore his sword Philippan."
I maintain that it is primarily in this area that Shakespeare's play has become a truly modern mouthpiece for our own times. For Antony and Cleopatra challenge traditional notions of masculinity and femininity to its roots. They show that these aspects of our lives are, in reality, performative, and not set in stone, and perhaps this can challenge our culture to explore and embrace what these notions actually are, and to be more open to the idea that a greater richness and variety of life, and a shedding of the ego and the personality, can be achieved by doing so:
yet Antony is more masculine in the usual sense.
Caesar and his Roman world view believers are essentially
a bland, businessman type, who,
compared to Antony, are sexually neutered."
Your Nocturnal Butterfly. xx
It was rather in a glory and radiance
"Antony and Cleopatra blur time,
in the eternal now of the imagination."
And a huge thank you to my wonderful models:
That's equally heart, and equally head.
That's equally heart, and equally head."
- Brett Anderson
