Caesar and Cleopatra- G.B.

Shaw
Caesar and Cleopatra (1901) is designed as a contrast to William Shakespeares tragedy. Whereas Shakespeares Caesar was an ambitious, cruel would-be dictator, Shaws is a sage, humane elder statesman, a Victorian empire builder of extraordinary wisdom and efficiency. Shaw omits any mention of Caesars liaison with Cleopatra. While Shakespeares Cleopatra is an intensely voluptuous woman with unrestrained passions, Shaws is a spoiled, kittenish child queen whose petty tantrums require Caesar to father and educate her.

The plot Act I. Caesar was alone at night in the Egyptian desert, apostrophizing a statue of the Sphinx. Caesar was startled when a young girl, Cleopatra, addressed him from the paws of the Sphinx. He climbed up to her, thinking he was dreaming. She was full of superstitions about cats and Nile water. She told Caesar she was there because the Romans were coming to eat her people. Caesar saw that he was not dreaming and identified himself to Cleopatra as a Roman. She was terror-stricken, but Caesar told her that he would eat her unless she could show herself to him as a woman, not a girl. Cleopatra put herself in the hands of this Roman and they moved to her throne room. Caesar tried to persuade Cleopatra to act like a queen; Ftatateeta entered and began to order Cleopatra about until the nurse was chased from the room. Caesar ordered Cleopatras servants to dress her in her royal robes. When Roman soldiers entered and saluted Caesar, Cleopatra finally realized who he was and, with a sob of relief, fell into his arms. Act II. The ten-year-old king Ptolemy was delivering a speech from the throne in Alexandria, prompted by his tutor and guardian. Caesar entered and demanded taxes, then called for Cleopatra. Rufio reminded Caesar that there was a Roman army of occupation in Egypt, commanded by Achillas and supporting the Egyptians, while Caesar had only four thousand men. Achillas and Pothinus suggested that they held the upper hand, but when Roman troops entered, the Egyptians backed off. Lucius Septimius and Pothinus reminded Caesar that they had decapitated Pompey in order to ingratiate themselves with Caesar, who was horrified to hear of the act. All the Egyptians but Ptolemy left, and Rufio again protested against Caesars clemency. Ptolemy was escorted out. Cleopatra and Caesar discussed how much Cleopatra had grown up, and Caesar promised to send strong young Mark Antony to Cleopatra. A wounded Roman soldier entered to inform Caesar that the Roman army of occupation had come; Caesar ordered that all the ships be burned except those that were to carry the Romans to the lighthouse on an island in the harbor. As Caesar started to arm himself, Pothinus entered, followed by Theodotus with the news that the great library in Alexandria was burning. After Pothinus and Theodotus left, Cleopatra helped Caesar put on his armor and made fun of his baldness. Caesar and Rufio left to lead the troops to the Pharos. Act III. On a quay in front of Cleopatras palace, Apollodorus, who had brought carpets for Cleopatra to look at, argued with the Roman sentinel. Cleopatra wanted to be rowed to the lighthouse, but the sentinel refused to allow it. Cleopatra thereupon said she would make a present of a carpet to Caesar, and secretly she had herself rolled up in one and put in a boat that was sailing for the lighthouse that the Egyptians had begun to attack. When Apollodorus entered with the carpet, which was unrolled and revealed Cleopatra, Caesar regarded the young woman as a nuisance. The Egyptians had cut off the Romans and were approaching. Several Roman ships approached, whereupon Apollodorus, Caesar, and Rufio dove into the sea to swim to them. Cleopatra was tossed into the sea as well and carried along. Act IV. Six months later, Cleopatra and her serving women were discussing Caesar when Ftatateeta brought in Pothinus, who was now a prisoner of the Romans and wanted to make a deal with Cleopatra. After Rufio and Caesar entered, Rufio brought Pothinus to talk to Caesar privately. Pothinus finally blurted out that Cleopatra wanted Caesar out of the way so that she could rule alone. Cleopatra denied this, but Caesar knew it was true. When Pothinus left, Cleopatra ordered Ftatateeta to kill him. Caesar, Rufio, and Apollodorus had just returned for a banquet when a terrible scream was heard. Apollodorus, sent to investigate, reported that Pothinus had been assassinated and that the city, in an uproar, was blaming Caesar. Cleopatra admitted that she had given the order, but Caesar could not make her understand that this was not his way of governing. Lucius Septimius approached Caesar and told him that the relief army under Mithridates was near. Realizing that the Egyptian army had left to fight Mithridates, Caesar left, intending to meet Mithridates and fight the Egyptian army. When Rufio learned that Ftatateeta had killed Pothinus, he killed her. Act V. Having won the battle, Caesar prepared to return to Rome. He appointed Rufio to be the Roman governor of Egypt, praised Britannus for his conduct in the battle, and left Apollodorus in charge of Egyptian art. Cleopatra, in

mourning for Ftatateeta, pleaded for revenge against Rufio, who had admitted to killing Ftatateeta; since it had been a justified slaying, Caesar denied Cleopatras plea. He said that Cleopatra had learned little from him but again promised to send her Mark Antony. Caesar boarded the ship to a salute from the Roman soldiers. Cleopatra remained behind, saddened but content.

Critical Evaluation:
Ever since the publication in 1579 of Sir Thomas Norths translation of Plutarchs Parallel Lives, Cleopatra has been one of the great romantic figures of English literature. To be sure, Dante had briefly glimpsed her, tossed on the blast, in Hells Circle of the Lustful in his Inferno (c. 1320), but he had hurried on to give the famous story of Paolo and Francesca. It remained for William Shakespeare, in Antony and Cleopatra (1606-1607), to make her immortal as the serpent of old Nile, the epitome of the eternal and irresistible female. Even the neoclassic John Dryden, in 1678, still found her the archetype of an all-consuming passion, for whose sake Antony held the world well lost. As for Caesar, his imprint has been upon the European mind since 44 b.c.e. To Dantewho saw him in Limbo as Caesar armed, with the falcon eyeshe was the founder of the Roman empire, and his murder was so terrible an example of treachery to lords and benefactors that Cassius and Brutus, his asssassins, were placed with Judas in the jaws of Satan in the lowest pit of Hell. To Shakespeare, he was a man who in spite of arrogance and a thinly disguised ambition for absolute power actually bestrode the narrow world like a Colossus. These are the figures of world history and world legend whom George Bernard Shaw chose to bring together in a comedy. So strongly has Shakespeare stamped his interpretation of Cleopatra on Western literary consciousness that Shaws heroine inflicts a distinct shock when audiences meet a girl of sixteen, crouched, on a moonlit October night, between the paws of the Sphinx in the desert where she has fled to escape the invading Romans. She is the typical schoolgirl: high-strung, giggly, impulsive, terrified of her nurse, ready to believe that Romans have trunks, tusks, tails, and seven arms, each carrying a hundred arrows. She has the instinctive cruelty of a child; after encountering Caesarwhom she does not recognize and who forces her nurse to cringe at her feetshe is eager to beat the nurse and can talk gleefully of poisoning slaves and cutting off her brothers head. Shaw has set his plot at the moment in history when Egypt is divided. Ptolemy Dionysus has driven Cleopatra from Alexandria, and while the two foesPtolemy represented by Pothinus and Cleopatra by Ftatateetaare at swords points, Egypt is ready to fall into the conquerors hand. It is the familiar situation of an immensely old and decadent civilization at the mercy of a rising world power, represented by Caesar. Audiences with memories of Caesars commentaries on the Gallic War and Mark Antonys funeral oration receive another shock when Caesar appears. The conqueror of the world is presented as a middle-aged man, painfully conscious of his years, somewhat prosaic, very far indeed from Caesar armed, with the falcon eyes. He is past fifty, and the fateful Ides of March is less than four years away. As most men of his age in any period of history would be, he is somewhat amused and yet wholly fascinated by the lovely child he has met under such strange circumstances. Since he is quite aware of his weakness for women, the audience begins to anticipate a romantic turn to the plot. Shaw was not, however, a romantic dramatist. When Caesar returns Cleopatra to her palace, reveals his identity, and forces her to abandon her childishness and to assume her position as queen, he is revealed as a man who is eminently practical, imperturbable in moments of danger, and endowed with the slightly cynical detachment of a superior mind surrounded by inferiors. The outline that Shaw used for his somewhat rambling plot is to be found in Plutarchs Life of Caesar and in Caesars Civil War. Shaw followed his sources quite faithfully, except in inventing a meeting between Caesar and Cleopatra in the desert and calling for Pothinus to be killed by Ftatateeta at Cleopatras instigation after Caesar had promised him safe conduct from the palace. There is also a possible debt to the almost forgotten drama, The False One, written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger around 1620, which deals with the same story. Certainly Shaws blunt-spoken Rufio appears to be a reworking of that plays Sceva. Shaw also added two characters of his own to the story: the savage Ftatateeta, who is eventually killed by Rufio; and Britannus, Caesars secretary. The latter is Shaws picture of the eternal Englishmanconventional, easily shocked, unable to understand any customs but those of his own island. It is in characterization, rather than in plot, that the play excels, and it also excels through the element of surprise, created by the device of presenting familiar literary figures

from new angles, for it is obvious that Shaw intended to rub some of the romantic gilding from them. Cleopatra, although under Caesars influence she becomes a precocious adult, loses her girlish charm without becoming a particularly attractive woman. She never really loves Caesar, nor he her, for Shaw rearranged history in this aspect of their relationship, and her one thought is of the arrival of Antony, whom she has met before and never forgotten. She has a presentiment of her coming tragedy, yet, eternally childish, is poised to run to meet it. The critic James Huneker maintained that this drama entitled [Shaw] to a free pass to that pantheon wherein our beloved Mark Twain sits enthroned. Yet this play is no Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court (1889), which was based on a conviction of the vast progress achieved since the Middle Ages. It was Shaws conviction that there had been no perceptible progress since Caesars day. Caesar himself knew that history would continue to unroll an endless series of murders and wars, always disguised under high-sounding and noble names. He was a great man, not because he was ahead of his age but because he stood outside it and could rule with mercy and without revenge. Such a leader would be great in any period of history. Characters
Julius Caesar, the dictator of Rome and conqueror of the world. A middle-aged, rather prosaic man, he meets the childish Cleopatra on a moonlit night in the desert. Although fascinated and rather amused by the beautiful child, he is too practical and detached to be enthralled by her charms. He forces her out of her childishness and teaches her statecraft that makes her truly the queen of Egypt.

Cleopatra, the sixteen-year-old queen of Egypt. An excitable schoolgirl, she is at war with her husband- brother, Ptolemy Dionysus, for the crown. She believes herself to be in love with the elderly Caesar, who forces her to assume her dignity as queen, but she really loves only herself. At the end of the play, she is looking forward to the arrival of the young and handsome Antony. Ptolemy Dionysus, Cleopatras brother, husband, and rival for her crown, killed in battle against Caesar. Ftatateeta, Cleopatras bullying and savage nurse, against whom the queen finally revolts, at Caesars instigation. She is killed by Rufio. Britannus, Caesars secretary. The eternal Englishman, conventional and easily shocked, he is doggedly faithful to Caesar. Rufio, a Roman officer and the slayer of Ftatateeta. Pothinus, Ptolemy Dionysus guardian. He plots against Caesar and, at Cleopatras instigation, is killed by Ftatateeta. Apollodorus, a Sicilian. Themes Shaw wanted to prove that it wasn't love but politics that drew Cleopatra to Julius Caesar. He saw the Roman occupation of ancient Egypt as similar to the British occupation that was occurring during his time.[1] Caesar understands the importance of good government, and values these things above art and love.[2] Shaw's philosophy has often been compared to that of Nietzsche. Their shared admiration for men of action shows itself in Shaw's description of Caesar's struggle with Pompey. In the prologue the god Ra says, "the blood and iron ye pin your faith on fell before the spirit of man; for the spirit of man is the will of the gods." A second theme, apparent both from the text of the play itself and from Shaw's lengthy notes after the play, is Shaw's belief that people have not been morally improved by civilization and technology. A line from the prologue clearly illustrates this point. The god Ra addresses the audience and says, "ye shall marvel, after your ignorant manner, that men twenty centuries ago were already just such as you, and spoke and lived as ye speak and live, no worse and no better, no wiser and no sillier."

Another theme is the value of clemency. Caesar remarks that he will not stoop to vengeance when confronted with Septimus, the murderer of Pompey. He throws away letters that would have identified his enemies in Rome, instead choosing to try to win them to his side. Pothinus remarks that Caesar doesn't torture his captives. At several points in the play, Caesar lets his enemies go instead of killing them. The wisdom of this approach is revealed when Cleopatra orders her nurse to kill Pothinus because of his "treachery and disloyalty" (but really because of his insults to her). This probably contrasts with historical fact.[3] The murder enrages the Egyptian crowd, and but for Mithridates' reinforcements would have meant the death of all the protagonists. Caesar only endorses the retaliatory murder of Cleopatra's nurse because it was necessary and humane.