Or this tragedy many particular passages deserve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of Brutus and Cassius is universally celebrated; but I have never been strongly agitated in perusing it; and I think it somewhat cold and unaffecting, compared with some other of Shakspeare's plays: his adherence to the real story, and to Roman manners, seem to have impeded the natural vigour of his genius.--JOHNSON. Gildon has justly observed that this tragedy ought to have been called MARCUS BRUTUS, Cæsar being a very inconsiderable personage in the scene, and being killed in the third act. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. AFTER a perusal of this play, the reader will, I doubt not, be surprised when he sees what Johnson has asserted:-That its power of delighting is derived principally from the frequent changes of the scene;'-and that no character is very strongly discriminated.' If our great poet has one supereminent dramatic quality in perfection, it is that of being able to go out of himself at pleasure to inform and animate other existences.' It is true that in the number of characters many persons of historical importance are merely introduced as passing shadows in the scene; but the principal personages are most emphatically distinguished by lineament and colouring, and powerfully arrest the imagination. The character of Cleopatra is indeed a masterpiece: though Johnson pronounces that she is only distinguished by feminine arts, some of which are too low. It is true that her seductive arts are in no respect veiled over; but she is still the gorgeous Eastern Queen, remarkable for the fascination of her manner. if not for the beauty of her person; and though she is vain, ostentatious, fickle, and luxurious, there is that heroic regal dignity about her, which makes us, like Antony, forget her defects: 6 Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy Th' appetites they feed; but she makes hungry The mutual passion of herself and Antony is without moral dignity, yet it excites our sympathy-they seem formed for each other. Cleopatra is no less remarkable for her seductive charms, than Antony for the splendour of his martial achievements. Her death too redeems one part of her character, and obliterates all faults. Warburton has observed that Antony was Shakspeare's hero; and the defects of his character, a lavish and luxurious spirit, seem almost virtues when opposed to the heartless and narrow-minded littleness of Octavius Cæsar. But the ancient historians, his flatterers, had delivered the latter down ready cut and dried for a hero; and Shakspeare has extricated himself with great address from the dilemma. He has admitted all those great strokes of his character as he found them, and yet has made him a very unamiable character, deceitful, mean-spirited, proud, and revengeful. Schlegel attributes this to the penetration of Shakspeare, who was not to be led astray by the false glitter of historic fame, but saw through the disguise thrown around him by his successful fortunes, and distinguished in Augustus a man of little mind. Malone places the composition of this play in 1608. No previous edition to that of the folio of 1623 has been hitherto discovered; but there is an entry of A Booke called Antony and Cleopatra,' to Edward Blount, in 1608, on the Stationers' Books. Shakspeare followed Plutarch, and appears to have been anxious to introduce every incident and every personage he met with in his historian. Plutarch mentions Lamprias his grandfather, as authority for some of the stories he relates of the profuseness and luxury of Antony's entertainments at Alexandria. In the stagedirection of Scene 2, Act i. in the old copy, Lamprias, Ramnus, and Lucilius are made to enter with the rest; but they have no part in the dialogue, nor do their names appear in the list of Dramatis Personæ. |