ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
NOTES TO CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA
ACT I
_An October night on the Syrian border of Egypt towards the end of the
XXXIII Dynasty, in the year 706 by Roman computation, afterwards
reckoned by Christian computation as 48 B.C. A great radiance of
silver fire, the dawn of a moonlit night, is rising in the east. The
stars and the cloudless sky are our own contemporaries, nineteen and a
half centuries younger than we know them; but you would not guess that
from their appearance. Below them are two notable drawbacks of
civilization: a palace, and soldiers. The palace, an old, low, Syrian
building of whitened mud, is not so ugly as Buckingham Palace; and the
officers in the courtyard are more highly civilized than modern
English officers: for example, they do not dig up the corpses of their
dead enemies and mutilate them, as we dug up Cromwell and the Mahdi.
They are in two groups: one intent on the gambling of their captain
Belzanor, a warrior of fifty, who, with his spear on the ground beside
his knee, is stooping to throw dice with a sly-looking young Persian
recruit; the other gathered about a guardsman who has just finished
telling a naughty story (still current in English barracks) at which
they are laughing uproariously. They are about a dozen in number, all
highly aristocratic young Egyptian guardsmen, handsomely equipped with
weapons and armor, very unEnglish in point of not being ashamed of and
uncomfortable in their professional dress; on the contrary, rather
ostentatiously and arrogantly warlike, as valuing themselves on their
military caste._
_Belzanor is a typical veteran, tough and wilful; prompt, capable and
crafty where brute force will serve; helpless and boyish when it will
not: an effective sergeant, an incompetent general, a deplorable
dictator. Would, if influentially connected, be employed in the two
last capacities by a modern European State on the strength of his
success in the first. Is rather to be pitied just now in view of the
fact that Julius Caesar is invading his country. Not knowing this, is
intent on his game with the Persian, whom, as a foreigner, he
considers quite capable of cheating him._
_His subalterns are mostly handsome young fellows whose interest in
the game and the story symbolizes with tolerable completeness the main
interests in life of which they are conscious. Their spears are
leaning against the walls, or lying on the ground ready to their
hands. The corner of the courtyard forms a triangle of which one side
is the front of the palace, with a doorway, the other a wall with a
gateway. The storytellers are on the palace side: the gamblers, on the
gateway side. Close to the gateway, against the wall, is a stone block
high enough to enable a Nubian sentinel, standing on it, to look over
the wall. The yard is lighted by a torch stuck in the wall. As the
laughter from the group round the storyteller dies away, the kneeling
Persian, winning the throw, snatches up the stake from the ground._
BELZANOR. By Apis, Persian, thy gods are good to thee.
THE PERSIAN. Try yet again, O captain. Double or quits!
BELZANOR. No more. I am not in the vein.
THE SENTINEL (_poising his javelin as he peers over the wall_). Stand.
Who goes there?
_They all start, listening. A strange voice replies from without._
VOICE. The bearer of evil tidings.
BELZANOR (_calling to the sentry_). Pass him.
THE SENTINEL (_grounding his javelin_). Draw near, O bearer of evil
tidings.
BELZANOR (_pocketing the dice and picking up his spear_). Let us
receive this man with honor. He bears evil tidings.
_The guardsmen seize their spears and gather about the gate, leaving a
way through for the new comer._
PERSIAN (_rising from his knee_). Are evil tidings, then, honorable?
BELZANOR. O barbarous Persian, hear my instruction. In Egypt the
bearer of good tidings is sacrificed to the gods as a thank offering;
but no god will accept the blood of the messenger of evil. When we
have good tidings, we are careful to send them in the mouth of the
cheapest slave we can find. Evil tidings are borne by young noblemen
who desire to bring themselves into notice. (_They join the rest at
the gate._)
THE SENTINEL. Pass, O young captain; and bow the head in the House of
the Queen.
VOICE. Go anoint thy javelin with fat of swine, O Blackamoor; for
before morning the Romans will make thee eat it to the very butt.
_The owner of the voice, a fairhaired dandy, dressed in a different
fashion to that affected by the guardsmen, but no less extravagantly,
comes through the gateway laughing. He is somewhat battlestained; and
his left forearm, bandaged, comes through a torn sleeve. In his right
hand he carries a Roman sword in its sheath. He swaggers down the
courtyard, the Persian on his right, Belzanor on his left, and the
guardsmen crowding down behind him._
BELZANOR. Who art thou that laughest in the House of Cleopatra the
Queen, and in the teeth of Belzanor, the captain of her guard?
THE NEW COMER. I am Bel Affris, descended from the gods.
BELZANOR (_ceremoniously_). Hail, cousin!
ALL (_except the Persian_). Hail, cousin!
PERSIAN. All the Queen's guards are descended from the gods, O
stranger, save myself. I am Persian, and descended from many kings.
BEL AFFRIS (_to the guardsmen_). Hail, cousins! (_To the Persian,
condescendingly_) Hail, mortal!
BELZANOR. You have been in battle, Bel Affris; and you are a soldier
among soldiers. You will not let the Queen's women have the first of
your tidings.
BEL AFFRIS. I have no tidings, except that we shall have our throats
cut presently, women, soldiers, and all.
PERSIAN (_to Belzanor_). I told you so.
THE SENTINEL (_who has been listening_). Woe, alas!
BEL AFFRIS (_calling to him_). Peace, peace, poor Ethiop: destiny is
with the gods who painted thee black. (_To Belzanor_) What has this
mortal (_indicating the Persian_) told you?
BELZANOR. He says that the Roman Julius Caesar, who has landed on our
shores with a handful of followers, will make himself master of Egypt.
He is afraid of the Roman soldiers. (_The guardsmen laugh with
boisterous scorn._) Peasants, brought up to scare crows and follow the
plough. Sons of smiths and millers and tanners! And we nobles,
consecrated to arms, descended from the gods!
PERSIAN. Belzanor: the gods are not always good to their poor
relations.
BELZANOR (_hotly, to the Persian_). Man to man, are we worse than the
slaves of Caesar?
BEL AFFRIS (_stepping between them_). Listen, cousin. Man to man, we
Egyptians are as gods above the Romans.
THE GUARDSMEN (_exultingly_). Aha!
BEL AFFRIS. But this Caesar does not pit man against man: he throws a
legion at you where you are weakest as he throws a stone from a
catapult; and that legion is as a man with one head, a thousand arms,
and no religion. I have fought against them; and I know.
BELZANOR (_derisively_). Were you frightened, cousin?
_The guardsmen roar with laughter, their eyes sparkling at the wit of
their captain._
BEL AFFRIS. No, cousin; but I was beaten. They were frightened
(perhaps); but they scattered us like chaff.
_The guardsmen, much damped, utter a growl of contemptuous disgust._
BELZANOR. Could you not die?
BEL AFFRIS. No: that was too easy to be worthy of a descendant of the
gods. Besides, there was no time: all was over in a moment. The attack
came just where we least expected it.
BELZANOR. That shews that the Romans are cowards.
BEL AFFRIS. They care nothing about cowardice, these Romans: they
fight to win. The pride and honor of war are nothing to them.
PERSIAN. Tell us the tale of the battle. What befell?
THE GUARDSMEN (_gathering eagerly round Bel Affris_). Ay: the tale of
the battle.
BEL AFFRIS. Know then, that I am a novice in the guard of the temple
of Ra in Memphis, serving neither Cleopatra nor her brother Ptolemy,
but only the high gods. We went a journey to inquire of Ptolemy why he
had driven Cleopatra into Syria, and how we of Egypt should deal with
the Roman Pompey, newly come to our shores after his defeat by Caesar
at Pharsalia. What, think ye, did we learn? Even that Caesar is coming
also in hot pursuit of his foe, and that Ptolemy has slain Pompey,
whose severed head he holds in readiness to present to the conqueror.
(_Sensation among the guardsmen._) Nay, more: we found that Caesar is
already come; for we had not made half a day's journey on our way back
when we came upon a city rabble flying from his legions, whose landing
they had gone out to withstand.
BELZANOR. And ye, the temple guard! Did you not withstand these
legions?
BEL AFFRIS. What man could, that we did. But there came the sound of a
trumpet whose voice was as the cursing of a black mountain. Then saw
we a moving wall of shields coming towards us. You know how the heart
burns when you charge a fortified wall; but how if the fortified wall
were to charge _you_?
THE PERSIAN (_exulting in having told them so_). Did I not say it?
BEL AFFRIS. When the wall came nigh, it changed into a line of
men--common fellows enough, with helmets, leather tunics, and
breastplates. Every man of them flung his javelin: the one that came
my way drove through my shield as through a papyrus--lo there! (_he
points to the bandage on his left arm_) and would have gone through my
neck had I not stooped. They were charging at the double then, and
were upon us with short swords almost as soon as their javelins. When
a man is close to you with such a sword, you can do nothing with our
weapons: they are all too long.
THE PERSIAN. What did you do?
BEL AFFRIS. Doubled my fist and smote my Roman on the sharpness of his
jaw. He was but mortal after all: he lay down in a stupor; and I took
his sword and laid it on. (_Drawing the sword_) Lo! a Roman sword with
Roman blood on it!
THE GUARDSMEN (_approvingly_). Good! (_They take the sword and hand it
round, examining it curiously._)
THE PERSIAN. And your men?
BEL AFFRIS. Fled. Scattered like sheep.
BELZANOR (_furiously_). The cowardly slaves! Leaving the descendants
of the gods to be butchered!
BEL AFFRIS (_with acid coolness_). The descendants of the gods did not
stay to be butchered, cousin. The battle was not to the strong; but
the race was to the swift. The Romans, who have no chariots, sent a
cloud of horsemen in pursuit, and slew multitudes. Then our high
priest's captain rallied a dozen descendants of the gods and exhorted
us to die fighting. I said to myself: surely it is safer to stand than
to lose my breath and be stabbed in the back; so I joined our captain
and stood. Then the Romans treated us with respect; for no man attacks
a lion when the field is full of sheep, except for the pride and honor
of war, of which these Romans know nothing. So we escaped with our
lives; and I am come to warn you that you must open your gates to
Caesar; for his advance guard is scarce an hour behind me; and not an
Egyptian warrior is left standing between you and his legions.
THE SENTINEL. Woe, alas! (_He throws down his javelin and flies into
the palace._)
BELZANOR. Nail him to the door, quick! (_The guardsmen rush for him
with their spears; but he is too quick for them._) Now this news will
run through the palace like fire through stubble.
BEL AFFRIS. What shall we do to save the women from the Romans?
BELZANOR. Why not kill them?
PERSIAN. Because we should have to pay blood money for some of them.
Better let the Romans kill them: it is cheaper.
BELZANOR (_awestruck at his brain power_). O subtle one! O serpent!
BEL AFFRIS. But your Queen?
BELZANOR. True: we must carry off Cleopatra.
BEL AFFRIS. Will ye not await her command?
BELZANOR. Command! a girl of sixteen! Not we. At Memphis ye deem her a
Queen: here we know better. I will take her on the crupper of my
horse. When we soldiers have carried her out of Caesar's reach, then
the priests and the nurses and the rest of them can pretend she is a
queen again, and put their commands into her mouth.
PERSIAN. Listen to me, Belzanor.
BELZANOR. Speak, O subtle beyond thy years.
THE PERSIAN. Cleopatra's brother Ptolemy is at war with her. Let us
sell her to him.
THE GUARDSMEN. O subtle one! O serpent!
BELZANOR. We dare not. We are descended from the gods; but Cleopatra
is descended from the river Nile; and the lands of our fathers will
grow no grain if the Nile rises not to water them. Without our
father's gifts we should live the lives of dogs.
PERSIAN. It is true: the Queen's guard cannot live on its pay. But
hear me further, O ye kinsmen of Osiris.
THE GUARDSMEN. Speak, O subtle one. Hear the serpent begotten!
PERSIAN. Have I heretofore spoken truly to you of Caesar, when you
thought I mocked you?
GUARDSMEN. Truly, truly.
BELZANOR (_reluctantly admitting it_). So Bel Affris says.
PERSIAN. Hear more of him, then. This Caesar is a great lover of
women: he makes them his friends and counselors.
BELZANOR. Faugh! This rule of women will be the ruin of Egypt.
THE PERSIAN. Let it rather be the ruin of Rome! Caesar grows old now:
he is past fifty and full of labors and battles. He is too old for the
young women; and the old women are too wise to worship him.
BEL AFFRIS. Take heed, Persian. Caesar is by this time almost within
earshot.
PERSIAN. Cleopatra is not yet a woman: neither is she wise. But she
already troubles men's wisdom.
BELZANOR. Ay: that is because she is descended from the river Nile and
a black kitten of the sacred White Cat. What then?
PERSIAN. Why, sell her secretly to Ptolemy, and then offer ourselves
to Caesar as volunteers to fight for the overthrow of her brother and
the rescue of our Queen, the Great Granddaughter of the Nile.
THE GUARDSMEN. O serpent!
PERSIAN. He will listen to us if we come with her picture in our
mouths. He will conquer and kill her brother, and reign in Egypt with
Cleopatra for his Queen. And we shall be her guard.
GUARDSMEN. O subtlest of all the serpents! O admiration! O wisdom!
BEL AFFRIS. He will also have arrived before you have done talking, O
word spinner.
BELZANOR. That is true. (_An affrighted uproar in the palace
interrupts him._) Quick: the flight has begun: guard the door. (_They
rush to the door and form a cordon before it with their spears. A mob
of women-servants and nurses surges out. Those in front recoil from
the spears, screaming to those behind to keep back. Belzanor's voice
dominates the disturbance as he shouts_) Back there. In again,
unprofitable cattle.
THE GUARDSMEN. Back, unprofitable cattle.
BELZANOR. Send us out Ftatateeta, the Queen's chief nurse.
THE WOMEN (_calling into the palace_). Ftatateeta, Ftatateeta. Come,
come. Speak to Belzanor.
A WOMAN. Oh, keep back. You are thrusting me on the spearheads.
_A huge grim woman, her face covered with a network of tiny wrinkles,
and her eyes old, large, and wise; sinewy handed, very tall, very
strong; with the mouth of a bloodhound and the jaws of a bulldog,
appears on the threshold. She is dressed like a person of consequence
in the palace, and confronts the guardsmen insolently._
FTATATEETA. Make way for the Queen's chief nurse.
BELZANOR (_with solemn arrogance_). Ftatateeta: I am Belzanor, the
captain of the Queen's guard, descended from the gods.
FTATATEETA (_retorting his arrogance with interest_). Belzanor: I am
Ftatateeta, the Queen's chief nurse; and your divine ancestors were
proud to be painted on the wall in the pyramids of the kings whom my
fathers served.
_The women laugh triumphantly._
BELZANOR (_with grim humor_). Ftatateeta: daughter of a long-tongued,
swivel-eyed chameleon, the Romans are at hand. (_A cry of terror from
the women: they would fly but for the spears._) Not even the
descendants of the gods can resist them; for they have each man seven
arms, each carrying seven spears. The blood in their veins is boiling
quicksilver; and their wives become mothers in three hours, and are
slain and eaten the next day.
_A shudder of horror from the women. Ftatateeta, despising them and
scorning the soldiers, pushes her way through the crowd and confronts
the spear points undismayed._
FTATATEETA. Then fly and save yourselves, O cowardly sons of the cheap
clay gods that are sold to fish porters; and leave us to shift for
ourselves.
BELZANOR. Not until you have first done our bidding, O terror of
manhood. Bring out Cleopatra the Queen to us and then go whither you
will.
FTATATEETA (_with a derisive laugh_). Now I know why the gods have
taken her out of our hands. (_The guardsmen start and look at one
another_). Know, thou foolish soldier, that the Queen has been missing
since an hour past sun down.
BELZANOR (_furiously_). Hag: you have hidden her to sell to Caesar or
her brother. (_He grasps her by the left wrist, and drags her, helped
by a few of the guard, to the middle of the courtyard, where, as they
fling her on her knees, he draws a murderous looking knife._) Where is
she? Where is she? or-- (_He threatens to cut her throat._)
FTATATEETA (_savagely_). Touch me, dog; and the Nile will not rise on
your fields for seven times seven years of famine.
BELZANOR (_frightened, but desperate_). I will sacrifice: I will pay.
Or stay. (_To the Persian_) You, O subtle one: your father's lands lie
far from the Nile. Slay her.
PERSIAN (_threatening her with his knife_). Persia has but one god;
yet he loves the blood of old women. Where is Cleopatra?
FTATATEETA. Persian: as Osiris lives, I do not know. I chid her for
bringing evil days upon us by talking to the sacred cats of the
priests, and carrying them in her arms. I told her she would be left
alone here when the Romans came as a punishment for her disobedience.
And now she is gone--run away--hidden. I speak the truth. I call
Osiris to witness----
THE WOMEN (_protesting officiously_). She speaks the truth, Belzanor.
BELZANOR. You have frightened the child: she is hiding.
Search--quick--into the palace--search every corner.
_The guards, led by Belzanor, shoulder their way into the palace
through the flying crowd of women, who escape through the courtyard
gate._
FTATATEETA (_screaming_). Sacrilege! Men in the Queen's chambers! Sa--
(_Her voice dies away as the Persian puts his knife to her throat._)
BEL AFFRIS (_laying a hand on Ftatateeta's left shoulder_). Forbear
her yet a moment, Persian. (_To Ftatateeta, very significantly_)
Mother: your gods are asleep or away hunting; and the sword is at your
throat. Bring us to where the Queen is hid, and you shall live.
FTATATEETA (_contemptuously_). Who shall stay the sword in the hand of
a fool, if the high gods put it there? Listen to me, ye young men
without understanding. Cleopatra fears me; but she fears the Romans
more. There is but one power greater in her eyes than the wrath of the
Queen's nurse and the cruelty of Caesar; and that is the power of the
Sphinx that sits in the desert watching the way to the sea. What she
would have it know, she tells into the ears of the sacred cats; and on
her birthday she sacrifices to it and decks it with poppies. Go ye
therefore into the desert and seek Cleopatra in the shadow of the
Sphinx; and on your heads see to it that no harm comes to her.
BEL AFFRIS (_to the Persian_). May we believe this, O subtle one?
PERSIAN. Which way come the Romans?
BEL AFFRIS. Over the desert, from the sea, by this very Sphinx.
PERSIAN (_to Ftatateeta_). O mother of guile! O aspic's tongue! You
have made up this tale so that we two may go into the desert and
perish on the spears of the Romans. (_Lifting his knife_) Taste death.
FTATATEETA. Not from thee, baby. (_She snatches his ankle from under
him and flies stooping along the palace wall, vanishing in the
darkness within its precinct. Bel Affris roars with laughter as the
Persian tumbles. The guardsmen rush out of the palace with Belzanor
and a mob of fugitives, mostly carrying bundles._)
PERSIAN. Have you found Cleopatra?
BELZANOR. She is gone. We have searched every corner.
THE NUBIAN SENTINEL (_appearing at the door of the palace_). Woe!
Alas! Fly, fly!
BELZANOR. What is the matter now?
THE NUBIAN SENTINEL. The sacred white cat has been stolen.
ALL. Woe! Woe!
(_General panic. They all fly with cries of consternation. The torch
is thrown down and extinguished in the rush. Darkness. The noise of
the fugitives dies away. Dead silence. Suspense. Then the blackness
and stillness breaks softly into silver mist and strange airs as the
windswept harp of Memnon plays at the dawning of the moon. It rises
full over the desert; and a vast horizon comes into relief, broken by
a huge shape which soon reveals itself in the spreading radiance as a
Sphinx pedestalled on the sands. The light still clears, until the
upraised eyes of the image are distinguished looking straight forward
and upward in infinite fearless vigil, and a mass of color between its
great paws defines itself as a heap of red poppies on which a girl
lies motionless, her silken vest heaving gently and regularly with the
breathing of a dreamless sleeper, and her braided hair glittering in a
shaft of moonlight like a bird's wing._
_Suddenly there comes from afar a vaguely fearful sound (it might be
the bellow of a Minotaur softened by great distance) and Memnon's
music stops. Silence: then a few faint high-ringing trumpet notes.
Then silence again. Then a man comes from the south with stealing
steps, ravished by the mystery of the night, all wonder, and halts,
lost in contemplation, opposite the left flank of the Sphinx, whose
bosom, with its burden, is hidden from him by its massive shoulder.)_
THE MAN. Hail, Sphinx: salutation from Julius Caesar! I have wandered
in many lands, seeking the lost regions from which my birth into this
world exiled me, and the company of creatures such as I myself. I have
found flocks and pastures, men and cities, but no other Caesar, no air
native to me, no man kindred to me, none who can do my day's deed, and
think my night's thought. In the little world yonder, Sphinx, my place
is as high as yours in this great desert; only I wander, and you sit
still; I conquer, and you endure; I work and wonder, you watch and
wait; I look up and am dazzled, look down and am darkened, look round
and am puzzled, whilst your eyes never turn from looking out--out of
the world--to the lost region--the home from which we have strayed.
Sphinx, you and I, strangers to the race of men, are no strangers to
one another: have I not been conscious of you and of this place since
I was born? Rome is a madman's dream: this is my Reality. These starry
lamps of yours I have seen from afar in Gaul, in Britain, in Spain, in
Thessaly, signalling great secrets to some eternal sentinel below,
whose post I never could find. And here at last is their sentinel--an
image of the constant and immortal part of my life, silent, full of
thoughts, alone in the silver desert. Sphinx, Sphinx: I have climbed
mountains at night to hear in the distance the stealthy footfall of
the winds that chase your sands in forbidden play--our invisible
children, O Sphinx, laughing in whispers. My way hither was the way of
destiny; for I am he of whose genius you are the symbol: part brute,
part woman, and part God--nothing of man in me at all. Have I read
your riddle, Sphinx?
THE GIRL (_who has wakened, and peeped cautiously from her nest to see
who is speaking_). Old gentleman.
CAESAR (_starting violently, and clutching his sword_). Immortal gods!
THE GIRL. Old gentleman: don't run away.
CAESAR (_stupefied_). "Old gentleman: don't run away!!!" This! To
Julius Caesar!
THE GIRL (_urgently_). Old gentleman.
CAESAR. Sphinx: you presume on your centuries. I am younger than you,
though your voice is but a girl's voice as yet.
THE GIRL. Climb up here, quickly; or the Romans will come and eat you.
CAESAR (_running forward past the Sphinx's shoulder, and seeing her_).
A child at its breast! A divine child!
THE GIRL. Come up quickly. You must get up at its side and creep
round.
CAESAR (_amazed_). Who are you?
THE GIRL. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
CAESAR. Queen of the Gypsies, you mean.
CLEOPATRA. You must not be disrespectful to me, or the Sphinx will let
the Romans eat you. Come up. It is quite cosy here.
CAESAR (_to himself_). What a dream! What a magnificent dream! Only
let me not wake, and I will conquer ten continents to pay for dreaming
it out to the end. (_He climbs to the Sphinx's flank, and presently
reappears to her on the pedestal, stepping round its right shoulder._)
CLEOPATRA. Take care. That's right. Now sit down: you may have its
other paw. (_She seats herself comfortably on its left paw._) It is
very powerful and will protect us; but (_shivering, and with plaintive
loneliness_) it would not take any notice of me or keep me company. I
am glad you have come: I was very lonely. Did you happen to see a
white cat anywhere?
CAESAR (_sitting slowly down on the right paw in extreme wonderment_).
Have you lost one?
CLEOPATRA. Yes: the sacred white cat: is it not dreadful? I brought
him here to sacrifice him to the Sphinx; but when we got a little way
from the city a black cat called him, and he jumped out of my arms and
ran away to it. Do you think that the black cat can have been my
great-great-great-grandmother?
CAESAR (_staring at her_). Your great-great-great-grandmother! Well,
why not? Nothing would surprise me on this night of nights.
CLEOPATRA. I think it must have been. My great-grandmother's
great-grandmother was a black kitten of the sacred white cat; and the
river Nile made her his seventh wife. That is why my hair is so wavy.
And I always want to be let do as I like, no matter whether it is the
will of the gods or not: that is because my blood is made with Nile
water.
CAESAR. What are you doing here at this time of night? Do you live
here?
CLEOPATRA. Of course not: I am the Queen; and I shall live in the
palace at Alexandria when I have killed my brother, who drove me out
of it. When I am old enough I shall do just what I like. I shall be
able to poison the slaves and see them wriggle, and pretend to
Ftatateeta that she is going to be put into the fiery furnace.
CAESAR. Hm! Meanwhile why are you not at home and in bed?
CLEOPATRA. Because the Romans are coming to eat us all. _You_ are not
at home and in bed either.
CAESAR (_with conviction_). Yes I am. I live in a tent; and I am now
in that tent, fast asleep and dreaming. Do you suppose that I believe
you are real, you impossible little dream witch?
CLEOPATRA (_giggling and leaning trustfully towards him_). You are a
funny old gentleman. I like you.
CAESAR. Ah, that spoils the dream. Why don't you dream that I am
young?
CLEOPATRA. I wish you were; only I think I should be more afraid of
you. I like men, especially young men with round strong arms; but I am
afraid of them. You are old and rather thin and stringy; but you have
a nice voice; and I like to have somebody to talk to, though I think
you are a little mad. It is the moon that makes you talk to yourself
in that silly way.
CAESAR. What! you heard that, did you? I was saying my prayers to the
great Sphinx.
CLEOPATRA. But this isn't the great Sphinx.
CAESAR (_much disappointed, looking up at the statue_). What!
CLEOPATRA. This is only a dear little kitten of the Sphinx. Why, the
great Sphinx is so big that it has a temple between its paws. This is
my pet Sphinx. Tell me: do you think the Romans have any sorcerers who
could take us away from the Sphinx by magic?
CAESAR. Why? Are you afraid of the Romans?
CLEOPATRA (_very seriously_). Oh, they would eat us if they caught us.
They are barbarians. Their chief is called Julius Caesar. His father
was a tiger and his mother a burning mountain; and his nose is like an
elephant's trunk. (_Caesar involuntarily rubs his nose._) They all
have long noses, and ivory tusks, and little tails, and seven arms
with a hundred arrows in each; and they live on human flesh.
CAESAR. Would you like me to shew you a real Roman?
CLEOPATRA (_terrified_). No. You are frightening me.
CAESAR. No matter: this is only a dream----
CLEOPATRA (_excitedly_). It is not a dream: it is not a dream. See,
see. (_She plucks a pin from her hair and jabs it repeatedly into his
arm._)
CAESAR. Ffff--Stop. (_Wrathfully_) How dare you?
CLEOPATRA (_abashed_). You said you were dreaming. (_Whimpering_) I
only wanted to shew you----
CAESAR (_gently_). Come, come: don't cry. A queen mustn't cry. (_He
rubs his arm, wondering at the reality of the smart._) Am I awake?
(_He strikes his hand against the Sphinx to test its solidity. It
feels so real that he begins to be alarmed, and says perplexedly_)
Yes, I--(_quite panic-stricken_) no: impossible: madness, madness!
(_Desperately_) Back to camp--to camp. (_He rises to spring down from
the pedestal._)
CLEOPATRA (_flinging her arms in terror round him_). No: you shan't
leave me. No, no, no: don't go. I'm afraid--afraid of the Romans.
CAESAR (_as the conviction that he is really awake forces itself on
him_). Cleopatra: can you see my face well?
CLEOPATRA. Yes. It is so white in the moonlight.
CAESAR. Are you sure it is the moonlight that makes me look whiter
than an Egyptian? (_Grimly_) Do you notice that I have a rather long
nose?
CLEOPATRA (_recoiling, paralyzed by a terrible suspicion_). Oh!
CAESAR. It is a Roman nose, Cleopatra.
CLEOPATRA. Ah! (_With a piercing scream she springs up; darts round
the left shoulder of the Sphinx; scrambles down to the sand; and falls
on her knees in frantic supplication, shrieking_) Bite him in two,
Sphinx: bite him in two. I meant to sacrifice the white cat--I did
indeed--I (_Caesar, who has slipped down from the pedestal, touches
her on the shoulder_) Ah! (_She buries her head in her arms._)
CAESAR. Cleopatra: shall I teach you a way to prevent Caesar from
eating you?
CLEOPATRA (_clinging to him piteously_). Oh do, do, do. I will steal
Ftatateeta's jewels and give them to you. I will make the river Nile
water your lands twice a year.
CAESAR. Peace, peace, my child. Your gods are afraid of the Romans:
you see the Sphinx dare not bite me, nor prevent me carrying you off
to Julius Caesar.
CLEOPATRA (_in pleading murmurings_). You won't, you won't. You said
you wouldn't.
CAESAR. Caesar never eats women.
CLEOPATRA (_springing up full of hope_). What!
CAESAR (_impressively_). But he eats girls (_she relapses_) and cats.
Now you are a silly little girl; and you are descended from the black
kitten. You are both a girl and a cat.
CLEOPATRA (_trembling_). And will he eat me?
CAESAR. Yes; unless you make him believe that you are a woman.
CLEOPATRA. Oh, you must get a sorcerer to make a woman of me. Are you
a sorcerer?
CAESAR. Perhaps. But it will take a long time; and this very night you
must stand face to face with Caesar in the palace of your fathers.
CLEOPATRA. No, no. I daren't.
CAESAR. Whatever dread may be in your soul--however terrible Caesar
may be to you--you must confront him as a brave woman and a great
queen; and you must feel no fear. If your hand shakes: if your voice
quavers; then--night and death! (_She moans._) But if he thinks you
worthy to rule, he will set you on the throne by his side and make you
the real ruler of Egypt.
CLEOPATRA (_despairingly_). No: he will find me out: he will find me
out.
CAESAR (_rather mournfully_). He is easily deceived by women. Their
eyes dazzle him; and he sees them not as they are, but as he wishes
them to appear to him.
CLEOPATRA (_hopefully_). Then we will cheat him. I will put on
Ftatateeta's head-dress; and he will think me quite an old woman.
CAESAR. If you do that he will eat you at one mouthful.
CLEOPATRA. But I will give him a cake with my magic opal and seven
hairs of the white cat baked in it; and----
CAESAR (_abruptly_). Pah! you are a little fool. He will eat your cake
and you too. (_He turns contemptuously from her._)
CLEOPATRA (_running after him and clinging to him_). Oh, please,
_please_! I will do whatever you tell me. I will be good! I will be
your slave. (_Again the terrible bellowing note sounds across the
desert, now closer at hand. It is the bucina, the Roman war trumpet._)
CAESAR. Hark!
CLEOPATRA (_trembling_). What was that?
CAESAR. Caesar's voice.
CLEOPATRA (_pulling at his hand_). Let us run away. Come. Oh, come.
CAESAR. You are safe with me until you stand on your throne to receive
Caesar. Now lead me thither.
CLEOPATRA (_only too glad to get away_). I will, I will. (_Again the
bucina._) Oh, come, come, come: the gods are angry. Do you feel the
earth shaking?
CAESAR. It is the tread of Caesar's legions.
CLEOPATRA (_drawing him away_). This way, quickly. And let us look for
the white cat as we go. It is he that has turned you into a Roman.
CAESAR. Incorrigible, oh, incorrigible! Away! (_He follows her, the
bucina sounding louder as they steal across the desert. The moonlight
wanes: the horizon again shows black against the sky, broken only by
the fantastic silhouette of the Sphinx. The sky itself vanishes in
darkness, from which there is no relief until the gleam of a distant
torch falls on great Egyptian pillars supporting the roof of a
majestic corridor. At the further end of this corridor a Nubian slave
appears carrying the torch. Caesar, still led by Cleopatra, follows
him. They come down the corridor, Caesar peering keenly about at the
strange architecture, and at the pillar shadows between which, as the
passing torch makes them hurry noiselessly backwards, figures of men
with wings and hawks' heads, and vast black marble cats, seem to flit
in and out of ambush. Further along, the wall turns a corner and makes
a spacious transept in which Caesar sees, on his right, a throne, and
behind the throne a door. On each side of the throne is a slender
pillar with a lamp on it._)
CAESAR. What place is this?
CLEOPATRA. This is where I sit on the throne when I am allowed to wear
my crown and robes. (_The slave holds his torch to shew the throne._)
CAESAR. Order the slave to light the lamps.
CLEOPATRA (_shyly_). Do you think I may?
CAESAR. Of course. You are the Queen. (_She hesitates._) Go on.
CLEOPATRA (_timidly, to the slave_). Light all the lamps.
FTATATEETA (_suddenly coming from behind the throne_). Stop. (_The
slave stops. She turns sternly to Cleopatra, who quails like a naughty
child._) Who is this you have with you; and how dare you order the
lamps to be lighted without my permission? (_Cleopatra is dumb with
apprehension._)
CAESAR. Who is she?
CLEOPATRA. Ftatateeta.
FTATATEETA (_arrogantly_). Chief nurse to----
CAESAR (_cutting her short_). I speak to the Queen. Be silent. (_To
Cleopatra_) Is this how your servants know their places? Send her
away; and you (_to the slave_) do as the Queen has bidden. (_The slave
lights the lamps. Meanwhile Cleopatra stands hesitating, afraid of
Ftatateeta._) You are the Queen: send her away.
CLEOPATRA (_cajoling_). Ftatateeta, dear: you must go away--just for a
little.
CAESAR. You are not commanding her to go away: you are begging her.
You are no Queen. You will be eaten. Farewell. (_He turns to go._)
CLEOPATRA (_clutching him_). No, no, no. Don't leave me.
CAESAR. A Roman does not stay with queens who are afraid of their
slaves.
CLEOPATRA. I am not afraid. Indeed I am not afraid.
FTATATEETA. We shall see who is afraid here. (_Menacingly_)
Cleopatra----
CAESAR. On your knees, woman: am I also a child that you dare trifle
with me? (_He points to the floor at Cleopatra's feet. Ftatateeta,
half cowed, half savage, hesitates. Caesar calls to the Nubian_)
Slave. (_The Nubian comes to him._) Can you cut off a head? (_The
Nubian nods and grins ecstatically, showing all his teeth. Caesar
takes his sword by the scabbard, ready to offer the hilt to the
Nubian, and turns again to Ftatateeta, repeating his gesture._) Have
you remembered yourself, mistress?
_Ftatateeta, crushed, kneels before Cleopatra, who can hardly believe
her eyes._
FTATATEETA (_hoarsely_). O Queen, forget not thy servant in the days
of thy greatness.
CLEOPATRA (_blazing with excitement_). Go. Begone. Go away.
(_Ftatateeta rises with stooped head, and moves backwards towards the
door. Cleopatra watches her submission eagerly, almost clapping her
hands, which are trembling. Suddenly she cries_) Give me something to
beat her with. (_She snatches a snake-skin from the throne and dashes
after Ftatateeta, whirling it like a scourge in the air. Caesar makes
a bound and manages to catch her and hold her while Ftatateeta
escapes._)
CAESAR. You scratch, kitten, do you?
CLEOPATRA (_breaking from him_). I _will_ beat somebody. I will beat
_him_. (_She attacks the slave._) There, there, there! (_The slave
flies for his life up the corridor and vanishes. She throws the
snake-skin away and jumps on the step of the throne with her arms
waving, crying_) I am a real Queen at last--a real, real Queen!
Cleopatra the Queen! (_Caesar shakes his head dubiously, the advantage
of the change seeming open to question from the point of view of the
general welfare of Egypt. She turns and looks at him exultantly. Then
she jumps down from the step, runs to him, and flings her arms round
him rapturously, crying_) Oh, I love you for making me a Queen.
CAESAR. But queens love only kings.
CLEOPATRA. I will make all the men I love kings. I will make you a
king. I will have many young kings, with round, strong arms; and when
I am tired of them I will whip them to death; but you shall always be
my king: my nice, kind, wise, good old king.
CAESAR. Oh, my wrinkles, my wrinkles! And my child's heart! You will
be the most dangerous of all Caesar's conquests.
CLEOPATRA (_appalled_). Caesar! I forgot Caesar. (_Anxiously_) You
will tell him that I am a Queen, will you not?--a real Queen. Listen!
(_stealthily coaxing him_) let us run away and hide until Caesar is
gone.
CAESAR. If you fear Caesar, you are no true Queen; and though you were
to hide beneath a pyramid, he would go straight to it and lift it with
one hand. And then--! (_He chops his teeth together._)
CLEOPATRA (_trembling_). Oh!
CAESAR. Be afraid if you dare. (_The note of the bucina resounds again
in the distance. She moans with fear. Caesar exalts in it,
exclaiming_) Aha! Caesar approaches the throne of Cleopatra. Come:
take your place. (_He takes her hand and leads her to the throne. She
is too downcast to speak._) Ho, there, Teetatota. How do you call your
slaves?
CLEOPATRA (_spiritlessly, as she sinks on the throne and cowers there,
shaking_). Clap your hands.
_He claps his hands. Ftatateeta returns._
CAESAR. Bring the Queen's robes, and her crown, and her women; and
prepare her.
CLEOPATRA (_eagerly--recovering herself a little_). Yes, the crown,
Ftatateeta: I shall wear the crown.
FTATATEETA. For whom must the Queen put on her state?
CAESAR. For a citizen of Rome. A king of kings, Totateeta.
CLEOPATRA (_stamping at her_). How dare you ask questions? Go and do
as you are told. (_Ftatateeta goes out with a grim smile. Cleopatra
goes on eagerly, to Caesar_) Caesar will know that I am a Queen when
he sees my crown and robes, will he not?
CAESAR. No. How shall he know that you are not a slave dressed up in
the Queen's ornaments?
CLEOPATRA. You must tell him.
CAESAR. He will not ask me. He will know Cleopatra by her pride, her
courage, her majesty, and her beauty. (_She looks very doubtful._) Are
you trembling?
CLEOPATRA (_shivering with dread_). No, I--I--(_in a very sickly
voice_) No.
_Ftatateeta and three women come in with the regalia._
FTATATEETA. Of all the Queen's women, these three alone are left. The
rest are fled. (_They begin to deck Cleopatra, who submits, pale and
motionless._)
CAESAR. Good, good. Three are enough. Poor Caesar generally has to
dress himself.
FTATATEETA (_contemptuously_). The Queen of Egypt is not a Roman
barbarian. (_To Cleopatra_) Be brave, my nursling. Hold up your head
before this stranger.
CAESAR (_admiring Cleopatra, and placing the crown on her head_). Is
it sweet or bitter to be a Queen, Cleopatra?
CLEOPATRA. Bitter.
CAESAR. Cast out fear; and you will conquer Caesar. Tota: are the
Romans at hand?
FTATATEETA. They are at hand; and the guard has fled.
THE WOMEN (_wailing subduedly_). Woe to us!
_The Nubian comes running down the hall._
NUBIAN. The Romans are in the courtyard. (_He bolts through the door.
With a shriek, the women fly after him. Ftatateeta's jaw expresses
savage resolution: she does not budge. Cleopatra can hardly restrain
herself from following them. Caesar grips her wrist, and looks
steadfastly at her. She stands like a martyr._)
CAESAR. The Queen must face Caesar alone. Answer "So be it."
CLEOPATRA (_white_). So be it.
CAESAR (_releasing her_). Good.
_A tramp and tumult of armed men is heard. Cleopatra's terror
increases. The bucina sounds close at hand, followed by a formidable
clangor of trumpets. This is too much for Cleopatra: she utters a cry
and darts towards the door. Ftatateeta stops her ruthlessly._
FTATATEETA. You are my nursling. You have said "So be it"; and if you
die for it, you must make the Queen's word good. (_She hands Cleopatra
to Caesar, who takes her back, almost beside herself with
apprehension, to the throne._)
CAESAR. Now, if you quail--! (_He seats himself on the throne._)
_She stands on the step, all but unconscious, waiting for death. The
Roman soldiers troop in tumultuously through the corridor, headed by
their ensign with his eagle, and their bucinator, a burly fellow with
his instrument coiled round his body, its brazen bell shaped like the
head of a howling wolf. When they reach the transept, they stare in
amazement at the throne; dress into ordered rank opposite it; draw
their swords and lift them in the air with a shout of_ Hail, Caesar.
_Cleopatra turns and stares wildly at Caesar; grasps the situation;
and, with a great sob of relief, falls into his arms._