_See Frontispiece._
The Princess of antiquity, most renowned for her personal charms, was in
her unrivalled beauty, her mental perfections, her weaknesses, and the
unhappy conclusion of an amorous existence the counterpart of the most
beautiful queen of later times, the unfortunate Mary of Scotland.
Cleopatra was the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt. She was
early given to wife to her own brother, Ptolemy Dionysius, and ascended
the throne conjointly with him, on the death of their father. It was
doubtless the policy of the kingdom thus to preserve all the royal
honors in one family--the daughter being the queen, as well as the son
king of the country. But her ambitious and intriguing spirit, restrained
by no ties of reciprocal love to her husband, who was also her brother,
sought for means to burst a union at once unnatural and galling: and the
opportunity at length arrived. Julius Caesar, the conqueror of the world,
having pursued the defeated Pompey into Egypt, there beheld Cleopatra in
the zenith of her beauty; and he before whose power the whole world was
kneeling, prostrated himself before a pretty woman. The following is the
account of her first introduction to Caesar, as given by the historian.
It shows that she had no maidenly scruples as to the mode of attaining
her ends.
Her intrigues to become sole monarch, had made her husband-brother
banish her from the capital. Hearing of the arrival of Caesar, she got
into a small boat, with only one male friend, and in the dusk of the
evening made for the palace where Caesar as well as her husband lodged.
As she saw it difficult to enter it undiscovered by her husband's
friends, she rolled herself up in a carpet. Her companion tied her up at
full length like a bale of goods, and carried her in at the gates to
Caesar's apartments. This stratagem of hers, which was a strong proof of
her wit and ingenuity, is said to have first opened her way to Caesar's
heart, and her conquest advanced rapidly by the charms of her speech and
person. The genius of Shakspeare has well depicted the power of her
beauty at this time. He makes her to say, at a later period of life,
when chagrined at the expected desertion of another lover,--
"Broad-fronted Caesar!
When thou wast here above the ground, I was
A morsel for a monarch: And great Pompey
Would stand, and make his eyes grow in my brow;
There would he fix his longing gaze, and die
With looking on his life."
But Cleopatra, who was not less remarkable for her cunning than for her
beauty, knowing that Caesar was resolved to be gratified at whatever
cost, determined that the price should be a round one: the terms of his
admission to her arms, were that Caesar should expel her brother from the
kingdom, and give the crown to her; which Caesar complied with. Cleopatra
had a son by Caesar called Caesarion.
In the civil wars which distracted the Roman empire after the death of
Caesar, Cleopatra supported Brutus, against Antony and Octavius. Antony,
in his expedition to Parthia, summoned her to appear before him. She
arrayed herself in the most magnificent apparel, and appeared before her
judge in the most captivating attire. Though somewhat older than when
she drew Caesar to her arms, her charms were still conspicuous;
"Age could not wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
The appetite they feed. But she made hungry
Where most she satisfied."
Her artifice on this occasion succeeded; Antony became enamoured of her,
and publicly married her, although his wife the sister of Octavius was
living. He gave Cleopatra the greater part of the eastern provinces of
the Roman empire. This behaviour was the cause of a rupture between
Octavius and Antony; and these two celebrated generals met in battle at
Actium, where Cleopatra, by flying with sixty sail of vessels, ruined
the interest of Antony, and he was defeated. Cleopatra had retired to
Egypt, where soon after Antony followed her. Antony stabbed himself upon
the false information that Cleopatra was dead; and as his wound was not
mortal, he was carried to the queen, who drew him up by a cord from one
of the windows of the monument, where she had retired and concealed
herself.
Antony soon after died of his wounds, and Cleopatra, after she had
received pressing invitations from Octavius, and even pretended
declarations of love, destroyed herself by the bite of an asp, not to
fall into the conqueror's hands. She had previously attempted to stab
herself, and had once made a resolution to starve herself. But the means
by which she destroyed herself, is said to produce the easiest of
deaths: the Asp is a small serpent found near the river Nile, so
delicate that it may be concealed in a fig; and when presented to the
vitals of the body, its bite is so deadly as to render medical skill
useless, while at the same time it is so painless, that the victim
fancies herself dropping into a sweet slumber, instead of the arms of
death. So Cleopatra, while she is applying the venomous reptile to her
bosom, (as represented in the Frontispiece,) is supposed to use language
like the following,--
"Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?"
Thus, after having chained in her embrace the two greatest generals that
the Roman empire had produced, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, at the
periods when they were respectively arbiters of the world's fate,
perished Cleopatra by her own hand.
Cleopatra was a voluptuous and extravagant woman, and in one of the
feasts she gave to Antony at Alexandria, she melted pearls into her
drink to render the entertainment more sumptuous and expensive. She was
fond of appearing dressed as a goddess; and she advised Antony to make
war against the richest nations, to support her debaucheries. Her beauty
has been greatly commended, and her mental perfections so highly
celebrated, that she has been described as capable of giving audience to
the ambassadors of seven different nations, and of speaking their
various languages as fluently as her own.
How vain are the possessions of beauty, power, personal and mental
accomplishments, if to these are not united virtuous principles. All
history, as well as all experience, is full of examples calculated to
impress the great lesson that
"VIRTUE alone is HAPPINESS below."