The high lights
were for once balanced by the depths of shadow, and a masterpiece was
the result.
Shakespeare leaves out Caesar's threats to put Cleopatra's sons to
death; had he used these menaces he would have made Caesar more natural
in my opinion, given a touch of characteristic brutality to the
calculating intellect; but he omitted them probably because he felt that
Cleopatra's pedestal was high enough without that addition.
The end is very characteristic of Shakespeare's temper. Caesar becomes
nobly generous; he approves Cleopatra's wisdom in swearing falsehoods
about her treasure; he will not reckon with her like "a merchant," and
Cleopatra herself puts on the royal robes, and she who has played wanton
before us so long becomes a queen of queens. And yet her character is
wonderfully maintained; no cunning can cheat this mistress of duplicity:
"He words me, girls, he words me that I should not
Be noble to myself."
She holds to her heroic resolve; she will never be degraded before the
base Roman public; she will not see
"Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness.
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