Antony has beaten Caesar, and returns to
Cleopatra, who greets him with the astounding words:
"Lord of lords,
O, infinite virtue, com'st thou smiling from
The world's great snare uncaught?"
This is all more or less appropriate in the mouth of Cleopatra; but it
is to me Shakespeare's own comment on life; he is conscious of his
failure; he has said to himself: "if I, Shakespeare, have failed, it is
because every one fails; life's handicap searches out every weakness; to
go through life as a conqueror would require 'infinite virtue.'" This is
perhaps the furthest throw of Shakespeare's thought.
But his worldly wisdom is to seek. After he had been betrayed by Lord
Herbert he raves of man's ingratitude, in play after play. Of course men
are ungrateful; it is only the rarest and noblest natures who can feel
thankful for help without any injury to vanity. The majority of men love
their inferiors, those whom they help; to give flatters self-esteem; but
they hate their superiors, and lend to the word "patron" an intolerable
smirk of condescension.
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