If he were Caesar, and
Caesar Antony, we would be compelled to rewrite every article of
history since the death of Julius Caesar.
The Battle of Actium by Lorenzo A. Castro |
Just a thought. The
third act of Antony and Cleopatra has been emotional for me. It might
be my bias for Antony, but I do admire some of his grand qualities. I
have written about one of it in the review of the first act. Now let
me continue to the second.
When he hears that
Octavius wages war against Pompey, Antony becomes furious. Firstly,
he starts to feel than Octavius doesn't count him as Roman co-ruler
in the triumvirate. Secondly, he doesn't think that the war against
Pompey is fair.
“Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that—
That were excusable, that and thousands more
Of semblable import—but he hath waged
New wars ’gainst Pompey; made his will, and read it
To public ear;
Spoke scantly of me; when perforce he could not
But pay me terms of honor, cold and sickly
He vented them, most narrow measure lent me.
When the best hint was given him, he not took ’t,
Or did it from his teeth.”
Given the fact that
Pompey helped Antony in the past, thus making a link between the two,
the murder of Pompey is utterly unacceptable from Antony's point of
view. It enrages him to know that one of his subordinates killed
Pompey.
“He’s walking in the garden — thus; and spurns
The rush that lies before him; cries, ‘Fool Lepidus!’
And threats the throat of that his officer
That murder’d Pompey.”
Another thing that I
still like of him is kindness towards those who fight with him.
Knowing that there is no longer hope to win, he offers his ship and
the treasures in it to his soldiers, and also advices them to move to
Octavius' side.
“Friends, come hither:
I am so lated in the world, that I
Have lost my way for ever: I have a ship
Laden with gold; take that, divide it; fly,
And make your peace with Caesar.”
The more I know Antony,
the more I like him. And yet to me he is the same and both different
man from what he is in Julius Caesar. His love to Cleopatra is almost
mounting up to madness. He cannot think clearly, and also refuses to
listen to Enobarbus' sound advice, that is to fight Octavius on land.
All these things cannot
be good. I'd happily finish the play soon and make an elaborate
review about it.
PS:
The analysis done in this article is based solely on Shakespeare's
work, regardless of its historical accuracy.
Antony treated his soldiers more as friends or even sons. He was a great general, greater than Octavius. Just like Brutus, he wasn't a good politician and obviously not as ambitious as Octavius
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