The Tragedies of Cleopatra

Marc Daneker 2009

Unlike Shakespeare’s sprawling soap opera, Samuel Daniel’s “Tragedie of Cleopatra” (as it is originally spelled by Daniel) is a more focused and less energetic work. Most likely providing the source material for the fifth act of Shakespeare’s “ Antony and Cleopatra,” Daniel’s play begins after Antony’s death and does not focus on the relationship between he and Cleopatra but on her final hours and the reasons that lead to her suicide. In many ways a series of soliloquies, each character comes onto the stage either alone or with a minimum of other characters and delivers nearly, if not the entire scene in one, lengthy verse rather than, as in Shakespeare’s play, interaction and conversation.

The original text of Daniels tragedy may appear as nearly undecipherable to modern readers for many of the letters require interpretation ( “vv” is pronounced “w”, “u” is often “v” and sometimes “f” is “s” and sometimes not) as in this line which is printed thusly: “haue I out-liu’d my felfe, and feene the fall of all vpon me, and not ruined?” Which would now be spoken: “have I outlived myself and seen the fall upon me and not ruined?”

Unlike Shakespeare, Daniel has not been printed and re-printed over the centuries, and if a more modern language version of his play exist I could not locate it for the purpose of this paper. Therefore, the play could not simply be read, but needed to be deciphered from digitized copies of the original printings. Some portions of the play I have completely re-typed in the fashion demonstrated above to more easily re-read the play for comparing and contrasting to Shakespeare’s.

The play is written in verse, usually of four lines with first and third rhyming. Daniel’s Cleopatra is a reflective character. His play begins with her alone on stage, lamenting on the events which had brought her to this moment. Antony is dead, and Caesar would have her return to Rome as a trophy of Egypt’s complete conquest. Cleopatra is contemplating her loss of stature. To this she says (the spelling has been modernized for reading here):

Want but on Fortunes fairest side to look
Where naught was by applause, but smiles and grace?
Whilst on his shoulders all my rest relied,
On who the burden of my ambition lay,
My atlas, and supporter of my pride,
That did the world of all my glory sway
Who now thrown down disgraced, confounded lies
Crushed with the weight of shame and infamy.

Shakespeare’s Cleopatra is more angry, volatile, seeking revenge outright by killing herself and denying Caesar his prize:

My desolation does begin to make
A better life. 'Tis paltry to be Caesar;
Not being Fortune, he's but Fortune's knave,
A minister of her will; and it is great
To do that thing that ends all other deeds,
Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change,
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug,
The beggar's nurse and Caesar's.

Shakespeare’s play is an active, moving creation. Many actors assemble for each scene, and the lines shift from long, prosaic passages to quick, energetic dialogue. He picks up the story in mid motion, and does not bother so much with a beginning as simply joining the action already in progress. Cleopatra is a toying, cloying and daunting mistress who expresses love profanely but plays and belittles for her own entertainment, or from her own insecurities. She tells Charmian “if you find him sad, say I am dancing; if in mirth, report that I am sudden sick,” showing how she enjoys playing with men and meddling with their emotions. When Antony dies she says little but “We’ll burry him; and then, what’s brave , what’s noble, let’s do it after the high Roman fashion.” Daniel’s Cleopatra is more reproached of her own deeds “Anthony, because the world takes note that my defects have only ruined thee: and my ambitious practices are thought the motive and the cause of all to be.”

Daniel has other issues to deal with as well, since his play begins after Antony’s death and is mostly the final hours of Cleopatra’s life many lines are spent reflecting on the events that have occurred to the present. More a poem than a play, where Shakespeare offered dramatic entertainment, Daniel seems more inspired by the likes of Homer to deliver an entire story in verse. There is no action described, and it would seem more to be a poem recited than a play enacted.

If Shakespeare was in fact inspired by Daniel to write his play, then the inspiration it would only goes so far as to lift aspects of the plot. To compare the two is to compare the Godfather to a sitcom. Daniels work is a sad reflection on the missteps and mistakes of people in high power. It is a more a tragedy within, as Cleopatra internalizes her anguish and guilt, her contempt and loathing, as Shakespeare’s is more without, the tragedy comes across to the audience because the central characters die, but are elicited more to circumstance than force of will.

In Both plays, unlike tragedies such as “Hamlet” or “Romeo and Juliet,” which lead to death through missteps and miscommunications, Antony and Cleopatra bring death upon themselves. It is vanity and lust that commands their actions, and foolish actions against Caesar which leads them to accept fate. Where Romeo did not get a message, Hamlet did not know a sword was tipped with poison and Gertrude was unaware of the poison in the wine, Antony and Cleopatra do not die so blindly, nor do either of their deaths necessarily inspire the others. It seems completely rational to presume if they had not killed themselves separately, that with Caesar’s arrival and their defeat, they would have chosen to die regardless.

The two works are starkly different. Shakespeare is arguably not in his best form here, especially considering his prior seven plays included “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “Othello,” and “King Lear.” Perhaps, since Daniel had so eloquently covered the final hours of Cleopatra’s life, Shakespeare decided to write about the events leading up to them. However, the play speaks to the events, but doesn’t connect or flow well thematically. The characters often feel exaggerated and more belonging to a comedy than a historical tragedy, and he offers no sympathetic characters to care about. Daniel, facing the same material makes Cleopatra, if nothing else, a reflective character. Here she in many ways denounces her actions and behaviors and accepts responsibility, internally for deaths and failures which have occurred. It is the difference between entertainment for the masses and the critical work that may have inspired it.

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