(1). war(Mars) vs. love--heart bursts buckles

(2). "oerflows the measure" --cf. Caesar

(3). "tawny front"--was Cleopatra black? --cf. Othello

(4). heart is both bellows and fan, heating and cooling lust

(1). tell me how much; beyond reckoning (oerflows measure)

(2). she says she set "bourn" (geography)

(1). Let Rome in Tiber melt--melting; loss of bourn and form; new heaven and new earth--transcendental perspective

(2). Kingdoms are Clay--nobleness of life is to do thus--Rome vs. Egypt

(a). dungy earth alike feeds beast and man; rejection of the political human, in favor of pleasure

(b). public kiss; we stand peerless

(1). "you think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes?"

(2). fortunes tonight: drunk to bed

(3). not in my husband's nose

(4). prayer to Isis for Alexas' misfortune in marriage

(1). as he enters, she leaves: hide and seek

(1). Bad news: wife warred with brother; made alliance against Caesar, then lost; Parthians are victorius in East

(2). His absence is disastrous; he's guilty; full of conflict: "These strong Eg. fetters I must break/Or lose myself in dotage."

(a). ambivalent about Fulvia's announced death

(1). A. expresses regret to E. about being trapped by her cunnning

(a). E. is sarcastic about C. but also admiring of her and A's love

(2). E. sarcastic, cynical, obscene and flip about F.'s death

(1). pol. savvy; people are like lovers

(1). she will be false; an actress

(2). debate over how to love

(1). A. must return to woo the people's love

(2). uses his name and quality in wanton ways: O, my oblivion is a very Antony, and I am all forgotten.

(1). immature; boyish; dispproving description of his revels; judgement and experience vs. present pleasure: boys pawn their experience to their present pleasure'and so rebel to judgment

(a). Just what Antony said. But Cleo. called Caesar a boy

(2). Pompey gains followers who love and don't fear him

(a). Caesar complains about the ebb and flow of people's love: "he which is was wished until he were....common body like to a vagabond flag...goes back and forth." 42

(b). calls on A. the great warrior

(1). Now I feed myself on most delicious poison

(1). takes back her former love of Caesar in reponse to Charmian's tease, referring to youth "My salad days/ When I was green in judgmnet, cold in blood..." 71-2

(a). Charmian parallel to Enobarbus

(1). carried away by his own description of their pleasrue

(2). interrupted by unexpected news of A's return to Rome

(3). P: our enmity breeds their alliance

(1). theme of smaller and greater matters: But small to greater matters must give way. E: Not if the small come first. See also pleasure and honor; youth vs. experience

(1). C. accuses A. of wife and brothers wars

(2). A. insists he's not responsible for brother or wife

(3). C. insists he wrote to A. who ignored his letters--this is scene in Act I; he was drunk; A. seeks to blame it on messenger

(a). A. begs pardon...Lepidus happy

(b). byplay between cynical Enobarbus and A.

(1). Romans admiring fleshpots

(2). Description of burnished poop; lovesick winds; perfumes; tune of flutes; water amorous with strokes of oar; cloth of gold of tissue.

(a). heating and cooling at same time--like bellows in I,i.

(b). mermaids and cupids and nerieds; silken tackle;

(c). A. left alone in marketplace; invites her to dinner, she invites him and he loses his heart

(3). Maec. remebers her seduction of Julius C.

(4). Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety....she makes hungry/Where most she satisfies

(a). NB: vilest things /become themselves in her, that the holy priests/Bless her when she is riggish.

(5). Quick funny contrast to Octavia.

(1). A. the partier in JC

(1). dreams of catching fish and calling them Antony

(2). remembers play with A.; tricking him with salt fish onhook; then nostalgically [pleasure] partying with him all night and then cross dressing.

(a). Interrupted by messenger: Ram thou thuy fuiruitful tidings in mine ears/that long time have been barren. [Madonna, Mae West type]

(3). C. hassles messenger with promises and threats [as she does all men]; leads up to news of A's marriage to Octavia; she torments messenger...on and on.

(4). histrionic exit

(1). A. never paid for P's father's house; P. took good care of A's mother

(1). Enobarbus and Menas would rather have fought

(2). they gossip about A's wedding and prophecy its failure

(1). servants discuss leaders

(2). leaders enter drunk; Antony discourses on Egyptian predictions of famine with pyramids and nile

(a). imagery of fertility; slime and ooze; ebb and flow

(b). Lepidus making fool of himself discussing crocodile; Antony giving nonsensical description; Caesar commenting

(c). Menas offers Pompey lord of all the world; Pompey refuses but states he would have approved afterwards; Menas abandons him for not being political enough

(d). drunken dialogue; third part of the world is drunk; more emphasis on more drinking; ripening toward an Alexandrian feast; excess and more

(e). Caesar doesnt like drinking so much; Enobarbus suggest Egyptian bacchanal.

(1). Silius complements his tact and soldiery

(2). V. will write to A.; sense of A's absence

(1). everybody furiously flattering C.--like oriental tyrant

(1). "we are women's men"

(2). Caesar's speed is uncanny

(1). En and Scarus watching Antony also turn and follow her--Experience, manhood, honor, neer before did violate so itself.

(2). Canidius after watching yields his troops to Caesar

(1). Enobarbus is cynically correct; calls A. a "sworder" or gladiator

(1). sees Cleo. accede to Thidias' hints and disclaims her love of A. , reinstates her love for Julius and lets Th. kiss her hand-- sluttish; language is full of flattery for Caesar.

(2). Antony senses authority melting from him, but has servant whipped [cf. Lear and Oswald]

(a). E: like Fool in Lear: Tis better playing with a lion's whelp than with an old one dying.

(3). Thidias returned--bitter sarcasm in words to Caesar; offended at her grace with servant

(a). His anger again creates hope for a new battle and another night of carousing; Come lets have one more gaudy night: call to me/all my sad captains.

(b). bravado and Cl. joins the party--complete decadence; alcoholic behavior

(c). Enobarbus: A diminution in our captains brain/restores his heart...I will seek some way to leave him.

(1). made the war for Egypt

(1). in the midst a tearying groan did break

the name of Antony; it was divided

between her heart and lips: she rendered life

Thy name so buried in her

(1). this is Caesar's strategy

(2). imagery of toils

(3). envisions death: "Where souls do couch on flowers, we'll hand in hand,/And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze/ Did and her Aeneas shall want troops/ And all the haunt be ours."

(a). Love and war both mixed with death--Eros, eros called again and again

(4). sees continuance in life as a dishonor; admires Cleo's courage to kill herself: "I am conqueror of myself" as shaming him; resolves to die, as a defeat of Caesar. Suicide is an act of war.

(a). envisions himself as Caesar's humiliated prize paraded in the streets [very doubtful prospect]

(b). difficulty of getting Eros to kill him

(c). as in JC: condition of being freed from slavery was agreement to kill "free" master if necessary

(d). Eros kills self; shows more courage than A.

(e). Tries to run on sword, like a bridegroom "to a lover's bed." Fails--"I have done my work ill, friends. O make an end/ Of what I have begun.

(1). I am dying Egypt, dying

Give me some wine and let me speak a little.

(2). both attempt to triumph over fortune and death with depth of momentary feeling

(3). he dies, she swoons

(a). the crown o th earth doth melt. My lord/ O withered is the garland of the war/ The solider's pole is fall'n

(b). they don't know if she's alive or dead

(c). she awakens only to rant on suicide and death

(1). I wore my life to spend upon his haters

(2). Caesar's tribute to his name and observation that his passing was unnoticed; he weeps

(3). news of A's death is premature

(4). more commentary: "his taints and honors waged equal with him."

(1). interrupted by news of Cleo in monument awaiting orders

(2). sends false assurance she'll be treated well, but plans to parade her in triumph

(3). returns to speech justifying his behavior w. Ant.

(1). Effective dramatic shock and tone change--betrayal

(2). She draws dagger, but is disarmed; defiantly and eloquently insists she wont go to rome but will die in Egypt

(3). *She, captived, victim, rises to grandeur, in speech about dream of Antony as the universe or God

(a). asks Dolabella if he believes dream

(b). says it must be more real than dream since something so great couldn't just be imagined

(c). Dol. tells her truth of C's plan

(4). Caesar enters

(a). Lies to her; she falsely kneels to him, and confesses her sins as those of all women; he threatens to kill her children if she kills herself.

(b). She gives Caesar list of all her goods; asks Seleucus to vouch, but he exposes it as lie

(c). Caesar again condescendingly forgives her; she says he's master; trying to seduce him

(d). "He words me, girls, he words me..."; Dolabella again reveals C's plan, betraying his master, as Seleucus betrayed his

(e). C's vision of being displayed in Rome to rank breaths of the commons, opposite to but similar to the spectacle she made in Alexandria

(f). She dresses up; clown brings her figs

(g). stages great tragic ending, contrasted to comedy of Caesar...Liebestod

(h). Charmian also applies asp as guard comes in

(i). Dolabella tricks Caesar; they discover "aspic's trail

(j). Caesar places his order on it all: "Come Doalbella see/High order in this great solemnity."