SERPENT OF NILE

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1442, 2 July 1924, Page 2

SERPENT OF NILE

CLEOPATRA'S ROMANCE AND J TRAGEDY. | PASSION AND A LOST KINGDOM. Tennyson, in tile splendid verse of ' A Dream of Fair Women," sums up in the words "a name for ever" the enduring impress of Cleopatra on the imagination of the world. Among the " far-renowned brides of ancient song" none save Helen of Troy matches Cleopatra of Egypt in the world's stories of tragedy and passion i none, in history, save Mary Stuart represents, as Cleopatra, the sum of beauty and genius. About this Queen of Egypt the greatest drama of the ancient world was played. Her very mame conjures up in the romantic mind the might of Rome and the mystery of Egypt; stupendous fleets and legions joined in battle; the mailed Bacchus, Antony, losing for passion, to passionless Octavian, the kingdom of the world. She passes through the mind dark and terrible as a spirit of evil. She passes, borne high upon the necks of Nubians; she is fanned with the plumes of peacocks ; the splendor of a- decaying dynasty is yet about her. She'wears on her dark hair the vulture cap of gold; her eyes are burning; her robe has the sheen of the serpent; strange jewels adorn her. She is wise with all the wisdom of Greece and Egypt; she is versed in terrible arts; she is inscrutable as the Sphinx; she is pitiless as destiny. All the spells she weaves about the minds of men, all her imperial dreams and. her genius, end in folly and world-shaking tragedy. But was this Cleopatra beautiful? Was she the figure that the mind conjures up from the magic of her name—the figure that Rider Haggard pictures in his romance ' Cleopatra,' through the impassioned description of the young Egyptian prince* and priest, ill-fated Harmaehis? Here is the Cleopatra Rider Haggard imagines—a conventional Cleopatra, for all the glow and color of the words : "I looked upon the face—the face which seduced Caesar, ruined Egypt, and was doomed to give Octavian the sceptre of the world. I looked upon the flawless Grecian features, the rounded chin, the full, rich lips, the chiselled nostrils, and the cars fashioned like delicate shells. 1 saw the forehead, low, broad, and lovely, the crisped dark hair falling in heavy waves that sparkled in the sun, the arched eyebrows and the long, bent lashes. ' There before me was the grandeur of her imperial- shape. There burnt the wonderful eyes, hued like the Cyprian violet—eyes that seemed to sleep and brood on secret things, as night broods upon the desert, and yet as the night to shift, change and be illumined by gleams of sudden splendoi" born within their starry depths. But even then .1 knew that it was not within these charms alone that the might of Cleopatra's beauty lay. It was rather in a glory and a radiance cast through the fleshly covering from the fierce soul within. For she was a Thing of Flame like unto which no woman has ever been or ever will be. For in her met all the splendors that have been given to woman for her glory, and all the genius which man has won from heaven, Grand as the spirit of storm, lovely as lightning, cruel as pestilence, yet with a heart. Woe to the world when such another comes to curse it! " ;

Compare with this royal figure the Cleopatra that Arthur Weigall estimates in his book, 'The Life and Times of Cleopatra': "A small and graceful woman, prettily rounded rather than slight; white-skinned, dark-haired and darkeyed ; beautiful, and yet by no means a perfect type of beauty. Her voice is said to have been her most powerful weapon, for by the perfection of its modulations it was at all times wonderfully persuasive and seductive."

<She bad) in her such genius as Herod the Great's. In that meeting with Herod of which Josephus tells she fell in love with the lung, and sought to win him; in him surely of all the Kings of the earth she should have met her mate—in wisdom as in evil, for this Herod was a man immeasurably greater than Antony, and of a genius and ambition rivalling her own. Who shall tell her actual sentiment iii her association with the greatest of the Caesars —Julius, whom she as a. girl fascinated, but whom she first approached for dictates of policy? She had only hatred and contempt for her brother Ptolemy. She planned to wrest the kingdom from him; she won, as she won always, till her fate was linked' with Antony's. After the fall and the murder of Pompey the Great she set herself to win the world conqueror Caesar. Approach to him in Egypt was difficult. She carried out her purpose with an audacity and a wit that appealed equally with her beauty to Caesar. To reach him she was carried through her brother's territory in a bale as part of the baggage of her servant Apollodorus; she was borne into Caesar's presence in the night. The Roman smiled upon her, rising, laughing and dishevelled, from the bale spread out before him; she won him wholly by her beauty, her powers of mind, and her subtle flatteries.

She was no dark Egyptian ; her blood and breeding were Greek. What should have been the. history of the world had the alliance of the lovers Caesar and Cleopatra been legalised by Rome and had their son Csesarion been indeed heir, to the throne of the Empire? But Caesar was married to patriciaii Calpurnia, of powerful family ; and in the eyes' of Rome Cleopatra, remained only his mistress. On his return to Italy she accompanied ,him. She lived in his house; their relation was employed by his enemies against him. • It was, indeed, inconsistent that the author of a marriage law and repressor' of vice, should be the subject of such a scandal. v Cleopatra's dream—that her son should be acclaimed ruler of the world —was ended for. the time by the daggers, of Brutus and his She returned, oil her lover's death, to Egypt, taking the boy Cassation, with her.

With the fall of Csesar the Roman world was rent afresh by war. The arms of the Triumvirate of Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus were matched against the forces of the conspirators. Cassius and Brutus were defeated; soon the rivalry between Octavian and .Antony threatened fresh tragedy. Awhile the breach was to be healed and reconciliation effected by the marriage of Antony with Oetavian's sister Gctavia. Awhile—for Antony was enmeslied in the net of Cleopatra, who, summoned by the Triumvir to Tarsus to answer for assistance lent to Cassius, appeared as goddess, not as suppliant. She knew Antony's repute—knew him for a profligate, for all his greatness in war acquired! from service with Caesar, and for all the cunning with which he had driven Caesar's murderers from. Rome. She appeared on the Cydnus in a galley overlaid with gold 1 ; its sails were dyed with the purple and the lilac dyes of Tyre..Sho was Venus, Goddess of Beauty; her robes were white-shiuhig as sea foam;

boys as Cupids and: fair girls as Graceawere her court; she was rowed to ' tli sounds of flutes. Antony was her slafew-v from the hour of their meeting. He attended! her to Alexandria, and all tho. wonder of the woman—-her charm, her wisdom—were offered to the handsome, sensual fooi; her dreams of empire were; Jinked with his ambitions. Had this man been Herod of Jewry, not Antony, ,-urely she would have triumphed. Passion—and for this time at least she loved An-, tony—prevailed over her wisdom; passion destroyed her and her lover. She played upon his sensuality; she- devised wonderful feasts and follies. He cast aside the mail of the soldier for the garish dress of the Egyptian- he played Osiris to her Isis. .

Imagination may conjure \ip their feasting; tho Romans are; turned to drunkenness and folly; the white-limbed dancers whirl and posture; the wine runs red as blood from gemmy cups; the air is languorous with flower scents, burning sandalwood, strange spices; the red flowers on the head of Antony—the blood-red flowers—are ominous. Barbaric music mingles with the clamor of the revellers. The darkness of the pillared hall intrudes upon the light, of torches. Always this darkness closes in on Cleopatra and her lover, even as the darkness of Octavian's" wrath—of Octavian's ambi Lions—lowers, cloudlike, darkling, blotting out their sun. Yet for the time the spirit of tho woman, losing from folly, pictured high* empire; imagined Antony, her fool, lord of the world; saw Csesarion ruler' of' Syria; disregarded the power of young Octavian ; failed to understand that, whilo her lover spent himself in folly the em-' pire was passing from him. For the while he was recalled from his inglorious life and vile deEauchery to manhood. For the while he separated himself from Cleopatra and followed the dictates of the noble woman Octavia. Still his fortunes ebbed; campaign against the Parthians lost him his repute as general; always, while his star was waning, the star of Octavian was rising, growing more resplendent. Passion for Cleopatra lured him back to his destruction.

The purpose of Octavian to destroy his rival was cold and deliberate. He had awaited his hour; now he struck, and the forces of the East that were Antony's melted before the conqueror. ■• The sea battle of Actium by weight of numbers shoqid have been Antony's. It was lost to him by the sudden flight of Cleopatra and her ships. The reason, for her de.sertion, was surely that she had wearied of her lover and would be 'rid of him, believing that with him her ruin must bo absolute, while alone she might' endure Back to Alexandria she sped; Antony followed. Through the months ere Octavian struck 1 ;s final blow and won his sweeping victory Antony now lived as recluse, now emerged for mad and riotous folly. Surely the Queeji must have despised -and hated the fallen Triumvir; must have thought only to save herself,' her kingdom, and her children. She plotted desperately, she sought alliances, she hoped still to fascinate the young Octavian; she yet prepared by trials,of poisons on her slaves the manner of her dying. She was convinced that the poison of asps easiest death.

Defeated, Antony fell upon his sword. Cleopatra sought by all her allurements to win the cold .Octsßttanv .She failed, for. he held his face averted from the suppliant, fearing her magic,- She might live —for the time—but • she, the Queen «f : Egypt, would! be exhibited in his triumph. Robed and. crpwned,/she died of the bito of the asp.'-'" : ;H-■'■,-:•/.5»wfc'