SERPENT OF NILE

Evening Star, Issue 18663, 18 June 1924, Page 8

SERPENT OF NILE

CLEOPATRA’S ROMANCE AND

TRAGEDY,

PASSION AND A LOST KINGDOM.

Tennyson, in tho splendid vorse of ‘ A Dream of Fair Women,’ sums up in tho words “a name for ever” tho enduring impress of .Cleopatra on the imagination of the worlcl. Among tho “ far-renowned brides of ancient song” none save Helen of Trov matches Cleopatra of Egypt in the world’s stories of tragedy and passion ; none, in history, save Mary Stuart represents, as Cleopatra, tho sum of beauty and genius. About this Queen of Eiwnt the greatest drama of the ancient world was played. Her very name conjures up in the romantic mind the might of Homo and tho 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, korno high upon the necks of Nubians; she is fanned with tho 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 shoen of (he serpent; strange jewels adorn her. Sho is wise with all the wisdom of Greece and Fgypt; she is versed in terrible arts; she is'inscrutable as the Sphinx; she is pitiless as destiny. All the spells sb© weaver, 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 tho mind conjures up from tho magic of hor name—the figure that Rider Haggard pictures in his romance ‘ Cleopatra,’ through the impassioned description of the young Egyptian prince and priest, ill-fated' ilarmachis? Hero is tho Cleopatra Rider Haggard imagines—a conventional Cleopatra, for ail the glow and color of the words ; “ I looked upon the face—the face which seduced Ciosar, ruined Egypt, and was doomed to give Octavian tho sceptre of the world. I looked upon the flawless Grecian features, the rounded chin, tho full, rich lips, tho chiselled nostrils, and tho ears friahioned like delicate shells. 1 saw the forehead, low, broad, and lovely, the crisped dark hair falling in heavy waves that sparkled in the san, tho arched eyebrows and the long, bent lashes. There before me was tho grandeur of her imperial shape. There burnt the wonderful eyes, lined like the Cyprian violet—eyes that seemed to sleep and brood on secret tilings, as night broods upon tho desert, and yet as the night to shift, change and he illumined by gleams of sudden splendor born within their starry depths. But even then I knew that it was not within those charms alone that tho 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 sho was a Thing of Flame like unto which no woman lias ever been or ever will bo. For in her met .all tho splendors Unit 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, Woo to the world when such another conics to curse it! ”

Compare with this royal figure Hie Cleopatra. that Arthur Weigall estimates in his bool:, ‘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.” Mho hrui in her such ’ genius as Herod the Great’s. In that meeting with Herod of which Josephus tells she fell in love with iho King, and sought to win him; in him surely of all the Kings of the earth sho should, have met her male—in wisdom as in evil, for this Herod was a man immeasurably greater than Antony, and of a genius and ambition rivalling her own. Wiio shall tell her actual sentiment in her association with the greatest of the (iesars—Julius, whom she as a, girl fascinated, but whom sho first approached for dictates of policy? Sho had only hatred and contempt for her brother Ptolemy. She planned to wrest Hie' kingdom from him ; sho won, as she won always, till her fate was linked with Antony’s. Alter the fall and the murder of Pompoy 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 apjKxded equally with her beauty to (War. To reach him sho was car-

ried through her brother's territory in a halo a-s part of the baggage of her servant Apollodorns; sire was liorno into Uscsar’s presence in the night. Tho Homan 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 si .bids flat) ones.

She was no dark Egyptian ; her blood and breeding were Greek. What should have been the history of tho world had the alliance of tho. lovers Caesar and Cleopatra bam legalised by Rome and had tlufir son (Acsarion been indeed heir to the throne of tho Empire? But Caesar was married to patrician Calpurnia, of powerful family ; and in the eyes of Romo Cleopatra remained only his mistress. On his return to Italy she accompanied him. S!u> lived in his house; their relation was employed by ids enemies against him. It was, indeed, inconsistent that the author of a marriage law and repressor of vice should bo tho subject of such a scandal. Cleopatra's dream—that her son should bo acclaimed tho ruler of the world—was ended for the time by tho daggers of Brutus and his fellow-assassins. She returned, on her lovor’s death, to Egypt, taking the boy Ctcsarinn with Iter.

With the fall of Oaisar the Homan world was rent afresh by war. The anus of the Triumvirate of Octavian, Antony, and Bepirhis were matched against* the forces of the conspirators. Cassius and Brutus were defeated; soon the rivalry between Octavian and Antony threatened iiosh tragedy. Awhile the breach was to be healed and reconciliation effected by the marriage of Antony with Octavimn’s sister Octavia. Awhile—-for Antony was enmeshed in the net of Cleopatra, who, summoned by the Triumvir to Tarsus to answer for assistance lent to Cassius, appeared as goddess, not us suppliant, She knew Antony’s repute —knew him for a profligate, for all his greatness in war arijuiredi from service with Cesar, and tor all the ((tinning with which ho had driven Caesar's murderers from Horne. S!io appeared on tho Oydnus in a galley overlaid with gold: its sails wore dyed with the purple and tho lilac dyes of Tyre. Sho was Venus, Goddess of Beauty; her robes were white-shining as sea foam; boys ns Cupids and fair girls as Graces we're, her court; she was rowed to the sounds of flutes. Antony was her stave from the hour of their meeting. Ho attended; her to Alexandria, and all the wonder of the womanI—her 1 —her charm, her ■wisdom —were offered to the handsome, sensual fool ; her dreams of empire were linked with his ambitions. Had this man been He-nM of Jewry, not Antony, curdy she would have triumphed. Passion—and for this time at least sho loved Antony—prevailed over her wisdom ; passion nestTOVod 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 ; Ire played Osiris to her Isis.

Imagination may conjure up their feasting: tho Homans are turned to drunkenness ami folly; the white-limbed dancers whirl and posture; the wine runs red as blood from gemniy cups; the air is languorous with flower scents, burning sani dalwood, strange spices; the red flowers ' on tho 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 j 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, cloiwilike, darkling, blotting out their run. Yet for the time tho spirit of the woman, losing from folly, .pictured high empire; imagined Antony, her fool, lord of the world; ‘saw Ca>sarion ruler of .Syria; disregarded tho power of young Octavian ; failed to understand' that, while her lover spent himself in folly tho empire was passing from him. For the while ho was recalled from his inglorious life and vile debauchery to manhood. For the while ho separated himself from Cleopatra and followed tho dictates of the noble woman Octavia. Still his fortunes ebbed; campaign against the Parthiaus lost him his repute as general; always, while his star was waning, tho star of Octavian was rising, growing more resplendent. Passion for Cleopatra lured him bad; to his destruction.

Tho purpose of Octavian to destroy his rival was cold and deliberate. He had awaited his hour; now ho struck, and tho forces of tho East that were Antony’s molted before tho conqueror. Tho sea battle of Actiurn by weight of numbers should have liecn Antony’s. It was lost to him by tho sudden flight of Cleopatra and her ships. Tho reason for her desertion was surely that she had weaned of her lover and would bo rid of him, believing that with him her ruin must be absolute, while alone she might endure. Back to Alexandria she sped ; Aiit.oiiy followed. Through tho months eve Octavian struck his final blow and won his sweeping victory Antony now lived as recluse,, now emerged for mad and riotous folly. Surely the Queen must have despised and hated the fallen Triumvir; must have thought only to save herself, her kingdom, and her children. Sho plotted desperately, she sought alliances, she hoped still to fascinate tho young Octavian; she yet prepared by trials of poisons on her slaves the manner of her dying. She was eonvinml. that tho poison of asps offered easiest death.

Defeated, Antony fell upon his sword. Cleopatra sought by all Inn- allurements to win tho cold Octavian. Him failed, for he held his face, averted from the suppliant, fearing her magic. Sho might live —for the time —but slip, (he Queen of Egypt, would bo exhibited in his triumph. Robed and crowned, she died of the Into of tho asp.