Antony and Cleopatra (3 of 3)
Resumen
TLDRIty lahateny ity dia mibanjina ny Antony sy Cleopatra avy amin'i Shakespeare, miaraka amin'ny fifantohana manokana amin'ny fiantraikan'ny fandriampahalemana sy ny ady eo amin'ny tantara. Hita ao anatin'ny raharaha ny lampihazo amin'ilay fampisehoana an'i Romeo sy Octavia, izay mamafonjy izany, ny olana ara-pihetseham-po sy ara-pitiavana, ary ny fifandimbiasam-pitondrana manokana sy zanaka mpanjaka. Manambara ny fiforonan'ny soatoavina vaovao ankapobeny sy ny fomba fanovàna tarihina amin'ny faran'ny Empira romanina sy ny hastaharan'ny kristianisma. Rehefa mandroso ny tantara, dia mandrisika ny mpihaino mba hijery hoe iza ireo soatoavina ampitaina amin'ny alalan'ny mpilalao sy ny fifandimbiasana rafitra eo amin'izy ireo. Ireo sosokevitra dia tonga amin'ny famolavolana fivavahana sy fiovàna ara-kolontsaina lehibe miandry eo ambonin'ny horonantsary.
Para llevar
- 🌍 Ny fanjakana romana sy ny fifankatiavana dia mizahozaho antoka ho amin'ny fandriampahalemana sy ady.
- ❤️ Ny fitiavan'i Antony sy Cleopatra dia ohatra ny fitiavana mifototra amin'ny tsyfisiana anton-javatra.
- 🎭 Ilay tantara dia mampiseho ny olana ara-piahiahiana sy ara-pitiavana amin'ny fanantonana.
- 👑 Rafitra politika romana no lasa fototra aorian'ny fitondrana.
- 📖 Ny lahatsoratra ao amin'ny bokin'ny Revelasy dia ampifandraisina amin'ny Antony sy Cleopatra.
- 🔄 Soatoavina romana tafiditra dia avadiy amin'ny fanapahan-kevitry ny kristianisma.
- 💔 Ny fitadiavana ny maha-zava-dehibe ny sakrifisy sy ny fampifangaroana ny lovantsofo.
- 🌀 Fanontaniana ara-panahy sy fitadiavana ho an'ny mpanjaka sy ny mpanjaka dia miseho eo amin'ny tantara.
- ❓ Mampiseho ny tsy fisian'ny anton-javatra maharitra eo amin'ny fiaraha-miasa amin'ny tantara.
- 🗝️ Tsy voafetra intsony ny politika ho fitadiavana soatoavina nokilasin'ny tanàna na polisisy.
Cronología
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
Mampiditra ny lohahevitra momba ny fifandraisana misy eo amin’i Antony sy Cleopatra amin’ny tontolon’ny Republik Roma ary ny fiantraikany amin’ny taham-piakarana sy fiparitahan’ny Kristianisma. Tsindrio ny fomba aharetan’ny ady sy ny fomba mahatonga ny fandriampahalemana ho toerana miraviravy.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
Antony sy Cleopatra dia mamaritra ny fitomboan’ny fifanarahana manokana sy ny fandriampahalemana miendrika fandrika ao anatin’ny Empira Romanina, izay milaza ny fihetsehana tsy miato mankany amin’ny Kristianisma amin’ny endrika fisolevany.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
Miresaka ny fomba tsy fisian’ny fahavalon’ny Roma izay ahafahan’ny Empira mivelatra amin’ny lafiny maritrano sy ara-politika, nefa mampiharihary ny fitotonganana ao anatin’ny Empira, izay milazalaza ny fitomboan’ny Kristianisma amin’ny lafiny ara-moraly.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
An Anthony dia manana olana amin’ny fifikirana amin’ny antony manokana ka mampiseho ny fiantraikan’io amin’ny fitiavana izay ao amin’ny sentin’ny Repuburika Romanina.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
Ny fiantraikan’ny fitiavana tsy ho voafetra nentin’izy ireo dia miteraka fifanoherana ara-kolontsaina sy ara-moraly amin’ny terminolojia Romanina klasika ary mahatonga ny Kristianisma hitady fomba fialana amin’izany.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
Fomba fijery fanoherana ny Kristianisma izay miezaka mamaritra ny Antony sy Cleopatra ho toy ny loharanom-po fonenana ny fandavana ny tombontsoa mitarika.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
.Ny fitiavana tompoina dia ambaratonga farany amin’ny fiantraikan’ny Antony sy Cleopatra ary maneho ny fomba fisamborana fandresena sy fandavana, toy ny endriky ny zava-bita.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
Fadiranovana ny empira tarihin’izay no potehia manokana, ary hita taratra izany amin’ny fandresena an Antoky ny empira ny manana fidirana amin’ny Kristianisma.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
Kristianisma mipoitra ao anatin’ity tantara ity toy ny vaha-olana manakoho amin’ny dinihan’ny vidin’ny fandavana amin’ny fomba Romanina.
- 00:45:00 - 00:50:00
Antony dia miditra amin’ny fanoherana mitovitovy amin’ny Kristianisma izay mitsikera ny endrika amam-bika sy fomba fiasan’ny Repoblika Romanina.
- 00:50:00 - 00:55:00
Ny firotsahana amin’ny fandeferana Romanina amin’ny alalan’ny Kristianisma amin’ny lasibatra ara-tsosialy.
- 00:55:00 - 01:00:00
Fampisehoana ny desint hamarotana sy ny voatsikera ny famisavisana ny valiny ateraky ny famadihana ara-kristianina.
- 01:00:00 - 01:05:00
Fiahiahiana ny filatro mitaratra ny hatezerana mitarika amin’ny fiovan’ny fandraisan’ny Kristianisma ny loheloran’ny jeran’ny tantara.
- 01:05:00 - 01:10:00
Amin’ny farany, ny revi-tena amin’ny antony sy Cleopatra dia toy ny fanalaviran’ny tonon-taodan’ny politikam-pamoretana.
- 01:10:00 - 01:15:00
Famoronana tontolo vaovao izay voafaritra amin’ny Kristianisma toy ny fahafahana mamaritra ny ho avy.
- 01:15:00 - 01:23:11
Kristianisma na amin’ny fipoirana no miezaka mametraka ny mpanjakan’ny endrika am-bika vaovao dia lasa zana-tsipiriany malefaka no lalana tsotra.
Mapa mental
Vídeo de preguntas y respuestas
Inona no anjara asan'ny ady sy ny fandriampahalemana amin'ny Antony sy Cleopatra?
Mampiseho ny ady ho toy ny fitaomana angovo sy famelombelon'aina ho an'ny vahoaka, raha ny fandriampahalemana kosa dia miteraka kamo mianoka ka miala amin'ny adidy sy ny fifandraisana.
Inona ny fifandraisana misy eo amin'ny fitiavana Antony sy Cleopatra?
Ny fitiavan'izy ireo dia miavaka amin'ny hevi-diso sy ny fanaovana sorona, izay mampiseho ny halalin'ny fitiavana na dia tsy mbola misy antony ara-ballistic aza.
Inona no role of sokidina mahaleo tena sy mpanompo fiasa amin'ny firaisam-pirenena?
Ny tantara dia mampiseho ny andraikitry ny sokidina mahaleo tena amin'ny fanompoana ny firaisam-pirenena, raha toa ka mihamitombo ny tsy fahaiza-mandanjalanja amin'ny firaisam-pirenena ary marina ny maha-mpanompo ho ny politika.
Ahoana ny fomba iainan'ny mpilalao fiovana ara-psikolojia?
Manontany tena amin'ny maha-zava-dehibe ny firaisan-kina manokana sy manompo tena izy ireo, izay mety miteraka fisavoritahana sy ady anaty.
Manao ahoana ny fiantraikan'ny fanodikodinam-bidin'ny fitondram-panjakana romana sy ny kristianisma tao Shakespeare?
Shakespeare dia mampiseho ny fanodikodinam-bidy ny soatoavina romana tamin'ny fitondran'ny kristianisma, izay mampiseho ny fomba nandrafetana ny soatoavina tamin'ny fomba hafa.
Ver más resúmenes de vídeos
- 00:00:05okay uh we're going to finish up on
- 00:00:08Anthony Cleopatra today and on Rome and
- 00:00:11move on to England uh next week in Henry
- 00:00:15V uh but to sum up what we've been
- 00:00:18looking at in Anthony Catra let me go
- 00:00:20back to Cory elanus and uh the
- 00:00:23conversation among the vulis at the end
- 00:00:25of act four scene 5 and their discussion
- 00:00:28of War and Peace because it really could
- 00:00:30have clued us into what happens in an
- 00:00:33Cleopatra uh they're excited that
- 00:00:35they're going to war again why then we
- 00:00:36shall have a stirring world again this
- 00:00:39piece is nothing but to rust iron
- 00:00:40increase tailor and breed ballad makers
- 00:00:43see they know there's going to be more
- 00:00:45poetry in a peaceful Empire uh let me
- 00:00:48have War say I it exceeds peace as far
- 00:00:50as day does night it's sprightly walking
- 00:00:53Audible and full event peace is a very
- 00:00:55apoplexy lethargy dull deaf sleepy
- 00:00:59notice is how sleepy the characters are
- 00:01:02on Anthony and Cleopatra they're so
- 00:01:04indolent they're bored insensible get
- 00:01:07every more bastard children than Wars of
- 00:01:09destroyer of men certainly true of an in
- 00:01:11Cleopatra's world to seow and as Wars in
- 00:01:14some sort may be said to be a ravisher
- 00:01:16so it cannot be denied but peace is a
- 00:01:18great maker of cuckles again a lot of
- 00:01:21adultery going on in the world of Andy
- 00:01:23Catra IE and peace makes men hate one
- 00:01:26another reason because they then l need
- 00:01:30one another uh and this is one of the
- 00:01:33great mellian teachings of the plays uh
- 00:01:37as a whole that that war energizes the
- 00:01:41population peace produces indolence
- 00:01:44peace makes people go soft therefore
- 00:01:46it's ominous for Rome in an Catra when
- 00:01:50we hear the last of many battles I mean
- 00:01:53to fight or the time of universal peace
- 00:01:55is near there's a suggestion in Cory
- 00:01:57elanus and this is one of makell ideas
- 00:02:00that uh the Roman Republic was energized
- 00:02:03by all these enemies that fought and in
- 00:02:05particular that the patricians pursued a
- 00:02:08policy of getting the pans behind the
- 00:02:10regime by threatening him with
- 00:02:13threatening them with the prospect of
- 00:02:15foreign enemies and now when we see the
- 00:02:17parthians being defeated in the terms of
- 00:02:20the play and almost in historical teams
- 00:02:23terms it means that the last of the
- 00:02:26Roman enemies is going uh that we won't
- 00:02:30have anyone to fight anymore and that's
- 00:02:32ominous in the terms uh of the play uh
- 00:02:36itself uh Ena
- 00:02:38barbus this is on page 34 uh uh is
- 00:02:42pointing out to the
- 00:02:43trivers uh uh uh this is act 2 scene 2
- 00:02:48about line 109 you shall have time to
- 00:02:50Wrangle in when you have nothing else to
- 00:02:53do uh in other words they've got to
- 00:02:56unite themselves CU they've got an enemy
- 00:02:58pompy right now but but the ominous note
- 00:03:01in this speech is we're coming to a
- 00:03:03point when they'll have nothing else to
- 00:03:05do where there will be no more enemies
- 00:03:08and therefore uh whatever alliances they
- 00:03:11have will fall apart pomy himself
- 00:03:13understands this back on page 29 so act
- 00:03:172 scene 2 uh uh uh again 29 about line
- 00:03:2340 uh I I know not how I know not mean
- 00:03:26this how lesser em enmities may give way
- 00:03:29to great
- 00:03:30were not that we stand up against them
- 00:03:32all were pregnant they should Square
- 00:03:34between themselves uh so again the
- 00:03:37notion that what's keeping the triumphs
- 00:03:40uh together here is a common enemy pompy
- 00:03:43and indeed throughout these plays we see
- 00:03:45it's only a common enemy that helps
- 00:03:47generate a sense of the common good and
- 00:03:50what happens therefore under the Empire
- 00:03:53uh as it starts to make a hole out of
- 00:03:56the world as the Romans understand it uh
- 00:03:59is that that sense of a common good
- 00:04:01disappears and everything now devolves
- 00:04:04upon personal and private loyalties uh
- 00:04:08this is what Anthony says to his troops
- 00:04:11on page
- 00:04:12109 this is uh Act 4
- 00:04:16scene8 uh uh so about line five in Act 4
- 00:04:21scene 8 page 109 uh uh I thank you all
- 00:04:25for dyh handed are you and have fought
- 00:04:28not as you serve the cause
- 00:04:30but it is as it had been each man's like
- 00:04:33mine that's really very un Roman in the
- 00:04:36Republican sense of Roman uh Roman
- 00:04:39soldiers were supposed to fight for the
- 00:04:40Republic to fight for the cause that was
- 00:04:43brutus's principle not that I love
- 00:04:45Caesar less but I love Roman more Rome
- 00:04:47more but here is that transformation we
- 00:04:50saw in Brutus at the end of Julius
- 00:04:52Caesar what really matters is that my
- 00:04:54men have been loyal to me and that's the
- 00:04:56idea as if it wasn't a
- 00:05:00national uh cause uh the Roman cause uh
- 00:05:04but each man's like
- 00:05:06mine uh and we saw the consequences of
- 00:05:09this in comparing octavia's situation
- 00:05:11with volumnia volumnia had a dilemma my
- 00:05:14son Rome my son Rome well she was able
- 00:05:18to resolve that dilemma because no son
- 00:05:21of hers could be more important than
- 00:05:23Rome her sons had to serve the cause of
- 00:05:25Rome when Octavia has the Dilemma it's
- 00:05:29my husband my brother my husband my
- 00:05:31brother and they're on the same plane
- 00:05:34and as we saw that's a much more
- 00:05:36difficult uh level to resolve what we
- 00:05:39see in the Empire now is this enormous
- 00:05:42explosion of personal loyalties or you
- 00:05:44can say that personal loyalties are all
- 00:05:47that's left uh and the problem with that
- 00:05:51is you don't know which to choose again
- 00:05:53and again in this play we find people
- 00:05:55with the Dilemma of loyalty meus doesn't
- 00:05:58know do I serve pomy or should I go over
- 00:06:01to the triers ENA barbaras is of course
- 00:06:04the greatest example of this do I serve
- 00:06:06Anthony or do I go over to Octavius
- 00:06:08Caesar and these dilemmas are presented
- 00:06:11as much more difficult to resolve uh
- 00:06:14than the situation in the Republic where
- 00:06:16when it was working people would put the
- 00:06:18good good of Rome um uh over their own
- 00:06:22we were talking last time about how this
- 00:06:24works out uh in terms of love in the
- 00:06:28play uh that anony and Cleopatra seek
- 00:06:30out some new kind of infinite
- 00:06:33love love in the Republic was finite
- 00:06:37because like everything else that was
- 00:06:39bounded by the city the city set limits
- 00:06:42on love marriage was supposed to be for
- 00:06:44the sake of Rome uh and part of it what
- 00:06:48that does is cool down marriage uh in a
- 00:06:52way it makes it too rational uh one way
- 00:06:56you could talk about Anon Catra is they
- 00:06:58want a really irrational love that's the
- 00:07:00only way to produce an infinite love
- 00:07:03when you look at the love such as it is
- 00:07:06between Anthony and Octavia uh it's
- 00:07:09poisoned by the fact that it's a
- 00:07:11dynastic marriage Anthony has too many
- 00:07:14reasons for loving Octavia for her to
- 00:07:17believe that he really loves her which
- 00:07:19is actually a good suspicion on her part
- 00:07:22uh uh When Love Is that integrated into
- 00:07:25the city or the community when it's
- 00:07:28serving that clear political purpose
- 00:07:30doesn't quite look like love to us
- 00:07:33Shakespeare had explored this formula
- 00:07:35years earlier in Romeo and Juliet where
- 00:07:38the point was to fall in love between
- 00:07:40two Waring families so you could have
- 00:07:42the thrill of defying your parents and
- 00:07:45Shakespeare shows that quite clearly in
- 00:07:47Romeo and Juliet that the The Passion of
- 00:07:50Love is generated by the very sense of
- 00:07:53danger involved and that's clearly true
- 00:07:56of Anthony Cleopatra uh it's almost if
- 00:07:59once fulvia dies Anthony's got to get
- 00:08:01married quickly so he can start
- 00:08:03committing adultery again because that's
- 00:08:06what Cleopatra wants uh she wants a guy
- 00:08:09that will violate proprieties for her
- 00:08:12who will show how much he loves her by
- 00:08:14the fact that he's willing to break the
- 00:08:16rules for her and more deeply as I
- 00:08:18started to say last time these lovers
- 00:08:21want to make sacrifices for each other
- 00:08:23that's the only you know if it Be Love
- 00:08:25inde deed tell me how much well that's
- 00:08:28how you tell them how much by
- 00:08:30sacrificing for something and so the
- 00:08:33point about this love between Anon and
- 00:08:35Cleopatra is how irrational it is
- 00:08:39therefore it proves its depth Anthony
- 00:08:42has every reason to Desert
- 00:08:44Cleopatra therefore if he stays loyal to
- 00:08:47her it's because he loves her and not
- 00:08:49for any credential consideration and the
- 00:08:51same thing on the other side now this is
- 00:08:53a very intense love but also radically
- 00:08:56insecure for just this reason it's so
- 00:08:58irrational
- 00:09:00now this idea also comes up uh in the
- 00:09:04case of soldiers following their Lords
- 00:09:08uh and we see it uh in the case of enab
- 00:09:11barbas this would be on page 9 91 so act
- 00:09:153 scene
- 00:09:1613 uh about line 42 M honesty and I
- 00:09:20begin to square the Loyalty well head
- 00:09:23held to fools does make our faith mere
- 00:09:26Folly yet he that can endure to follow
- 00:09:29with Allegiance a fallen Lord does
- 00:09:31conquer him that did his master conquer
- 00:09:34and earns a place in the story this is
- 00:09:36the logic of losing we've been seeing
- 00:09:39ever since uh Brutus this is actually
- 00:09:43the follower side of brutus's logic as a
- 00:09:46leader here what Ena bar Ena barbus
- 00:09:49realizes that there's something
- 00:09:50irrational about his behavior the
- 00:09:53Loyalty well held to fools does make our
- 00:09:55faith mere Folly Anthony's behaving
- 00:09:58irrationally he's going to lose
- 00:10:00everything if I continue to follow him
- 00:10:02it's an irrational decision yet he that
- 00:10:05can endure to follow with Allegiance a
- 00:10:07fallen Lord does conquer him that did
- 00:10:09his master conquer and earns a place in
- 00:10:11the story the logic is the same logic as
- 00:10:14that of the love of Anthony Cleopatra
- 00:10:17the idea here is if you follow a
- 00:10:20Victorious leader maybe you're just
- 00:10:22doing it for the
- 00:10:24victory there's a reason to follow a
- 00:10:27Victorious leader you're going to
- 00:10:28benefit from it if you want to show pure
- 00:10:31loyalty true loyalty you can show it
- 00:10:35much better following a
- 00:10:37loser uh because then you can say you're
- 00:10:40acting out of pure loyalty and not in
- 00:10:43any way
- 00:10:44mercenary uh that's the logic of why he
- 00:10:47continues to follow Anthony uh here and
- 00:10:50so we therefore get one of the typical
- 00:10:52paradoxes in the play that losing is
- 00:10:55winning uh that way you conquer him that
- 00:10:57did your master conquer and her place in
- 00:11:00the story uh your lord may lose but you
- 00:11:05win because you've shown you're a true
- 00:11:08loyal follower by showing that you will
- 00:11:10follow someone even in
- 00:11:12defeat so we've been seeing a lot now of
- 00:11:15this logic of loss remember uh ventidius
- 00:11:19ambition the soldiers virtue rather
- 00:11:22makes choice of loss than gain which
- 00:11:25darkens him now where have we seen this
- 00:11:27logic before was on day one of this
- 00:11:30course uh and I take you back to Nicolo
- 00:11:33makavelli and the discourses uh and I'll
- 00:11:37read you again a passage that I hope
- 00:11:38will have more resonance for you now
- 00:11:40it's the one on page 131 book two
- 00:11:43chapter 2 uh uh uh thinking then whence
- 00:11:48it can arise that those in ancient times
- 00:11:51uh that in those ancient times peoples
- 00:11:53were more lovers of freedom than in
- 00:11:56these but which means they were active
- 00:11:58citizens I believe it arises from the
- 00:12:00same cause that makes men less strong
- 00:12:03now which I believe is the difference
- 00:12:05between our education and the ancient
- 00:12:08founded on the difference between our
- 00:12:09religion and the ancient for our
- 00:12:12religion Christianity having shown the
- 00:12:15truth in the true way makes us esteem
- 00:12:18less the honor of the world whereas the
- 00:12:21Gentiles the Romans the pagans esteeming
- 00:12:24it very much it is held in honor as the
- 00:12:27highest virtue uh and having plac the
- 00:12:29highest good in it were more ferocious
- 00:12:32in their actions the ancient religion
- 00:12:34did not beatify men if they were not
- 00:12:37full of worldly Glory as were captains
- 00:12:40of armies and princes of republics our
- 00:12:43religion Christianity has glorified
- 00:12:46humble and contemplative more than
- 00:12:48active men it has then placed the
- 00:12:50highest good in humility abjectness and
- 00:12:53contempt of things human the other the
- 00:12:56Romans placed it in greatness of spirit
- 00:12:59strength of body and all other things
- 00:13:01capable of making men very strong and if
- 00:13:04our religion asks that you have strength
- 00:13:06in yourself it wishes you to be capable
- 00:13:09more of suffering than of doing
- 00:13:11something strong this mode of Life thus
- 00:13:14seems to have rendered the world weak
- 00:13:16and given it and prey to criminal men
- 00:13:18who can manage it securely seeing that
- 00:13:20the collectivity of men so as to go to
- 00:13:22paradise think more of enduring their
- 00:13:25beatings than of avenging them it's an
- 00:13:27extraordinary Passage message uh and I
- 00:13:30think provides a great clue to Anthony
- 00:13:32and Cleopatra that is what we've been
- 00:13:34seeing a lot here is in this play people
- 00:13:38are emphasizing their willingness to
- 00:13:40endure their beatings rather to avenge
- 00:13:43them all this logic of loss in the play
- 00:13:45so I want to offer the
- 00:13:48suggestion uh that Anthony Cleopatra is
- 00:13:51Shakespeare's uh covert analysis of the
- 00:13:54rise of
- 00:13:55Christianity uh that what he is showing
- 00:13:58in in the end of the Roman Republic and
- 00:14:00the emergence of Empire uh are the
- 00:14:03conditions that also led to the rise of
- 00:14:05Christianity now there's something
- 00:14:07initially Preposterous about this claim
- 00:14:10in the sense that for centuries the
- 00:14:12Roman Empire was the great enemy of
- 00:14:14Christianity we know about centuries of
- 00:14:17persecution uh certainly the Christians
- 00:14:19hated the Roman Empire and invade
- 00:14:21against it and yet ultimately the Roman
- 00:14:25Empire ended up
- 00:14:26Christian and really only three
- 00:14:28centuries or so after this play around
- 00:14:31325 the emperor Constantine converted to
- 00:14:34Christianity uh uh charmia had hoped to
- 00:14:37marry Octavius Caesar but she got to
- 00:14:39marry Constantine instead uh and and uh
- 00:14:44in a way what emperor Constantine
- 00:14:46figured out was that Christianity was
- 00:14:48the appropriate uh religion for a
- 00:14:51worldwide Empire uh and that it's
- 00:14:54getting people willing to endure their
- 00:14:56sufferings was really quite an ideal
- 00:14:58religion for an emperor who wanted to
- 00:15:00rule them so uh uh let me try to work
- 00:15:04this out for you and begin by showing
- 00:15:06you that Shakespeare makes us aware that
- 00:15:09these events are contemporaneous with
- 00:15:11the rise of Christianity it's one of the
- 00:15:13the uh stranger aspects of play the most
- 00:15:17obvious uh example of what I'm talking
- 00:15:19about is the continuing mention of Herod
- 00:15:22of Jewelry in the play uh which reminds
- 00:15:25us uh that
- 00:15:27Octavius Caesar as Augustus Caesar was
- 00:15:31the Roman Emperor at the time that Jesus
- 00:15:33was born there are five mentions uh of
- 00:15:37Herod uh in the play uh I should say
- 00:15:40that he is mentioned frequently in
- 00:15:42plutarch's life of Mark Anthony so
- 00:15:44Shakespeare was not pulling this out of
- 00:15:46his hat there's only one case where
- 00:15:49Plutarch mentions a different king of uh
- 00:15:53the Jews and and Shakespeare substitutes
- 00:15:55Herod uh but still when you add up the
- 00:15:58the references uh they keep uh reminding
- 00:16:02us that the chronology of this play can
- 00:16:05roughly be um uh mapped onto Christian
- 00:16:08chronology I'll remind you these events
- 00:16:10Battle of acum is 31 BC uh obviously
- 00:16:14Jesus was not yet born in 31 BC uh but
- 00:16:19but Octavius becoming Augustus Caesar
- 00:16:22would be the link here and look at that
- 00:16:25first reference to Herod which is the
- 00:16:27one that's leas Bas in Plutarch it's on
- 00:16:30page seven so act 1 scene 2 uh uh about
- 00:16:35line 25 where charman is asking the
- 00:16:38souser for fortunate and says good now
- 00:16:41some ex unfortunate let me be married to
- 00:16:44three kings in a for noon now if you
- 00:16:47know the story of Jesus's Nativity three
- 00:16:49kings the three mag are involved that
- 00:16:52and let me have a child at 50 a
- 00:16:54miraculous birth uh to whom Herod of
- 00:16:57jewelry made do homage uh we we know
- 00:17:02herod's uh uh uh attempt to destroy uh
- 00:17:06the Infant Jesus uh so this would be
- 00:17:09something that would go beyond Jesus
- 00:17:11even so uh the miraculous child that
- 00:17:13Herod would worship and made find me to
- 00:17:16marry with Octavius Caesar that is very
- 00:17:19strange when you think about it uh uh
- 00:17:21this prediction that someday this
- 00:17:23religious Force out of the East will
- 00:17:25somehow marry with Caesar and indeed
- 00:17:28that happened in the third uh 4th
- 00:17:30Century ad when uh as I said Constantine
- 00:17:34converted the Empire to Christianity uh
- 00:17:36here's a couple of other peculiar
- 00:17:39references in the play that Scholars
- 00:17:41have discovered over the years uh this
- 00:17:44is Page
- 00:17:4694 uh uh act 3
- 00:17:50sc13 about line 126 where Anthony says
- 00:17:55oh that were I upon the hill of bassan
- 00:17:58outroar the horned herd now this comes
- 00:18:01absolutely out of nowhere uh as your
- 00:18:04notes point out it's a quotation of
- 00:18:06Psalm
- 00:18:0822 which seems odd for a Roman to be
- 00:18:11doing I took the trouble to look up
- 00:18:13Psalm 22 and its opening line is my God
- 00:18:17my God why hast Thou forsaken
- 00:18:20me I see some of you are catching the
- 00:18:23reference Jesus says that on the cross
- 00:18:27uh well know of say from box St Matthew
- 00:18:30passion uh so it's rather strange that
- 00:18:34Anthony quotes one Psalm and it happens
- 00:18:37to be the psalm that Jesus quotes um on
- 00:18:40the uh cross uh couple of other examples
- 00:18:43there's a lot of there are a lot of
- 00:18:44buried references to the New Testament
- 00:18:47uh in this work uh scholar named Ethel
- 00:18:50Satan discovered this this said years
- 00:18:53ago there are uh quotations from The
- 00:18:55Book of
- 00:18:57Revelation uh in Anthony and
- 00:18:59Cleopatra uh page
- 00:19:03121 uh the scene very eerie scene uh uh
- 00:19:10with Anthony uh uh trying to kill
- 00:19:14himself and so it's Act 4
- 00:19:16sc14 about line 106 uh the second guard
- 00:19:20says the star is fallen and the first
- 00:19:23guard say the first guard says and time
- 00:19:26is at its period now this scholar Satan
- 00:19:29Trace these to the Book of
- 00:19:31Revelation uh chapter 8 uh: 10 to 11 uh
- 00:19:38and there fell a great star from
- 00:19:40Heaven uh repeated in in chapter 9 verse
- 00:19:44one and chapter 10 again this is the
- 00:19:47last book of the New Testament chapter
- 00:19:4910 line six time shall be no more time
- 00:19:52is at its period time shall be no more
- 00:19:54the star has fallen and there fell a
- 00:19:56great star from Heaven uh
- 00:19:58not provable in court perhaps but pretty
- 00:20:01interesting Echoes and she goes on to
- 00:20:03show many other Echoes uh of uh The Book
- 00:20:07of Revelation and the work uh so what
- 00:20:10I'm getting at then is that Shakespeare
- 00:20:13reads uh the fall of the Republic and
- 00:20:16the beginning of the Empire against the
- 00:20:19process that makavelli sees where uh
- 00:20:22Christianity subverts the values uh
- 00:20:25overturns the values of the uh Roman
- 00:20:28Republic and there just a lot of
- 00:20:30passages to this effect where all the
- 00:20:34terms of Rome get redefined uh let's
- 00:20:37look for example at the term
- 00:20:40Noble if you look at page
- 00:20:4247 uh uh this is act 2 scene 5 uh about
- 00:20:48line 82 uh here's the traditional notion
- 00:20:52of nobility when Cleopatra is upset with
- 00:20:55herself for striking a m servant she
- 00:20:57said these hands do lack abil these
- 00:20:59hands do lack nobility that they strike
- 00:21:02a meaner than
- 00:21:04myself she's a queen she's an aristocrat
- 00:21:08servants Messengers just a servant she
- 00:21:10shouldn't even touch him let alone
- 00:21:11strike him these hands do lack nobility
- 00:21:14that they strike a meaner than myself
- 00:21:15that's the traditional notion of the
- 00:21:17distinction between Noble and Bas and
- 00:21:19Noble and mean but the word noble under
- 00:21:22goes interesting transformations in the
- 00:21:24play if you look at page
- 00:21:26126 for examp
- 00:21:28example uh uh so this is Act 4 scene 15
- 00:21:32about line 82 my Noble
- 00:21:36girls now that's what we know in poetry
- 00:21:38is an
- 00:21:39oxymoron uh where the uh adjective
- 00:21:43contradicts the noun uh noble noble
- 00:21:46Kings Noble Queens Noble girls doesn't
- 00:21:49seem to quite work and then the most
- 00:21:51striking example of this uh is at the
- 00:21:55end of the play uh uh
- 00:21:58several of them in fact uh uh look at
- 00:22:02page
- 00:22:04141 uh this is act 5 scene 2 about line
- 00:22:09226 and Cleopatra thinking of uh the way
- 00:22:13she's going to commit suicide and what
- 00:22:16poor an instrument may do a noble
- 00:22:19deed he brings me
- 00:22:22liberty
- 00:22:23uh you really see the Roman terms
- 00:22:26getting redefined there
- 00:22:28this is a a fig seller uh uh he's a poor
- 00:22:33instrument the ASP is a poor instrument
- 00:22:36and yet it may do a noble deed he brings
- 00:22:38me
- 00:22:39liberty in this country we say Give me
- 00:22:41liberty or give me death uh uh not death
- 00:22:44is Liberty uh the the Roman Liberty was
- 00:22:48not thought of as death and so here
- 00:22:51she's redefining that term and then
- 00:22:53finally the the most striking example is
- 00:22:55on page
- 00:22:56146 uh so act 5 scene 2 about line 343
- 00:23:01Caesar walks in and says oh Noble
- 00:23:04weakness there's the oxymoron to end all
- 00:23:08oxymorons uh if you can focus on the
- 00:23:11Paradox of that phrase you see the
- 00:23:14transformation that's happening in this
- 00:23:16play uh that weakness has been redefined
- 00:23:20as nobility now some of you may already
- 00:23:23have been thinking of friedi nche at
- 00:23:24this point and I'm trying to bring in
- 00:23:26all sorts of political philosophy of the
- 00:23:28course giving you some machell some
- 00:23:30Plato some arist a little bit of n so
- 00:23:32forth let's give you a little more now
- 00:23:35uh that is I'm going to offer
- 00:23:38nich's understanding of the difference
- 00:23:41between paganism and Christianity as a
- 00:23:44model for what Shakespeare does in this
- 00:23:46play uh now these are uh ideas that D
- 00:23:51mainly develops in a book of his called
- 00:23:55the genealogy of morals uh in the second
- 00:23:58essay uh can also find it a bit beyond
- 00:24:02good and evil uh second essay of
- 00:24:05genealogy of morals is called uh good
- 00:24:08versus uh good versus bad versus good
- 00:24:11versus evil that is nature works this
- 00:24:14Theory out in terms of two sets of terms
- 00:24:17uh good and
- 00:24:21bad and good and
- 00:24:23evil
- 00:24:25uh and this is what nature call
- 00:24:28Master
- 00:24:30morality you'll see these terms apply to
- 00:24:32the Roman PLM in it and this is what he
- 00:24:34calls slave morality okay let's explain
- 00:24:37this good versus bad is the vocabulary
- 00:24:40of an aristocratic
- 00:24:42morality of a kind of world like the
- 00:24:44Roman Republic of of the world of uh uh
- 00:24:48uh cor elanus that is it's the world of
- 00:24:51aristocratic Warriors and for them what
- 00:24:54is good are the virtues of aristocratic
- 00:24:57war is that a question oh okay uh uh the
- 00:25:01uh so what is good is strength it's
- 00:25:05whatever gives you victory in battle uh
- 00:25:08we see that you know the whole uh uh
- 00:25:11Athos of strength in Cory lanus on Fair
- 00:25:13Ground I could beat four 40 of them the
- 00:25:16uh uh the great warriors are
- 00:25:19courageous uh they are welld disciplined
- 00:25:23they're in great shape they're
- 00:25:25physically strong they're mentally
- 00:25:27strong they they win battles and that's
- 00:25:30what you think of as good uh uh uh how
- 00:25:35does con the Barbarian put it uh what is
- 00:25:38good is to uh destroy your enemies and
- 00:25:43to hear the lamentation of their women
- 00:25:45uh that's bad Arnold Schwarzenegger
- 00:25:48there for you but that's Mass morality
- 00:25:52uh bad then is everything that's the
- 00:25:54opposite of that it's weakness it's
- 00:25:56everything that correspond responds the
- 00:25:58poor people that end up as slaves in one
- 00:26:00of these aristocratic societies uh
- 00:26:02they're weak uh they're physically weak
- 00:26:06they're cowardly they're not good
- 00:26:08soldiers and so so when you look at this
- 00:26:10kind of world you see it all over the
- 00:26:13ancient world you see in Homer for
- 00:26:14example the the portrayals in The Iliad
- 00:26:18is a great example of uh what Mass
- 00:26:21morality was n was a classical scholar
- 00:26:24uh uh and in Homer are almost two orders
- 00:26:28of hum human beings there are the heroes
- 00:26:31and then the ordinary people uh the
- 00:26:33principle in Homer is the Greek shall
- 00:26:37inherit the
- 00:26:38earth as we know in Christianity the
- 00:26:41principle is the meek shall inherit the
- 00:26:43earth and that's the transformation n
- 00:26:46has in mind he calls it the slave revolt
- 00:26:48morality the revaluation of values uh
- 00:26:52what happens in uh slave morality which
- 00:26:55is how
- 00:26:56he uh characterizes Christianity is
- 00:26:59these values are
- 00:27:00inverted uh that under Christianity what
- 00:27:04was thought of as good among the ancient
- 00:27:06Masters is now reinterpreted as
- 00:27:09evil so for example all that wonderful
- 00:27:14battle-winning quality that's now seen
- 00:27:16as aggressiveness and nastiness and it's
- 00:27:19that's what makes someone evil Pride now
- 00:27:22becomes a sin pride is a virtue in
- 00:27:25Aristotle's nican ethics uh in
- 00:27:27Christianity it becomes the greatest of
- 00:27:29all evils the the Mastery of the Masters
- 00:27:34is reinterpreted as something evil in
- 00:27:36their nature and what was thought of as
- 00:27:39bad now gets reinterpreted as good
- 00:27:41humility humility now becomes the
- 00:27:44principal virtue uh uh you make a virtue
- 00:27:48out of your weakness n says you make a
- 00:27:50virtue out of necessity so that things
- 00:27:53uh that the noble Masters had contempt
- 00:27:56for are now prized in Christianity
- 00:27:59submissiveness uh uh uh turn the other
- 00:28:02cheek again the meek shall inherit the
- 00:28:04earth this is how we get from the Greek
- 00:28:06shall inherit the earth to the meek
- 00:28:08shall inherit the earth uh anyway I just
- 00:28:11give you a very quick outline of this so
- 00:28:13you'll see it is the logic of Anthony
- 00:28:16and Cleopatra but let me just pause here
- 00:28:18any questions about this
- 00:28:24yes because like we're
- 00:28:33No actually that's a I'll talk to you in
- 00:28:35private about that huis does not mean
- 00:28:38pride in ancient Greek
- 00:28:40uh the Greek word for pride is megalia
- 00:28:43and it's a virtue hubus is insolence or
- 00:28:45outrage it's a very uh I have to tell
- 00:28:48that word is constantly mistaught in
- 00:28:49high schools and and so I I just it's be
- 00:28:53a long story I really can't go into I'll
- 00:28:55be happy to talk to you to class about
- 00:28:56that be a whole another lecture I have
- 00:28:58to go through and show you what that
- 00:28:59mean look up hubus in a Greek dictionary
- 00:29:02and you won't see the word pride there
- 00:29:04uh anyway uh
- 00:29:07uh so uh again it's not I'll just say
- 00:29:10quickly it's not that the Greeks didn't
- 00:29:12think there might be some problem with
- 00:29:13this but read Homer read the ili and see
- 00:29:17if you uh uh see what what's celebrated
- 00:29:20there anyway the whole hubris thing it's
- 00:29:22a it's another whole story I can't don't
- 00:29:24have time to go into that here uh
- 00:29:42yes
- 00:29:47yeah no no no no that's what I'm GNA the
- 00:29:50whole lecture is going to be about that
- 00:29:52that's what we're doing here today uh uh
- 00:29:57okay I'm I'm sorry to be uh batting off
- 00:29:59the questions but they're really uh
- 00:30:02taking me too far a field here oh okay
- 00:30:04let me uh let me try to work this out
- 00:30:07then uh uh that is uh in fact uh I've
- 00:30:13jumped ahead to n here and obviously
- 00:30:15Shakespeare did not read n uh uh but you
- 00:30:20can see a lot of this is in Mak Val
- 00:30:22already when he's talking about how the
- 00:30:25Ancients prize greatness of soul
- 00:30:27uh and the Christians prize uh suffering
- 00:30:30I found this passage in
- 00:30:33rabal uh the French writer of the 16th
- 00:30:37century in is Gargantua and
- 00:30:39pentag which comes even Closer To Nature
- 00:30:42than makavelli
- 00:30:44does uh in book one uh he says such
- 00:30:48imitations of the ancient Heroes
- 00:30:50Hercules Alexander Hannibal cpio Caesar
- 00:30:54and so on is contrary to the teachings
- 00:30:56of our gospel and what the sarens and
- 00:30:59barbarians once dub prowess We Now call
- 00:31:02brigandage and evildoing there's n's
- 00:31:05formula right there what the sarasin and
- 00:31:08barbarians once dubb prowess We Now call
- 00:31:11brigandage and evildoing that's exactly
- 00:31:14this formulation of n that was thought
- 00:31:16good in the ancient world gets redefined
- 00:31:19uh as evil uh in the modern world and
- 00:31:22this then does work out again and again
- 00:31:25in the play all these paradoxes we've
- 00:31:27been looking at particularly the notion
- 00:31:30uh uh that losing is Victory uh but you
- 00:31:34see it for example in the paradoxes
- 00:31:37involving death and
- 00:31:38life in the play uh they're constantly
- 00:31:41being redefined in terms of each other
- 00:31:44you look at page
- 00:31:4624 act 1 scene 5 uh uh line
- 00:31:5234 uh Cleopatra is talking of how men
- 00:31:55react to her d with looking on his life
- 00:31:59uh so there's life that turns into death
- 00:32:03uh but elsewhere in the play we see
- 00:32:05death turned into life uh uh page 99 Act
- 00:32:104 SC 2 uh uh this is Act 4 SC2 about
- 00:32:15line five uh Anthony says by sea and
- 00:32:18land I'll fight or I will live or bathe
- 00:32:21my dying honor in the blood shall make
- 00:32:23it live
- 00:32:24again uh uh
- 00:32:28page 120 about uh line uh uh this is Act
- 00:32:344 sc4 about line 78 for with a wound I
- 00:32:39must be cured at that Paradox a wound is
- 00:32:43a cure the very next page after the
- 00:32:46quotations from The Book of Revelation
- 00:32:47so page 121 act 414 line 108 let him
- 00:32:52that loves me strike me
- 00:32:54dead or Cleopatra's line we've already
- 00:32:57looked at page
- 00:32:59131 act 5 scene 2 line one my desolation
- 00:33:04does begin to make a better life is
- 00:33:08poultry to be Caesar now I talked about
- 00:33:10that as sour grapes when I first read
- 00:33:12you those lines and indeed the logic of
- 00:33:15this nian position is a kind of sour
- 00:33:18Grace mentality it's how losers make
- 00:33:21themselves out to seem winners uh so in
- 00:33:25particular uh what what nche examines is
- 00:33:29the psychological disposition uh uh I
- 00:33:33lost this kingship but you know it
- 00:33:36really wasn't good anyway and I didn't
- 00:33:37want it and in fact I really wanted to
- 00:33:41lose it uh that's the logic we see in
- 00:33:44Cleopatra this is making a virtue out of
- 00:33:47necessity uh that you no longer can
- 00:33:51conquer so you claim that conquering is
- 00:33:54vile Conquest as Brutus did and say I
- 00:33:58shall have more Glory of this losing day
- 00:34:00and that's the logic we see uh working
- 00:34:03out uh in all these characters uh that
- 00:34:06they're trying to present themselves as
- 00:34:09better off for having lost and that's
- 00:34:11when they develop these arguments to
- 00:34:13poultry to be Caesar uh as uh Cleopatra
- 00:34:17continues uh in that uh same speech uh
- 00:34:22which is page 12
- 00:34:24132 uh act 5 scene two about line 8
- 00:34:28never pallets more the dung the Beggars
- 00:34:30nurse and
- 00:34:32Caesars uh uh this is a play that begins
- 00:34:36with a world of hierarchy with a very
- 00:34:39clear distinction between Noble and bass
- 00:34:42as we see in cor elanus and now uh
- 00:34:46Cleopatra is undermining that there's no
- 00:34:49difference between Caesar and a Beggar's
- 00:34:51nurse so it is poultry to be
- 00:34:54Caesar uh and why should I worry I've
- 00:34:57lost my uh queenship uh when in fact now
- 00:35:02uh I'm going to be better off
- 00:35:03spiritually there's a very interesting
- 00:35:06uh Echo between cor lanus and anatra
- 00:35:09that points uh to uh just this uh idea
- 00:35:15uh the um uh and especially this idea of
- 00:35:21uh uh uh sour grapes uh look at sour
- 00:35:26grapes which is the logic of a unic uh
- 00:35:29look at page
- 00:35:3143 uh this is act 2 scene
- 00:35:355
- 00:35:37uh when Charan says my arm is sore best
- 00:35:41play with Marian and Cleopatra says this
- 00:35:44is again act 25 L5 as well a woman with
- 00:35:48a unic played as with a woman come
- 00:35:50you'll play with me sir as well as I can
- 00:35:52Madam and when Good Will is showed
- 00:35:55though it come too short
- 00:35:57the actor May plead pardon now this is
- 00:36:00what you can call a morality of
- 00:36:02intentions and another way of
- 00:36:04understanding this distinction between
- 00:36:06what n somewhat prejudicially calls
- 00:36:08Master morality and slave morality is
- 00:36:10slave morality is morality of intentions
- 00:36:12and master morality is a morality of
- 00:36:15Deeds that is is uh uh what Cleopatra
- 00:36:18says here is again a morality of
- 00:36:22weakness and when Goodwill is showed
- 00:36:24though it come too short the actor May
- 00:36:26plead pardon saying doesn't matter how
- 00:36:29things turn out all that matters is you
- 00:36:31had good intentions now this is the very
- 00:36:34opposite of corus's idea of morality and
- 00:36:37go look this up in uh cor elanus is page
- 00:36:4132 uh uh which means it's act 1 C9 about
- 00:36:45line
- 00:36:4618 when he's addressing uh chedas and
- 00:36:49the troops he says he that has but
- 00:36:51affected his Good Will hath ordained my
- 00:36:54ACT he that has affected his good will
- 00:36:57not he that has a good will is as good
- 00:37:00as me but if you've translated your good
- 00:37:03will into action okay you're you're in
- 00:37:06business for me very
- 00:37:09interestingly uh one of the plebians uh
- 00:37:12one of the tribunes in fact uh gives the
- 00:37:15morality of intentions you can look this
- 00:37:17up it's page 13 125 in the signant
- 00:37:20Edition so act 5 scene 1 uh about line
- 00:37:2445 when Manus is wor
- 00:37:27that he'll go ask Cory elanus to give up
- 00:37:29his intentions uh on uh destroying Rome
- 00:37:33uh C says basically you know go anyway
- 00:37:36yet your good will must have that thanks
- 00:37:38from Rome after the measure as you
- 00:37:40intended well again the word Goodwill
- 00:37:44here Echoes among these three passages
- 00:37:46in the two plays and it does seem to be
- 00:37:48an effort to contrast what I'm calling a
- 00:37:52morality of Deeds with a morality of
- 00:37:53intentions very characteristic of the
- 00:37:55Masters that they're in power they have
- 00:37:58power they win battles and so basically
- 00:38:01they say put up or shut up uh you know
- 00:38:05don't tell me what might have been uh
- 00:38:08you either win or you don't uh but it's
- 00:38:11very characteristic of this new morality
- 00:38:14that emerges in the world of Anne
- 00:38:16Cleopatra uh that people want to put the
- 00:38:19emphasis well you know I really meant
- 00:38:22well uh and you see how many I mean in a
- 00:38:26way it's the effect of of brutus's uh uh
- 00:38:29end as well uh so we're looking at the
- 00:38:32emergence in the play of a new
- 00:38:36understanding of morality that at least
- 00:38:38corresponds to the sort of thing both
- 00:38:40Maki and N are talking about in
- 00:38:44connection uh with uh uh the rise of
- 00:38:47Christianity for one thing what we do
- 00:38:49see in the play and this is what seems
- 00:38:51to have influenced Constantine three
- 00:38:54centuries later is the notion that this
- 00:38:58Universal Empire is going to need a
- 00:39:00universal
- 00:39:01religion uh up till now you know we've
- 00:39:05been talking about Civic religions uh
- 00:39:07religions bound to a particular
- 00:39:09Community there's an interesting pattern
- 00:39:11in the play of people demanding
- 00:39:14more uh page uh 19 for example uh where
- 00:39:20this is the end of act 1 scene 4 about
- 00:39:23line 100 uh uh and all the gods go with
- 00:39:29you now people are still invoking
- 00:39:31individual gods in the play but there's
- 00:39:34the suggestion maybe all the Gods uh
- 00:39:38page
- 00:39:3982 uh again a a summing up of gods this
- 00:39:44is be uh act 3 scene10 Scaris says this
- 00:39:48is about line five in act 310 gods and
- 00:39:52goddesses all the whole sinod of them
- 00:39:56since interesting we use that word sin
- 00:39:57not of a group of Bishops today and
- 00:40:00there is a suggestion here of some kind
- 00:40:01of uh uh more total religion and maybe
- 00:40:06Anthony's the
- 00:40:08answer page
- 00:40:10120 uh the uh what Eros says to him this
- 00:40:14is Act 4 sc14 about line 85 turn from me
- 00:40:19then that Noble countenance wherein the
- 00:40:21worship of the whole world lies it's a
- 00:40:24notion of there might be a god who would
- 00:40:27be worshiped by the whole world now
- 00:40:28remember this is a new idea uh in the
- 00:40:31Roman world where you had these Gods
- 00:40:34specific to the city and you encountered
- 00:40:37uh Gods from other cities it was in fact
- 00:40:41uh problematic for the Romans when they
- 00:40:43first encountered the Hebrews in the
- 00:40:45ancient world these people who had one
- 00:40:47God and who thought that was the
- 00:40:48universal God the Romans were quite
- 00:40:50tolerant of other religions because they
- 00:40:52just uh made religion additive they let
- 00:40:54people add their gods to the Roman gods
- 00:40:57but the problem with uh the uh uh Jews
- 00:41:02in the ancient world was they had one
- 00:41:04God and rejected the Roman gods
- 00:41:06similarly with the Christians but maybe
- 00:41:08there's some hope in a universal God and
- 00:41:10we see that in Cleopatra's dream of
- 00:41:14anony uh this is on page
- 00:41:18135 uh about uh act 5 scene 2 about line
- 00:41:2280 here we see uh uh the Imaging of a
- 00:41:28cosmic God now uh his face was as the
- 00:41:32heavens and they in stuck a little stuck
- 00:41:34a sun and moon which kept their course
- 00:41:36and lighted the little of the earth now
- 00:41:39here I must point out where your
- 00:41:41addition is wrong and every other
- 00:41:43addition is wrong and I'm right and
- 00:41:45Shakespeare's right that is uh you're
- 00:41:48probably not aware of how edited
- 00:41:50Shakespeare's plays are that is the text
- 00:41:52you have uh is always to some extent
- 00:41:56stand a reconstruction of editors going
- 00:41:58back to whatever Originals we have
- 00:42:01chiefly the first folios and these
- 00:42:03so-called cordos uh and they do make
- 00:42:05changes and never tell you about it if
- 00:42:08you'll turn to page 152 if you got it
- 00:42:10the signate uh look at the very last
- 00:42:14entry there on page 152 under Act five
- 00:42:18scene two and then go over to 81 and it
- 00:42:21says little o the Earth that's what I
- 00:42:24have in my addition little of the Earth
- 00:42:26is what's in the folio now again this
- 00:42:29I'm trying to prove it to you there if
- 00:42:31you look at the first folio the only
- 00:42:33text we have of anony Catra what it says
- 00:42:36here is and lighted the little of the
- 00:42:39earth lighted the little people of the
- 00:42:42earth uh now I don't know this some 18th
- 00:42:45century editor I think it was tibble uh
- 00:42:49thought this there was something wrong
- 00:42:50with that line and changed it to the
- 00:42:53absolutely Preposterous the little OE
- 00:42:56the
- 00:42:58Earth uh which then they have to
- 00:43:01footnote uh uh and tell you that it's uh
- 00:43:06you know the image of the globe the
- 00:43:08little o
- 00:43:10uh I I mean this is this is the worst
- 00:43:12inundation I've ever seen in Shakespeare
- 00:43:15because it's Shakespeare was making a
- 00:43:18point here uh there's this giant Cosmic
- 00:43:22Anthony and he becomes the god of the
- 00:43:24little of the Earth
- 00:43:26again that's something very much in the
- 00:43:28spirit of
- 00:43:29Christianity uh not the little o the
- 00:43:32Earth uh uh and again it just everyone
- 00:43:37accepts this inundation uh even though
- 00:43:40it made perfect sense as it was this is
- 00:43:42obviously an echo of cases' Claim about
- 00:43:45Julius Caesar which you can find on page
- 00:43:4811 11 of julus Caesar uh uh the famous
- 00:43:53act one scene 2 line 135 why man he doth
- 00:43:57bestride the narrow world like a
- 00:43:58Colossus and we Petty men walk under his
- 00:44:01huge legs and Peep about to find
- 00:44:03ourselves dishonorable grave that is an
- 00:44:05image of a giant Colossus and little man
- 00:44:08walking underneath them uh they actually
- 00:44:11the editors actually take away the uh uh
- 00:44:14Power of that uh passage by changing it
- 00:44:17to the L of the Earth but I've now
- 00:44:18corrected it for you and indeed notice
- 00:44:21that this is a greater giant than Julius
- 00:44:25Caesar uh Julius Caesar in a way spans
- 00:44:29the two parties of Rome that's what
- 00:44:31makes him a Colossus he stands above the
- 00:44:34patricians and the pans here is a true
- 00:44:37Colossus a Mediterranean Colossus the
- 00:44:40his legs best the ocean his reared arms
- 00:44:43crested the world his voice was property
- 00:44:46as all the T tuned spheres so this does
- 00:44:48seem to be an effort on Cleopatra's part
- 00:44:51to create the image of an
- 00:44:53anony uh indeed there is several points
- 00:44:56in the play where she's trying to turn
- 00:44:59the word Anthony into a bigger word than
- 00:45:01Caesar Caesar managed to get his name
- 00:45:05turned into a title she keeps talking
- 00:45:07about an aname uh uh as if there could
- 00:45:10be some new higher title uh and indeed
- 00:45:14this is the hope uh here that uh somehow
- 00:45:18we can we've got a universal Empire now
- 00:45:21we need a universal God uh to to preside
- 00:45:26over it he will preside over the little
- 00:45:28of the earth and he'll offer himself as
- 00:45:30an object of worship uh because of his
- 00:45:33sacrifice for people now this takes me
- 00:45:35to page
- 00:45:37100 and the weirdest passage in a way in
- 00:45:40the play this is acts 4 scene 2 about
- 00:45:44line1 15 this is anon's if you'll pardon
- 00:45:47the expression Last Supper uh before the
- 00:45:50battle uh with his soldiers uh starting
- 00:45:54at line 15 and that th art honest too I
- 00:45:57wish I could be made so many men and all
- 00:46:00of you clapped up together in an Anthony
- 00:46:03again this there this is the name of a
- 00:46:05new God here is what they're trying to
- 00:46:06get going here that I might do you
- 00:46:09service so good as you have done here's
- 00:46:12another
- 00:46:13inversion uh the master becomes the
- 00:46:17servant uh this will be the new Master
- 00:46:21whose Mastery comes from offering
- 00:46:23himself as a servant uh that I might do
- 00:46:27and the gods forbid well my Good Fellows
- 00:46:30wait on me tonight scant not my cups and
- 00:46:32make as much of me as when my Empire was
- 00:46:35your fellow to and suffered my command
- 00:46:38uh and Cleopatra as what does he mean
- 00:46:41and Eno barbar says to make his
- 00:46:43followers weep and this is a new kind of
- 00:46:46God now the Gods in Homer and the Gods
- 00:46:49in coryland
- 00:46:50laugh uh they're Master Gods uh they're
- 00:46:55so Superior to human beings they laugh
- 00:46:57at human beings uh but Anthony is a Man
- 00:47:01of
- 00:47:01Sorrows uh he is a man who can make his
- 00:47:06his followers weep uh tend me
- 00:47:09tonight uh if you know the scene in the
- 00:47:12garden of olives uh Gethsemane in the
- 00:47:15New Testament uh this has lots of Echoes
- 00:47:18of that maybe it is the period of your
- 00:47:20duty uh time is at its period happily
- 00:47:23you shall not see me more or if a
- 00:47:25mangled
- 00:47:27Shadow what is this a way for a Roman
- 00:47:30Commander to speak on the eve of a
- 00:47:32battle can you picture Cory Elan is
- 00:47:35giving this speech guys we're going out
- 00:47:38tomorrow to lose and I'm gonna
- 00:47:42die yay go with me perhaps tomorrow
- 00:47:45you'll serve another master I look on
- 00:47:48you as one that takes his leave my
- 00:47:51honest friends I turn you not away but
- 00:47:53like a master married your good service
- 00:47:55stay till death Ted me tonight two hours
- 00:47:58I ask no more and the gods yield you for
- 00:48:01it what and Ena barbar says what mean
- 00:48:03you sir to give them this discomfort
- 00:48:05look they weep and I and ass and onion
- 00:48:08eyed for shame transform us not to
- 00:48:12women again throughout this play the
- 00:48:15egyptianizing of Rome has been imaged as
- 00:48:19an feminizing of Rome and here anties
- 00:48:22bring about the process himself by
- 00:48:25offering himself as a mangled Shadow as
- 00:48:28the master uh who will serve his
- 00:48:30servants now it's it's very if you look
- 00:48:33at the the logic of Ena barbus in the
- 00:48:35play he ends up playing a Judas likee
- 00:48:38role he betrays Anthony and then sees
- 00:48:41himself as a lone villain of the earth
- 00:48:43there are lots of Echoes of the Gospel
- 00:48:45in this story uh that suggest that
- 00:48:48Shakespeare's carting this moment in the
- 00:48:51um uh history of the Roman Empire with
- 00:48:54the rise of Christianity one of the
- 00:48:57strongest aspects of this is the
- 00:48:59appearance of the afterlife in this play
- 00:49:02the we have seen uh that the Republic
- 00:49:06works by an effect denying an Afterlife
- 00:49:10by keeping the Romans absolutely focused
- 00:49:13on this life and their achievements
- 00:49:15there in and I pointed out to you that
- 00:49:17in Julius Caesar Shakespeare uh had a
- 00:49:21reference to the afterlife staring him
- 00:49:23in north plutar and he delivered ly
- 00:49:25rejected it he corrected it he didn't
- 00:49:28want uh uh uh to have Brutus speaking of
- 00:49:32life in a better world here with as I'll
- 00:49:35show you the slightest hints uh of
- 00:49:38mention of the afterlife uh both in
- 00:49:40north plutar and in the Greek original
- 00:49:43Shakespeare plays up the notion uh of an
- 00:49:47afterlife uh in the play you see it uh
- 00:49:50introduced on page
- 00:49:53119 this is uh Act 4 scene
- 00:49:5714 uh about line
- 00:49:5950 uh it's so great Anthony's shouting
- 00:50:03out OS throughout all these scenes it
- 00:50:05couldn't be more appropriate OS stay for
- 00:50:08me OS I come my queen where souls to
- 00:50:11couch on flowers will hand in hand and
- 00:50:14with our spritely Port make the ghost
- 00:50:16gaze Dao and her anas shall want troops
- 00:50:20and all the haunt be hours uh now as
- 00:50:22many people have pointed out and Anthony
- 00:50:25misreads the anid
- 00:50:27here uh Dao and anas are not reunited in
- 00:50:32the afterlife she's with her first
- 00:50:35husband cus and she takes one look at
- 00:50:38anas who dumped her and she you know uh
- 00:50:42uh uh stares him down uh uh but there's
- 00:50:46a a deeper reinterpretation of the
- 00:50:50underworld in classical terms going
- 00:50:53going on here in which in effect
- 00:50:55the underworld becomes the alian fields
- 00:50:58it becomes Heaven that is Anthony is
- 00:51:01picturing the after life here more like
- 00:51:05a Christian Heaven than like a classical
- 00:51:08Underworld the underworld is a pretty
- 00:51:10nasty Place chiefly a CH place of
- 00:51:13punishment in The Odyssey uh in the anid
- 00:51:17uh uh even
- 00:51:20uh there are occasionally a bright
- 00:51:23moment but the defin notion of the
- 00:51:26underworld and the classical world is
- 00:51:27the moment when Achilles tells dsus in
- 00:51:30The Odyssey I'd rather be a slave and
- 00:51:33still alive on Earth than be the king
- 00:51:36down here among the shades and indeed
- 00:51:39it's another case where we tend to In
- 00:51:42reinterpret classical things on on
- 00:51:44Christian models but we look at
- 00:51:46descriptions of the underworld uh and
- 00:51:48reinterpret as he heaven and that's
- 00:51:51exactly what Anthony is doing here he's
- 00:51:53making it seem like an attractive Place
- 00:51:56uh and that does transform things here
- 00:52:00uh so uh I should yeah let me point out
- 00:52:03to you on page 173 if You' got the
- 00:52:05signate Edition you can see the germ of
- 00:52:10uh this idea of an afterlife this is uh
- 00:52:13to about eight lines up from the bottom
- 00:52:14on 173 oh Cleopatra it grieveth me not
- 00:52:19that I've lost my company for I will not
- 00:52:21be long from thee but I am sorry that
- 00:52:24having been so great ACC company a cabet
- 00:52:26Emperor I am indeed condemned so the I
- 00:52:29will not be long from thee that's as
- 00:52:32close to Anthony mentioning an afterlife
- 00:52:36in Plutarch though obviously it's very
- 00:52:39limited compared to his Imaging this
- 00:52:43passage about Dao and anas and this uh
- 00:52:46these fields of of Glory here uh uh uh
- 00:52:51now with
- 00:52:53Cleopatra uh we it's very interesting to
- 00:52:57look at her
- 00:52:59reaction to Anthony's death because it
- 00:53:02points up uh again this kind of
- 00:53:05transformation look at page one uh
- 00:53:0926 uh this is uh uh Act 4 scene 15 uh
- 00:53:15line 58 and 59 anony last words are now
- 00:53:21my spirit is going I can no more uh
- 00:53:24again that has all sorts of Echoes of
- 00:53:26the Gospel in it but anyway notice
- 00:53:29Cleopatra's reaction noblest of men will
- 00:53:31die hast thou no care of me shall I
- 00:53:35abide in this dull World which in thy
- 00:53:37absence is no better than a sty oh see
- 00:53:39my women the crown of the earth doth
- 00:53:42melt again that persuasive pervasive
- 00:53:45imagery of melting goes throughout the
- 00:53:46pl my Lord oh withered is the Garland of
- 00:53:49the war the soldiers pole is Fallen
- 00:53:52young boys and girls are Level now with
- 00:53:55men the odds is gone and there is
- 00:53:58nothing left remarkable beneath the
- 00:54:01visiting Moon so this is
- 00:54:03a uh the ancient world with its Masters
- 00:54:08and servants its hierarchy and now
- 00:54:11Cleopatra has a visioning of the
- 00:54:13leveling of all
- 00:54:15hierarchy with Anthony's death young
- 00:54:18boys and girls are Level now with men
- 00:54:20the odds is gone and there's nothing
- 00:54:23left remarkable beneath the visiting
- 00:54:25this is the end of
- 00:54:27aristocracy the entering of a world you
- 00:54:30know a Christian world uh where all
- 00:54:33human beings are brothers uh and she
- 00:54:37follows it out you know uh iris is
- 00:54:40saying Royal Egypt empress and she says
- 00:54:43line 72 no more but en a
- 00:54:47woman and commanded by such poor passion
- 00:54:50as the maid that milks and does the
- 00:54:52meanest chairs uh it were for me to
- 00:54:55throw my scepter at the injurious Gods
- 00:54:57to tell them that this world did equal
- 00:54:59theirs till they had stolen our Jewel
- 00:55:02alls but
- 00:55:03not uh tremendous sense of leveling here
- 00:55:08uh we've been
- 00:55:09say in Cory lanus the city distinctly
- 00:55:13ranges we've seen corilanus try to
- 00:55:15divide human beings up into categories
- 00:55:18you guys are geese I'm a lion uh all
- 00:55:21these aristocratic distinctions that
- 00:55:23characterize the ancient Pagan world
- 00:55:25now Cleopatra sees them as leveled and
- 00:55:29then the extraordinary words still on
- 00:55:32page 126
- 00:55:34l79 then is it sin to rush into the
- 00:55:38secret house of death uh a death come to
- 00:55:42us suddenly suicide has become a sin in
- 00:55:46the Pagan world out of
- 00:55:49nowhere uh we've seen that in
- 00:55:51Shakespeare's terms uh it's almost the
- 00:55:55defining difference between the Pagan
- 00:55:57and the Christian world uh for Horatio
- 00:56:01trying to say I'll commit suicide says I
- 00:56:03am more an antique Roman than a Dane
- 00:56:05which is saying I'm a more Pagan than a
- 00:56:07Christian when it comes to Suicide
- 00:56:09Hamlet beginning from his awareness the
- 00:56:11Everlasting have fixed his Cannon
- 00:56:13against selfs Slaughter MC Beth as
- 00:56:15you'll be seeing saying why should I
- 00:56:18play the Roman fool and die on my own
- 00:56:21sword uh this strong Christian awareness
- 00:56:24that suici is a sin but of course we've
- 00:56:27been seeing in the Ancients suicide is
- 00:56:29virtually required of a noble Roman at
- 00:56:33the end of Julius Caesar the characters
- 00:56:34are lining up to commit suicide you for
- 00:56:37me first you first you kill me and then
- 00:56:39I'll kill you no wait a minute you can
- 00:56:42anyway uh suicide is the answer to the
- 00:56:45problem of Roman honor you don't want to
- 00:56:48live on uh in slavery you don't want to
- 00:56:52live on uh in shame and so you kill
- 00:56:54yourself self but cleop and Cleopatra is
- 00:56:57thinking of killing herself now on the
- 00:56:59very next page she says she's going to
- 00:57:02do it this is Page 127 do it after the
- 00:57:05high Roman fashion she understands uh
- 00:57:09the Roman ad of suicide but she suddenly
- 00:57:11asks if it is a
- 00:57:12sin and again these are one one of the
- 00:57:15signs that Shakespeare's pushing us to
- 00:57:18the brink of the Christian World here
- 00:57:21where Christianity will become a sin why
- 00:57:24because the after has suddenly become
- 00:57:26attractive uh if the afterlife such as
- 00:57:30it
- 00:57:31is as portrayed by uh Homer and Virgil
- 00:57:35who's going to want to commit suicide uh
- 00:57:37again that defining moment when Achilles
- 00:57:39says I I'd rather be a slave and still
- 00:57:42be alive than down here uh uh but if you
- 00:57:46start thinking that the afterlife is
- 00:57:48heaven and then it's going to be better
- 00:57:50and that lovers are going to be reunited
- 00:57:52all that then you may need a Prohibition
- 00:57:54I against it and you can need to ask you
- 00:57:57know why did does Christianity so
- 00:57:59strongly uh PR say you know suicide was
- 00:58:04a capital crime in most western legal
- 00:58:07systems uh if you tried to kill yourself
- 00:58:10they'd execute you for it as a crime
- 00:58:13there's a certain legal logic to that
- 00:58:14because then the crown could claim your
- 00:58:16goods uh but still it's one of the great
- 00:58:18jokes the Western legal system that
- 00:58:20suicide was a capital crime but you know
- 00:58:22you didn't want people committing
- 00:58:24suicide
- 00:58:25uh uh uh and indeed it's a very
- 00:58:29interesting sign of this transformation
- 00:58:31of the ancient world that shakes is
- 00:58:33portraying that we see here suicide
- 00:58:36become a sin and indeed so much turns at
- 00:58:41the end of this play on the weird New
- 00:58:44Logic of of this world where people have
- 00:58:47Immortal longings uh and where they're
- 00:58:50seeking out as we hear from the
- 00:58:52beginning of the play new heaven New
- 00:58:54Earth by the way the phrase new heaven
- 00:58:55new Earth comes from The Book of
- 00:58:57Revelations I think it's chapter 25
- 00:59:00where where that appears uh but uh uh
- 00:59:04look at the strange meeting between
- 00:59:07Cleopatra and the
- 00:59:09clown this is on page 142 to
- 00:59:12143 uh the clown speech is full of
- 00:59:16paradoxes and in a way malapropisms he's
- 00:59:20saying the wrong words but what he does
- 00:59:22do is cast uh a real Aura of ambiguity
- 00:59:27about everything uh that happens uh at
- 00:59:30the end of the play uh this is on 142 so
- 00:59:34act 5 scene 2 uh line 245 when Cleopatra
- 00:59:39asks if he has the ASP with him truly I
- 00:59:43have him but I would not be the party
- 00:59:46that should desire you to touch him for
- 00:59:48his biting is Immortal those that die of
- 00:59:52it do seldom or never recover this is
- 00:59:55not want you what you want to be hearing
- 00:59:57on the day you're committing suicide uh
- 01:00:00in the hopes of an
- 01:00:02afterlife uh uh she does hope for an
- 01:00:05afterlife look over on page 143 it's the
- 01:00:08same notion uh so still act 5 SC 2 about
- 01:00:11line 187 287 husband I come now if
- 01:00:16you'll turn to page 178 if you got the
- 01:00:19signate to the Plutarch there uh there
- 01:00:21there's a little hint there it's just
- 01:00:23below the middle of the page on
- 01:00:25178 uh uh she's addressing Anthony after
- 01:00:30his death if therefore the gods where
- 01:00:32thou art now have any power and
- 01:00:34authority again God's word thou where
- 01:00:38thou art now the implication is he's in
- 01:00:40some kind of other world kind of
- 01:00:42afterlife and Shakespeare sees upon that
- 01:00:44again he does not
- 01:00:46completely uh pull this stuff out of
- 01:00:48thin air but anyway Cleopatra is hoping
- 01:00:51that you know as she puts it line line
- 01:00:53281 I have have Immortal
- 01:00:56longings again you you know we we have
- 01:00:59not we've not seen that in Cory elanus
- 01:01:02or any of the characters in judia Caesar
- 01:01:04they've longed for immortality in that
- 01:01:06sense of Fame but not the notion that
- 01:01:09they're longing for an afterlife but
- 01:01:11here she is hoping for Immortal Longs
- 01:01:13and but the guy who shows up confuses
- 01:01:17Immortal with Mortal for he says of the
- 01:01:20pretty worm his biting is immortal
- 01:01:25uh and as he notes point out his blunder
- 01:01:27for Mortal but again that's not what you
- 01:01:29want on the day you're hoping for your
- 01:01:31immortality to have someone blundering
- 01:01:33that and then thoroughly confusing it
- 01:01:36those that do die of it do seldom or
- 01:01:38never recover which is it it's never
- 01:01:42recover maybe not so good um and then
- 01:01:46these these lines they keep blurring
- 01:01:49things and making it seem more and more
- 01:01:53confusing uh
- 01:01:55uh uh talking about in his next speech I
- 01:01:58heard of uh you know rememberest thou
- 01:02:01any that have died on it very many men
- 01:02:02and women too I heard of one of them no
- 01:02:04longer in the essay a very honest woman
- 01:02:06but something given to
- 01:02:09lie again the confusion between honesty
- 01:02:11and lying at a moment you're trying to
- 01:02:13get the truth about death here as a
- 01:02:15woman should not do but in the way of
- 01:02:16honesty how she died of the biing of it
- 01:02:19what pain she felt truly she makes a
- 01:02:21very good report of the Worm but he that
- 01:02:24will believe believe all that they say
- 01:02:25shall never be saved by half that they
- 01:02:27do but this is most fallible the worms
- 01:02:30an odd worm these are all internally
- 01:02:33contradictory phrases uh uh uh that uh
- 01:02:38and especially it suggest we really
- 01:02:41can't know what happens to people after
- 01:02:44death because we never get a report of
- 01:02:46it think of Hamlet's characterization of
- 01:02:48the afterlife the Undiscovered born from
- 01:02:51which no traveler returns uh and then he
- 01:02:54tells her that the worm is not to be
- 01:02:56trusted but in the keeping of wise
- 01:02:58people for indeed there is no goodness
- 01:03:00in the worm so it's a very strange
- 01:03:02exchange it might remind you of the
- 01:03:04discussion of the crocodile earlier in
- 01:03:07the play the crocodile the worm we
- 01:03:09cannot get the truth about them people
- 01:03:12tend to talk around them and about them
- 01:03:15uh and so it does cast a kind of
- 01:03:17skeptical Aura over this last speech of
- 01:03:20Cleopatra as beautiful as it is uh look
- 01:03:23at it this is now
- 01:03:25143 uh this again is a a speech that
- 01:03:29points in the direction of Christianity
- 01:03:31here uh line 280 uh give me my robe put
- 01:03:36on my crown I have a moreal Longs in me
- 01:03:38now no more the juice of Egypt's grace
- 01:03:40shall moist this lip there's a strong
- 01:03:42element of
- 01:03:44aestheticism uh in this not aestheticism
- 01:03:47but uh asceticism there's a she's
- 01:03:50renouncing the flesh she who was the
- 01:03:52queen of the Flesh in the play is now
- 01:03:54renouncing it uh he thinks I hear
- 01:03:56Anthony call I see him Rouse himself to
- 01:03:58praise my Noble act I hear him mock the
- 01:04:01luck of Caesar which the gods give men
- 01:04:03to excuse their after wrath husband I
- 01:04:06come now to that name my courage prove
- 01:04:08my title I am Fire and Air my other
- 01:04:11elements I give to base of Life uh so
- 01:04:14here she's spiritualizing it all she's
- 01:04:16Rising above the body I'm Fire and Air
- 01:04:19my mother other elements I give to Bas
- 01:04:22her lives uh so uh and then top of uh
- 01:04:27144 The Stroke of death is as a Lover's
- 01:04:29pinch which hurts and is desired uh and
- 01:04:32so on so uh uh she looks to death as a
- 01:04:36form of redemption here and actually
- 01:04:39Caesar's pretty nice about it if you
- 01:04:42look at it last page
- 01:04:44147 uh Anthony and Cleopatra are dead
- 01:04:47and uh what does he offer them uh end of
- 01:04:51act 5 scene 2 about line 358 no grave
- 01:04:54upon the Earth shall clip in it a pair
- 01:04:56so famous this is actually what Anthony
- 01:05:00desired if you turn back to page five uh
- 01:05:05uh one of the first passages we looked
- 01:05:06at in the play so act 1 scene one uh
- 01:05:09what was this whole page line 35 the
- 01:05:12nobleness of life is through th when
- 01:05:14such a mutual pair notice the echo Here
- 01:05:17No Grave so clipping it a pair so famous
- 01:05:20and here such a mutual pair and such a
- 01:05:22twank do on which I bind on pain of
- 01:05:24punishment the world to weed we stand up
- 01:05:27Peerless and that's what Anthony uh
- 01:05:29Octavius offers to them at the end No
- 01:05:31Grave upon the Earth shall cliping it a
- 01:05:33pair so famous uh they have become the
- 01:05:37great Mythic lovers now it is an ant
- 01:05:40octavius's interest as Emperor to
- 01:05:42encourage this myth of love because this
- 01:05:45has been the whole fat lean strategy all
- 01:05:48along for these the Imperial party get
- 01:05:51people to indulge in Heroes and it will
- 01:05:53make make them less eager to contest for
- 01:05:56the throne so Octavius would love to
- 01:05:58start an anti and catri cult let
- 01:06:01everybody follow the course of Anthony
- 01:06:03Catan to love and leave him alone uh uh
- 01:06:06uh politically uh so we see again this
- 01:06:11transformation of Rome now whole
- 01:06:14Concepts that were not there in the
- 01:06:17Republic the notion of immortality the
- 01:06:20notion of suicide as a sin and they all
- 01:06:23roughly correspond to the transformation
- 01:06:26that was going to occur uh few decades
- 01:06:30later at least as Christianity was uh uh
- 01:06:33introduced to the world now to come back
- 01:06:36to that question about how Shakespeare
- 01:06:39fits
- 01:06:40in uh Vis V Maki and uh n here I'm
- 01:06:46trying to show you that uh this this is
- 01:06:49a way in which the history of Rome is
- 01:06:52very
- 01:06:53fundamental to philosophers and to the
- 01:06:55history of political
- 01:06:57philosophy uh that you see melli and N
- 01:07:01now I'm saying Shakespeare among these
- 01:07:03very deep thinkers about human nature
- 01:07:06one thing they really think about is
- 01:07:08Rome and one reason they do it is
- 01:07:10they're trying to understand an
- 01:07:12aristocratic Pagan society and one
- 01:07:14reason they're doing that is they know
- 01:07:16that what follows it is
- 01:07:17Christianity uh and they want to
- 01:07:20understand Christianity better by
- 01:07:23understanding what seeded it and what it
- 01:07:26transformed uh and I've tried to show
- 01:07:28you there's a lot of similarities uh
- 01:07:31here uh in the analysis uh but let me
- 01:07:35show you where I think Shakespeare
- 01:07:37stands on it Vis A N there are basically
- 01:07:41two ways of understanding the
- 01:07:43relationship of Christianity to Rome and
- 01:07:45N being generous as a thinker adopts
- 01:07:48both of them and so I can illustrate the
- 01:07:51two ways both from n in te his public
- 01:07:55position in his published writings he
- 01:07:58saw the Roman Empire as an
- 01:08:02unshakable institution which was
- 01:08:04subverted from within by
- 01:08:07Christianity uh uh I'm quoting here from
- 01:08:10some of his published Works namely from
- 01:08:13uh the last book he wrote uh before he
- 01:08:16went insane called the
- 01:08:19Antichrist catchy title uh uh and there
- 01:08:24States quite unequivocally it is not as
- 01:08:26is supposed the corruption of antiquity
- 01:08:28itself of noble Antiquity that made
- 01:08:31Christianity possible I'm going to argue
- 01:08:33that Shakespeare adopts the other the
- 01:08:35opposite position that he he does trace
- 01:08:38the rise of Christianity to the
- 01:08:39corruption of antiquity
- 01:08:41nich at this moment of his life uh says
- 01:08:46that the Roman Empire could have
- 01:08:48survived intact if it had not been for
- 01:08:51the appearance of Christianity he wres
- 01:08:54then is again still in the Antichrist
- 01:08:55that which stood there forever the Roman
- 01:08:58Empire the most magnificent form of
- 01:09:00organization under difficult
- 01:09:02circumstances which has yet been
- 01:09:04achieved these holy anarchists the
- 01:09:07Christians made it a matter of piety for
- 01:09:10them to destroy that world that is the
- 01:09:12Roman Empire until what not one stone
- 01:09:14remained on the other until even Germans
- 01:09:17and other LS could become Masters over
- 01:09:20it uh and he goes on to write the Roman
- 01:09:23Empire this most admirable work of art
- 01:09:25in the grand style was a beginning see I
- 01:09:28want Shakespeare takes a very strong
- 01:09:30stand I think as presenting as an ending
- 01:09:33but I want you to see there is another
- 01:09:34view of it and here it is in Egypt it's
- 01:09:36most Ad work was a beginning its
- 01:09:38construction was designed to prove
- 01:09:40itself through thousands of years until
- 01:09:42today nobody is built again like this
- 01:09:45and it is amazing that Roman roads and
- 01:09:47aquaduct and bridges are still in use
- 01:09:50all around Europe nobody has built a
- 01:09:51again like this nobody has even dreamed
- 01:09:53of building in such proportions uh under
- 01:09:56the aspect of Eternity this organization
- 01:09:59the Roman Empire was firm enough to
- 01:10:01withstand bad
- 01:10:03Emperors again there's an amazing truth
- 01:10:05to that this Roman Empire lasted roughly
- 01:10:08450 years with creatures like Nero and
- 01:10:12Caligula ruling it the accident of
- 01:10:14persons may not have anything to do with
- 01:10:16such matters first principle of all
- 01:10:17Grand architecture but it was not firm
- 01:10:20enough against the most corrupt kind of
- 01:10:22corruption against the Christians again
- 01:10:24ner did not like Christianity uh and he
- 01:10:28surveys uh the subversion of Rome and
- 01:10:32laments the whole labor of the ancient
- 01:10:33world in vain that I say is nich's
- 01:10:36published position as some of you may
- 01:10:38know a lot of nich's work survived in
- 01:10:41the form of uh manuscripts of notes he
- 01:10:44he kept and after he went insane his
- 01:10:48sister took some of them and published
- 01:10:50them in a book which she called the will
- 01:10:52to power which which really has no
- 01:10:55authenticity in the sense that it's U
- 01:10:57nothing that n himself supervised in
- 01:11:00publication nevertheless there's a lot
- 01:11:02of interesting stuff in those notes uh
- 01:11:04and here's one which presents the exact
- 01:11:07opposite view of the fall of the Roman
- 01:11:09Empire the degeneration of the rulers
- 01:11:12and the ruling classes has been the
- 01:11:14cause of the greatest Mischief in
- 01:11:16history without the Roman Caesars and
- 01:11:18Roman society the insanity of
- 01:11:20Christianity would never have come to
- 01:11:22power again n could you please tell us
- 01:11:24what you really think of Christianity uh
- 01:11:27it really goes over the top here uh when
- 01:11:30lesser men begin to doubt whether higher
- 01:11:33men exist then the danger is great and
- 01:11:36one Ends by discovering that there is
- 01:11:38virtue also among the lowly and
- 01:11:40subjugated the poor in spirit and that
- 01:11:42before God men are equal this is all
- 01:11:45just the logic we've seen worked out
- 01:11:47with Cleopatra for ultimately the higher
- 01:11:49men measured themselves according to the
- 01:11:51standard of virtue of slaves found they
- 01:11:54were proud found all their higher
- 01:11:56qualities reprehensible when Nero and
- 01:11:59caraka carala sat up there the Paradox
- 01:12:02arose the lowest man is worth more than
- 01:12:05that man up there say poultry to be
- 01:12:07Caesar and the way was prepared from an
- 01:12:10image of God that was as remote as
- 01:12:12possible from the image of the most
- 01:12:14powerful the God on the cross uh and
- 01:12:17never forget that crucifixion was
- 01:12:19associated with criminality in the
- 01:12:21ancient world and that which is has
- 01:12:23become the great image of Jesus uh was
- 01:12:27an effort of the Romans uh to to
- 01:12:29denigrate him originally so you see
- 01:12:32there the the two views that n himself
- 01:12:35articulates uh one that it was only
- 01:12:38Christians who brought down this
- 01:12:40otherwise stable uh uh uh construction
- 01:12:44of the Roman Empire which otherwise
- 01:12:46would have last forever and then this
- 01:12:48you know it was the internal Corruption
- 01:12:51of Rome uh uh that made it possible for
- 01:12:54Christianity I think Shakespeare takes
- 01:12:56that second view uh and that's I mean in
- 01:12:59a way Anthony and Cleopatra gives us
- 01:13:02Christianity without the Christians uh
- 01:13:05it shows us uh the if you will the
- 01:13:07principles of Christianity developing
- 01:13:10within the Roman and Egyptian
- 01:13:12aristocracy that's what's so interesting
- 01:13:14about it and what what in effect makes
- 01:13:17the aversion uh all the uh clearer um
- 01:13:21nich's theory of Master and slav
- 01:13:23morality really is quite brilliant uh I
- 01:13:27think and really helps to understand uh
- 01:13:29the difference between the Pagan world
- 01:13:32and the Christian and we're going to see
- 01:13:33this come up particularly in Hamlet and
- 01:13:35and and McBeth uh but one thing that
- 01:13:38always struck me is weak about it was
- 01:13:41the mechanism of the revaluation he's
- 01:13:44always talking about the Masters as
- 01:13:46strong and the slaves is weak uh how did
- 01:13:50the weak ever turn the tables uh on the
- 01:13:54strong if they weren't strong enough to
- 01:13:56lift a couple of tables uh now if you
- 01:13:58read genealogy of morals carefully
- 01:14:00you'll see that in fact anicha
- 01:14:03attributes the process to Renegade
- 01:14:06priests uh that uh uh there in in effect
- 01:14:11there had to be some division within the
- 01:14:14ranks of the Masters uh to to bring
- 01:14:18about this transformation and he does
- 01:14:20talk about the role of priests who would
- 01:14:22have been part of the aristocratic order
- 01:14:24in the ancient world we not talking
- 01:14:25about Christian priests here but but but
- 01:14:28priests in the old uh Pagan order does
- 01:14:31talk about the role and I would say more
- 01:14:32generally I think he was in these notes
- 01:14:35working towards I think a more
- 01:14:37Shakespearean theory of what happened uh
- 01:14:40that is it's it's one thing for an
- 01:14:43itinerant preacher to come along and say
- 01:14:45t poultry to be Caesar or to say
- 01:14:48servants and Masters are equal it's
- 01:14:50incredibly more powerful when queen
- 01:14:53queen Cleopatra says that uh you can say
- 01:14:56she really knows what Majesty is she
- 01:14:59points that out in a way she's able to
- 01:15:03measure the degeneracy of the
- 01:15:05aristocracy uh better than ordinary
- 01:15:08people can uh because she she says he
- 01:15:11knows what Majesty is and she looks at
- 01:15:14Caesar and she says you know Mark
- 01:15:17Anthony uh and so as we can see on many
- 01:15:20levels this plays about the draining
- 01:15:23nobility from the ancient world uh and
- 01:15:26that prepares the way for a new
- 01:15:29ideology uh of the subject people of the
- 01:15:33slaves in a way the Empire turns
- 01:15:36everyone into
- 01:15:37slaves been saying that from the
- 01:15:39beginning it turns active citizens into
- 01:15:42passive subjects and they are no better
- 01:15:45than slaves in that sense in a way
- 01:15:47that's Cleopatra's Claim about Caesar
- 01:15:50Caesar himself is no better than a Slave
- 01:15:54because nobody rules anymore this
- 01:15:56machine has been created we've seen and
- 01:15:59you know a a child could be running Rome
- 01:16:02uh a coward could be running the armies
- 01:16:04the armies are running on
- 01:16:06automatic uh there's this sense now no
- 01:16:10heroes are left uh and so it's a world
- 01:16:13of tremendously diminished uh uh stature
- 01:16:17uh and a world which has reshaped
- 01:16:19immorality for that so Shakespeare uh I
- 01:16:22think again sees that uh uh something
- 01:16:27had happened to the ancient world part
- 01:16:29of it is that simple expansion and again
- 01:16:33we now have this Universal Community the
- 01:16:37polus has
- 01:16:38dissolved uh we're now in a world that
- 01:16:41tries to embrace the whole world it
- 01:16:43needs a religion to embrace the whole
- 01:16:45world and that's going to be a religion
- 01:16:47of the little of the earth and that's
- 01:16:50why I hate that emendation so much
- 01:16:53Shakespeare gave us the clue there that
- 01:16:55he would be the god of the Anthony would
- 01:16:57be the god of the little of the earth
- 01:16:59The Man of Sorrows uh the man who
- 01:17:01aroused pity uh in his followers who
- 01:17:04came down to their level and a way we
- 01:17:07see that already his behavior uh in
- 01:17:09Judah Caesar uh so and that's just a
- 01:17:12remarkable effort to analyze the moral
- 01:17:16change that Christianity was to bring uh
- 01:17:18about uh in the world and Shakespeare
- 01:17:21will follow out the consequence qu es of
- 01:17:23that in the plays we're looking at now
- 01:17:25so let me P any questions and this time
- 01:17:29I really mean it and again I hope to
- 01:17:31talk to you in private afterwards about
- 01:17:32humorus but
- 01:17:37uh okay let me lead us into next week
- 01:17:41then um what we see uh in this play is
- 01:17:46the transformation of the ancient world
- 01:17:49and we can see the poses that's going to
- 01:17:51Pro uh problems that's going to oppose
- 01:17:53for the modern world uh uh I've been
- 01:17:57using nature and that presents
- 01:17:59Christianity and very negative terms but
- 01:18:02think about it this is a world in which
- 01:18:05a new Heaven and a new Earth has opened
- 01:18:07up and there are uh we see a lot of
- 01:18:10possibilities close down in this play
- 01:18:13but a lot of possibilities open up uh uh
- 01:18:17and life is going to get more complex
- 01:18:20especially internal life people are now
- 01:18:23concerned about the afterlife and all
- 01:18:25sorts of uh new concerns uh and we see
- 01:18:29here already uh hints uh of how
- 01:18:33Christianity is going to complicate
- 01:18:35politics so what we're going to look at
- 01:18:36from the first scene uh in Henry V uh uh
- 01:18:41the political life of the Roman Republic
- 01:18:44was in a certain sense very simple uh
- 01:18:47the CI set the rules and the rules were
- 01:18:50clear it is held that Valor is ACH Chief
- 01:18:53is virtue you focus your citizens lives
- 01:18:56on the city on political life uh uh and
- 01:18:59I've been stressing that uh it's why I
- 01:19:02think Shakespeare is interested in the
- 01:19:03Republic but don't think that because
- 01:19:05Shakespeare thought politics was
- 01:19:07important he thought it was
- 01:19:09everything uh he does show that politics
- 01:19:12is a central human activity it is in a
- 01:19:15way the ordering human activity and
- 01:19:17we've seen how much the political regime
- 01:19:20affects the character of individual
- 01:19:23beings uh and yet in the Republic it
- 01:19:26does that uh by excluding so much from
- 01:19:28their lives as subordinating religion
- 01:19:31subordinating love subordinating family
- 01:19:33to the city uh uh that produces a kind
- 01:19:37of political man but it also shows the
- 01:19:39limits of politics Shakespeare is very
- 01:19:42aware that there are things in life that
- 01:19:44go beyond politics he was not himself a
- 01:19:46politician he was a playwright and I've
- 01:19:48been as I've been arguing a great
- 01:19:49thinker uh and he knew there were
- 01:19:51Dimensions that go beyond nonpolitical
- 01:19:53life in a way the central tragic fact
- 01:19:56for Shakespeare is the tension between
- 01:19:58politics and nonp politics politics is a
- 01:20:03realm of fulfillment many human beings
- 01:20:06fulfill themselves in politics it is the
- 01:20:08outlet for tumas which is a real part of
- 01:20:12human nature for Shakespeare but it
- 01:20:14isn't all of human nature uh and there
- 01:20:17are things that cannot be fulfilled in
- 01:20:20politics we see that you know anon's
- 01:20:23whole sense is there's something Beyond
- 01:20:25politics even Cory elanus said there's a
- 01:20:28world
- 01:20:29elsewhere he just didn't understand it
- 01:20:32couldn't be just another city uh Anthony
- 01:20:35really does pursue a world elsewhere a
- 01:20:38new Heaven new Earth so Shakespeare has
- 01:20:39a sense that politics is a vital Central
- 01:20:42important human activity it's a
- 01:20:45necessity you need it to protect you
- 01:20:48it's world of armies clashing armies
- 01:20:50World of War you need politics you need
- 01:20:52soldiers you need armies uh and yet it
- 01:20:55isn't everything there's something that
- 01:20:57goes beyond it in a way we talked about
- 01:20:59this in connection with Aristo the crazy
- 01:21:01claim of the polus is that it is
- 01:21:03everything that it can mean everything
- 01:21:05to its citizens it could be the focus of
- 01:21:07their family life the focus of of their
- 01:21:09religion that the the the polus is a
- 01:21:12self-sufficient uh Community uh but what
- 01:21:15we see in anth compatriots once the
- 01:21:17polus goes beyond a certain limit it it
- 01:21:20starts to dissolve it loses control
- 01:21:23and a lot of bad things happen
- 01:21:25politically uh and certain human
- 01:21:27possibilities seem to drop out on the
- 01:21:29other hand some open up and that's where
- 01:21:32we're going to see how uh there you
- 01:21:34start to see in anony Cleopatra some
- 01:21:37kind of transcendent Dimension to human
- 01:21:40life that isn't comprised and bounded by
- 01:21:42the polus anymore uh and I think
- 01:21:44Shakespeare has in mind Christianity as
- 01:21:47one of those possibilities another one
- 01:21:49of those possibilities surfaces when
- 01:21:50Anthony asked to live a private man in
- 01:21:52Athens I mean what we see in these in
- 01:21:55this last play of the Roman Trilogy is
- 01:21:57that people are starting to say the city
- 01:21:59isn't everything to me anymore politics
- 01:22:01isn't everything to me uh and I there
- 01:22:04are other things in life one of them
- 01:22:06might be living a private life in Athens
- 01:22:08a city associated with philosophy uh
- 01:22:11with the study of politics not of
- 01:22:13politics itself so as we turn to Henry V
- 01:22:16we'll see how much more complicated a
- 01:22:20regime is uh when it tries to be a
- 01:22:23regime but still has in it this forc
- 01:22:27Christianity which is not bounded by the
- 01:22:30regime uh which has loyalties elsewhere
- 01:22:33very specific terms in England uh that
- 01:22:36meant loyalties to a to the papacy under
- 01:22:39Catholicism loyalties to an effect of
- 01:22:42foreign state so uh the Roman plays as a
- 01:22:46whole and an compassion in particular
- 01:22:48take us to the brink of the modern
- 01:22:50Christian world and actually lay out
- 01:22:52what it's going to involve and then
- 01:22:54Shakespeare will go on to explore it
- 01:22:55from there so that's where we go next
- 01:23:09Tuesday
- Antony sy Cleopatra
- Romeo sy Octavia
- fitiavana sy fifandraisana
- rafitra politika
- kristianisma
- shakespeare
- soatoavina
- mpanjaka
- rafitra ara-kolontsaina
- hampianarana filozofia