Antony and Cleopatra (3 of 3)

01:23:11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duV7IRELi0s

Summary

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.

Takeaways

  • 🌍 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.

Timeline

  • 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.

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Mind Map

Mind Map

Frequently Asked Question

  • 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.

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