Caesar and Cleopatra

“His subalterns are mostly handsome young fellows whose interest in the game and the story symbolizes with tolerable completeness the main interests in life of which they are conscious.”

Shaw describes the Egyptian soldiers who are guarding Cleopatra’s palace. He is suggesting that they are uncomplex as people, characterizing them as shallow thinkers. The soldiers are subordinate with little power themselves, followers who must be led. Caesar shows later that he feels thusly responsible for his soldiers’ lives when he gives them orders, unlike Cleopatra who sees them as battle fodder.

“Belzanor: the gods are not always good to their poor relations.” 

The Persian responds to Belzanor, who mocks Bel Affris for fearing the Roman army when the Roman army is made up of peasants and those who guard the queen are descended from gods. The Persian, who is the only one present who isn’t descended from Egyptian gods (he is, he states, descended from kings), gives a wry observation about the religious mythology of both Egypt and Rome. Often those who are descended from gods, and even the gods themselves, are hurt, tortured, or killed. Their gods are not infallible or bound to ideas of justness and morality.

“They care nothing about cowardice, these Romans: they fight to win. The pride and honor of war are nothing to them.” 

When Belzanor doesn’t take the threat of the Romans seriously, Bel Affris points out that they are especially dangerous because their only goal is defeat. Without concern for pride and honor, they can be ruthless. Caesar demonstrates this later when he shows that he is much more pragmatic than he is sentimental.

“Who shall stay the sword in the hand of a fool, if the high gods put it there?” 

Bel Affris threatens Ftatateeta with a knife to her throat, promising that he will let her live if she tells them where Cleopatra is hiding. Ftatateeta insults Bel Affris, calling him a fool who has been given the power to kill by the gods. She tells the men where they are likely to find Cleopatra, but not without showing that she doesn’t respect them for their station or trust their intelligence and judgement. 

“Hail, Sphinx: salutation from Julius Caesar! I have wandered in many lands, seeking the lost regions from which my birth into this world exiled me, and the company of creatures such as I myself. I have found flocks and pastures, men and cities, but no other Caesar, no air native to me, no man kindred to me, none who can do my day’s deed and think my night’s thought. […] Sphinx, you and I, strangers to the race of men, are no strangers to one another: have I not been conscious of you and this place since I was born? Rome is a madman’s dream: this is my Reality.” 

Caesar greets the Sphinx by placing himself on the same level of significance as the statue. He sees himself as unique as the Sphinx, and something more than humanity. Caesar expresses a kinship with the Sphinx that transcends culture and nationality. His presumption is arrogant and informs the entitlement he feels to occupy Egypt and his sense of superiority that pushes him to defy his political rivals in Rome. 

“O Sphinx, laughing in whispers. My way hither was the way of destiny; for I am he of whose genius you are the symbol: part brute, part woman, and part God—nothing man in me at all. Have I read your riddle, Sphinx?” 

Caesar equates himself with the Sphinx, who, particularly from Shaw’s historical perspective, is the embodiment of the mysteries of the ancient world. Both Caesar and the Sphinx have risen above history to become icons that are more recognizable by their mythicized status than for their histories. Caesar applies the Greek interpretation of the Sphinx, in which she is part woman (the Egyptian Sphinx is believed to be modeled on the face of a man, the pharaoh Khafre). The Greek Sphinx guards the gates to Thebes and kills those who can’t answer her riddle: “Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?” The answer is person, who crawls, walks, and then uses a cane over the course of a life, which Caesar references by saying that he is not merely human.

“What a dream! What a magnificent dream! Only let me not wake, and I will conquer ten continents to pay for dreaming it out to the end.”

Caesar, who describes Rome as a “madman’s dream” (17) and Egypt as reality, sees his experience of wandering across the Sphinx and happening upon the young Cleopatra as surreal but clarifying. By chance, Caesar has encountered what he sees as the heart of Egypt and gained access to the girl who is the key to his campaign there. The event is strange and seems out of time, not only for Caesar but for audiences who are seeing the two icons come together in history. It seems like a clairvoyant dream in which Caesar is shown how to enter the center of Egyptian power.

“He is easily deceived by women. Their eyes dazzle him; and he sees them not as they are, but as he wishes them to appear to him.”

In the play, unlike in history, Caesar and Cleopatra do not have a romantic relationship, but Caesar‘s weakness for women is mentioned several times throughout the play. Shaw endeavors to show Caesar as a man whose conquest in Egypt was for purely political purposes, rather than for love of Cleopatra, as has been suggested about the real Caesar. However, he certainly sees Cleopatra for who he wishes her to be rather than as who she is, as is demonstrated when Cleopatra defies him and has Pothinus killed.

“My friend: taxes are the chief business of a conqueror of the world.”

Through Caesar’s statement, Shaw argues that the purpose of conquest and empire is always to gain money and resources, regardless of the commonly claimed justification of bringing civilization to the uncivilized or spreading democratic systems of government. 

“What is burning is the memory of mankind.”

As the Library of Alexandria burns, the scholar Theodotus laments what is being lost. But Caesar calls the memory of mankind “a shameful memory” (49) that ought to burn so that they can build a new future in its place. He sees these texts and records of history as humanity resting on its laurels and writing the archives that make them seem good and their actions justified.

“Might not the gods destroy the world if their only thought were to be at peace next year?”

Caesar justifies his philosophy of setting prisoners free, even if they might cause trouble later. Killing those who oppose him would make his life easier, but it would also mean destroying the very thing he has set out to conquer. 

“I do not keep a shop. Mine is a temple of the arts. I am a worshipper of beauty. My calling is to choose beautiful things for beautiful queens. My motto is Art for Art’s sake.”

Apollodorus is a patrician, which means that he was born into nobility. He is the opposite of Caesar in his views on art and culture. Unlike Shaw, who wrote comedies with political undertones and agendas, Apollodorus believes in enjoying the excesses of beauty and art that has no other purpose than aesthetic pleasure.

“We shall see whom Isis loves best: her servant Ftatateeta or a dog of a Roman.”

Ftatateeta makes this statement when the Centurion threatens her. The Egyptians in the play repeatedly mention the gods and the protection of the gods. Although the play suggests later that there is power and mysticism present when Cleopatra appeals to the gods, it also shows that the gods’ favor does not always mean a favorable outcome for the humans who worship them. Ftatateeta, for instance, ends up dying at the hands of a Roman on the altar to Ra, implying that she ends up an accidental sacrifice to the god.

“Royalty, Ftatateeta, lies not in the barge but in the queen.”

Apollodorus is trying to flatter Cleopatra, but he is also suggesting that royalty and power is innate. Cleopatra is the queen, even when she does not occupy the throne. There is a spiritual inheritance in reigning that is not negated when one’s rightful place is usurped. It doesn’t matter which boat Cleopatra travels on or whether she is rolled up in a rug. She is still the descendent of the gods and the queen of Egypt.

“Majesty: when a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”

Apollodorus is insulting the Centurion, who will not allow Cleopatra to leave the palace. He is again trying to flatter the queen, but also makes the point that those who claim that they are only following orders are still culpable for their actions, and that by attempting to push the responsibility onto their commanding officer, they are saying that they are unintelligent and without a sense of judgment or autonomy.

“Yes: I was a fool—rash, Rufio—boyish.” 

taken the lighthouse, Caesar worries that he has made a poor decision and feels certain that they will be defeated by the Egyptians. He projects himself as confident and thoughtful, never leaping to action without thoroughly vetting potential consequences. Caesar equates acting rashly with youth, which is the type of behavior that Cleopatra demonstrates. Caesar lives a life of action, but he also fears taking the wrong action.

“Let them lose their lives: they are only soldiers.” 

Cleopatra is befuddled by the way Caesar humanizes soldiers and sees their lives as valuable. In Egypt, the elite and royals all believe that they are descended from the gods. Cleopatra demonstrates the capriciousness of a god, viewing human lives as disposable for the sake of her own objectives. Caesar asserts that he sees the lives of soldiers as no less than his or Cleopatra’s.

“He makes you so terribly prosy and serious and learned and philosophical. It is worse than being religious at our ages.”

Charmian, one of Cleopatra’s ladies, complains about Cleopatra’s devotion to and idolization of Caesar. Like Caesar, she equates thoughtfulness with maturity, and laments that Cleopatra no longer acts like a young teen. Cleopatra has been holding back the tempestuous nature that she inherited from her father because she doesn’t want Caesar to see it. But eventually, Cleopatra will not be able to stop herself.

“No, no: it is not that I am so clever, but that the others are so stupid.” 

When Pothinus visits Cleopatra, he accuses her of being young and vain for believing that she can rule Egypt without Caesar and claiming that Caesar has made her wise. But she clarifies that the way he has made her wise as a leader is to show her that those around her need to be led. What Cleopatra possesses isn’t about education or intelligence, but an ability lead and command that she has matured into. Before, when she was still foolish, she could do what she wanted and submit to Ftatateeta’s authority. But Caesar has led her to grow up.

“Oh, this military life! This tedious, brutal life of action! That is the worst of us Romans: we are mere doers and drudgers: a swarm of bees turned into men. Give me a good talker – one with wit and imagination enough to live without continually doing something!”

Although the historical Caesar was certainly a man of action, Shaw’s Caesar is thoughtful and careful. He appreciates Apollodorus because Apollodorus lives for beauty and art, things that are decidedly not utilitarian. Apollodorus values the pleasure of intellectual appreciation rather than the rough practicality of action. Caesar often disguises his inaction as action, by, for instance, allowing prisoners to escape instead of actively setting them free, and choosing ignorance about possible traitors by destroying the letters. But he defines this default to action as a Roman trait, part of the Roman drive for war and conquest.

“My friend: when man has anything to tell in this world, the difficulty is not to make him tell it, but to prevent him from telling it too often.”

Caesar does not want to hear what Pothinus has come to say. Pothinus intends to make Caesar distrust Cleopatra. Whatever he says will require Caesar to take decisive action, either against Cleopatra or against Pothinus. Caesar makes the choice not to know, just as he makes the choice earlier in the play to not know what the letters reveal about possible traitors. But he is correct in his statement that those with something to say will find a way to say it, which Pothinus does, causing Cleopatra to act against Pothinus when Caesar avoids it.

“And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.” 

Caesar rebukes Cleopatra for having Pothinus killed instead of letting him go free. He argues that justified violence still leads to more violence, and that those who kill are always doing it with the belief that they are taking a morally right action. Caesar sees Cleopatra’s action as capricious and rash, a response to being insulted. But the men present – Rufio, Lucius Septimus, Apollodorus, and Britannus – all agree that killing Pothinus was necessary. Caesar tries to avoid the potentially unruly and violent displeasure of the masses, while the others believe that taking action is sometimes unavoidable, even if the consequences are undesirable.

“He who has never hoped can never despair. Caesar, in good or bad fortune, looks his fate in the face.”

Caesar says this proudly, professing that he can accept whatever happens to him because he is above hoping and having his hopes dashed. He does not want others to see him as compromised by human emotions. But he does show moments of emotion and fallibility, as at the lighthouse when he fears that the Romans will be defeated, or when he initially responds to learning that Cleopatra ordered Pothinus’s death. Caesar attempts to be completely utilitarian, but his humanity sometimes shows through.