Act V Scene II Antony and Cleopatra

 

Act V Scene II Antony and Cleopatra

[alert-success] ACT V SCENE II

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Act V Scene II is the last scene of Antony and Cleopatra. Cleopatra is determined to commit suicide. As she will be meeting Antony in the afterlife, she requests her ladies to dress her like a bride. She mocks Ceasar:

“Tis paltry to be Caesar;
Not being Fortune, he’s but Fortune’s knave”

Proculeius, one of Octavius’ soldier enters and he assures her that Caesar would be kind and generous to her and deny her nothing. He says:

“Be of good cheer.
You’re fall’n into a princely hand; fear nothing”

At this very moment, Gallus, the commander under Octavius comes with his soldiers. Caesar sends them to capture Cleopatra and take her to Rome. Cleopatra says that she will not go to Rome to be stared at by the dull Octavia and mocked at by “the shouting varletry of censuring Rome”. She says that she would rather die in a ditch in Egypt.

“Where art thou, Death?
Come hither, come! Come, come, and take a queen
Worth many babes and beggars”

Dolabella enters and takes Proculeius’ place guarding Cleopatra. Cleopatra tells Dolabella about a dream she had of “Emperor Antony,” in which he was gigantic, “his legs bestrid the ocean,” and the whole world was under his power.

“His legs bestrid the ocean, his reared arm
Crested the world. His voice was propertied
As all the tunèd spheres, and that to friends;
But when he meant to quail and shake the orb,
He was as rattling thunder”

Octavius Ceasar enters with Gallus, Proculeius, Maecenas, and others of his followers. Caesar and Cleopatra face each other for the first time. Caesar assumes a threatening tone. He tells Cleopatra that he will destroy her children if she commits suicide but take care of them if she obeys him. Cleopatra pretends to be friends with him by giving him her jewels.

But Seleucus, a treacherous follower of Cleopatra, betrays her by saying that she has hidden a large quantity of her jewels. She angrily sends Seleucus away. Octavius tells Cleopatra not to worry about the things she has kept from him. He tells her, “Our care and pity is so much upon you, That we remain your friend.” He leaves with his followers.

But Cleopatra is sure that Caesar will cheat her. So, she decides to commit suicide. She ordered the deadly asps to be brought to her. She dressed herself as a bride and fancies that the spirit of Antony is calling her. Saying, 'Husband, I come', she allows herself to be bitten by the asps and dies.

 Caesar comes only to find that he has been outsmarted by Cleopatra. He orders the dead bodies of Antony and Cleopatra to be buried in the same grave, and says:

No grave upon the earth shall clip in it
A pair so famous.