Chickens! Cultural Moment: Antony & Cleopatra

You may remember Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan from past posts (Twelfth Night, The Tempest). The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra was first published in the "First Folio" in 1623 (see right, click to embiggen). It is set in Rome/Egypt in 40–30 B.C. and follows the love affair and downfall of Mark Antony, one of the triumvirs of Rome, and Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty.

According to the S on the S website:

"Mark Antony is Rome’s most honored soldier; Cleopatra is Egypt’s most beautiful queen who captures his love. Their passion blazes with infinite fire but makes Antony compromise his responsibilities to Octavius Caesar and Rome. To solidify political relations Antony must marry Octavius’s sister; but when he is lured back by Cleopatra’s mesmerizing charm, battles rage; Antony must choose between passion and honour. Antony and Cleopatra is a heart wrenching tragedy that will conquer our stage and your heart this summer."

Personally, I appreciate the more mature tragic romance of this story than of something like Romeo&Juliet (whom I always felt were idiots). Both the main characters are big (and often flawed) personalities and they have burdens and responsibilities and life experience behind their decisions and influencing the courses they take. Good times.

And now for some fun things to learn and know about Cleopatra VII and her whole deal:

-The degree of inbreeding in the royalty of Ptolemaic dynasty was so great that Cleopatra VII only had four great-grandparents and just six great-great-grandparents (four of which were descended from the other two). Click here for a Ptolemaic genealogy.
-Although Cleopatra is rumored to be the only pharaoh of this dynasty to speak Egyptian, her time was during the Hellenistic period in Egypt and so her main language would have been Greek (the Ptolemies ruled for about 300 years from 305 BC to 30 BC when Cleopatra committed suicide).
-Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy XII, died in March 51 BC leaving 18-year-old Cleopatra and her brother, the 12-year-old Ptolemy XIII as joint monarchs. Due to economic and political strife and Cleopatra's ambition, trouble a-brewed until she was ousted and sent into exile in 48BC. Later, Ptolemy screwed himself over by having Pompey assassinated in a misguided attempt to gain favour with Julius Caesar (with whom Pompey was embroiled in a losing military conflict) when he sought refuge in Alexandria. Cleopatra was quick to take advantage of Caesar's bilious humours regarding Ptolemy, so she had herself rolled up in a carpet and delivered to the Caesar. She had to do this because Caesar's palace was on lock down and she wouldn't have been able to walk in the front door. Anyway, apparently Caesar thought that was pretty cool and nine months later Cleopatra gave birth to their son Caesarian in 47 BC (Caesar was 52 and Cleo was only 21 when the two met). This also led Caesar to abandon his plans to annex Egypt and instead he backed Cleopatra in her attempt to recapture the pharaoh-ship (which she succeeded in doing after 6 months of war and the subsequent drowning of Ptolemy XIII in the Nile). Although this time she had to share with another younger brother, Ptolemy XIV.
-Once Julius was assassinated in 44BC, Cleopatra returned to Egypt with her son and brother where Ptolemy XIV came down with an unfortunate bout of poisoning. She then aligned herself with Mark Antony in opposition to Octavian (who was Julius Caesar's legal heir which made Cleo mad because she had hoped that Caesarion would be heir, being Julius's actual son, if illegitimate). She also had Mark behead her sister.
-Mark and Cleo spend the winter of 41BC together in Alexandria, then she gave birth to their twin children Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene II. Four years later, Antony returned to Alexandria while en route to slaughter the Parthians. He got Egyptian married to Cleo around this time (which made a lot of Romans mad because he was married to Octavian's sister Octavia too) and they had another baby, Ptolemy Philadelphus.
-Then some other stuff happened (i.e. war with Octavian, Cleo turning tail and running during battle, Mark Antony following her, etc.) and she committed suicide soon after Mark added some speed holes to his own torso. Famously, she did this by inducing an asp to bite her on the arm (although Shakespeare says it bit her on the breast, probably for shock value...or artistic license whatever). While this seems melodramatic of both of them (and it was), they were probably going to be executed by Octavian for all of their tomfoolery anyway so it's not like the pulled a Romeo & Juliet or anything.