Summary: Act I, scene i
In Egypt, Philo and Demetrius, two Roman soldiers, discuss
how their general, Mark Antony, has fallen in love with the Egyptian queen,
Cleopatra, and has lost interest in his proper role as one of the
three leaders (or triumvirs) of the Roman Empire. Cleopatra and Antony
enter, the queen imploring Antony to describe just how much he loves
her, when a messenger from Rome greets them. Antony says that he
has little interest in hearing Roman news, but Cleopatra tells him
that he must listen. She teases Antony for possibly turning away
a command from young Octavius Caesar or a rebuke from Antony’s wife,
Fulvia. When she urges him to return to Rome, Antony claims that
Rome means nothing to him. He says that his duty requires him to
stay in Alexandria and love Cleopatra. Although the queen doubts
the sincerity of his sentiment, her suggestions that Antony hear
the news from Rome go unheeded, and the couple exits together. After
the lovers have gone, Philo and Demetrius express shock and despair
at their general’s disrespect for Caesar and the concerns of the
empire.
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Act I, scene i →
Summary: Act I, scene ii
Cleopatra’s attendants ask a soothsayer, or fortune-teller,
to reveal their futures. The Soothsayer tells Charmian and Iras,
the queen’s maids, that their fortunes are the same: their pasts
will prove better than their futures, and they shall outlive the
queen whom they serve. Cleopatra joins them, complaining that Antony
has suddenly turned his mind toward Rome again. She sends Antony’s
follower Enobarbus to fetch his master, but changes her mind, and
as Antony approaches, she leaves to avoid seeing him. A messenger
reports to Antony that Fulvia and Lucius, Antony’s brother, have
mounted an army against Caesar but have lost their battle. When
the messenger hesitantly suggests that this event would not have
happened had Antony been in Rome, Antony invites the man to speak
openly, to “taunt [his] faults / With such full licence as both
truth and malice / Have power to utter” (I.ii.96–98).
Another messenger arrives to report that Fulvia is dead. Antony
comments that he long desired his wife’s death but now wishes her
alive again.
Enobarbus arrives and tries to comfort Antony with the
thought that Fulvia’s death was an event that should be welcomed
rather than mourned. Worried that his idleness and devotion to Cleopatra are
responsible for these events, as well as a battle being waged by Sextus
Pompeius, who is currently attempting to take control of the seas
from the triumvirs, Antony decides to break away from Cleopatra
and return to Rome.
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Act I, scene ii →
Summary: Act I, scene iii
Cleopatra orders her servant Alexas to fetch Antony. When
Antony enters, Cleopatra feigns a fainting spell, lamenting that
Fulvia ever gave Antony leave to come to Egypt. She asks how she
can have believed the vows of a man so willing to break his vows
to his wife. Antony tells her of the volatile political situation
in Rome and of Fulvia’s death. Cleopatra notes how little he mourns
and predicts that he will grieve as little after her own death.
They argue about the depth and truth of his feelings, until Antony
finally departs, promising that distance will not threaten their
love.
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Act I, scene iii →
Analysis: Act I, scenes i–iii
Shakespeare organizes the plot of Antony and Cleopatra around
the conflict between East and West, Egypt and Rome. He immediately establishes
this opposition in the opening scene, when two Roman soldiers pass
judgment on their commander, Mark Antony, for surrendering his martial
duties to the exotic pleasures of Cleopatra’s Egypt. The battle
is not merely between two geographically distinct empires but also
between two diametrically opposed worldviews. As Philo and Demetrius
lament Antony’s decline, claiming that his “captain’s heart” now
serves as “the bellows and the fan / To cool a gipsy’s lust,” they
illustrate a divide between a world that is governed by reason,
discipline, and prudence, and another ruled by passion, pleasure,
and love (I.i.6–10).
Cleopatra, however, is much more than the high-class
prostitute that the Romans believe her to be. Often considered Shakespeare’s strongest
female character, Cleopatra is a consummate actress. As her first
scene with Antony shows, she conducts her affair with the Roman
general in a highly theatrical fashion, her actions fueled as much
by the need to create a public spectacle as by the desire to satisfy
a private passion. Later, upon learning of Antony’s plan to return
to Rome, the queen shifts from grief to anger with astonishing speed.
No sooner does she recover from a fainting spell than she rails
at Antony for his inability to mourn his dead wife adequately. As
he prepares to leave, Cleopatra says, “But sir, forgive me, / Since my
becomings kill me when they do not / Eye well to you” (I.iii.96-98).
Here, “becomings” refers not only to the graces that become or suit
the queen but also to her fluid transformations, her many moods,
and the many different versions of herself she presents. In Act
I, scene i, Antony points to this mutability when he notes that Cleopatra
is a woman “[w]hom everything becomes-to chide, to laugh, / To weep”
(I.i.51-52). This talent for perpetual change
lends Cleopatra her characteristic sense of drama as well as her complexity.
