Summary: Act III, scene iv
Antony complains to Octavia that since departing Rome,
Caesar has not only waged war against Pompey but has also belittled
Antony in public. Octavia urges Antony not to believe everything
he hears, and she pleads with him to keep the peace with her brother. Were
Antony and Caesar to fight, Octavia laments, she would not know
whether to support her brother or her husband. Antony tells her
that he must do what needs to be done to preserve his honor, without
which he would be nothing. Nevertheless, he sends her to Rome to
make peace again between Caesar and himself. Meanwhile, he prepares
for war against Pompey.
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Act III, scene iv →
Summary: Act III, scene v
Enobarbus converses with Eros, another friend of Antony.
The two discuss Caesar’s defeat of Pompey’s army and the murder
of Pompey. Eros reports that Caesar made use of Lepidus’s forces,
but then, after their victory, denied Lepidus his share of the spoils.
In fact, Caesar has accused the triumvir of plotting against him
and has thrown him into prison. Enobarbus reports that Antony’s
navy is ready to sail for Italy and Caesar.
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Act III, scene v →
Summary: Act III, scene vi
Back in Rome, Caesar rails against Antony. He tells Agrippa
and Maecenas that Antony has gone to Egypt to sit alongside Cleopatra as
her king. He has given her rule over much of the Middle East, making
her absolute queen of lower Syria, Cyprus, and Lydia. Caesar reports
that Antony is displeased that he has not yet been allotted a fair
portion of the lands that Caesar wrested from Pompey and Lepidus.
He will divide his lot, he says, if Antony responds in kind and
grants him part of Armenia and other kingdoms that Antony conquered.
No sooner does Maecenas predict that Antony will never concede to
those terms than Octavia enters. Caesar laments that the woman travels
so plainly, without the fanfare that should attend the wife of Antony.
Caesar reveals to her that Antony has joined Cleopatra in Egypt,
where he has assembled a large alliance to fight Rome. Octavia is
heartbroken, and Maecenas assures her that she has the sympathy
of every Roman citizen.
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Act III, scene vi →
Summary: Act III, scene vii
Cleopatra plans to go into battle alongside Antony and
responds angrily to Enobarbus’s suggestion that her presence will
be a distraction. Enobarbus tries to dissuade her, but she dismisses
his objections. Antony tells his general, Camidius, that he will
meet Caesar at sea. Camidius and Enobarbus object, pointing out
that while they have superiority on land, Caesar’s naval fleet is
much stronger. -Antony, however, refuses to listen. Cleopatra maintains
that her fleet of sixty ships will win the battle. Antony leaves
to prepare the navy, despite the protests of a soldier who begs
him to forgo a doomed sea battle and advocates fighting on foot.
After the general and the queen exit, Camidius complains that they
are all “women’s men,” ruled by Cleopatra (III.vii.70).
He comments on the speed of Caesar’s approach, then goes to prepare
the land defenses.
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Act III, scene vii →
Analysis: Act III, scenes iv–vii
Caesar’s description of Antony and Cleopatra in Act III,
scene vi shows the play’s preoccupation with the sexualized East.
The scene recalls an earlier speech by Enobarbus in which he states
that the Egyptian queen floats down the Nile on a glittering throne.
Just as Cleopatra and her barge are a vision of decadent beauty
in the earlier speech, so is the image of the queen and her lover
in the marketplace of Alexandria. Caesar’s exchange with Maecenas
underscores the spectacular nature of Antony and Cleopatra’s appearance:
CAESAR: Contemning
Rome, he has done all this and more
In
Alexandria. Here’s the manner of’t:
I’
th’ market place on a tribunal silvered,
Cleopatra
and himself in chairs of gold
Were publicly
enthroned. . . .
MAECENAs: This
in the public eye?
CAESAR: I’
th’ common showplace, where they exercise.
.
. .
She
In th’habiliments
of the goddess Isis
That day appeared, and
oft before gave audience
(III.vi.2–19)
Antony and Cleopatra draws distinctions
between the West and the East by illustrating the West as sober,
military, and masculine, and the East as exotic, pleasure-loving,
and sexual. In this scene, it is not only the public appearance
of Antony with a woman not his wife that shocks Maecenas, Caesar,
and Agrippa, but also the decadence with which they appear. While
the military men confer in the West regarding the machinations of
war, Antony’s life in the East is represented as focused on sensual
pleasures, both with Cleopatra and within the wealth and splendor
of her kingdom.
