Flourish. Enter Proculeius, Caesar, Gallus, Maecenas, and others of his train

ALL                  Make way, there! Caesar!

CAESAR          Which is the Queen of Egypt?

DOLABELLA   [to Cleopatra] It is the Emperor, madam.

Cleopatra kneels

CAESAR          Arise! You shall not kneel.

I pray you rise, rise, Egypt.

CLEOPATRA               [rising] Sir, the gods

Will have it thus. My master and my lord

I must obey.               (5.2.109-113)

What has been a private, even intimate little scene between Cleopatra and Proculeius, then Cleopatra and Dolabella, is suddenly much more publish: a fanfare, and there’s Caesar, with his whole entourage, shouting and pulling rank: make way there! Get out of the way! (What are Charmian and Iras doing? Perhaps being pushed, or grabbed, again.) A power move from Caesar, or stiff formality, or else sheer obtuseness: which is the Queen of Egypt?I can’t tell, there are three women here, none of them looks like a queen, none of them is anything special. Perhaps Cleopatra is shielding her face, looking away, on the sidelines. Dolabella helps: it is the Emperor, madam. (In case you can’t tell who he is either? is this Dolabella getting one over Caesar? Or is he telling her that she has to face up to this, has to engage? It’s time?) And so she kneels: Cleopatra, kneels? Caesar can be aghast, as well as magnanimous, courteous: arise! You shall not kneel. I pray you rise, rise, Egypt. Go on, get up, please, you’re making this even more awkward—and he addresses her as a queen, as Egypt—which was of course how Antony addressed her too. Cleopatra perhaps rises, at his command: sir, the gods will have it thus. I have to do what I’m told, both by divinely ordained fate, and because you yourself are godlike. And my master and my lord I must obey. Look, here I am, first grovelling, abasing myself, and now getting up at your command. This is what I’m reduced to. What is your will with me, then?