Cleopatra: but I was ONLY hanging on to the jewels as gifts for your wife and sister! (5.2.154-168) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

CAESAR                      Good queen, let us entreat you. CLEOPATRA  O, Caesar, what a wounding shame is this, That thou vouchsafing here to visit me, Doing the honour of thy lordliness To one so meek—that mine own servant should Parcel the sum of my disgraces by Addition of his envy. Say, good Caesar, That I some lady […]

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Cleopatra, double-crossing Caesar? or more complex sleight of hand? (5.2.141-6) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

SELEUCUS      Madam, I had rather seal my lips Than to my peril speak that which is not. CLEOPATRA   What have I kept back? SELEUCUS Enough to purchase what you have made known. CAESAR          Nay, blush not, Cleopatra. I approve Your wisdom in the deed.    (5.2.141-146)   A tiny little exchange—and in fact the whole Seleucus […]

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Caesar: oh no don’t kneel to me; Cleopatra: what do you want? (5.2.109-113) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

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 […]

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Cleopatra: Antony was my dream, and he was MINE (5.2.91-9) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

DOLABELLA                           Cleopatra— CLEOPATRA   Think you there was, or might be, such a man As this I dreamt of? DOLABELLA                           Gentle madam, no. CLEOPATRA   You lie, up to the hearing of the gods. But if there be, or ever were one such, It’s past the size of dreaming. Nature wants stuff To vie strange forms […]

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Cleopatra: an ecstatic dream of Antony, godlike, golden, giving (5.2.78-91) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare

CLEOPATRA   His face was as the heav’ns, and therein stuck A sun and moon, which kept their course and lighted The little O o’th’ earth. DOLABELLA               Most sovereign creature— CLEOPATRA 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 […]

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