I realise this is a bit random and a case of raising a dead thread, but I thought this might be appropriate to add. Basically I was doing a little self-exercise in identifying beats (packets of action/reaction that make up scenes - it's a Robert McKee idea) and decided to apply it to one of Shakespeare's plays.
McKee holds (as does most Hollywood) that there's always a subtext lurking beneath the text of a play, that "when the scene is about what the scene is about, you're in deep shit" -- because a work with no subtext has no complexity and is therefore boring. Basically, you go through a scene and break it up into pairs of actions and reactions by the characters, and then analyse those beats by what is
actually happening.
I picked up Act 1, Scene 1 of
Antony and Cleopatra, which on its first reading
seems to be demonstrating Antony as completely cuntstruck by Cleopatra and a fallen man ... but when you analyse what seems to be really going on in the scene, it actually is a masterful display of frame control by Antony.
So for interest, I thought I'd break the scene down by action and reaction, to explore what's happening.
Quote:Quote:
SCENE I. Alexandria. A room in CLEOPATRA's palace.
Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO
PHILO
Nay, but this dotage of our general's
O'erflows the measure: those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of the war
Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn,
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front: his captain's heart,
Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst
The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper,
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy's lust.
Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her Ladies, the Train, with Eunuchs fanning her
Look, where they come:
Take but good note, and you shall see in him.
The triple pillar of the world transform'd
Into a strumpet's fool: behold and see.
(1) "Tawny front" is double entendre. It's referring to Cleopatra's tits. Shakespeare was fond of innuendo, he had to keep the crowd interested. "Tawny" is basically the colour you'd expect an Egyptian's skin to have - a light brown. Philo's basically saying here "He used to stare at battlefields, now he only has eyes for boobs."
(2) This first speech I think is a giant fake-out by Shakespeare: he sets up the whole mood of the scene as making Antony out to be cuntstruck by Cleopatra, and the deception works because Philo the first guy to speak and so the first reference point for the audience, the guy from whom we naturally expect some objective fact. But he's an unreliable narrator, because we can see from the first word he's disagreeing with Demetrius - "Nay, but..." So presumably
Demetrius has offered a different point of view. Philo is expressing an opinion, he's not a prologue.
Moving on...
Quote:Quote:
CLEOPATRA
If it be love indeed, tell me how much.
MARK ANTONY
There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
On its face, simple enough: Cleopatra seems to be doubting Antony's expression of love, Antony seems to be grovelling - at least that's how I've seen the scene played. But I think the subtext on reading it, what these people are
really feeling and acting/reacting:
Cleopatra: Do you love me? I really need you to tell me so.
Antony: Hmmmm. I don't know if I do love you. And love is endless, so I can spread my love around.
It's
dread game!
Quote:Quote:
CLEOPATRA
I'll set a bourn how far to be beloved.
MARK ANTONY
Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
Cleopatra: Don't you even think of cheating on me, you asshole.
Antony: It's not like you could stop me; women are practically throwing themselves at me. There is literally no way in heaven or earth you could stop me because I've got options. I have an abundance mentality.
How do we get to this subtext? Because Cleopatra uses the word
bourn, i.e. a
limit. She's saying "
I say how much you can "be loved" ... by other women." i.e. none.
Quote:Quote:
Attendant
News, my good lord, from Rome.
MARK ANTONY
Grates me: the sum.
CLEOPATRA
Nay, hear them, Antony:
Fulvia perchance is angry; or, who knows
If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, 'Do this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that;
Perform 't, or else we damn thee.'
The messenger breaks the tension.
Antony's subtext: "I must do my duty, which I don't like, but hey, that's the job when you run half the world and you're already married." Again, raising dread game one more time - the threat of leaving.
Cleopatra's subtext: She mocks Rome by mocking Caesar, and mocks duty by mocking Fulvia's wedding vows. Also, Antony, you're hundreds of miles from Rome, where that duty doesn't mean anything.
Quote:Quote:
MARK ANTONY
How, my love!
CLEOPATRA
Perchance! nay, and most like:
You must not stay here longer, your dismission
Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony.
Where's Fulvia's process? Caesar's I would say? both?
Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's queen,
Thou blushest, Antony; and that blood of thine
Is Caesar's homager: else so thy cheek pays shame
When shrill-tongued Fulvia scolds. The messengers!
Antony's subtext: Huh, you might be right. I'll just open the door a crack to make it look like you've got a chance to keep me.
Cleopatra: I'll try and push the crack open more by reverse psychology: make him want to stay by encouraging him to go.
Quote:Quote:
MARK ANTONY
Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space.
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man: the nobleness of life
Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair
Embracing
And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless.
CLEOPATRA
Excellent falsehood!
Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her?
I'll seem the fool I am not; Antony
Will be himself.
Antony: Don't play stupid push-pull games with me. I've already got you and I'm already here because I choose to stay and because I've got you wrapped round my finger.
Cleopatra: Oh really? Then why don't you marry me?
Quote:Quote:
MARK ANTONY
But stirr'd by Cleopatra.
Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours,
Let's not confound the time with conference harsh:
There's not a minute of our lives should stretch
Without some pleasure now. What sport tonight?
CLEOPATRA
Hear the ambassadors.
It's here we have the turning point of the scene, because this is the first time Antony's frame is shaken. But he artfully dodges the marriage question by basically saying: you're sexy, let's fuck.
Cleopatra: I'll make one more token effort to resist you. Asshole. Don't think I've forgotten about marriage.
Quote:Quote:
MARK ANTONY
Fie, wrangling queen!
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose every passion fully strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admired!
No messenger, but thine; and all alone
To-night we'll wander through the streets and note
The qualities of people. Come, my queen;
Last night you did desire it: (to messenger) speak not to us.
Antony: I promise I'll think about marrying you later. Let's fuck. (And he's so concerned to get the bang and the marriage question off her mind he brushes off the messenger entirely and moves to relocation ASAP.)
Cleopatra: does not protest, and therefore accedes.
Quote:Quote:
Exeunt MARK ANTONY and CLEOPATRA with their train
DEMETRIUS
Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?
PHILO
Sir, sometimes, when he is not Antony,
He comes too short of that great property
Which still should go with Antony.
DEMETRIUS
I am full sorry
That he approves the common liar, who
Thus speaks of him at Rome: but I will hope
Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy!
Demetrius's line, "Is Caesar with Antonius prized so slight?", depending on which words you stress, takes on an entirely different meaning. If you stress the '
so', it takes on the expected conventional meaning - that Antonius doesn't give a shit about what Caesar has to say.
But: if you stress the word
Caesar -- as an actor would, this is iambic pentameter and the second syllable of the line is
meant to be stressed -- it takes on a different meaning. (In addition, as an iambic pentameter, the word
so is not stressed at all.) With the word
Caesar stressed, it becomes a
comparison -- that Demetrius is observing that Antony seems to value Cleopatra very, very little: "Does Antony value Caesar as lowly as he does her?" That would be consistent with the guys seeing Antony using dread game on Cleopatra and going to an assured fuck in the space of two minutes.
I go on to read Philo and Demetrius's observations as somewhat awestruck by Antony's control of a pussy that the whole world wants to fuck. Philo seems a bit shaken compared to his speech at the start of the scene, and Demetrius's last line speaks to me of jealousy, even grudging admiration: "I'm sorry that he's got that pussy so strongly under control, but tomorrow is another day, I guess."