"The Sword Phillipan": Female Power, Maternity and Genderbending in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
Susan Muaddi Darraj

     The 19th century essayist and literary critic William Hazlitt wrote of Cleopatra, "She is voluptuous, ostentatious, conscious, boastful of her charms, haughty, tyrannical, [and] fickle," which are "great and unpardonable faults" (Hazlitt 2-3). Much of the criticism of Antony and Cleopatra has recycled this judgement, depicting Cleopatra as a villainess uses her eroticism and sexuality to motivate Antony to seek power. Cleopatra is memorable for her propensity for violence as well. While Antony and Cleopatra was written after the death of a violent English queen, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare may have been faced with a dramatic dilemma: how to make a woman seem believably violent and intimidating on the stage. Coppélia Kahn notes that Cleopatra was "Rome's most dangerous enemy" (111),i but how does one make the Queen of the Nile seem like such a threat during a time when women had little social and political power. Shakespeare does several things to accomplish this task: 1) he locates Cleopatra's power in a foreign or supernatural realm; 2) he inverts her gender role with that of Antony; 3) he suppresses her maternal qualities; and 4) he allows her to be redeemed only in death. Indeed, it is the only way to handle a difficult woman on the Jacobean stage.

Locating Codes of Female Power

     In Antony and Cleopatra, the Roman values of honor and bravery embody masculinity, while Egypt and the Orient symbolize feminine weakness and fragility. Caesar and Agrippa are depicted as reasonable, logical, and practical, especially in matters of strategy and war. Cleopatra and her servants and eunuchs are consistently referred to in terms of laziness, lethargy, and a focus on bodily pleasure. Antony's emasculation is a result of his eventual submission to the latter. The binary oppositions of masculine and feminine are thus personified by Caesar and Cleopatra, not by Antony, whose men often regard him as the "pawn" of the deceptive queen and thus not a real man. On the contrary, Robert Miola says, "Caesar's sense of purpose and public responsibility directly opposes Cleopatra's love of idleness and luxury" (129), a conclusion supported by the fact that it is Caesar who, after the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, provides some closure to the political chaos that has dominated the play.

     Such an assertion--that the danger of Cleopatra's sexuality lies in her Egyptian surroundings--requires further detail here. The Orient represented a strange, but terrifyingly fascinating world to the Elizabethans. While it was decidedly inferior and politically weak, the Orient also held a dangerous mystique. As Lucy Hughes-Hallett attests, poets, playwrights, historians and artists have found the idea of Cleopatra's foreignness, or otherness, a suitable method by which to explain away her dangerous sexuality. In other words, the fact that Cleopatra effectively seduced and influenced two powerful Roman men baffled Western thinkers who could only explain it by attributing it to her foreignness or "otherness." Not surprisingly, Shakespeare succumbs to a similar artistic temptation. In the first ten lines of the play, the surrender of Roman dignity to Egyptian passion is made clear. Philo regretfully tells Demetrius how

 

Those his goodly eyes,
That o'er the files and musters of war
Have glowed like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
The office and devotion of their view
Upon tawny front. His captain's heart,
... is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy's lust. (I, i, 2-10)

Immediately, we understand that Cleopatra's sexuality is dangerous because it has the power to debilitate the "triple pillar of the world" and transform him into a "strumpet's fool" (I, i,12-13). Her lust can destroy the empire of Rome (and the reason and logic that represents it) by handicapping one of its greatest leaders.

     Shakespeare exploits this contrast between Rome and the Orient (Egypt) throughout the play. In Egypt, he creates, "a world which is the antithesis of all that Rome stands for" (Thomas 100). The presence of eunuchs on stage is significant because it emphasizes Cleopatra's increase in power and the parallel decrease in Antony's power. Antony says, "O thy vile lady, / She has robbed me of my sword!" (IV, xv, 22-23), a point emphasized by the fact that Mardian, the eunuch, has just entered on stage. To the Romans, Egypt was a woman's land; the Egyptian men we see on stage are mostly the Queen's eunuchs, as if to imply that no man can retain his masculinity in her presence. Elizabethans and Jacobeans were just as fascinated by eunuchs as they were by witches--both figures were freakish and strange, thus intriguing. Eunuchs emblematized just how dangerous female power could be--it could lead to emasculation, as it does for Antony, and to the downfall of nations, as it does for Egypt and Antony's half of the Roman Empire.

Genderblending

     By locating Cleopatra's power in the foreign realm of the Orient, Shakespeare frees himself to illustrate the genderbending in which such female power can result. While Cleopatra is essentially "feminine" and embodies the "femininity" of the Orient, Shakespeare allows her to exhibit masculine--even Roman--qualities, such as intelligence and courage, throughout the play. It should be noted that Cleopatra is in a relationship that allows her to exercise her intelligence. There is no question that Antony admires his wife/lover and thrives in his egalitarian marriage. Antony, who is fierce and powerful on the battlefield, is unlike many "tragic heroes, not because he takes on a more feminine role than they do, but because he can accept more fully Cleopatra's sexuality, duplicity, and difference from him and find them compatible with his manhood" (Neely 11). At the beginning of the play, he defines their relationship as "a mutual pair" who "stand up peerless" (I, i, 39-42). He allows Cleopatra much freedom and admits shamelessly to her powers of persuasion. For example, she not only manages to elicit permission from Antony to command her own ship in the Battle at Actium, she has also convinced him that a battle at sea would fare better than one on land. Although Coppélia Kahn believes that Shakespeare mitigates Cleopatra's responsibility for Antony's tragic decision to fight a sea battle, that Antony "isn't influenced by Cleopatra at all, but rather, impelled on his own to pursue the rivalry with Caesar" (117), I would argue that Cleopatra's influence over Antony is much like Lady Macbeth's over her own husband: the husband considers a momentous decision and his wife urges him "to screw your courage to the sticking-place" (I, vii, 60). When Cleopatra says, "By sea--what else?" she confirms and validates Antony's preference. Later, after Antony deserts his men to follow Cleopatra's "fearful sails" back to Alexandria, he articulates the extent of her influence: "My sword, made weak by my affection, would / Obey it on all cause" (III, xi, 67-68).

     Antony's comment, that Cleopatra's love weakens his sword, indicates how the increase in power of Shakespeare's female characters necessitates a parallel decrease in power, or emasculation, of male characters. Coppélia Kahn writes convincingly of "the idea that the woman who holds or tries to hold political power will end by robbing the male of both political and sexual power" (118). Indeed, as Cleopatra becomes more masculine, Antony becomes more feminine. Cleopatra tells her attendants about her intimacies with Antony, which included cross-dressing:

 

"That time--O times!--
I laughed him out of patience, and that night
I laughed him into patience, and next morn,
Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed,
Then put my tires and mantles on him whilst
I wore his sword Phillipan." (II, v, 18-23)

Conveniently enough, Shakespeare chooses, at that precise moment to script the entrance of the messenger who brings news of Antony's marriage to Octavia. Cleopatra projects her anger onto this unlucky servant, exercising her masculine traits: the stage directions call for the queen to strike the man twice, to drag him up and down the stage, and to finally draw a knife, recalling the "sword Phillipan."ii A prime expression of Antony's emasculation occurs later, before the doomed battle at Actium when Antony's men groan that "Our leader's led, / And we are women's men" (III, vii, 69-70).

The Suppression of Motherhood

     The genderbending that occurs in the plays obliterates the possibility of Cleopatra's believable portrayal as a mother. Because Cleopatra exhibits masculine qualities, Shakespeare decides not to stress the fact that she has children. His initiative is not surprising when one considers the image of the Virgin Mary that embodies the Euro-Christian hesitancy to link maternity and sexuality. Because power is a trope of Western literature, a mother cannot be believably violent. The Virgin Mary is primarily a mother; thus, she lacks an assertive spirit and a sexual nature. Without over-emphasizing the point, one could safely conclude that society allows mothers to have a pure and moral nature, believing that a childless woman is an unfulfilled one who will thus seek satisfaction in violent and illicit ways.

     Shakespeare's suppression of Cleopatra's maternal qualities is complicated because she is marked by her foreign, pagan, and exotic otherness. Plutarch, Shakespeare's major source for the Roman plays, includes the fact that the Queen of the Nile, "being great with child by . . . [Julius Caesar], was shortly brought to bed of a son, whom the Alexandrians named Caesarion" (Plutarch 71). In addition, he informs us that she bore Marc Antony's children: "Cleopatra having brought him two twins, a son and a daughter, he named his son Alexander and his daughter Cleopatra, and gave them to their surnames, the Sun to the one and the Moon to the other" (222-223); history tells us that they also shared one other son. The sole recognition of Cleopatra's children comes from the lips of Caesar, who repeats a rumor of the existence of "Caesarion, whom they call my father's son, / And all the unlawful issue that their [Cleopatra and Antony's] lust / Since then hath made between them" (III, vi, 5-8).

     Furthermore, the historical Cleopatra took great pains to depict herself as a mother. Plutarch tells us that, "for Cleopatra, she did not only wear at that time, but at all other times else when she came abroad, the apparel of the goddess Isis, and so gave audience unto all her subjects as a new Isis" (243). The goddess Isis was the Egyptian equivalent of the Roman goddess Venus and "counted among her devotees many Roman women of the highest class" (Hughes-Hallett 80). Isis herself is primarily a mother; legend has it that she loved her twin brother Osiris, who was killed and whose body was divided into fourteen pieces. Hughes-Hallett tells us:

 

Isis, consumed with sorrow, searches hither and thither until she has found all the parts but one, the phallus. She pieces them together and so bestows on Osiris eternal life. Magically making amends for the absence of Osiris' genitals, she contrives to conceive and gives birth to Horus, who is both Osiris's child and a reincarnation of Osiris himself. (83)

It is easy to see how the historical Cleopatra used the Isis legend to the advantage of her son, Caesarion. Ancient coins depict her with Caesarion at her breast, just as Isis was often portrayed breastfeeding Horus. Thus, Cleopatra portrayed her son--the embodiment of Caesar's western world and her own eastern one--as a god and the heir to the Roman empire.

     Cleopatra's decision to commit suicide is troublesome, especially when one reflects on her strong nature. There are some issues to consider in reaching a conclusion on this issue. Plutarch tells us that Cleopatra loved all her children so much that Octavian found himself able to use them as a weapon against her: he threatened to harm her children if she did not keep herself alive. Shakespeare includes Octavian's threat (V, ii, 124-129), but, in order to reduce its significance in terms of Cleopatra's motherhood, he sandwiches it between two important scenes: when Cleopatra learns of Caesar's intention to parade her and humiliate her in a Roman triumph and the betrayal of Seleucus. I would argue that Cleopatra resolves to commit suicide as soon as she realizes that humiliation awaits her in Rome. Thus, I would agree with critics Elizabeth Story Dunno and Horace Howard Furness that she designs the betrayal of Seleucus to convince Caesar that she wants to live, so that he will not suspect her plans to stage her magnificent suicide.iii Shakespeare's manipulation of the scenes renders Caesar's threat futile; the possibility of her children's murder cannot sway a queen who has already determined to follow her husband in "the high Roman fashion." Furthermore, her last words before her death are "What [why] should I stay--" (V, ii, 303), implying that her children (again, she had at least four) are not sufficient reason to continue to live. The only things that matter are her personal honor and the loss of Antony. iv

Redemption in Death

     It is only in her death that Cleopatra regains her femininity and is thus redeemed. Although she and her women alone haul up the dying Antony's body ("How heavy weighs my lord! / Our strength is all gone into heaviness, / That makes the weight" [IV, xvi, 33-35]), her masculine-like strength fades with Antony's last breath. She collapses, in a genuine faint. Charmian and Iras call her such names as "Royal Egypt, Empress" in an attempt to revive her, but she corrects her servants by declaring that she is

 

No more but e'en a woman, and commanded
By such poor passion as the maid that milks
And does the meanest chores. It were for me
To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods,
To tell them that this world did equal theirs
Till they had stolen our jewel. (IV, xvi, 75-80)

Much like King Lear's speech on the heath, Cleopatra equates herself with the poorest people in society; perhaps the actor playing Cleopatra would have been pointing to the women in the audience at this point for emphasis. At any rate, Cleopatra's minimalization of her role as sovereign and her equalization of the nobility and the lower classes ("This world did equal theirs") would have earned her both sympathy from and favor with the audience. She resolves, on the spot, to end her own life: to do "what's brave, what's noble, / ... after the high Roman fashion" (IV, xvi, 88-89). Cleopatra wants to imitate a Roman model of behavior, which represents her reacquisition of feminine characteristics, especially those of a Roman wife and a mother. She continues to reject the idea that "dull Octavia" could ever be her superior, but she falls into the same role as Octavia--that of the infinitely-devoted wife.

     She resolves to die and her death assumes the form of a marriage ("Husband, I come" [V, ii, 278]). She declares that she is "fire and air," and that "my other elements, / I give to baser life"; while this has been interpreted to mean that she becomes more manly, having rejected the feminine elements of earth and water, I would argue that this is more of a rejection of the Orient and Egypt, which are so inextricably linked with the female (the feminine elements of water and earth are equated with the mud of the Nile). Likewise, Cleopatra assumes the Roman qualities of fire and air, more than the masculine qualities of such ["I am fire and air; my other elements/I give to baser life" (V, ii, 280-281)], and is transformed into a proper Roman wife. As she dies, she suffers from a hallucination in which she imagines "my baby at my breast, / That sucks the nurse asleep" (V, ii, 300-301)--the only indication of her maternal instincts in the entire play. Her last words are like an exchange of wedding vows: "O Antony! I will take thee too" (V, ii, 302).v Caesar's final decision to bury her "by her Antony"--his reluctance to separate "a pair so famous"--confers upon her the rightful place as the Roman wife of Marc Antony.

 

     The portrayal of this domineering woman as a sympathetic or believable character may have been problematic for Shakespeare, who faced certain historical limitations and considerations: the recent death of a childless and often ruthless queen, the social permeation of the notion that women's prime function is to bear children, the domination of the image of the Virgin Mary as a symbol of ideal womanhood, and the newly-whetted curiosity of Europeans about the East. All these factors contributed to Shakespeare's systematic modification of Cleopatra, including her appropriation of masculine traits and the suppression of her motherhood in order to render her a believable character.

Works Cited

Notes

     i Kahn's Roman Shakespeare: Warriors, Wounds and Women (1997) and Lucy Hughes-Hallett's Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions (1990) discuss the canon of propaganda aimed at Cleopatra by Octavius Caesar. Hughes-Hallet especially details the stereotypes attributed to the Queen of Egypt throughout the past 2,000 years.

     ii Her mean-spirited and violent behavior is recalled later Antony's orders to have Thidias thrashed and whipped.

     iii Though Caesar pretends to respect her, Cleopatra penetrates through his false exterior--another indication of her superior intelligence. She understands that, should she live, she will be taken to Rome and will suffer the humiliation of seeing "some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness / I' th' posture of a whore" (V, ii, 216-217).

     iv In addition, Cleopatra has demonstrated her readiness in the past to ruin Egypt for Antony's sake. Without blinking, she considers "unpeopling" her country in order to send a new messenger to Antony in Rome every day. To mirror Antony's "Let Rome in Tiber sink," Cleopatra says, "Let Egypt in Nile melt."

     v Of course, her actions indicate that, as a Roman wife, her entire existence must center on Antony only, which means a rejection of anything else, including her earthly children ("What should I stay--"). The point is to emphasize her selfishness and her absolute focus on Antony, a constant of the queen's personality.

 

Susan Muaddi Darraj is a graduate student at Rutgers University.

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