Download Three Eras, Two Men, One Value

Three Eras, Two Men,
One Value
Fides in Modern Performances of Shakespeare’s
Antony and Cleopatra
Katherine L. Bradshaw
112th CAMWS Meeting, 2016
Three Eras
• Ancient Greco-Roman Narratives
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Plutarch’s Life of Antony
Vergil’s Aeneid
Suetonius’ Life of the Divine Augustus
Tacitus’ Annals
• Early Modern English Drama
• Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
• Modern English Performances
• Gregory Doran’s Antony and Cleopatra (2006)
• Michael Boyd’s Antony and Cleopatra (2010)
Two Men
Mark Antony
Caesar Octavian
One Value
• Fides
• Ancient Roman value of
loyalty or trustworthiness
• Foundation of Roman
societal structure
• Antony and Octavian’s lives
filled with decisions about
fides
• Political leaders
• Military generals/patrons
• Powerful Roman men
Coin Produced in Germania, ca. A.D. 69
Methodology
• Classical Reception Studies
• Analyzes (re)iterations of classical culture
• Investigates both receiving era and thing/era received
• Shakespearean Performance Studies
• Examines stagings of Shakespearean plays
• Sees each performance as creating something new
• Combination of the two
• Interdisciplinary exploration of Roman value across time
• Shakespeare as conduit for ancient portrayals of Antony and
Octavian
• How do modern directors and actors receive classical portrayals
of Antony and Octavian through filter of Shakespeare’s play?
2006
• Director: Gregory Doran
• Angle: Self-conscious reception of Plutarch
• Setting: Quasi-historical Rome and Egypt
• Emphasis: Characters’ psychology
• Main Question: What destroys fides?
2006: Antony
• Played by Sir Patrick Stewart
• Plutarchan portrayal
• Broke fides because he lacked selfcontrol
• Neglecting Rome’s interests as a
triumvir
• Ignoring implicit promises
embedded in patron-client
relationship with his soldiers
• Deserting Roman wife Octavia
2006 Reception:
Plutarch
• Plutarch on Antony’s lack of self-control at
Actium
• ἔνθα δὴ φανερὸν αὑτὸν Ἀντώνιος ἐποίησεν …
ἑλκόμενος ὑπὸ τῆς γυναικὸς ὥσπερ
συμπεφυκὼς καὶ συμμεταφερόμενος (Life of
Antony §66)
• Sir Thomas North’s Sixteenth-Century
translation
• “Antonius showed plainly, that … he was so
carried away with the vain love of this woman,
as if he had been glued unto her, & that she
could not have removed without moving of him
also” (Lives 1001).
2006: Octavian
• Played by John Hopkins
• Classically inspired depiction
• Carefully curated public image as
protector of fides
2006 Reception:
Vergil
• Vergil on Octavian’s fides to the gods
• At Caesar, triplici invectus Romana triumpho
moenia, dis Italis votum immortale sacrabat
(Aeneid 8.714-15).
• Presenter’s translation
• But Caesar, brought inside the Roman
walls with a triple triumph, consecrated
his undying vow to the Italian gods.
2006: Octavian
• Disregarding Roman values
• Undermining his own public
image through childish behavior
• Neglecting fides because of desire
to control others
2006 Reception:
Suetonius
• Suetonius on Octavian’s Neglect of Roman Virtue
• Nec successum victoriae moderatus est, sed … in
splendidissimum quemque captivum non sine verborum
contumelia saeviit; ut quidem uni supplicitersepulturam
precanti respondisse dicitur iam istam volucrum fore potestatem
(Life of the Divine Augustus §13.2).
• Presenter’s translation
• Nor was he moderate after his victory, but he raged against
even the most illustrious of his captives with abusive
language; so much that it is said he responded, “that will now
be in the power of the birds,” to a man who humbly begged
him for burial.
2010
• Director: Michael Boyd
• Angle: Bold modernization of Shakespeare
• Setting: Contemporary Britain and Middle East
• Emphasis: Society’s decay
• Main Question: What deserves fides?
2010: Antony
• Played by Darrell D’Silva
• Direct, somewhat hot-headed
general
• Out of place in duplicitous Rome
• Rejection of Roman values more
like tragic attempt at virtue than
tragic flaw of character
• Dedicated to truth, openness, and
authenticity, as opposed to the
deceptive facades of Rome
2010 Reception:
Tacitus
• Tacitus on decay of the Roman Republic
• … ferocissimi per acies aut proscriptione cecidissent, ceteri
nobilium, quanto quis servitio promptior, opibus et honoribus
extollerentur ac novis ex rebus aucti, tuta et praesentia quam
vetera et periculosa mallent (Annals §3).
• Presenter’s translation
• The most courageous Romans had fallen by the sword
or by proscription, and the rest of the nobility – who
were more ready for servility – were raised to wealth
and honors, and so the rich preferred the safe and
present things arising from the new ways over the old
and dangerous things.
2010: Octavian
• Played by John Mackay
• Cold, manipulative politician
• Embodiment of corrupt Rome
• Propagandistic mind dedicated to
self-interest
• Octavian continually watching others to
gauge their reactions
2010 Reception:
Tacitus
• Tacitus on Octavian as conniving autocrat
• … pellexit, insurgere paulatim, munia senatus,
magistratuum, legum in se trahere (Annals §3).
• Presenter’s translation
• He (Octavian) enticed everyone, raising himself little
by little, so that he could draw the functions of the
senate, the magistrates, and the law into his own
power.
Trans-Temporal Fides
• Shakespeare’s Antony and Octavian serving as reception sites
for classical accounts, and launching pads for modern
(re)interpretations of loyalty
• Modern performances keeping fides in public discourse
• Productions revealing trans-temporal resonance of Antony
and Octavian’s parallel lives and fides (or lack thereof)
Image Sources
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Cameo of Mark Antony. n.d. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, The State Art
Museum of Florida, Tallahassee. Artstor. Web. 8 Mar. 2016.
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Sardonyx Cameo Portrait of the Emperor Augustus. c. 41-54. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Artstor. Web. 8 Mar. 2016.
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Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Image Collection. Folger Luna. Folger Shakespeare Library, n.d.
Web. 8 Mar. 2016.
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“Production Photo Gallery.” RSC. Royal Shakespeare Company, n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
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Plutarch. The liues of the noble Grecians and Romanes, compared together by that graue learned philosopher
and historiographer, Plutarke of Chaeronea: translated out of Greeke into French by Iames Amyot,
Abbot of Bellozane, Bishop of Auxerre, one of the Kings priuy counsel, and great Amner of Fraunce,
and out of French into Englishe, by Thomas North. Trans. Thomas North. London:
Thomas Vautroullier, 1579. EEBO: Early English Books Online. Web. 4 Oct. 2015
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“Roman Historical Coins.” Roman Numismatic Gallery. Roman Numismatic Gallery, n.d. Web.
8 Mar. 2016.