All’s Well That Ends Well – Act Five – “All’s well that ends well yet though time seem so adverse and means unfit.”

All’s Well That Ends Well – Act Five – “All’s well that ends well yet though time seem so adverse and means unfit.”

The action of the play switches to Marseilles, where Helena discovers from a gentleman that the King of France has moved his court to Rousillon. Helena gives the gentleman papers to give to the king as she, the Old Widow and Diana quickly leave for Rousillon also.

“I do beseech you, sir,

Since you are like to see the king before me,

Commend the paper to his gracious hand,

Which I presume shall render you no blame

But rather make you thank your pains for it.

I will come after you with what good speed

Our means will make us means…

And you shall find yourself to be well thank'd,

Whate'er falls more. We must to horse again.

Go, go, provide.”

Back in Rousillon, Parolles has also arrived at Countess' home, and is destitute and after an exchange with the Countess’ Clown about ‘stinking metaphors’, Parolles is able to have Lafeu take pity on him.

The King then enters and makes preparation for Bertram's engagement to Lafeu's daughter. Lafeu laments that Bertram has lost such a beautiful wife in Helena and the King says that Helena should be remembered and that Bertram should be forgiven for his past behaviour:

“Praising what is lost

Makes the remembrance dear. Well, call him hither;

We are reconciled, and the first view shall kill

All repetition: let him not ask our pardon;

The nature of his great offence is dead,

And deeper than oblivion we do bury

The incensing relics of it: let him approach,

A stranger, no offender; and inform him

So 'tis our will he should.”

When Bertram gives Lafeu a ring (the ring given to him by Diana which was given to her by Helena) to seal the betrothal to his daughter, Lafeu comments that this ring was one that once was given to Helena by the King himself. The King confirms it is the same ring. Bertram, not wanting to mention that he slept with a girl called Diana for the ring, tells a story of how it was thrown to him in Florence. The King is angry and thinks that Bertram must have stolen the ring from his ‘now dead’ wife and commands for Bertram to be taken away:

“Plutus himself,

That knows the tinct and multiplying medicine,

Hath not in nature's mystery more science

Than I have in this ring: 'twas mine, 'twas Helen's,

Whoever gave it you. Then, if you know

That you are well acquainted with yourself,

Confess 'twas hers, and by what rough enforcement

You got it from her: she call'd the saints to surety

That she would never put it from her finger,

Unless she gave it to yourself in bed,

Where you have never come, or sent it us

Upon her great disaster…

Thou speak'st it falsely, as I love mine honour;

And makest conjectural fears to come into me

Which I would fain shut out. If it should prove

That thou art so inhuman,--'twill not prove so;--

And yet I know not: thou didst hate her deadly,

And she is dead; which nothing, but to close

Her eyes myself, could win me to believe,

More than to see this ring. Take him away.”

Then Diana and her mother, the Old Widow, enter and Diana tells the story of how Bertram seduced her. It is revealed that Bertram did in fact get the ring that was Helena’s, which she got from the King, from Diana and that he had lied previously. Parolles is brought in and confirms that Bertram slept with Diana. Diana will not reveal how she got the ring that the King gave Helena and the King becomes furious and threatens to put Diana in jail.

Then, in a sequence of revelation and surprise, Diana’s mother, the Old Widow enters with Helena who explains all to everyone and the King and tells Bertram that his conditions for truly marrying her are now met because she is also now pregnant with his child:

“O my good lord, when I was like this maid,

I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring;

And, look you, here's your letter; this it says:

'When from my finger you can get this ring

And are by me with child,' This is done:

Will you be mine, now you are doubly won?”

Bertram promises that he will love Helena and from now on be a good husband. The King asks to know more about the story later and promises Diana that he will make sure she gets a good husband of her own choice: 
“Let us from point to point this story know,

To make the even truth in pleasure flow.

(To Diana)
If thou be'st yet a fresh uncropped flower,

Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy dower;

For I can guess that by thy honest aid

Thou keep'st a wife herself, thyself a maid.

Of that and all the progress, more or less,

Resolvedly more leisure shall express:

All yet seems well; and if it end so meet,

The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.”

Helena has used her cunning to finally get her husband to be faithful and love her, Diana will get the husband of her choice and the future belongs to women with enough cunning to manipulate mundane, lying self-centred men into a position where they can control them. The King ends the play with an Epilogue where he begs the audience to applaud all they have seen:

“The king's a beggar, now the play is done:

All is well ended, if this suit be won,

That you express content; which we will pay,

With strife to please you, day exceeding day:

Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts;

Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.”

All’s Well That Ends Well – Act Four – “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

All’s Well That Ends Well – Act Four – “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

Act Four of 'All's Well That Ends Well' starts outside the Florentine army camp where a number of lords discuss how they will capture and enact their plan involving Parolles. They have brought along a soldier that Parolles does not know to help them and they decide that they will use him as a mock ‘interpreter’ and that they will disguise their own voices. Enter Parolles talking with himself about how he can recover the drum but not put himself in any danger. He says he could rip his own clothes and give himself a little wound and get a drum from the enemy so that he could fool others into thinking he was brave. Parolles is then set upon and blindfolded and believes he has been taken by Austrian soldiers.

Meanwhile at the Old Widow's house, Bertram is trying to get Diana to have sex with him. He even declares that he loves her by “love’s own sweet constraint” and eventually Diana agrees to let Bertram come to her bedroom later that night. Diana does ask that Bertram gives her his ring as a token of his undying love. He gives Diana the ring and she gives him a ring of hers in return (this ring is in fact Helena’s that the King of France gave her). Bertram departs, thinking he has won a “heaven on earth” in his wooing. Diana reveals to the audience that she has been well schooled by her mother in matters of wooing and love:

“For which live long to thank both heaven and me!

You may so in the end.

My mother told me just how he would woo,

As if she sat in 's heart; she says all men

Have the like oaths: he had sworn to marry me

When his wife's dead; therefore I'll lie with him

When I am buried. Since Frenchmen are so braid,

Marry that will, I live and die a maid:

Only in this disguise I think't no sin

To cozen him that would unjustly win.”

At the Florentine army camp, two lords talk about Bertram’s exploits sleeping with Diana. They also have a letter from Bertram’s mother, the Countess condemning his behaviour. News has also arrived that Helena has died in a monastery (we assume that Helena herself has spread this rumour). Bertram enters and the Lords take him to where Parolles is blindfolded and bound and under threat reveals all about the Florentine army Parolles gives away secrets and even gives unfavourable descriptions of Bertram and other lords. A letter is found in Parolles’ bags which is addressed to Diana, and tells her to sleep with Bertram for money. They threaten to kill Parolles and he breaks down and cries before Parolles’ blindfold is removed and he realizes that he has told all to them and even insulted Bertram. The others leave and Parolles shows that he still has hope that he can still survive:

“Yet am I thankful: if my heart were great,

'Twould burst at this. Captain I'll be no more;

But I will eat and drink, and sleep as soft

As captain shall: simply the thing I am

Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,

Let him fear this, for it will come to pass

that every braggart shall be found an ass.

Rust, sword? cool, blushes! and, Parolles, live

Safest in shame! being fool'd, by foolery thrive!

There's place and means for every man alive.

I'll after them.”

Over at the Old Widow’s house in Florence, Helena reveals that her plan seems to have succeeded and thanks the Old Widow and Diana for their help as it seems that with the war ended that Bertram will return to France.

“That you may well perceive I have not wrong'd you,

One of the greatest in the Christian world

Shall be my surety; 'fore whose throne 'tis needful,

Ere I can perfect mine intents, to kneel:

Time was, I did him a desired office,

Dear almost as his life; which gratitude

Through flinty Tartar's bosom would peep forth,

And answer, thanks: I duly am inform'd

His grace is at Marseilles; to which place

We have convenient convoy. You must know

I am supposed dead: the army breaking,

My husband hies him home; where, heaven aiding,

And by the leave of my good lord the king,

We'll be before our welcome.”

Back at the Countess’ house in Rousillon in France, the Countess mourns for Helena, her daughter-in-law’s. Lafeu suggests that Bertram should marry his daughter and the Countess agrees to this. The Clown then enters and says that her son Bertram has finally arrived back in Rousillin. 

All’s Well That Ends Well – Act Three – “No legacy is so rich as honesty.”

All’s Well That Ends Well – Act Three – “No legacy is so rich as honesty.”

The action of the play briefly crosses to Florence where the Duke of Florence is upset that the King of France will not provide an army for his war with Austria. He is consoled by two noblemen who state that independent young French nobles will come to fight anyway.

“But I am sure the younger of our nature,

That surfeit on their ease, will day by day

Come here for physic.”

We then return to Rousillon, where Helena has arrived and given the Countess the letter from her son which she reads out aloud although Helena is not present at the time:

“ ‘I have sent you a daughter-in-law: she hath

recovered the king, and undone me. I have wedded

her, not bedded her; and sworn to make the 'not'

eternal. You shall hear I am run away: know it

before the report come. If there be breadth enough

in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty

to you. Your unfortunate son,

BERTRAM.’ ”

Then Helena enters. She also has a letter from her husband Bertram which she reads out aloud to the Countess and which states that Bertram will only truly become her husband when has Helena is able to wear his ring (which he always has in his possession and he never takes off) and is able to bear him a child (which seems as if it can’t happen because Bertram refuses to sleep with Helena).

“ ‘When thou canst get the ring upon my finger which

never shall come off, and show me a child begotten

of thy body that I am father to, then call me

husband: but in such a 'then' I write a 'never.' ”

The Countess is shocked at her son’s behaviour and tells some lords who are present to tell her son that “…his sword can never win the honour he loses…” The Countess exits and Helena is heartbroken reveals in a monologue that she will leave Rousillon and go somewhere else:

“ ‘Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.'

Nothing in France, until he has no wife!

Thou shalt have none, Rousillon, none in France;

Then hast thou all again. Poor lord! is't I

That chase thee from thy country and expose

Those tender limbs of thine to the event

Of the none-sparing war? and is it I

That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou

Wast shot at with fair eyes, to be the mark

Of smoky muskets? O you leaden messengers,

That ride upon the violent speed of fire,

Fly with false aim; move the still-peering air,

That sings with piercing; do not touch my lord.

Whoever shoots at him, I set him there;

Whoever charges on his forward breast,

I am the caitiff that do hold him to't;

And, though I kill him not, I am the cause

His death was so effected: better 'twere

I met the ravin lion when he roar'd

With sharp constraint of hunger; better 'twere

That all the miseries which nature owes

Were mine at once. No, come thou home, Rousillon,

Whence honour but of danger wins a scar,

As oft it loses all: I will be gone;

My being here it is that holds thee hence:

Shall I stay here to do't? no, no, although

The air of paradise did fan the house

And angels officed all: I will be gone,

That pitiful rumour may report my flight,

To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day!

For with the dark, poor thief, I'll steal away.’ ”

The action of the play then moves quickly from one location to another. Back in Florence, the Duke of Florence makes Bertram a general of his horse. While in Rousillon, the Countess finds a letter written by Helena, who says that she intends to go to a monastery to stay. The Countess is upset with her son and orders for letters to be drafted and sent quickly to her so that he will come home soon so she can resolve the issue. She also hopes that Helena will return as well.

“What angel shall

Bless this unworthy husband? he cannot thrive,

Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear

And loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath

Of greatest justice. Write, write, Rinaldo,

To this unworthy husband of his wife;

Let every word weigh heavy of her worth

That he does weigh too light: my greatest grief.

Though little he do feel it, set down sharply.

Dispatch the most convenient messenger:

When haply he shall hear that she is gone,

He will return; and hope I may that she,

Hearing so much, will speed her foot again,

Led hither by pure love: which of them both

Is dearest to me. I have no skill in sense

To make distinction: provide this messenger:

My heart is heavy and mine age is weak;

Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak.”

We cross to Florence, where an old Widow and her daughter Diana talk about the exploits of the French soldiers fighting for Florence especially Bertram. The Helena enters disguised as a pilgrim. The conversation reveals that Bertram, seems to fancy Diana and that he probably wants to sleep with her. Helena is obviously interested in the conversation (being married to Bertram) and joins in without revealing her true identity. The old Widow tells Diana to not give into Bertram and that she should keep her virginity. It is revealed that Bertram has a wife who he hates. No-one knows that the wife is in fact Helena who is beside them. Helena is invited to stay at the Old Widow’s house for the night.

At the Florentine army camp, a couple of lords advise Bertram that Parolles is a liar and a braggart. They develop a plan to reveal Parolles as a coward through getting him to retrieve a drum that was lost in battle, and then in disguise as enemy soldiers they will blindfold him and interrogate and get him to betray Bertram. Parolles enters and he declares that he will retrieve the drum. Parolles exits and Bertram declares that the plan won’t work and that Parolles is loyal and brave. The Second Lord invites Bertram to come with him to see Diana, who it is obvious all think he fancies and will sleep with.

At the Old Widow’s house, Helena has revealed her true identity to the Old Widow. Helena then wants to give the Old Widow some money so that her daughter Diana will get the ring that Helena needs from Bertram, and then invite him to her bedchamber where in the dark, Helena will switch places with Diana and Bertram will sleep with his wife and thus consummate his marriage to his real wife.

“Take this purse of gold,

And let me buy your friendly help thus far,

Which I will over-pay and pay again

When I have found it. The count he wooes your daughter,

Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty,

Resolved to carry her: let her in fine consent,

As we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it.

Now his important blood will nought deny

That she'll demand: a ring the county wears,

That downward hath succeeded in his house

From son to son, some four or five descents

Since the first father wore it: this ring he holds

In most rich choice; yet in his idle fire,

To buy his will, it would not seem too dear,

Howe'er repented after…

You see it lawful, then: it is no more,

But that your daughter, ere she seems as won,

Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter;

In fine, delivers me to fill the time,

Herself most chastely absent: after this,

To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns

To what is passed already.”

The Old Widow agrees, and tells Helena that with Diana’s bessing, that Helena’s plan can and should go ahead.

All’s Well That Ends Well – Act Two – “I will show myself highly fed, and lowly taught.”

All’s Well That Ends Well – Act Two – “I will show myself highly fed, and lowly taught.”

We cross back to Paris, where the King of France wonders whether to send some lords to the Florentines for the war with the Senoys (Austrians) because he fears they will soon be dead and questions whether young men should “…woo honour not to wed it…”    A couple of Lords try to convince Bertram to join them in the war but Bertram says that the King of France has ordered him to stay at court.

The King of France is told that a female doctor has arrived at the court and she may be able to heal him. As an audience we know that the female doctor is Helena. Helena enters and reveals that her father gave her a powerful medicine on his own deathbed. Helena reveals that she this this will save the King. The King thanks Helena but refuses to take the medicine since his doctors have said that his illness is terminal. Helena reinforces that there is no harm in trying her cure which she says will restore his health in two days. But then Helena goes right out on a limb and claims that if the cure does not work then she will give up her life and if it does work then the King must give her permission to marry whomever she wishes. The King is impressed and agrees to the deal and takes the medicine. 

We cross back to the Countess, who sends her Clown to the court in Paris to give Helena a message. Meanwhile, back in Paris, even Parolles and Lafew are impressed with Helena's medicine which seems to be working on the King. The King says that he will be true to his word and he lines up a number of young noblemen for helena to choice from. Helena rejects them all and selects Bertram who arrogantly says that Helena is too far beneath his noble birth for him to marry her. The King chastises Bertram maintaining that inner worth is more important that noble birth. He also says that he will give Helena the status and rank she needs. Bertram again rejects the match and this upsets the King who says that he will dismiss Bertram from court and this makes Bertram finally agree to the marriage. They leave immediately to the altar to be married. 

Lafew and Parolles are left on stage and they quarrel over this match, Lafew judging Bertram as in the wrong and Parolles blaming Helena. Then the newly married Bertram enters but he reveals to Parolles that he has no intention to consummate his marriage to Helena. He also reveals that he intends go away to war and intends to send Helena back to his home to live with his mother.

We then cross to Helena who welcomes the Clown with a message from the Countess. Parolles then enters and informs Helena that Bertram is about to go away and so consummation of the marriage will have to wait. Parolles also says that Bertram wants her to pack to go back to home and then he will farewell her.  

Meanwhile, Bertram is warned by Lafew that Parolles is not a great soldier. Bertram rejects this. Helena enters and Bertram makes excuses for having to leave. Helena asks for a farewell kiss from Bertram but he refuses, and states that duty calls him, gives her a letter to give to his mother and rides off, accompanied only by Parolles:

“You must not marvel, Helen, at my course,

Which holds not colour with the time, nor does

The ministration and required office

On my particular. Prepared I was not

For such a business; therefore am I found

So much unsettled: this drives me to entreat you

That presently you take our way for home;

And rather muse than ask why I entreat you,

For my respects are better than they seem

And my appointments have in them a need

Greater than shows itself at the first view

To you that know them not. This to my mother (Giving a letter)

'Twill be two days ere I shall see you, so

I leave you to your wisdom…

Go thou toward home; where I will never come

Whilst I can shake my sword or hear the drum.

Away, and for our flight.”

All’s Well That Ends Well Act One – “My friends were poor, but honest.”

All’s Well That Ends Well Act One – “My friends were poor, but honest.”

Shakespeare knew that he had to whip up another play to accompany ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ and ‘King Lear’ in the new season for The Globe. These two plays had already proved a success in winter venues like the palace and the law colleges but he knew that he had to add a comedy to the mix if he wanted the summer Globe season to be a success.

The Plague looked as if it would not hit too hard that year since only about 500 had died in the lead up months. So with care it looked as if there would be a normal death toll of about 1500 people dead in London for July and August (although reports from Wales were coming in that the Plague was bad there this year). James I and the royals would, of course, leave the city. ‘Measure for Measure’ had played up to King James well and he had paid for a couple of performances but its transfer to The Globe had had a mixed reaction. It was becoming clear to Shakespeare that a different darker sort of comedy was coming into vogue – a comedy of moral disillusionment. Ben Jonson jumped on the bandwagon quickly with his ‘Every Man and His Humour’ and Middleton with his ‘Family of Love’ and ‘The Phoenix’. If it was moral disillusionment they wanted, then Shakespeare could deliver. 

So Shakespeare turned to William Painter’s ‘Palace of Pleasure’ which was a rough translation of Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’ to tell a black and cynical tale about human relations, sex and love filled with pleasant and unpleasant characters and even rogues and cads where true love takes second place to manipulation and exploitation.

Shakespeare’s play is set in France, where the death and mortality has cast a long shadow. The action begins at Rousillon in France where the Countess has just lost her husband. Helena, the daughter of a now-deceased but once renowned doctor, is a ward of the Countess. The Countess mourns her husband but has to send her son Count Bertram (a handsome, brave but naive young man) into the service of the King of France. The Countess exits and Bertram leaves for the French court where the King of France is sick. Helena reveals that she is in love with Bertram, but because she is a commoner and he is a nobleman, she has little hope of gaining his love. Helena tries to remember her father as she thinks what life may be like without Bertram in Rousillon:

“… I think not on my father;

And these great tears grace his remembrance more

Than those I shed for him. What was he like?

I have forgot him: my imagination

Carries no favour in't but Bertram's.

I am undone: there is no living, none,

If Bertram be away. 'Twere all one

That I should love a bright particular star

And think to wed it, he is so above me:

In his bright radiance and collateral light

Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.

The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:

The hind that would be mated by the lion

Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though plague,

To see him every hour; to sit and draw

His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,

In our heart's table; heart too capable

Of every line and trick of his sweet favour:

But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy

Must sanctify his reliques.”

Enter Parolles, a sleazy and unpleasant man who seems to get on well with Bertram. Parolles and Helena discuss chastity and Parolles gives his blunt observations on the subject:

“Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be

blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with

the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It

is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to

preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational

increase and there was never virgin got till

virginity was first lost. That you were made of is

metal to make virgins. Virginity by being once lost

may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is

ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with 't…

There's little can be said in 't; 'tis against the

rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity,

is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible

disobedience. He that hangs himself is a virgin:

virginity murders itself and should be buried in

highways out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate

offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites,

much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very

paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach.

Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of

self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the

canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but loose

by't: out with 't! within ten year it will make

itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and the

principal itself not much the worse: away with 't!”

Parolles eventually suggests that Helena find a husband and lose her virginity quickly and he exits. Helena then decides that she will not give herself into her common fate and she decides on a plan to hopefully marry Bertram. 
“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.
What power is it which mounts my love so high,
That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?
The mightiest space in fortune nature brings
To join like likes and kiss like native things.
Impossible be strange attempts to those
That weigh their pains in sense and do suppose
What hath been cannot be: who ever strove
So show her merit, that did miss her love?
The king's disease--my project may deceive me,
But my intents are fix'd and will not leave me.”

We move onto Paris and the King’s court where Bertram arrives just as the King of France reveals that he will not get involved in the war between the Florentines and the Senoys (Austria). The King welcomes Bertram, but showing sadness at the loss of Bertram’s father. He then says that he wishes Helena’s father was also still alive since he might have been able to cure his sickness and save his life. The King says that he will treat Bertram like his own son.

Back in Rousillon, the Countess walks and talks with a Clown. A Steward enters and tells the Countess that he overheard Helena declaring her love for Bertram. The Countess sends for Helena immediately. Helena comes and admits that she loves Bertram. She then reveals that she intends to go to the King’s palace in Paris and offer herself as a doctor to the King. Although the Countess, thinks that the King and his royal physicians will not accept the help of a “poor unlearned virgin” she gives Helena leave to go to the court in Paris. 

Antony and Cleopatra Act Five – “The breaking of so great a thing should make a greater crack.”

Antony and Cleopatra Act Five – “The breaking of so great a thing should make a greater crack.”

Act Five shows Cleopatra to be one of the most complex of Shakespeare’s woman. If Antony dominates Acts One to Four, the end of the play belongs to Cleopatra. The play, however, starts with Caesar sending a demand to Antony to surrender. When Dolabella leaves to deliver the message, one of Antony’s men, comes in bearing Antony’s sword bringing the news that Antony had died. Antony shows genuine remorse at the loss of Antony and declares that all should mourn his death:

“O Antony!

I have follow'd thee to this; but we do lance

Diseases in our bodies: I must perforce

Have shown to thee such a declining day,

Or look on thine; we could not stall together

In the whole world: but yet let me lament,

With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts,

That thou, my brother, my competitor

In top of all design, my mate in empire,

Friend and companion in the front of war,

The arm of mine own body, and the heart

Where mine his thoughts did kindle,--that our stars,

Unreconciliable, should divide

Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends--

But I will tell you at some meeter season…”

A message comes from Cleopatra to ask what Caesar will do with her. Caesar says that he will treat her well, bring her no shame and take her Rome where she will have a triumph. He sends meesages to her and Proculeius and others to make sure that Cleopatra does not kill herself.

When Proculeius comes to Cleopatra, he is trusted because Antony in life had said that Proculeius was a good man. Cleopatra says that she hopes that Caesar will allow her son to rule Egypt after she leaves. Cleopatra takes out a dagger to commit suicide but Proculeius takes her knife away from her. Cleopatra declaims:

“Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, sir;

If idle talk will once be necessary,

I'll not sleep neither: this mortal house I'll ruin,

Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I

Will not wait pinion'd at your master's court;

Nor once be chastised with the sober eye

Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up

And show me to the shouting varletry

Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt

Be gentle grave unto me! rather on Nilus' mud

Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies

Blow me into abhorring! rather make

My country's high pyramides my gibbet,

And hang me up in chains!”

Dolabella then enters and takes care of the ‘suicide watch’ of Cleopatra, Cleopatra is able to get Dolabella to reveal that Caesar does indeed plan to display her as a war prize. Enter Caesar, who says that he will treat Cleopatra and her children well to which Cleopatra responds by giving Caesar a scroll which she says bequeaths her many great riches over to Caesar. Seleucus, Cleopatra’s treasurer seems suitably cautious to confirm and says that he would “…rather seal my lips, than, to my peril, speak that which is not.”

Cleopatra says that Seleucus is ungracious and not too be trusted. Caesar exits and Cleopatra tells her maids that Caesar is not to be trusted and when Dolabella also exits Cleopatra reveals that she will kill herself. She asks to be brought her best attire:

“Now, Charmian!

Show me, my women, like a queen: go fetch

My best attires: I am again for Cydnus,

To meet Mark Antony: sirrah Iras, go.

Now, noble Charmian, we'll dispatch indeed;

And, when thou hast done this chare, I'll give thee leave

To play till doomsday.”

Cleopatra then asks for a clown to bring in a basket of figs which has poisonous snakes in it so that she can embrace death. She bids her maids farewell and kisses them. Cleopatra’s death is the most moving and strange performance of any of Shakespeare’s characters. With Cleopatra adorned in her most magnificent costume, placed in the setting of her monument and then Cleopatra is given deadly asps as her props. She then lifts the asps like babies to her breast:

“Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have

Immortal longings in me: now no more

The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip:

Yare, yare, good Iras; quick. Methinks I hear

Antony call; I see him rouse himself

To praise my noble act; I hear him mock

The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men

To excuse their after wrath: husband, I come:

Now to that name my courage prove my title!

I am fire and air; my other elements

I give to baser life. So; have you done?

Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.

Farewell, kind Charmian; Iras, long farewell.

Kisses them. IRAS falls and dies

Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?

If thou and nature can so gently part,

The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,

Which hurts, and is desired. Dost thou lie still?

If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world

It is not worth leave-taking…

This proves me base:

If she first meet the curled Antony,

He'll make demand of her, and spend that kiss

Which is my heaven to have. Come, thou

mortal wretch,

To an asp, which she applies to her breast

With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate

Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool

Be angry, and dispatch. O, couldst thou speak,

That I might hear thee call great Caesar ass

Unpolicied…

Peace, peace!

Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,

That sucks the nurse asleep…

As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle,--

O Antony!--Nay, I will take thee too.

Applying another asp to her arm

What should I stay -

(Cleopatra Dies)

Caesar’s  guards enter to find Cleopatra dead. Then Charmian picks up an asp applies it to herself and also dies. Dolabella and Caesar enter. When it is suggested to Caesar that Cleopatra probably died by poisonous asps, he agrees and commands that she be buried with Mark Antony:

“Most probable

That so she died; for her physician tells me

She hath pursued conclusions infinite

Of easy ways to die. Take up her bed;

And bear her women from the monument:

She shall be buried by her Antony:

No grave upon the earth shall clip in it

A pair so famous. High events as these

Strike those that make them; and their story is

No less in pity than his glory which

Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall

In solemn show attend this funeral;

And then to Rome. Come, Dolabella, see

High order in this great solemnity.”

There have been many incredible performances of this play over the years. The original 1606/07 performance at Blackfriars Theatre or The Globe probably starred Richard Burbage. Later in the 17th Century Thomas Betterton and Elizabeth barry performed in the roles. In the 18th Century, David Garrick apparently did an excellent production in 1759 at Drury Lane. John Philip Kemble's 1813 production was noteworthy and William Charles Macready did a superb production also at Drury Lane in 1833. Samuel Phelps' 1859 production is described as rich while Chatterton's 1873 Drury Lane production seemed huge and sumptuous. The Harcourt Williams production at the Old Vic in 1930 with John Gielgud as Antony, Dorothy Green as Cleopatra and Ralph Richardson as Enobarbus is considered by many the best production. 

A number of people ranked Vivien Leigh's performances as Cleopatra amongst the greatest. She played the role many times including with her husband Laurence Olivier as Antony (1950-52) and again with the great Australian actor Peter Finch as Antony in the early 1950's. Vanessa Redgrave's 1973 performance in Tony Richardson's production was superb and there is footage of this production. She played it 13 years later for Theatr Clwyd. Many people believe that Peter Hall's 1987 production at the national Theatre in London with Judi Dench as Cleopatra and Anthony Hopkins as Antony was one of the best modern productions. Another great production and interpretation of 'Antony and Cleopatra' was Peter Zadek's Brechtian interpretation done in German in 1994 starring Gert Voss as Antony and Eva Mattes as Cleopatra which featured Voss in an Arab headers and Mattes at one point in a pith-helmet.

Shakespeare returns to France in the comedy 'All's Well That Ends Well'.