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 glowed 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 .
Nay , but : see how Shakespeare pulls you into the moment by beginning the play in the middle of a conversation . Dotage : what does that mean ? Yes , old age . They ’ re worried that Antony is over the hill , past his prime . But what else does it mean ? Doting , yes , falling in love . Unwisely . Excessively . Overflowingly . And see how the line itself overflows the measure of the iambic pentameter , runs on into the next line . Enjambment , a good word to use in the exam , but use it purposefully , showing its dramatic effect , don ’ t just tick it off to show the examiner you know the technical terms . Plated Mars : Mars , the god of war , but there ’ s a story in Ovid – Shakespeare ’ s favourite poet – about Mars being snared in a net as he makes love to Venus , the goddess of love . We ’ ll see Cleopatra as Venus when we come to Enobarbus ’ great speech about Antony ’ s first sight of her on the barge at Cydnus . This is a play about big hearts and broken hearts . And about excess . Reneges all temper : this is what Empson would call a seventh-type ambiguity , in which two opposite things are said at once . Antony and Cleopatra are both wildly hot-tempered – each has a scene where they berate a messenger – but temper here also means temperance , moderation , restraint . The oxymoronic pattern continues in the bellows and the fan : bellows are used to heat a fire – the fire of lust , as it were – whereas fans are for cooling yourself in the Egyptian heat – gypsies were thought to come from Egypt , where the people were dark-skinned , hence tawny front . Though as a matter of historical fact , Cleopatra was an Alexandrian Greek , not a native Egyptian . One part of my brain was befuddled by the time he got to seventh-type ambiguity , but the exposition of Shakespeare ’ s way of opening up the whole world of a play within its very first speech was mesmerizing . It made me want to become a teacher if I failed in my theatrical ambitions .
From Mad about Shakespeare : From Classroom to Theatre to Emergency Room ( HarperCollins Publishers ) Listen to a recording of Jonathan Bate ’ s talk at : www . vimeo . com / sevenoaksschool / jonathanbate
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