The Story of Cleopatra in English Literature

Abstract

Perhaps no story is better known than the story of Cleopatra. Even the ordinary child would have a pretty definite idea of beauty if someone would say to him that such and such a girl is as beautiful as Cleopatra. In spite of the development of civilization, man is not yet above the enjoyment of the same sensual pleasures that cost Antony his empire, and so the story of Cleopatra has continued to appeal to a large number of men, literary and otherwise. Considering the strengh of the appeal it has made, we believe that it wil be a very intersting study to trace the story as it has been worked over and handed down by the master hands of our literature. Chaucer told the story; Shakespere dramatized it; Dryden remodeled Shakespere's version to fit the demsndd of the classicists; Tennyson furnishes us with a nineteenth century conception of the legend; and G. Bernard Shaw (trust it to Shaw) has given us a humorous sketch of this queen lover as the twentieth century regards her. [From introductory section] oMn h ough E gl i sh Literature, it w uld be iel, we be1� ve, to on and of ive a br � ef uminary of the t ory as t old by one of t'he Latin writ er ... I nas uch as luta.rch's accoun i the f 11.es, ad ince t urn � he a good baRi fr f rther discu i on of the s t ar, , we hav cho en to surnoa i z e it � �