web site <\/a> ). He argues that the clown\u2019s words to Cleopatra in Act 5 of Shakespeare\u2019s play provide theological commentary on the action. Here are some excerpts: <\/p>\n \u201cIt was Shakespeare\u2019s habit to cloak his authentic expressions in the ironic word-play of Erasmian fools and clowns. The list of Shakespeare\u2019s nonsensical truth-sayers might include the Clown in Titus Andronicus <\/i> , Bottom in Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream <\/i> , Lancelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice <\/i> , Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing <\/i> , Touchstone in As You Like It <\/i> , Falstaff\/Oldcastle, the Hostess and Fluellen in Henry V <\/i> , the Gravedigger and his Companion in Hamlet <\/i> , Feste in Twelfth Night <\/i> , Thersites in Troilus and Cressida <\/i> , Lear\u2019s Fool and Tom o\u2019 Bedlam in King Lear <\/i> , the Porter in Macbeth <\/i> , the Clowns in Antony and Cleopatra <\/i> and The Winter\u2019s Tale <\/i> , Gonzalo in The Tempest <\/i> , and, most importantly for present purposes, the Old Lady in Henry VIII <\/i> . Although a pattern is evident when surveyed in a variety of Shakespeare plays, when viewed separately in performance, it is easy to mistake their ironies solely for comic relief, ?Epoorly understood and unconsciously set aside. Fools and clowns reflect back on the protagonists of their plays the truth of their unperceived folly.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe concealment of their words is skilful and deliberate. The poetry of Cleopatra\u2019s final speeches eclipses the earlier triple entendres and malapropisms of the rustic clown who brings the basket of figs. Contrary to the impression that the clown\u2019s appearance is a diversion only for purposes of contrast with Cleopatra\u2019s apotheosis, interpretation of the play depends on an awareness of the precision with which his ironies are aimed at Cleopatra.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cRather than the recognised opposition of Rome and Egypt, male and female, reason and emotion, the central opposition in Antony and Cleopatra <\/i> is that between faith and works which so absorbed King James as theological arbiter of Europe. In the confidence of Antony and Cleopatra in their own immortality, Shakespeare created a poetic monument to the possible consequence of justification by faith alone.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe faith of Antony and Cleopatra apparently justifies their love by conferring on them an immortality that transcends the infidelities of their deeds. This faith finds its poetic climax in Cleopatra\u2019s death. Only Shakespeare could have portrayed its aesthetic G?tterd?mmerung with such brilliance as to cast the Clown\u2019s irony, \u2019 the gritty accents of the opposing voice\u2019 almost entirely in shadow.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cShakespeare\u2019s view is concealed in the Clown\u2019s \u2018uplandish, or churlish, and unmannerly\u2019 words of prose, as richly allusive as any verse, ?Ereplete with associations of female figs, (and later glossed as fig leaves covered with slime left by the asp), figs as the embodiment of fruitful works[42], male organs, corpse-consuming worms, serpents, Satan, Adam and Eve.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe heart of the Clown\u2019s speech lies in the words, \u2018Truly, she makes a very good report o\u2019 th\u2019 worm; but he that will believe all that they say, shall never be saved by half that they do.\u2019 (5.2.249-53) <\/p>\n
CLEOPATRA Remember thou any that have died on\u2019t?
CLOWN Very many, men, and women too. I heard of one of them no longer than yesterday, a very honest woman, but something given to lie, as a woman should not do but in the way of honesty, how she died of the biting of it, what pain she felt. Truly, she makes a very good report o\u2019th\u2019 worm; but he that will believe all that they say shall never be saved by half they do, but this is most fallible; the worm\u2019s an odd worm.
CLEOPATRA Get thee hence, farewell.
CLOWN I wish you all joy of the worm.
(5.2.244-55) <\/p>\n
The word saved, coupled with believe and do, is theological. The woman who makes a very good report of the worm is variously Eve ?E\u2019saved by half that they do\u2019, Cleopatra, and those who place their confidence in belief alone, \u2018fides sola\u2019. The Clown does not agree with one who \u2018will believe all that they say\u2019. Nor does he share the expectation that salvation will be by what they (the woman\/women) do, because of the unsatisfactory nature of their actions. In other words, the belief of the lovers which transcends good works is illusory. He warns Cleopatra that there is \u2018no goodness in the worm\u2019. (5.2.261-2) His wishing her the joy of the worm is ironic.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThat the Clown\u2019s words are directed at Cleopatra is evident. The \u2018very honest (chaste) woman\u2019 is ironically Cleopatra; \u2018Something given to lie\u2019 is also ironic in the sense that something or somewhat applied to Cleopatra is sexual understatement. Lie in the sense of telling a falsehood is not, however, ironic. Cleopatra caused Antony\u2019s death by informing him that she had taken her own life. She attempted to conceal her wealth from Octavius. She lies doubly in saying, <\/p>\n
Let him speak, my lord,
Upon his peril, that I have reserved
To myself nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus.
(5.2.141-3).\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Clown\u2019s talk of the Devil\u2019s dressing a woman foreshadows Cleopatra\u2019s \u2018Give me my robe. Put on my crown.\u2019 (5.2.275) The Clown\u2019s reference to women, \u2018for in every ten that they make, the devils mar five\u2019, alludes to Matthew 25:1-2, the theme of which is preparation for the absent bridegroom. Cleopatra will say \u2018Husband, I come!\u2019 (5.2.282)\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever the precise meaning of the Clown\u2019s words, their tenor is Biblical within a play which is classical in source, theme and style. Charmian\u2019s cavalier wish to \u2018be married to three kings in a forenoon and widow them all. Let me have a child at fifty to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage.\u2019 (1.2.22-5) makes reference to the Magi who came to Herod on their way to pay homage to a child[50]. It alerts the reader to the possibility that the play\u2019s classical ambiance is circumscribed by a Biblical framework, much as the references to \u2018heathen gods\u2019 and \u2018cherubims\u2019 in Henry VIII <\/i> (1.1.19 & 23) subordinate the earthly splendour of the Field of the Cloth of Gold to a (Biblical) heavenly one.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cAt 3.3.4-5 when Cleopatra exclaims in anger, \u2018That Herod\u2019s head\/ I\u2019ll have!\u2019 there is a reminder of Herodias\u2019 whim in asking Herod for the head of John the Baptist in revenge for his charging her with adultery. The scene is devoted to Cleopatra\u2019s envy of Antony\u2019s wife Octavia and her determination to displace the Roman matron.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201d Antony and Cleopatra <\/i> ends with the apotheosis of Cleopatra; Henry VIII <\/i> ends with the apotheosis of Elizabeth. Shocking as it may seem, their climaxes are ironic. The Old Lady and the Clown have analogous functions derived from Encomium Moriae.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One Thomas Merriam has a very intriguing article on \u201cParallel Ironies: Henry VIII (All Is True) and Antony and Cleopatra \u201d (available in full on his web site ). He argues that the clown\u2019s words to Cleopatra in Act 5 of Shakespeare\u2019s play provide theological commentary on the action. Here are some excerpts: \u201cIt was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"\n
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