Faith and Works in Antony and Cleopatra

Faith and Works in Antony and Cleopatra July 30, 2004

One Thomas Merriam has a very intriguing article on “Parallel Ironies: Henry VIII (All Is True) and Antony and Cleopatra ” (available in full on his web site ). He argues that the clown’s words to Cleopatra in Act 5 of Shakespeare’s play provide theological commentary on the action. Here are some excerpts:

“It was Shakespeare’s habit to cloak his authentic expressions in the ironic word-play of Erasmian fools and clowns. The list of Shakespeare’s nonsensical truth-sayers might include the Clown in Titus Andronicus , Bottom in Midsummer Night’s Dream , Lancelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice , Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing , Touchstone in As You Like It , Falstaff/Oldcastle, the Hostess and Fluellen in Henry V , the Gravedigger and his Companion in Hamlet , Feste in Twelfth Night , Thersites in Troilus and Cressida , Lear’s Fool and Tom o’ Bedlam in King Lear , the Porter in Macbeth , the Clowns in Antony and Cleopatra and The Winter’s Tale , Gonzalo in The Tempest , and, most importantly for present purposes, the Old Lady in Henry VIII . 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.”

“The concealment of their words is skilful and deliberate. The poetry of Cleopatra’s 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’s appearance is a diversion only for purposes of contrast with Cleopatra’s apotheosis, interpretation of the play depends on an awareness of the precision with which his ironies are aimed at Cleopatra.”

“Rather than the recognised opposition of Rome and Egypt, male and female, reason and emotion, the central opposition in Antony and Cleopatra 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.”

“The 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’s death. Only Shakespeare could have portrayed its aesthetic G?tterd?mmerung with such brilliance as to cast the Clown’s irony, ’ the gritty accents of the opposing voice’ almost entirely in shadow.”

“Shakespeare’s view is concealed in the Clown’s ‘uplandish, or churlish, and unmannerly’ 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.”

“The heart of the Clown’s speech lies in the words, ‘Truly, she makes a very good report o’ th’ worm; but he that will believe all that they say, shall never be saved by half that they do.’ (5.2.249-53)

CLEOPATRA Remember thou any that have died on’t?
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’th’ 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’s an odd worm.
CLEOPATRA Get thee hence, farewell.
CLOWN I wish you all joy of the worm.
(5.2.244-55)

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’saved by half that they do’, Cleopatra, and those who place their confidence in belief alone, ‘fides sola’. The Clown does not agree with one who ‘will believe all that they say’. 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 ‘no goodness in the worm’. (5.2.261-2) His wishing her the joy of the worm is ironic.”

“That the Clown’s words are directed at Cleopatra is evident. The ‘very honest (chaste) woman’ is ironically Cleopatra; ‘Something given to lie’ 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’s death by informing him that she had taken her own life. She attempted to conceal her wealth from Octavius. She lies doubly in saying,

Let him speak, my lord,
Upon his peril, that I have reserved
To myself nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus.
(5.2.141-3).”

“The Clown’s talk of the Devil’s dressing a woman foreshadows Cleopatra’s ‘Give me my robe. Put on my crown.’ (5.2.275) The Clown’s reference to women, ‘for in every ten that they make, the devils mar five’, alludes to Matthew 25:1-2, the theme of which is preparation for the absent bridegroom. Cleopatra will say ‘Husband, I come!’ (5.2.282)”

“Whatever the precise meaning of the Clown’s words, their tenor is Biblical within a play which is classical in source, theme and style. Charmian’s cavalier wish to ‘be 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.’ (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’s classical ambiance is circumscribed by a Biblical framework, much as the references to ‘heathen gods’ and ‘cherubims’ in Henry VIII (1.1.19 & 23) subordinate the earthly splendour of the Field of the Cloth of Gold to a (Biblical) heavenly one.”

“At 3.3.4-5 when Cleopatra exclaims in anger, ‘That Herod’s head/ I’ll have!’ there is a reminder of Herodias’ 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’s envy of Antony’s wife Octavia and her determination to displace the Roman matron.”

Antony and Cleopatra ends with the apotheosis of Cleopatra; Henry VIII 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.”


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