[218] The love she inspires and feels is of the kind described by La Rochefoucauld: “L’amour, aussi bien que le feu, ne peut subsister, sans un mouvement continuel; et il cesse de vivre dès qu’il cesse d’espérer ou de craindre.” He has another passage that suggests an explanation of the secret of Cleopatra’s permanent attraction for the volatile Antony: “La constance en amour est une inconstance perpétuelle, qui fait que notre coeur s’attache successivement à toutes les qualités de la personne que nous aimons, donnant tantôt la préférence à l’une, tantôt à l’autre; de sorte que cette constance n’est qu’une inconstance arrêtée et renfermée dans un même sujet.” It is curious how often an English reader of La Rochefoucauld feels impelled to illustrate the Reflections on Love and Women by reference to Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, but it is very natural. His friend the Duchess of Longueville and the other great ladies of the Fronde resembled her in their charm, their wit, their impulsiveness; and when they engaged in the game of politics, subordinated it like her to their passions and caprices. So his own experience would familiarise La Rochefoucauld with the type, which he has merely generalised, and labelled as the only authentic one.
[219] “L’on fait plus souvent des trahisons par foiblesse que par un dessein formé de trahir.”—La Rochefoucauld.
[220] Boas, Shakespeare and his Predecessors.
[221] This was first suggested in A. Stahr’s Cleopatra. I prefer to give the arguments in my own way.
[222] So in folio: some modern editions alter unnecessarily to“dug.”
[223] i.e. confuted.
[224] It is a rather striking coincidence that Jodelle, too, heightens Plutarch’s account of the treasures she has retained, and includes among them the crown jewels and royal robes. Seleucus finishes a panegyric on her wealth:
Croy, Cesar, croy qu’elle a de tout son or
Et autres biens tout le meilleur caché.