| CLEOPATRA BEFORE CAESAR.
several occasions to wreak itself on expression, had denounced the
London drama-stealers for their "art with poisonous honey stolen
from France." Mr. Browning finds, in this piece of French art, no
poison. He uses the strange and most original figure of the "Ptole
maic witch," as he calls her, for a type of the man-subjugator. The
first part of his description, telling of the jewelled bands which
"capture" the "orbs of health," refers to the bretelles, or stolae, which
are found on many mummies, and by which Gerome, introducing
them for the first time into painting, contrives an Egyptian-like
straightness for a live torso, really modelled realistically under those
confining conditions.
"See, Cleopatra! bared, the entire and sinuous wealth
O' the shining shape ; each orb of indolent ripe health
Captured, just where it finds a fellow orb as fine
I' the body ; traced about by jewels which outline,
Fire frame, and keep distinct perfections lest they melt
To soft smooth unity ere half their hold be felt:
Yet, o'er that white and wonder, a soul's predominance
I' the head so high and haught, except one thievish glance
From back of oblong eye, intent to count the slain."
Robert Browning, idling past Gambart's London shop, doubtless
recognized that in the matter of grasping his subject historically—psy-
chologically—the painter manifests a sort of clairvoyance, as so often
before. The girl-queen, appealing to Caesar against her brother and hus-
band, causes her house-steward, Apollodoros, to carry her in a roll of
tapestry right into the Alexandrian palace of the Ptolemies, now occu-
pied by the Roman dictator. The stout slave clears the drapery with a
single gesture, and crouches motionless, Cleopatra trusting her balance
to his support with one royal knuckle, knowing that her chattel will
not stir until released. Her insolent reliance on his fixity in so critical
a posture, is discerned by the painter with a dramatist's best insight
his secretaries those commentaries which he is soon to save from the
Canopus, swimming for life, sword in teeth and papyrus in hand. The
perfectly Egyptian character of the new Ptolemaic palace is entirely
—it is so Eastern, so despotic. In the background Caesar dictates to
probable, as well as the Egyptian harness assumed by the queen. We
know that Cleopatra dressed as Isis, and the inscriptions, cartouches,
and coffins of the Ptolemies of the Nile all show an almost exag-
gerated addiction to Egyptian bric-a-brac.
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