| Cleopatra 11
tian history. Nor can we stop there. The fair land of
Greece must also he visited; and the gorgeous pageants of Rome, at the time of her greatest glory, have
a place in the story of this illustrious queen of
Egypt.
Would that we could think of the fascinating Cleopatra only as this vision of perfect loveliness which she presents in this enchanting scene upon the river
Cydnus; but there are dark and bloody deeds which
loom up in the background of this fair picture, and
make the telling of Cleopatra's story, fascinating as
it is in some respects, often an unpleasant recital of
vice and crime.
Why is Cleopatra so fair of skin, though an Egyptian by birth? Her attendant maidens on this fairy-like barge stand round her like dusky figures cut from
bronze; but her fair face and limbs gleam with pale
ivory-tints, and the sunshine even glimmers in her dark
tresses, now coiled in the Grecian knot behind her
shell-like cars.
Though Egypt was her birthplace, Grecian blood
flows through her veins, and whitens her skin, and
lightens the dusky shadows in her hair, and gives the
brown shadings to her lustrous eyes; and Grecian culture gives her voice its oft-narrated magic charm of
melting sweetness; and a spark of Grecian genius
quickens her powers of mind, and gives her the enchanting fascination of brilliant wit, and a native aptitude of acquiring knowledge, and all the polite arts
and sciences; and her Grecian free-born grace lends
to her form its perfect pose of queenly stateliness,
together with an irresistible charm in every easy mo-
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