Other editions of book Caesar and Cleopatra

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Political comedy at its best, Caesar and Cleopatra takes on the themes of imperialism and leadership as only George Bernard Shaw can. Set amidst the Roman conquest of Egypt, the play pits the mature statesmanship of Julius Caesar against the naïve ambition of Cleopatra. It imagines Caesar's first meeting with Clepatra and their subsequent plotting as Caesar attempts to subdue Egypt and Cleopatra tries to eliminate her brother and rival claimant for the throne. Assassination and intrigue, romance and betrayal, all are dealt with in Shaw's inimitable comic style. Caesar and Cleopatra represents a mature Shaw, who revolutionized the British theatre by combining exceptionally entertaining comedy with incisive and relevant themes.

In Caesar and Cleopatra, George Bernard Shaw uses his legendary wit to turn ancient history on its head – and to challenge Shakespeare’s view of his two famous protagonists. Political drama meets sparkling comedy as veteran strategist Julius Caesar becomes mentor to the enchanting teenage queen of Roman-occupied Egypt. From her first timid encounter with Caesar under a desert moon, Cleopatra grows in strength to become a determined player in the game of power politics – but has she really learned what Caesar wanted to teach her? In his inimitable style, Shaw turns this centuries-old story into a hilarious yet affecting critique of human nature that remains as pertinent today as when he wrote it – reminding readers once again why he is regarded as one of the English language’s greatest playwrights. Featuring Christopher Plummer and Nikki M. James, Caesar and Cleopatra was filmed live in High Definition capturing all the emotional intensity of the Festival’s celebrated production. One of the great pleasures of rehearsing Caesar & Cleopatra was discovering just how witty the play is. Bernard Shaw, however, serves up surprisingly paradoxical and complex portraits of two of the most renowned characters in history. His play at times seems like a domestic comedy, but it also explores questions of leadership that were important in his day, and in ours as well. In addition, he observes the still-continuing pattern of Western interference in the affairs of the Middle East.— From Des McAnuff’s introduction to Caesar & Cleopatra

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

The play has a prologue and an "Alternative to the Prologue". The prologue consists of the Egyptian god Ra addressing the audience directly, as if he could see them in the theater (i.e., breaking the fourth wall). He says that Pompey represents the old Rome and Caesar represents the new Rome. The gods favored Caesar, according to Ra, because he "lived the life they had given him boldly". Ra recounts the conflict between Caesar and Pompey, their battle at Pharsalia, and Pompey's eventual assassination in Egypt at the hands of Lucius Septimius.

An October night on the Syrian border of Egypt towards the end of the XXXIII Dynasty, in the year 706 by Roman computation, afterwards reckoned by Christian computation as 48 B.C. A great radiance of silver fire, the dawn of a moonlit night, is rising in the east. The stars and the cloudless sky are our own contemporaries, nineteen and a half centuries younger than we know them; but you would not guess that from their appearance. Below them are two notable drawbacks of civilization: a palace, and soldiers. The palace, an old, low, Syrian building of whitened mud, is not so ugly as Buckingham Palace; and the officers in the courtyard are more highly civilized than modern English officers: for example, they do not dig up the corpses of their dead enemies and mutilate them, as we dug up Cromwell and the Mahdi. They are in two groups: one intent on the gambling of their captain Belzanor, a warrior of fifty, who, with his spear on the ground beside his knee, is stooping to throw dice with a sly-looking young Persian recruit; the other gathered about a guardsman who has just finished telling a naughty story (still current in English barracks) at which they are laughing uproariously. They are about a dozen in number, all highly aristocratic young Egyptian guardsmen, handsomely equipped with weapons and armor, very unEnglish in point of not being ashamed of and uncomfortable in their professional dress; on the contrary, rather ostentatiously and arrogantly warlike, as valuing themselves on their military caste.