Speaker 1: Octavian and Cleopatra from mister Punch's Dramatic Sequels by Sintchin Hankins.
Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Caesar and Cleopatra. It might have
Speaker 1: been thought that Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, rather than mister
Speaker 1: Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, demanded a dramatic sequel, But
Speaker 1: as mister Shaw has pointed out repeatedly that he is
Speaker 1: the greater dramatist of the two, his play has been
Speaker 1: chosen in preference to Shakespeare's. A prefatory essay proving at
Speaker 1: great length the dialog of this sequel is true to life,
Speaker 1: and is in fact substantially a reproduction of what was
Speaker 1: spoken in the year BC thirty one has been omitted
Speaker 1: for lack of space. Octavian and Cleopatra dramatist personi Cleopatra
Speaker 1: by Abayi.
Speaker 2: Charmian read by Libby Gawne.
Speaker 3: Octavian read by Elizabeth Klatt.
Speaker 4: Agrippa read by Alan Mapston.
Speaker 1: Narrated by Lambda scene an extravagantly furnished apartment in the
Speaker 1: palace at Alexandria, Cleopatra has discovered. Seated upon her throne,
Speaker 1: She is dressed with mournful splendor as befits a queen
Speaker 1: who has been defeated Adaptium and has suffered a recent beravement.
Speaker 1: Her face is as attractive as liberal use of cosmetics
Speaker 1: can make it, and her whole appearance is that of
Speaker 1: a middle aged and rather dissipated member of copp the ballet,
Speaker 1: who has gone into half morning because the manager has
Speaker 1: reduced her salary. Charmian, a pretty shrewdish looking damsel, is
Speaker 1: in attendance on her.
Speaker 5: Am, I looking my best, Charmian.
Speaker 2: Your Majesty is looking as well as I can make you.
Speaker 2: If you you are not satisfied, you'd better get another
Speaker 2: maid looking.
Speaker 1: At herself in hand mirror.
Speaker 5: Silly child. Of course I am satisfied. I think you
Speaker 5: are wonderful.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think I've not done so badly.
Speaker 5: Of course, with Antony not even buried, yate, it would
Speaker 5: hardly have done for me to be too magnificent. Most
Speaker 5: unsuitable as it is, I think we've arrived at a
Speaker 5: rather successful blend of splendor and sorrow, suggesting at once
Speaker 5: the afflicted widow and the queen who is open to consolation.
Speaker 2: That is certainly the impression we intended to convey. By
Speaker 2: the way, when does Caesar.
Speaker 5: Arrive Octavian almost at once.
Speaker 2: His first visit, isn't it?
Speaker 5: Yes? So much depends on a first impression.
Speaker 1: Looks ad mirror again.
Speaker 5: I think we shall captivate him.
Speaker 2: He is not very impressionable, I.
Speaker 5: Hear no, but I shall manage. Think how completely I fascinated.
Speaker 2: Julius, his uncle. I'm afraid that's hardly a reason why
Speaker 2: you should prove equally attractive to the nephew.
Speaker 5: My dear child. Why not?
Speaker 2: Well, the lapse of time, you know that was seventeen
Speaker 2: years ago, so long.
Speaker 5: I am really very well preserved.
Speaker 2: Considering the wear and tear.
Speaker 5: My good Charmian, how crudely you put things, I declare,
Speaker 5: I've a good mind to have you execute it.
Speaker 2: Your Majesty will hardly do that. I am the only
Speaker 2: person in Egypt who really understands the secret of your
Speaker 2: Majesty's complexion.
Speaker 5: Hmm, that's true, But you ought to be more tactful
Speaker 5: dossing her head.
Speaker 2: You can't expect me to display tact when my wages
Speaker 2: haven't been paid since the Battle of Actium.
Speaker 5: Poor child. Never mind, when Octavian is at my feet.
Speaker 5: You shall be paid in full. Will that satisfy you.
Speaker 2: I'd much rather have something on account.
Speaker 5: I wish you wouldn't vex me in this way, just
Speaker 5: when it's so important that I should look my best.
Speaker 5: You know how unbecoming temper is to a woman when
Speaker 5: she is well over thirty.
Speaker 1: Beginning to cry.
Speaker 2: They're there. I'm sorry I said anything to hurt you.
Speaker 2: Don't cry, for Heaven's sake, or that rouge will run.
Speaker 2: Then I shall have to go all over you again.
Speaker 2: Dry your eyes. There's a good creature.
Speaker 1: Cleopatter does so obediently.
Speaker 2: I declare, you're all in streaks. Come here and let
Speaker 2: me put you straight.
Speaker 1: Cleopatter goes to Charmian, who produces border puff, et cetera,
Speaker 1: and repass the ravages of emotion quick quick.
Speaker 5: I hear them. Ah, I'm glad he's so early, only
Speaker 5: a quarter of an hour after his time. That shows
Speaker 5: how eager he is to see me. I feel that
Speaker 5: this is going to be another of my triumphs.
Speaker 1: Charmian puts the finishing touch to the queen, just as
Speaker 1: Caesar enters. She then hastily conceals porderpuff et cetera behind her.
Speaker 1: Cleopatra has no time to return to the throne and
Speaker 1: stands rather awkwardly with Charmian to receive her visitors. These
Speaker 1: groups be Octavian, a pale, dyspeptic looking young man of
Speaker 1: about thirty, Agrippa, a bluff takes a red faced warrior
Speaker 1: past middle age, and a guard of Roman soldiers, looking
Speaker 1: around the gorgeous apartment with much disgust and speaking in
Speaker 1: a soft, weary voice.
Speaker 3: Ugh, bad taste, very bad taste.
Speaker 4: All this, you know what these barbary are are? To
Speaker 4: the two women, kindly informed the queen Caesar is here advancing.
Speaker 5: I am the Queen. How do you do you?
Speaker 4: Nonsense?
Speaker 5: Oh? Yes, I am.
Speaker 1: The gentle melancholy.
Speaker 3: Dear dear, another illusion gone illusion, your beauty, you know,
Speaker 3: your grace, your charm I had had so much of them,
Speaker 3: so had a Grippa. Let me introduce you, by the way,
Speaker 3: Agrippa Cleopatra, as I was saying, it is most disappointing, not.
Speaker 4: What I expected at all, Charmion giggles vertively.
Speaker 5: You don't admire.
Speaker 3: Me, admire you, my dear lady, Anthony was of a
Speaker 3: different opinion.
Speaker 4: Anthony was a fool.
Speaker 3: Hush, my, dear Grippa, you hurt her feelings.
Speaker 1: Agrippa shrugs his shoulders and crosses to Chamion, with whom
Speaker 1: it begins a vigorous flirtation.
Speaker 5: Never mind my feelings.
Speaker 3: Frankly, then, dear lady, we are not impressed. We came
Speaker 3: here prepared for a beautiful temptress, a dazzling siren whom
Speaker 3: I must resist or perish. Something seductive, enticing. And what
Speaker 3: do we find?
Speaker 5: Well, what do you find?
Speaker 1: In his gentlest voice?
Speaker 3: Dear lady, don't let us pursue this painful subject. Probably
Speaker 3: we had not allowed for the flight of time. Suffice
Speaker 3: it that our poor hopes are unrealized.
Speaker 1: Looking ground, But I.
Speaker 3: Don't see cesarean My son is not here, another disappointment.
Speaker 5: You wish to speak to him?
Speaker 3: Yes, they'd him as a son of Julius, don't they.
Speaker 5: He is a son of Julius, a.
Speaker 3: Sort of relation of mine. Then I must really make
Speaker 3: his acquaintance. Can you give me his address?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 5: If you want him, you will have to find him
Speaker 5: for yourself.
Speaker 3: Now I shall find him, Dearest Queen, you need be
Speaker 3: under no apprehensions about that brute.
Speaker 5: Eh nothing, I was only thinking.
Speaker 3: Never think a loud dear lady. It's a dangerous habit.
Speaker 5: Is there anything further you want with me?
Speaker 3: Nothing? Thank you, Nothing at least nothing just now you
Speaker 3: would like to see.
Speaker 1: Me later, gentler than a sucking dove.
Speaker 3: In a few weeks. Perhaps the triumph, you know, the
Speaker 3: sovereign people throwing up their caps and hallooing, the procession
Speaker 3: up the sacred way with the headsman at the end
Speaker 3: of it all. Oh, the usual.
Speaker 1: Thing, losing her temper.
Speaker 5: Oh, you're not a man at all. You're a block
Speaker 5: a stone. You have no blood in your veins. You're
Speaker 5: not like Antony.
Speaker 3: No, dear lady, I'm not like Antony. If I were,
Speaker 3: I shouldn't have beaten him at Actium.
Speaker 5: I won't stay to be baited in this way. I won't.
Speaker 1: I won't goes towards door.
Speaker 3: Farewell, then we shall meet again a gripper. The queen
Speaker 3: is going.
Speaker 1: Breaking off in the midst of his flirtation.
Speaker 4: Eh oh uh, good boy.
Speaker 1: Stamping her foot charmian. Charmian jumps up, kisses her hand
Speaker 1: to Agrippa, and follows her mistress out looking after her.
Speaker 4: That's a pretty little binks.
Speaker 1: Octavian, who has seated himself verily on the throne.
Speaker 3: Is she I didn't notice cesareans fled. So I suppose
Speaker 3: it's a great nuisance. We must find him. Will you
Speaker 3: see about it?
Speaker 4: If you wish it? What shall I do with him?
Speaker 3: In his dared voice, better put him to death. It
Speaker 3: will save a lot of trouble in the end.
Speaker 4: But the boys your own cousin.
Speaker 3: Yes, I have always disliked my relations.
Speaker 4: I begin to think you are a genius. Caesar, after all.
Speaker 3: I am much good. It does me. I'd give my
Speaker 3: genius for your digestion any day.
Speaker 1: Leans back on throne and closes his eyes. Enter Charmin hurriedly,
Speaker 1: looking pale and disheveled.
Speaker 2: Help help.
Speaker 1: The queen is dying, edly opening his eyes.
Speaker 3: Stop that noise, girl, you make my headache.
Speaker 2: She is dying. I tell you. She has taken poison,
Speaker 2: exit squealing poison.
Speaker 4: By Jove, confound it. She must do that much.
Speaker 1: She is about to Folo Charmian.
Speaker 3: Why not? It seems to me an excellent arrangement. Very
Speaker 3: thoughtful of her, very thoughtful, and consider it.
Speaker 4: But we want her for that triumph of yours.
Speaker 3: Ah, never mind, After all, what is a triumph disagreeable
Speaker 3: for her? A bore for us? Let her die now
Speaker 3: by all means, if she prefers it.
Speaker 4: Don't you try to be magnanimous too. Leave that to
Speaker 4: your uncle. He did it better.
Speaker 3: My dear Grippa, how stupid you are. What possible use
Speaker 3: can a quite plain and middle aged lady be in
Speaker 3: a triumphal procession? If Claoparter were still attractive, I should say,
Speaker 3: save her by all means, As she isn't. Whoh ooh,
Speaker 3: I think we may let her die her own way
Speaker 3: without being charged with excessive magnanimity.
Speaker 4: Still, I should have liked to have seen her brought
Speaker 4: to Rome.
Speaker 3: Ah, I shall be quite contented to see her comfortably
Speaker 3: in her coffin in Egypt. Will let her be buried
Speaker 3: beside Antony. It will gratify the Egyptians, and it won't
Speaker 3: hurt us. See to it. There's a good fellow.
Speaker 1: Exit Agrippa. Octavian leans back and falls asleep on the throne.
Speaker 1: End of Octavian and Cleopatra