Producers' Showcase (1954–1957): Season 2, Episode 8 - Caesar and Cleopatra - full transcript
[orchestra tuning music]
- [Announcer]
Producers' Showcase!
[fanfare music]
March 5th, 1956.
Live from New York,
Producers' Showcase brings you
another evening of
outstanding entertainment.
Our stars tonight
are Claire Bloom,
Sir Cedric Hardwicke,
Jack Hawkins, Judith Anderson,
and special guest stars,
Cyril Ritchard and
Farley Granger,
in Caesar and Cleopatra
by Bernard Shaw.
[pleasant music]
In just a moment,
Producers' Showcase
will bring you the first
act of Caesar and Cleopatra.
[exotic music]
And now, Producers'
Showcase presents
the first act of
Caesar and Cleopatra.
[dramatic music]
- [Ra] Peace.
Be silent and hearken unto me.
Look upon my hawk's head
and know that I am Ra,
who was once in
Egypt a mighty god.
I ask you not for
worship, but for silence.
For I have come to draw
you back 2000 years
over the graves
of 60 generations,
where we create the story
of an unchaste woman.
At the name of Cleopatra,
tempter of Caesar.
Ye foolish mortals,
Cleopatra is as of yet
but a child that is
whipped by her nurse.
What I'm about to show you,
for the good of your souls,
is how Caesar, seeking
Pompey in Egypt,
a Roman fleeing and a Roman
pursuing, found Cleopatra,
and what things happened
between the old Caesar
and the child queen
before he left Egypt
and battled his
way back to Rome.
And the years that
have passed are to me,
the god Ra, but a moment,
nor is this any other
than the day in which
Julius Caesar set foot
in the land of my people.
[fanfare music]
[peaceful music]
- Hail, Sphinx, salutations
from Julius Caesar!
I have wandered in many lands,
seeking the lost
regions from which
my birth into this
world exiled me,
and the company of
creatures such as I myself.
I have found flocks and
pastures, men and cities,
but no other Caesar,
no air native to me,
no man kindred to me, none
who can do my day's deed,
or think my night's thought.
In the little world
yonder, Sphinx,
my place is as high as
yours in this great desert;
only I wander,
and you sit still;
I conquer, you endure;
I work and wonder,
you watch and wait;
I look up and am dazzled,
look down and am darkened,
look round and am puzzled,
whilst your eyes never
turn from looking out,
out of the world
to the lost region,
the home from which
we have strayed.
Sphinx, you and I, strangers
to the race of men,
are no strangers to one another.
My way hither was
the way of destiny,
for I am he of whose
genius you are the symbol:
part woman, part
brute, and part God.
Nothing of man in me at all.
Have I read your riddle, Sphinx?
- Old gentleman.
- Immortal gods!
- Old gentleman, don't run away.
- Old gentleman, don't run away!
This, to Julius Caesar?
- Old gentleman, climb
up here, quickly,
or the Romans will
come and eat you.
- A child at its breast!
A divine child!
Who are you?
- Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
- Queen of the
Gypsies, you mean.
- You must not be
disrespectful to me,
or the Sphinx will let
the Romans eat you.
Come up, it is quite cozy here.
- What a dream!
What a magnificent dream!
- Climb up quickly.
You must get up inside
and creep around.
It is very powerful
and will protect you.
Take care.
That's right.
You may have its other paw.
Now, sit down.
I'm glad you have come,
I was very lonely.
Did you happen to see
a white cat anywhere?
- Why, have you lost one?
- Yes, the sacred white cat.
I brought him here to
sacrifice him to the Sphinx,
but when we got a little
way from the city,
a black cat called
him and he jumped out
of my arms and ran away to it.
Do you think that the
black cat can have been
my
great-great-great-grandmother?
- Well, why not?
Nothing would surprise me
on this night of nights.
- I think it must have been.
My great-grandmother's
great-grandmother
was a black kitten of
the sacred white cat,
and the river Nile made
her his seventh wife.
- Why, what are you doing
here at this time of night?
Do you live here?
- Of course not.
I am the Queen, and I
shall live in the palace
at Alexandria when I
have killed my brother,
who drove me out of it.
- Meanwhile, why are you
not at home and in bed?
- Because the Romans are
coming to eat us all.
You are not at home
and in bed either.
- Oh, yes, I am.
Yes, I live in a tent,
and I am now in that tent,
fast asleep and dreaming.
[giggling]
- I like you.
You're a funny old gentleman.
- Ah, that spoils the dream.
Why don't you dream
that I am young?
- I think you are a little mad.
It is the moon
that makes you talk
to yourself in that silly way.
- Oh, you heard that, did you?
Yes, I was saying my
prayers to the great Sphinx.
[laughing]
- But this isn't
the great Sphinx!
- What?
- This is only a dear
little kitten of the Sphinx.
This is my pet Sphinx.
Tell me, do you think the
Romans have any sorcerers
who could take us away
from the Sphinx by magic?
- Why, are you
afraid of the Romans?
- Oh, they would eat
us if they caught us.
They are barbarians.
Their chief is
called Julius Caesar.
His father was a tiger and
his mother a burning mountain,
and his nose is like
an elephant's trunk.
They all have long
noses, and ivory tusks,
and little short tails, and
seven arms with a hundred arrows
in each, and they
live on human flesh.
- Would you like me to
show you a real Roman?
- No, you are frightening me.
- Well, no matter,
this is only a dream.
- It is not a dream,
it is not a dream!
See, see!
- Oh, stop, how dare you?
- You said you were dreaming.
I only wanted to show you.
- Oh, there, there, there.
Now you mustn't cry.
Come, come, a queen mustn't cry.
Am I awake?
Yes, I...
Oh, impossible, impossible,
madness, madness!
Back to camp, back to camp!
- No, no, no, don't leave me!
I'm afraid, afraid
of the Romans!
- Cleopatra, can you
see my face well?
- Yes, it's so white
in the moonlight.
- Are you sure it
is the moonlight
that makes me look
whiter than an Egyptian?
Do you notice I have
a rather long nose?
- Oh.
- It is a Roman nose, Cleopatra.
[screaming]
- Bite him in two, Sphinx!
Bite him in two!
I meant to sacrifice the
white cat, I did indeed!
I meant... [crying]
[screaming]
- Cleopatra, shall
I teach you a way
to prevent Caesar
from eating you?
- Oh do, do, do!
- Caesar never eats women.
- Oh!
- But he eats girls.
- And will he eat me?
- Yes, unless you can make him
believe that you are a woman.
So whatever dread
may be in your soul,
however terrible Caesar
may appear to you,
you must confront him
tonight in your palace
as a brave woman
and a great queen.
And if he thinks
you worthy to rule,
he will place you on
the throne by his side
and make you the
real ruler of Egypt.
- No, he will find me
out, he will find me out.
- Well, he is easily
deceived by women.
Their eyes dazzle him, and
he sees them not as they are,
but as he wishes them
to appear to him.
[trumpets sounding]
- What was that?
- Caesar's voice.
- Oh, this way, quickly!
Come, oh come!
- You're quite safe
with me until you stand
on your throne to
receive Caesar.
Now let me thither.
- Oh, come, come, come.
The gods are angry.
Do you feel the earth shaking?
- It is the tread
of Caesar's legions.
- Oh, this way quickly!
And let us look for
the white cat as we go.
It is he that has
turned you into a Roman!
- Oh, incorrigible,
oh, incorrigible!
[trumpets sounding]
[peaceful music]
What place is this?
- This is where I
sit on the throne
when I'm allowed to
wear my crown and robes.
- Order your slave
to light the lamps.
- Do you think I may?
- Well of course,
you are the queen.
Go on.
- Light all the lamps!
- Stop!
[Cleopatra gasping]
Who is this you have with you?
And how dare you order
the lamps to be lighted
without my permission?
- Who's she?
- Ftatateeta.
- Chief nurse!
- I speak to the queen!
Be silent.
Is this how your servants
know their places?
Send her away.
And you do as the
queen has bidden.
You are the queen,
send her away.
- Ftatateeta, dear, you must
go away, just for a little.
- You're not commanding her to
go away, you're begging her.
A Roman does not
stay with queens
who are afraid of their slaves.
- I'm not afraid!
Indeed, I'm not afraid!
- We shall see who
is afraid here.
Cleopatra--
- On your knees, woman!
Am I a child also that
you dare trifle with me?
Slave.
Can you cut off a head?
[laughing]
Have you remembered
yourself, mistress?
- O Queen, forget
not thy servant
in the days of thy greatness!
- Go!
Begone!
Go away!
Give me something
to beat her with!
- Ah, you scratch
kitten, do you?
- I will beat somebody!
I will beat him!
- No, no!
- There, there, there!
Oh, I am a real queen at last!
A real, real queen!
Cleopatra the Queen!
Oh, I love you for
making me a queen.
- But queens love only kings.
- I will make all
the men I love kings!
I will make you a king.
I will have many young kings,
with round strong arms.
And when I'm tired of them
I will whip them to death!
But you will always be my king,
my nice, kind,
wise, good old king!
- Oh, my wrinkles, my
wrinkles, and my child's heart.
You know, you will
be the most dangerous
of all Caesar's conquests.
- Caesar?
I forgot Caesar!
Let us run away and hid
until Caesar is gone.
- Be afraid if you dare.
[trumpets sounding]
Aha!
Caesar approaches the
throne of Cleopatra.
Come, take your place.
Ho there, Teetatota!
Bring the Queen's
crown, and her robes,
and her women and prepare her.
- Yes, the crown, Ftatateeta,
I shall wear the crown!
- For whom must the
queen put on her state?
- For a citizen of Rome,
a King of Kings, Tota.
- How dare you ask questions?
Go and do as you are told!
Caesar will know
that I am a queen
when he sees my crown
and robes, will he not?
- He will know
Cleopatra by her pride,
her courage, her
majesty, and her beauty.
Are you trembling?
- No, I, I, no.
- Of all the Queen's women,
these three alone are left.
The rest are fled.
- Good, three are enough.
Poor Caesar usually
has to dress himself.
Is it sweet or bitter to
be a queen, Cleopatra?
- Bitter.
- Cast out fear and you
will conquer Caesar.
Toto, the Romans are at hand.
- [Ftatateeta] They are at
hand, and the guard has fled.
- The Romans are
in the courtyard!
The Romans are in the courtyard!
[screaming]
- The queen must
face Caesar alone.
Answer, so be it.
- So be it.
- Good!
[soldier's feet
thumping in unison]
- You are my nursling.
You have said so be it,
and if you die for it
you must make the
queen's word good.
- Now, if you quail...
[soldier's feet
thumping in unison]
[soldiers chattering]
- [Soldiers] Hail Caesar!
Hail Caesar, hail!
[soldiers cheering]
[dramatic music]
[peaceful exotic music]
[people chattering faintly]
[gong sounding]
[lighthearted music]
- The King of Egypt
has a word to speak!
- Peace for the King's word!
- I am the firstborn
son of Auletes
the Flute Blower,
who was your King.
And now that my father is dead,
his daughter and my
sister, Cleopatra,
with the aid of the
witch, Ftatateeta,
hath cast a spell on the
Roman, Julius Caesar,
to make him uphold her
false pretense to my throne.
But, but...
- But I will not suffer.
- Oh yes, I know.
I will not suffer!
Will not suffer...
What shall I not suffer?
- The King will not
suffer a foreigner
to take from us the
throne of Egypt!
[council shouting]
Tell the King, Achillas, how
many soldiers follow the Roman?
- [Crowd] Yes, tell
us, tell us, tell us!
- Let the King's general speak!
- But two Roman legions, O King!
[council laughing]
There's three thousand
soldiers [laughing].
- Peace, ho!
Caesar approaches!
- The King permits the
Roman commander to enter.
- Which is the king,
the man or the boy?
- I am Pothinus, the
guardian of my lord the King.
- So you are the king.
Dull work at your age, hmm?
Your servant, Pothinus.
And this gentleman?
- Achillas, the King's general.
- A general!
Hmm, I'm a general myself.
Health and many
victories, Achillas.
- As the gods will, Caesar.
- And you, sir?
- Theodutos, the King's tutor.
- Oh, you teach mean
how to be kings.
That is very clever of you.
And this place?
- [Pothinus] The council
chamber of the chancellors
of the King's treasury, Caesar.
- Ah, that reminds
me, I want some money.
[council shouting]
- My master would say
there is a lawful debt due
to Rome from Egypt, contracted
by the King's father,
and it is Caesar's
duty to his country
to demand immediate payment.
- Ah, I forgot!
Forgive me, Pothinus.
This is Britannus, my secretary.
- How do you do?
- He's and islander
from the western end
of the world, a day's
voyage from Gaul.
And this is Rufio,
my comrade in arms.
Pothinus, I'm badly
in need of money.
[council chattering]
- [Pothinus] The King's
treasury is poor, Caesar!
- Yes, I notice there
is but one chair in it.
- Here, Caesar!
Sit on this.
[council shouting]
[council gasping]
- Now, Pothinus, to business.
I want 1600 talents.
[council chattering]
- Impossible!
There is not so much money
in the King's treasury.
We have been at
strife here, Caesar,
because the King's
sister, Cleopatra,
falsely claims his throne.
The King's taxes have not been
collected for a whole year!
- Oh, yes they have, Pothinus,
my officers have been
collecting them all morning.
- You must pay, Pothinus,
why waste words?
- Is it possible that Caesar,
the conqueror of the world,
can find time to occupy himself
with such a trifle as our taxes?
- My friend, taxes
are the chief business
of a conqueror of the world.
In exchange for your bounty,
I will settle this dispute
about the throne for
you, if you will.
What say you?
- If I say, no, will
that hinder you?
- No.
- But first, let us
have Cleopatra here.
- [Pothinus] She is
not in Alexandria,
she has fled into Syria.
- Oh, I think not.
Call Totateeta.
- Ho there, Teetatota!
- Who pronounces the
name of Ftatateeta,
the Queen's Chief Nurse?
- Nobody can pronounce
it, Tota, except yourself.
Uh, where is your mistress?
[council chattering]
- Am I to behave like a queen?
- Yes.
[council chattering]
[Ptolemy screaming]
[council shouting]
- I am the King!
- You are not to be king,
you little cry-baby,
you are to be eaten
by the Romans!
- Come here, my
boy, stand by me.
- Take your throne,
I don't want it.
Go this instant and sit down!
- Go, Ptolemy.
Always take a throne when
it is offered to you.
- I hope you will have
the good sense to follow
your own advice when we
return to Rome, Caesar.
- Now, Pothinus,
hear what I propose.
Cleopatra and Ptolemy shall
reign jointly in Egypt.
[council chattering]
For the sake of peace.
- Peace with honor, Pothinus.
- Caesar, the money you demand
is the price of our freedom.
Take it, and leave us to
settle our own affairs!
[council shouting]
- Egypt for the Egyptians!
- Mhmm.
How many men have you?
- That will appear
when I take the field!
[council laughing]
- Are your men Romans?
If not, it matters not
how many there are,
provided you're not
stronger than 500 to 10.
- What can you do with 3000 men?
- And without money?
Away with you!
- [Council] Yes, away, away!
- Achillas, if you
are not a fool,
you'll take that girl while
she's under your hands.
- Why not take Caesar
as well, Achillas?
- Well said, Rufio, why not?
- Try, Achillas.
[crowd chattering]
Guard, there!
[trumpets sounding]
[gasping]
- You are Caesar's
prisoners, all of you.
- Oh, no, no, no, no.
By no means, gentlemen.
Caesar's guests.
- Won't you cut their heads off?
- What, cut off
your brother's head?
- Why not?
He would cut off mine
if he got the chance,
wouldn't you, Ptolemy?
- I would, and I will,
too, when I grow up!
- Caesar, if you
attempt to detain us--
- He will succeed, Egyptian.
We hold the palace, the
beach, and the eastern harbor.
[council chattering]
The road to Rome is open,
and you shall travel
it if Caesar chooses.
- I could do no less, Pothinus,
to secure the retreat
of my own soldiers.
But you are free to go, and
so are all here in the palace.
- What?
[council chattering]
- You're turning us out of our
own palace into the streets,
and then you tell us with a
grand air that we're free to go!
Where is your right?
- Rufio's scabbard.
I may not be able
to keep it there
if you delay too long, Pothinus.
- This is Roman justice.
- But not Roman
gratitude, I hope.
Is Caesar's life worth of
so little account to him
that he forgets
we have saved it?
- My life, is that all?
- Your life, your
laurels, your future!
- It is true.
I can call a witness to
prove that but for us
the Roman occupation
led by Pompey,
your rival for the
empire of the world,
would now have
Caesar at his mercy.
Ho there, Lucius Septimius!
- Lucius Septimius!
[crowd chattering]
No, no.
- Yes, yes, I'd say.
Let the Roman military
tribune bear witness.
Lucius Septimius,
Caesar came here
in pursuit of Pompey, his foe.
Did we shelter his foe?
- As Pompey's foot touched
the Egyptian shore,
his head fell by the
stroke of my sword.
- Under the eyes of
his wife and child.
We have given you a sweet and
full measure of vengeance!
- Vengeance, vengeance!
Oh, if I could
stoop to vengeance
what would I not
exact from you as
the price of this
murdered man's blood.
Begone, you fill me with horror.
- You've seen severed
heads before, Caesar,
and severed right
hands, too, I think.
[council chattering]
Some thousands of them in Gaul.
Was that vengeance?
- No, by the gods!
Would that it had been.
Vengeance, at least, is human.
No, those severed right
hands were a wise severity,
a necessary protection
to the commonwealth,
a duty of statesmanship.
Follies and fictions, ten times
bloodier than honest vengeance!
Pardon me, Lucius Septimius,
why should the slayer
of thousands in Gaul rebuke
the slayer of Pompey?
You are free to go,
or stay if you will,
I'll find you a
place in my service.
[Lucius chuckling]
- The odds are
against you, Caesar.
I go.
Come, Achillas, while
there is yet time.
[council chattering]
- Do you suppose
they would let us go
if they had our
heads in their hands?
- I have no right to suppose
that his ways are
any baser than mine.
- Oh.
- Besides, every man
we imprison means
imprisoning two Roman
soldiers to guard him.
Have you thought of that, hmm?
- [laughing] I might have
guessed there was some
fox's trick behind
your fine talking.
Um, this piece of goods,
what's to be done with her?
Oh, I suppose I can
leave that to you.
- Did you mean me
to go with the rest?
- You're free to do just
as you please, Cleopatra.
- Then you do not care
whether I stay or not?
- Oh, well, of course, I'd
much rather you stayed.
- Then I consent to
stay, because I am asked.
But I do not want to, mind.
- Ho there, Teetatota!
[Cleopatra giggling]
- Her name is not
Teetatota, it is Ftatateeta!
- Oh.
Fta, ta, [throat clearing].
Uh, Tota, the Queen will hold
her state here in Alexandria.
You do what is necessary.
- Am I think the mistress
of the Queen's household?
- No, I am the mistress
of the Queen's household.
Go and do as you are told,
or I'll have you thrown
into the Nile to poison
the poor crocodiles!
- Oh, no, no, no, no.
- Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
You are very sentimental,
Caesar, but you are clever.
If you do as I tell you, you
will soon learn to govern.
- Hmm.
You know, Cleopatra, I'm afraid
I'm going to have to
eat you after all.
- You must not talk to me
anymore as if I were a child.
Are you angry with me?
- No, no.
I, uh, I have work to do.
- Work, what nonsense!
You must remember
you are a king now,
I have made you one.
Kings don't work!
- Oh, who told you
that, little kitten?
- My father was the king of
Egypt and he never worked!
But he was a great
king, and he cut off
my sister's head when
she rebelled against him
and took the throne from him.
- Well, and how did he
get his throne back?
- I will tell you.
A beautiful young man,
with strong round arms
came over the desert
with many horsemen
and slew my sister's husband
and gave my father
back his throne.
Oh, I wish he would come
again, now that I am queen.
I would make him my husband.
- Well, it might be managed,
for it was I who sent
that beautiful young
man to help your father.
- You know him!
- Mmhm.
- He is much, much younger
than you, of course.
- He is somewhat younger.
- Tell me, is he still
beautiful, with strong
round arms shining in
the sun like marble?
- Oh, he's in
excellent condition,
considering how much
he eats and drinks.
- You must not say common,
earthly things about him,
for I love him, he's a god.
- Hmm.
- What is his name?
- His name is Mark Antony.
- Mark Antony, Mark
Antony, Mark Antony!
What a beautiful name!
Oh, how I love you for
sending him to help my father!
- Uh, yes, no you must
run away for a little
and send my secretary to me.
- No, I want to stay and hear
you talk about Mark Antony.
- If I don't get back to
work, Pothinus and the rest
will seize the harbor and the
way from Rome will be blocked.
- No matter.
I don't want you
to go back to Rome.
No, but you want Mark
Antony to come from it.
- Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Go quickly to work,
Caesar, and keep the way
over the sea open
for my Mark Antony!
Ho, Britannus!
- [Soldier] Caesar!
- Britannicus!
- Caesar!
- Oh, what now?
- This Caesar, and two
my comrades killed.
- Ay, how?
- Achillas has turned
his army against us.
- Well?
- I was with two others
in the marketplace
when the news came.
The citizens fell upon us.
I cut my way through
and here I am.
- I'm glad to see you alive.
- Caesar, the
Egyptians are burning
our ships in the west harbor!
- Yes, yes, yes, yes, I
know, we are besieged.
Now get your wounds attended to
and pass the word to
turn out on the beach.
Rufio, take every ship we
have in the east harbor
and seize the lighthouse.
Leave half our men
behind to guard the beach
and the quay outside the palace.
That is the way home!
- But are we to
give up the city?
- We haven't got it, Rufio.
This palace, we have,
and the beach below.
For the rest, Egypt
for the Egyptians.
- Caesar, Pothinus
demands to speak to you.
His manner is most insolent.
- Caesar, I have brought
you our ultimatum.
- Ultimatum?
The door was open.
You should have gone out through
it before you declared war.
Now, you're my prisoner.
- I, your prisoner?
Do you know that
you're in Alexandria?
And that King Ptolemy's army,
outnumbering your little
troop a hundred to one,
is in possession of Alexandria?
- Turn him over to
the guard, Britannus.
And fetch my armor.
[faint shouting]
- My life will cost you
dear if you take it, Caesar!
- Horror unspeakable!
Woe, alas!
Help!
- What's the matter now?
- Who's slain?
- The fire has spread
from your ships.
The first of the seven
wonders of the world perishes.
- What?
- The Library of
Alexandria is in flames.
- Oh.
- Oh, is that all?
- All?
What is burning there is
the memory of mankind.
- A shameful memory.
Let it burn.
- Will you destroy the past?
- Ay, and build the
future with its ruins.
- Oh!
- But harken, Theodotus,
I cannot spare you a man
or a bucket of water just now.
Away with you to Achillas.
Borrow his legions
to put out your fire.
- Achillas?
Yes, Achillas!
- Ho there!
Pass Theodotus out.
- You let that Egyptian go?
Is this more clemency?
- He's gone to save the library.
We must respect
literature, Rufio.
- Folly on folly's head!
- Now where is Britannus?
I sent him for my
armor an hour ago.
Britannicus, thou
British islander.
Britannicus!
- I am going to
dress you, Caesar.
These Roman helmets
are so becoming!
Oh! [laughing]
- What are you laughing at?
- You're bald!
- Cleopatra, do you
like to be reminded
that you are very young?
- No.
- And neither do I
like to be reminded
that I am middle-aged.
- So that is why you wear
the wreath to hide it!
- Peace, Egyptian!
These are the bays
of the conqueror.
- Peace, thou islander!
Is it true that when Caesar
caught you on your island
you were painted all over blue?
- Blue is the color worn by
all Britons of good standing.
In war, we stain our bodies
blue so that though our enemies
may strip us of our
lives and our clothes,
they cannot strip us
of our respectability.
- Caesar, have you done talking?
- Is this well set, Britannicus?
- Oh, but you are not going
into battle to be killed?
- No, Cleopatra.
No man goes to
battle to be killed.
- But they do get killed!
[Rufio laughing]
Please, please,
please, don't go.
What will become of me
if you never come back?
- Are you afraid?
- No.
- Go to the balcony and you
shall see us take the Pharos.
You must learn to
look on battles.
Go.
March, Rufio.
- Oh, you will
not be able to go!
- Why, what now?
- They are drying up
the harbor with buckets.
Over there, look!
They are dipping up the water.
- It is true, the Egyptian army!
Crawling over the edge of
the west harbor like locusts.
This is your accursed
clemency, Caesar.
Theodotus has brought them.
- Ah, I meant him to.
They have come to
put out the fire.
The library will keep them busy
while we seize the lighthouse.
All ready, there?
- [Centurion] All ready!
Give way for Caesar!
Caesar's coming through!
- More foxing!
[trumpets sounding]
[soldiers cheering]
- [Centurion] All aboard!
Make way there!
- Goodbye!
Goodbye, dear Caesar!
Come back safe!
Goodbye!
[dramatic music]
[peaceful exotic music]
- Who goes there, huh?
- What's this?
Stand!
[Apollodorus laughing]
Who are you?
- I am Apollodorus the Sicilian.
Why, man, what are
you dreaming of?
We've come past three sentinels,
all so busy staring at the sea
that none of them challenged us.
Is this Roman discipline?
- We're supposed to watch
the sea as well as the land.
Caesar has just
taken the lighthouse.
What's all this?
- Carpets for the furnishing
of the Queen's apartments.
- Who's this bit of
Egyptian crockery?
- Apollodorus,
rebuke this Roman dog
and bid him bridle his tongue
in the presence of a Ftatateeta,
the Mistress of the
Queen's household!
- Oh, this is a great lady
who stands high with Caesar.
- Oh, so you're a
carpet merchant?
- [laughing] My
friend, my calling is
to choose beautiful things
for beautiful queens.
My motto is Art for Art's sake.
- That's not the password.
Either you give me the
password of the day
or get back to your shop.
- How if I do neither?
- Then I will drive
this sword through you.
- At your service, my friend!
[grunting]
- Thrust your knife into the
dog's throat, Apollodorus.
[Apollodorus laughing]
Stab the little Roman reptile!
Spit him on your sword!
- How now, how now?
What is all this?
- Centurion!
[soldier mumbling]
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!
I am here by order of
the Queen to deliver--
- The Queen!
Yes, yes, yes, pass him in.
Pass all these bazaar people
in to the Queen
with their goods.
- Yes, sir, but--
- But mind you pass no one out
that you have not passed in!
- Well--
- Not even the Queen herself.
To your post, march!
- Is this your wife?
- No, no, no.
Not that the lady is not a
striking figure in her own way.
But she is not my wife.
- Hmm.
Keep your hands off
my men, mistress,
or I'll have you
pitched into the harbor.
- Ftatateeta, Ftatateeta!
Ftatateeta, I have
thought of something!
I want a boat, at once!
- A boat, no, you
cannot, you cannot.
Apollodorus, speak to the Queen.
- Pearl of Queens!
I have brought you the
three most beautiful--
- I have no time
for carpets today.
Can you row, Apollodorus?
- Row?
My oars shall be
your majesty's wings!
Whither shall I row my Queen?
- To the lighthouse.
Come!
- Stand!
You cannot pass.
- How dare you?
Do you know that I am the Queen?
- I have my orders.
No one is to leave this palace,
not even the queen herself.
- Ftatateeta, strangle him.
- You come within a yard
of me, you old crocodile,
I'll give you this in the jaws.
- Hear my counsel,
Star of the East.
Until word comes to these
soldiers from Caesar himself,
you are a prisoner here.
Let me go to him with a message
from you, and a present,
and I will bring you back
Caesar's order of release.
- Apollodorus, you could
take a carpet to Caesar,
could you not?
- Assuredly.
- And you would have
it carried gently
and take great,
great care of it?
- Depend on me, beautiful Queen.
- Great, great care?
- Place the most
delicate glass goblet
in the palace in the
heart of the roll,
and if it be broken, my
head shall pay for it.
[giggling]
- Gods of the seas, bear
her safely to the shore!
[lighthearted music]
I wish I knew how our
men are getting on
with that barricade
across the causeway.
The Egyptians
cannot be such fools
as not to attack
before it's completed.
It is the first time I have
ever run an avoidable risk.
I should never have come
to Egypt, it was rash.
Boyish.
- Boyish?
What are these for?
- Eat, then have another
look at our chances.
When a man gets to your age,
he runs down before
his midday meal.
- My age.
Yes, yes, Rufio, I'm an old
man now, worn out, finished.
True, quite true.
Well, every dog has his
day, and I have had mine.
These dates aren't bad, Rufio.
Well, now that you've
been to the top
of the lighthouse, anyone there?
- One elderly Tyrian to
work the crane, and his son,
a well conducted youth of 14.
- And old man and
a boy work that?
- They have counterweights,
and a machine
with boiling water in it
which I do not understand.
It is not of British design.
You there!
What do you want?
What are you here for?
- Hello, there!
Calm yourselves my friends!
I've come by boat
from Alexandria
with precious gifts for Caesar.
- Tell Caesar about them.
- Hail, great Caesar!
I am Apollodorus the
Sicilian, an artist.
- An artist!
Who could have
admitted this vagabond?
- Peace, man.
Apollodorus is a famous
patrician amateur.
- Amateur, oh, I crave
the gentleman's pardon.
I understood him to say
he was a professional.
- Well, you're
welcome, Apollodorus.
What is your business?
- First, to deliver to you
a present from the
Queen of Queens.
- Who is that?
- Cleopatra of Egypt!
- Apollodorus, this is no time
for playing with presents.
Pray you, go back to
the Queen and tell her
that if all goes well I shall
return to the
palace this evening.
- Caesar, I cannot return.
As I approached the lighthouse
my boat struck a rock!
I had hardly the
time to get myself
and my charge to the shore
before the poor little
cockleshell sank.
- Well, well, well, what
have you brought me?
- Caesar, it is a Persian
carpet, oh, a beauty!
And in it are, so I
am told, pigeons' eggs
and glass goblets and
fragile precious things.
Oh, I dare not for
my head have it
carried up that narrow
ladder from the causeway.
- Then swing it up
by the crane, then.
- Oh you there!
Up there!
Lower away!
Thank you.
- The crane!
Caesar, I have sworn
to tender this bale
of carpet as I
tender my own life.
- Well, then let them swing
you up at the same time.
Then if the rope breaks,
you and the pigeons' eggs
will perish together.
- Is Caesar serious?
- His manner is frivolous
because he's an Italian,
but he means what he says.
- Good!
Soon you can see me rising
like the sun with my treasure!
- Are you going to wait
here for this foolishness?
- Why not?
- The Egyptians will
let you know why not
if they have the sense to attack
before our barricade
is finished.
- [Apollodorus] Ho!
Haul away!
- Away there!
Up there!
[playful music]
♪ Behold the blue that never
shone in woman's eyes ♪
Easy there!
Further around!
Slowly, gently, mind the eggs!
- Mind the eggs!
Lower away!
- Slowly, slowly!
- Thank you.
- Haul up!
- Stand off, my
friends, let Caesar see.
- Ha, treachery!
Caesar, stand back,
I saw the shawl move.
There's something
alive in there!
- A serpent!
- Treacherous dog!
- Peace, man, put up your sword.
Apollodorus, your serpent seems
to breathe very regularly.
Aha, this is a
pretty little snake.
Let's have the rest of you.
- Oh, Caesar, I'm smothered!
Caesar, a man stood
on me in the boat,
then we hit a rock,
then the boat sank,
then I was swung up in the
air and bumped back down.
- Well, never mind, here you
are safe and sound at last.
- Ay, and now that she's here,
what's to be done with her?
- She cannot stay here without
the companionship
of some matron.
- But you will not
leave me will you?
- What!
Not when the trumpet
sounds and all our lives
depend on Caesar's
being on the barricade?
- Let them lose their lives,
they are only soldiers.
- Cleopatra, when
that trumpet sounds,
we must take each man with
his life in his hands,
and throw it in
the face of Death.
And of my soldiers
who have trusted me,
there is not one whose hand
I do not hold more
sacred than your head.
[dramatic music]
Come, Rufio.
- Caesar, do not leave me!
- Caesar, we are cut off.
The Egyptians have landed
between us and the barricade!
- Then we must defend
ourselves here.
- Caesar, caught
like rats in a trap!
- Rufio, Rufio, my men at the
barricade, I've murdered them!
- I have thrown the
ladder into the sea.
They cannot get in without it.
- Ay, and we cannot get out,
have you thought of that?
- Get out, why not?
You have ships, too.
- They're standing in
towards us already.
- And by what road are we to
walk to the galleys, pray?
- The road that
leads everywhere,
the diamond path
of sun and moon!
How far off is the
nearest galley?
- Fifty fathom.
- Good, defend yourselves here
until I send you a
boat from that galley.
- You have wings, perhaps?
- Water wings, friend, behold!
- Bravo, bravo, bravo!
I will do that too.
- You shall not!
Are you mad?
- Can I not swim as well as he?
- Can an old fool dive
and swim like a young one?
He's twenty-five, you're fifty.
- Old!
I'll race you to
the nearest galley
for a week's pay, father Rufio.
- But me, me, me,
what's to become of me?
- I will carry you on my back
to the galley like a dolphin.
Rufio, when you see me rise
to the surface, throw her in,
and then in with you
after her, both of you.
- No, no, no, I
shall be drowned!
- Caesar, I am a man and
a Briton, not a fish.
I must have a boat,
I cannot swim.
- Neither can I!
- Then stay here alone until
I recapture the lighthouse.
Oho, Apollodorus!
The white upon the blue above!
- [Apollodorus] Is purple
on the green below!
- Aha!
- Oh, oh, oh, let me see!
He'll be drowned!
Oh, oh.
[screaming]
[laughing]
- He's got her!
Hold the fort, Briton.
Caesar will not forget you.
- All safe, Rufio?
- [Rufio] All safe!
- Caesar, one word more!
Do not show yourself to
the impressionable part
of Alexandria till you've
changed your clothes!
[soldiers cheering]
The boat has reached him!
Hip, hip, hip, hoorah!
[triumphant music]
[peaceful harp music]
- I wish I could play the
harp with my own hands.
Caesar loves music.
[giggling]
Who are you laughing at?
Me or at Caesar?
- Oh, at Caesar.
- If you were not a fool,
you would laugh at me,
and if you were not a coward
you would not be
afraid to tell me so.
Is that Ftatateeta?
They told me that Pothinus
has offered you a bribe
to admit him to my presence.
- Bribe?
No, by my father's gods, no!
- Have I not told you
not to deny things?
Go take the bribe and
bring in Pothinus.
Don't answer me, go!
- Heigho!
I wish Caesar were back in Rome.
- It will be a bad day
for you all when he goes.
Why do you wish him away?
- He makes you so
terribly prosy and serious
and learned and philosophical.
It is worse than being
religious, at our ages.
[laughing]
- Cease that endless
cackling, will you.
Hold your tongues!
- Pothinus craves
the ear of the Queen.
- Well, Pothinus, what
is the latest news
from your rebel friends?
- I am no friend of rebellion,
and a prisoner does
not receive news.
- You are no more a prisoner
than I am, than Caesar is.
These six months we've
all been besieged here
in this palace by my subjects.
- Cleopatra, you
are but a child,
and do not understand
these matters.
- Oh, I see you do not know
the latest news, Pothinus.
- What is that?
- Oh, that Cleopatra
is no longer a child.
Shall I tell you how
to grow much older,
and much, much wiser in one day?
Go to the top of the lighthouse
and get somebody to
take you by the hair
and throw you into the sea.
[laughing]
- They are right, Pothinus.
You will come to the shore
with much conceit
washed out of you.
[laughing]
I will speak with
Pothinus alone.
Begone!
All of you!
[giggling]
Now, Pothinus, why did
you bribe Ftatateeta
to bring you hither?
- Cleopatra, what
they tell me is true.
You are changed.
- Do you speak with Caesar
every day for six months,
and you will be changed.
If Caesar were gone, I think
I could govern the Egyptians.
For what Caesar is to me, I
am to the fools around me.
- Cleopatra, this may
be the vanity of youth.
- No, no, it is not
that I am so clever,
but that the others
are so stupid.
Well now, tell me
what you came to say.
- I, nothing.
- Pothinus, you came
here with some plan
that depended on Cleopatra
being a little nursery kitten.
Now that Cleopatra is a
queen, the plan is upset.
- And is Cleopatra
then indeed a queen,
and no longer Caesar's
prisoner and slave?
- Pothinus, we are
all Caesar's slaves,
all we in this land of
Egypt, whether we will or no.
And she who is wise
enough to know this
will reign when Caesar departs.
- You will harp on
Caesar's departure.
- What if I do?
You think that by
making my brother king
you will rule in Egypt,
because you are his guardian
and he is a little silly.
- The Queen is
pleased to say so.
- The Queen is pleased
to say this also.
That Caesar will eat
up you, and Achillas,
and my brother, as
a cat eats up mice!
- Cleopatra!
- And when he has done this,
he will return to Rome,
and leave Cleopatra
here as his viceroy.
- Cleopatra!
- Enough!
Caesar has spoiled me for
talking to weak things like you.
- What angers you?
- The curse of all the
gods of Egypt be upon her!
She's sold her
country to the Roman
that she may buy it back
from him with her kisses.
- Fool!
Did she not tell you that
she would have Caesar gone?
- Mark this, mistress.
You thought, before Caesar came,
that Egypt should
presently be ruled by you
and your crew in the
name of Cleopatra.
I set myself against it.
- Ay, that it might
be ruled by you
and your crew in
the name of Ptolemy.
- Better me, or even you, than
a woman with a Roman heart,
and that is what
Cleopatra has now become.
Whilst I live, she
shall never rule.
So guide yourself accordingly.
[dramatic music]
[peaceful music]
- Dinner will be
served on the terrace,
oh beloved of victory.
- Caesar, this fellow,
Pothinus, wants a word with you.
- You are welcome, Pothinus.
And what is your
news this evening?
- Caesar, I come to
warn you of a danger,
and to make you an offer.
- Well, never mind the
danger, what's the offer.
- Never mind the offer,
what's the danger?
- Caesar, you think that
Cleopatra is devoted to you.
- My friend, I already
know what I think.
Come to your offer.
- Go on, spit it out, man.
What have you got to say?
- I have to say you have
a traitress in your camp.
Cleopatra--
- The Queen!
- You should have spat
it out sooner, you fool.
Now it's too late.
- What is he doing here?
- Just going to tell
me something about you.
You shall hear it.
Proceed, Pothinus.
- Caesar, what I have
to say is for your ear,
not for the Queen's.
- There are means
of making you speak.
Take care.
- Caesar does not
employ those means.
- My friend, when a man has
anything to tell in this world,
the difficulty is not
to make him tell it,
but to prevent him from
telling it too often.
To show you I have no hard
feelings, I'm setting you free.
Farewell, we shall
not meet again.
- [Rufio] Come on.
Off with you, you've
lost your chance.
- I will speak!
- You see, torture would not
have wrung a word from him.
- Caesar, are you so
besotted with her beauty
that you do not see
that she is anxious
to reign in Egypt alone,
and that her heart is
set on your departure?
- Liar!
- What, protestations,
contradictions?
- No, I do not deign to
contradict, let him speak.
- From her own
lips I've heard it.
You are to be her catspaw.
You are to tear the crown
from her brother's head
and set it on her
own, delivering us all
into her hands,
delivering yourself also.
And then Caesar
can return to Rome,
or depart through
the gate of death,
which is nearer and surer.
- Well, my friend, and
is not this very natural?
- Natural?
Then you do not
resent treachery?
- But it is false, false.
I swear it!
- It's true, though you
swore it a thousand times,
and believed all you swore.
[crying]
- Rufio, let us see
Pothinus past the guard.
We give the Queen a
moment to recover herself.
You know, Pothinus,
[faint speaking].
- Ftatateeta, Ftatateeta.
- Peace, child: be comforted.
- Can they hear us?
- No, dear heart, no.
- Listen to me.
If he leaves the Palace alive,
never look upon my face again.
- He, Pothinus?
- Strike his life out as I
strike his name from your lips!
Dash him down from the wall.
Break him on the stones.
Kill, kill, kill him.
- The dog shall die.
- Fail in this, and you go
out from before me forever.
- So be it.
You shall not look upon my face
until his eyes are darkened.
- Come soon, soon.
[men laughing]
- [Man] Caesar.
- You have come
back to me, Caesar.
I thought you were
angry with me.
Welcome, Apollodorus.
- Cleopatra grows more womanly
beautiful from week to week.
Friend Rufio threw a
pearl into the sea,
Caesar fished up a diamond.
- Caesar fished up a touch
of rheumatism, my friend.
Come, dinner!
- Yes, to dinner.
I have ordered such a
dinner for you, Caesar!
- Ay, what have you got?
- Peacocks' brains.
- Peacocks' brains, Apollodorus!
- I prefer
nightingales' tongues.
- Roast boar, Rufio!
- Ah, good!
- Caesar will deign
to choose his wine?
- Bring me my barley water.
- Oh.
- It is waste of time ordering
dinner for you, Caesar.
My scullions would not
condescend to your diet.
- Oh, well, well, well,
let us try the wine.
There, now are you satisfied?
- And you no longer believe
that I long for your
departure for Rome?
- I no longer believe
anything, my brains are asleep.
Besides, who knows if
I shall return to Rome?
- What?
- One day of Rome is
very like another,
except that I grow
older, whilst the crowds
on the Appian Way are
always the same age.
- It is the same here in Egypt.
The old men, when they
are tired of life,
say we have seen everything
except the source of the Nile.
- And why not see that?
Cleopatra, will you come
with me and track the flood
to its cradle in the heart
of the regions of mystery?
Shall I find you a new kingdom
and build you a holy city
there in the great unknown?
- Yes, yes, you shall.
- Ah, now he will conquer
Africa with two legions
before we come to the roast.
- Come, no scoffing,
this is a noble scheme.
Let us name the holy city,
and consecrate it
with Sicilian wine.
- Cleopatra shall name it.
- No, the Nile shall
name it himself.
Send for him, and
away with you all!
- Why not appeal to our
hawk-headed friend here?
- Shh, he will hear
you and be angry.
- The source of the Nile is
out of his district, I expect.
- Shh!
- Oh now, what
hocus pocus is this?
- You shall see, and
it is not hocus pocus.
To do it properly, we should
kill something to please him,
but perhaps he
will answer Caesar
without that if we
spill some wine to him.
I am a priestess, and have power
to take your charge
from you, go.
Now, let us call on
the Nile all together.
You must say with me, send
us thy voice, Father Nile.
- [All] Send us thy
voice, Father Nile.
[screaming]
- What was that?
- Nothing, they are
beating some slave.
- Nothing?
- A man with a knife
in him, I'll swear.
- [Caesar] A murder!
- Shh, silence.
Did you hear that?
- Another cry?
- [Apollodorus] No, a thud.
Something fell, I think.
- Something with
bones in it, eh?
- [Caesar] Hush, hush, Rufio.
Apollodorus, go down
to the courtyard
and find out what has happened.
- The Queen looks again on
the face of her servant.
- Look, the whole town's
gone made, I think!
- This must be seen to.
- There's some mischief
between those two.
I shall know presently.
- Cleopatra, what is happening?
- Nothing, nothing
dearest Caesar.
I am innocent.
Why do you look at me so?
Are you angry with me?
I am only a child, and
you turn into stone
because you think
somebody has been killed.
I cannot bear it.
But of course, you
cannot bear tears.
Oh, you are quite right.
It is dreadful to think of anyone
being killed or even hurt.
- What has frightened
you into this?
What have you done?
[trumpet sounding]
Aha, That sounds
like the answer.
- I have not betrayed
you, Caesar, I swear it.
- I know that, I
have not trusted you.
- We laid hold of this
renegade in the courtyard!
He was trying to
get into the palace.
- Release him.
What has offended the
citizens, Lucius Septimius?
- What did you expect,
O Great Caesar?
Pothinus was a
favorite of theirs.
- Pothinus, what has
happened to Pothinus?
I set him free, here,
not half an hour ago.
Did they not pass him out?
- Ay, through the gallery arch
with three inches of
steel in his ribs.
He is as dead as Pompey.
[chuckling] We're quits now,
you and I, as to killing.
- Assassinated!
Our prisoner, our guest!
Rufio.
- Whoever did it was a wise man
and a friend of yours,
but we had no hand in it.
So it is no use to frown at me.
- He was slain by order
of the Queen of Egypt.
I am not Julius
Caesar the dreamer,
who allows every
slave to insult him.
Rufio has said I did well,
now the others
shall judge me too.
This Pothinus came to me and
sought to make me conspire
with him to betray Caesar
to Achillas and Ptolemy.
I refused and he cursed
me and came privily
to Caesar to accuse me
of his own treachery.
I caught him in the
act, and he insulted me.
Me, the Queen, to my face!
Caesar would not avenge me,
he spoke him fair
and set him free.
Was I wrong to avenge myself?
Speak, Apollodorus!
- I have only one word
of blame, most beautiful.
You should have called
upon me, your knight,
and in fair duel I should
have slain the slanderer.
- I will be judged by
your very slave, Caesar.
Britannus, speak, was I wrong?
- Were treachery, falsehood,
and disloyalty left unpunished,
society must become like an
arena full of wild beasts,
tearing one another to pieces.
Caesar is in the wrong.
- And so the verdict is
against me, it seems.
- Listen to me, Caesar.
If one man in all Alexandria
can be found to say
I did wrong, I swear to
have myself crucified
on the door of the
palace by my own slaves.
- If one man in all the world
can be found, now or forever,
to know that you did wrong,
that man will have either
to conquer the world as I
have, or be crucified by it.
[faint shouting]
Do you hear?
These knockers at your
gate are also believers
in vengeance and in stabbing.
You have slain their leader,
it is only right that
they shall slay you.
And so, to the end of history,
murder shall breed murder,
always in the name of
right and honor and peace,
until the gods
are tired of blood
and create a race
that can understand.
Hearken, you who
must not be insulted.
Let the Queen now give
her orders for vengeance,
and take her
measures for defense,
for she has renounced Caesar.
- You will not
desert me, Caesar!
You will defend the palace!
- I am only a dreamer.
- But they will kill me!
- And why not?
- Caesar, enough of preaching.
The enemy is at the gate.
- And who has held him baffled
at the gate all these months?
By the gods, I am
tempted to open my hand
and let you all
sink into the flood.
- But, Caesar, if you do,
you will perish yourself.
- Now, by great Jove, you
filthy little Egyptian rat,
that is the very word to
make him walk out alone
into the city and leave us
here to be torn to pieces.
Will you desert us because
we are a parcel of fools?
We are dogs at your heels, but
we've served you faithfully.
- Alas, Rufio, my son, my son,
as dogs we are now like
to die in the streets.
- But I don't want to die!
- Oh, ignoble, ignoble!
- It may be ignoble,
O Great Caesar,
but I also mean to
live as long as I can.
- Well, my friend, you are
likely to outlive Caesar.
- Does Caesar despair?
- He who has never
hoped can never despair.
Caesar, in good or bad fortune,
looks his fate in the face.
- Look it in the face,
then, O Great Caesar,
and it'll smile as it
always has on Caesar.
- Do you presume
to encourage me?
- I offer you my services.
I willing to change
sides if you'll have me.
- What, at this point?
- At this point.
I ask for my life, and for
a command in Caesar's army.
And since Caesar is a fair
dealer, I will pay in advance.
- Pay how?
- With a piece of
good news for you.
- What news?
- What news?
What news, dear Rufio?
The relief has arrived,
what else remains?
Is it not so?
- It is, sir.
- Mithridates of
Pergamos is on the march.
- He has taken Pelusium
and is marching
by the great road to Memphis.
Achillas will fight him there.
- Achillas will
fight Caesar there.
Rufio, the Egyptians must have
every soldier in the streets
to prevent Mithridates
crossing the Nile.
There's nothing in the
streets now but mob.
Mob!
Lucius Septimius, you are
henceforth my officer.
Away and give the word.
Brittanus, see to
my horse and armor.
Apollodorus, will you
lend your right arm
and your sword to this campaign?
- Ay, and my heart
and life to boot!
- I accept both!
- Come, this is
something like business!
- Is it not, my only son?
- Caesar!
Have you forgotten me?
- I am busy now, my child.
When I return your
affairs shall be settled.
Farewell, be good and patient.
- That game is played
and lost, Cleopatra.
The woman always
gets the worst of it.
- Go, follow your master.
- A word first.
Tell your executioner
that if Pothinus
had been properly
killed, in the throat,
he would not have called out.
Your man bungled his work.
- How do you know it was a man?
- Was it she?
With her own hand?
- Whoever it was, let my
enemies beware of her.
Look to it, Rufio, you who dare
make the Queen of Egypt
a fool before Caesar.
- I will look to it, Cleopatra.
[crying]
- Ftatateeta.
Ftatateeta!
It is dark, and I am alone.
Come to me.
Ftatateeta!
Ftatateeta!
Ftatateeta!
[screaming]
[dramatic music]
[people chattering]
- Behold, Caesar approaches!
[fanfare music]
- I see my ship awaits me.
The hour of Caesar's farewell
to Egypt has arrived,
and now, Rufio, what remains
to be done before I sail?
- Sir, you have yet to choose
a Roman governor
for this province.
- Indeed, well what say
you to, uh, yourself?
- I, a governor?
What are you dreaming of?
You know that I am only
the son of a freed man.
- And has not Caesar
called you his son?
Peace awhile there, and hear me!
- Hear Caesar!
- Hear the service,
quality, rank,
and name of the Roman governor.
By service, Caesar's shield,
by quality, Caesar's friend,
by rank, a Roman soldier!
[soldiers cheering]
By name, Rufio!
[soldiers cheering]
- Ay, I am Caesar's shield,
but of what use
shall I be to Caesar
when I am no longer on his arm?
Well, no matter.
- Where is that British
Islander of mine?
- Here, Caesar.
- Who bade you,
pray, thrust yourself
into the battle of the Delta,
uttering the barbarous
cries of your native land,
and affirming yourself a
match for any four Egyptians,
to whom you applied
unseemly epithets?
- Caesar, I beg that you
would forgive the language
that escaped me in the
heat of the moment.
- And how did you,
who cannot swim,
cross the canal with us
when we stormed the camp?
- Caesar, I clung to
the tail of your horse.
- These are not the deeds
of a slave, Britannicus,
but of a free man.
- Caesar. I was born free.
- But they call
you Caesar's slave.
- Only as Caesar's slave
have I found real freedom.
- Well said.
Ungrateful that I am, I
was about to set you free,
but now I would not part from
you for a million talents.
Apollodorus, I leave the
art of Egypt in your hands.
Remember, Rome loves art and
will encourage it ungrudgingly.
- I understand, Caesar.
Rome will produce
no art of itself,
but it will buy up and take
away whatever Egypt produces.
- Is government not an art?
Is civilization not an art?
All these we give you in
exchange for a few ornaments.
You will have the
best of the bargain.
And now, Rufio, what else
remains to be done before I sail?
There's something
I cannot remember?
what can it be?
Well, we must not waste
this favorable wind.
Farewell, Rufio.
- Farewell, Apollodorus,
and my friends, all
of you, farewell.
- Has Cleopatra no part
in this leave taking?
I knew there was something!
Oh Rufio, how could
you let me forget her?
Had I gone without seeing you,
I should never have
forgiven myself.
Is this mourning for me?
- No.
- For whom, then?
- Ask the Roman governor
whom you have left us.
He who is to rule
in Caesar's way,
without punishment,
without revenge.
- Rufio?
- Yes, Rufio.
- Caesar, Cleopatra
had a tigress
that killed men at her bidding.
I thought she might bid
it kill you some day.
Had I not been Caesar's pupil,
what pious things might I not
have done to that tigress?
I might have punished it.
I might have revenged
Pothinus on it.
- Pothinus?
- I might have judged it,
but I put all these
follies aside,
and without malice,
only cut its throat.
That is why Cleopatra
comes to you in mourning.
- He has shed the blood
of my servant Ftatateeta.
On your head be it, Caesar,
as upon his, if you
hold him free of it.
- On my head be it, then,
for it was well done.
Rufio, this was natural slaying.
I feel no horror at it.
- No, not when a Roman
kills an Egyptian.
All the world will now see how
unjust and corrupt Caesar is.
- Oh come, Cleopatra,
don't be angry with me.
I am sorry about
that poor Teetatota.
[Cleopatra laughing]
Aha, you are laughing.
Does that mean I'm forgiven?
- No, no, no! [giggling]
It is so silly to hear
you call her Teetatota.
- As much a child
as ever, Cleopatra!
Have I not made a
woman of you after all?
- Oh, it is you who
are a great baby.
You make me seem silly
because you will not
behave seriously.
But you've treated me badly,
and I do not forgive you.
- Bid me farewell.
- I will not.
- I will send you a
beautiful present from Rome.
- Beauty from Rome
to Egypt, indeed!
What can Rome give me
that Egypt cannot give me?
- You're forgetting
the treasures
for which Rome is
most famous, her sons.
Forgive me and bid me
farewell, Cleopatra,
and I will send you a man,
Roman from head to heel,
and Roman of the noblest.
Not old and ripe for the knife.
Not lean in the arms
and cold in the heart.
Not hiding a bald head beneath
his conqueror's laurels.
Brisk and fresh,
young and strong.
Hoping in the morning,
fighting in the day,
and reveling in the evening.
Will you take such an one
in exchange for Caesar?
- His name, his name?
- Shall it be Mark Antony?
- Oh!
- You are a bad hand
at a bargain, mistress,
if you will swap
Caesar for Antony.
- So now you're satisfied?
- You will not forget.
- I will not forget.
Farewell.
I do not think we
shall meet again.
[drumroll music]
- [Soldiers] Hail,
Caesar, and farewell!
Hail, Caesar, and farewell!
[cheering]
- No tears, dearest Queen.
They stab your
servant to the heart.
He will return some day.
- Oh, I hope not.
But I can't help
crying, all the same.
[jubilant music]
[peaceful orchestra music]
- [Announcer] Now the names
of tonight's production,
after which a special
guest will tell you
about our next presentation.
- [Announcer]
Producers' Showcase!
[fanfare music]
March 5th, 1956.
Live from New York,
Producers' Showcase brings you
another evening of
outstanding entertainment.
Our stars tonight
are Claire Bloom,
Sir Cedric Hardwicke,
Jack Hawkins, Judith Anderson,
and special guest stars,
Cyril Ritchard and
Farley Granger,
in Caesar and Cleopatra
by Bernard Shaw.
[pleasant music]
In just a moment,
Producers' Showcase
will bring you the first
act of Caesar and Cleopatra.
[exotic music]
And now, Producers'
Showcase presents
the first act of
Caesar and Cleopatra.
[dramatic music]
- [Ra] Peace.
Be silent and hearken unto me.
Look upon my hawk's head
and know that I am Ra,
who was once in
Egypt a mighty god.
I ask you not for
worship, but for silence.
For I have come to draw
you back 2000 years
over the graves
of 60 generations,
where we create the story
of an unchaste woman.
At the name of Cleopatra,
tempter of Caesar.
Ye foolish mortals,
Cleopatra is as of yet
but a child that is
whipped by her nurse.
What I'm about to show you,
for the good of your souls,
is how Caesar, seeking
Pompey in Egypt,
a Roman fleeing and a Roman
pursuing, found Cleopatra,
and what things happened
between the old Caesar
and the child queen
before he left Egypt
and battled his
way back to Rome.
And the years that
have passed are to me,
the god Ra, but a moment,
nor is this any other
than the day in which
Julius Caesar set foot
in the land of my people.
[fanfare music]
[peaceful music]
- Hail, Sphinx, salutations
from Julius Caesar!
I have wandered in many lands,
seeking the lost
regions from which
my birth into this
world exiled me,
and the company of
creatures such as I myself.
I have found flocks and
pastures, men and cities,
but no other Caesar,
no air native to me,
no man kindred to me, none
who can do my day's deed,
or think my night's thought.
In the little world
yonder, Sphinx,
my place is as high as
yours in this great desert;
only I wander,
and you sit still;
I conquer, you endure;
I work and wonder,
you watch and wait;
I look up and am dazzled,
look down and am darkened,
look round and am puzzled,
whilst your eyes never
turn from looking out,
out of the world
to the lost region,
the home from which
we have strayed.
Sphinx, you and I, strangers
to the race of men,
are no strangers to one another.
My way hither was
the way of destiny,
for I am he of whose
genius you are the symbol:
part woman, part
brute, and part God.
Nothing of man in me at all.
Have I read your riddle, Sphinx?
- Old gentleman.
- Immortal gods!
- Old gentleman, don't run away.
- Old gentleman, don't run away!
This, to Julius Caesar?
- Old gentleman, climb
up here, quickly,
or the Romans will
come and eat you.
- A child at its breast!
A divine child!
Who are you?
- Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
- Queen of the
Gypsies, you mean.
- You must not be
disrespectful to me,
or the Sphinx will let
the Romans eat you.
Come up, it is quite cozy here.
- What a dream!
What a magnificent dream!
- Climb up quickly.
You must get up inside
and creep around.
It is very powerful
and will protect you.
Take care.
That's right.
You may have its other paw.
Now, sit down.
I'm glad you have come,
I was very lonely.
Did you happen to see
a white cat anywhere?
- Why, have you lost one?
- Yes, the sacred white cat.
I brought him here to
sacrifice him to the Sphinx,
but when we got a little
way from the city,
a black cat called
him and he jumped out
of my arms and ran away to it.
Do you think that the
black cat can have been
my
great-great-great-grandmother?
- Well, why not?
Nothing would surprise me
on this night of nights.
- I think it must have been.
My great-grandmother's
great-grandmother
was a black kitten of
the sacred white cat,
and the river Nile made
her his seventh wife.
- Why, what are you doing
here at this time of night?
Do you live here?
- Of course not.
I am the Queen, and I
shall live in the palace
at Alexandria when I
have killed my brother,
who drove me out of it.
- Meanwhile, why are you
not at home and in bed?
- Because the Romans are
coming to eat us all.
You are not at home
and in bed either.
- Oh, yes, I am.
Yes, I live in a tent,
and I am now in that tent,
fast asleep and dreaming.
[giggling]
- I like you.
You're a funny old gentleman.
- Ah, that spoils the dream.
Why don't you dream
that I am young?
- I think you are a little mad.
It is the moon
that makes you talk
to yourself in that silly way.
- Oh, you heard that, did you?
Yes, I was saying my
prayers to the great Sphinx.
[laughing]
- But this isn't
the great Sphinx!
- What?
- This is only a dear
little kitten of the Sphinx.
This is my pet Sphinx.
Tell me, do you think the
Romans have any sorcerers
who could take us away
from the Sphinx by magic?
- Why, are you
afraid of the Romans?
- Oh, they would eat
us if they caught us.
They are barbarians.
Their chief is
called Julius Caesar.
His father was a tiger and
his mother a burning mountain,
and his nose is like
an elephant's trunk.
They all have long
noses, and ivory tusks,
and little short tails, and
seven arms with a hundred arrows
in each, and they
live on human flesh.
- Would you like me to
show you a real Roman?
- No, you are frightening me.
- Well, no matter,
this is only a dream.
- It is not a dream,
it is not a dream!
See, see!
- Oh, stop, how dare you?
- You said you were dreaming.
I only wanted to show you.
- Oh, there, there, there.
Now you mustn't cry.
Come, come, a queen mustn't cry.
Am I awake?
Yes, I...
Oh, impossible, impossible,
madness, madness!
Back to camp, back to camp!
- No, no, no, don't leave me!
I'm afraid, afraid
of the Romans!
- Cleopatra, can you
see my face well?
- Yes, it's so white
in the moonlight.
- Are you sure it
is the moonlight
that makes me look
whiter than an Egyptian?
Do you notice I have
a rather long nose?
- Oh.
- It is a Roman nose, Cleopatra.
[screaming]
- Bite him in two, Sphinx!
Bite him in two!
I meant to sacrifice the
white cat, I did indeed!
I meant... [crying]
[screaming]
- Cleopatra, shall
I teach you a way
to prevent Caesar
from eating you?
- Oh do, do, do!
- Caesar never eats women.
- Oh!
- But he eats girls.
- And will he eat me?
- Yes, unless you can make him
believe that you are a woman.
So whatever dread
may be in your soul,
however terrible Caesar
may appear to you,
you must confront him
tonight in your palace
as a brave woman
and a great queen.
And if he thinks
you worthy to rule,
he will place you on
the throne by his side
and make you the
real ruler of Egypt.
- No, he will find me
out, he will find me out.
- Well, he is easily
deceived by women.
Their eyes dazzle him, and
he sees them not as they are,
but as he wishes them
to appear to him.
[trumpets sounding]
- What was that?
- Caesar's voice.
- Oh, this way, quickly!
Come, oh come!
- You're quite safe
with me until you stand
on your throne to
receive Caesar.
Now let me thither.
- Oh, come, come, come.
The gods are angry.
Do you feel the earth shaking?
- It is the tread
of Caesar's legions.
- Oh, this way quickly!
And let us look for
the white cat as we go.
It is he that has
turned you into a Roman!
- Oh, incorrigible,
oh, incorrigible!
[trumpets sounding]
[peaceful music]
What place is this?
- This is where I
sit on the throne
when I'm allowed to
wear my crown and robes.
- Order your slave
to light the lamps.
- Do you think I may?
- Well of course,
you are the queen.
Go on.
- Light all the lamps!
- Stop!
[Cleopatra gasping]
Who is this you have with you?
And how dare you order
the lamps to be lighted
without my permission?
- Who's she?
- Ftatateeta.
- Chief nurse!
- I speak to the queen!
Be silent.
Is this how your servants
know their places?
Send her away.
And you do as the
queen has bidden.
You are the queen,
send her away.
- Ftatateeta, dear, you must
go away, just for a little.
- You're not commanding her to
go away, you're begging her.
A Roman does not
stay with queens
who are afraid of their slaves.
- I'm not afraid!
Indeed, I'm not afraid!
- We shall see who
is afraid here.
Cleopatra--
- On your knees, woman!
Am I a child also that
you dare trifle with me?
Slave.
Can you cut off a head?
[laughing]
Have you remembered
yourself, mistress?
- O Queen, forget
not thy servant
in the days of thy greatness!
- Go!
Begone!
Go away!
Give me something
to beat her with!
- Ah, you scratch
kitten, do you?
- I will beat somebody!
I will beat him!
- No, no!
- There, there, there!
Oh, I am a real queen at last!
A real, real queen!
Cleopatra the Queen!
Oh, I love you for
making me a queen.
- But queens love only kings.
- I will make all
the men I love kings!
I will make you a king.
I will have many young kings,
with round strong arms.
And when I'm tired of them
I will whip them to death!
But you will always be my king,
my nice, kind,
wise, good old king!
- Oh, my wrinkles, my
wrinkles, and my child's heart.
You know, you will
be the most dangerous
of all Caesar's conquests.
- Caesar?
I forgot Caesar!
Let us run away and hid
until Caesar is gone.
- Be afraid if you dare.
[trumpets sounding]
Aha!
Caesar approaches the
throne of Cleopatra.
Come, take your place.
Ho there, Teetatota!
Bring the Queen's
crown, and her robes,
and her women and prepare her.
- Yes, the crown, Ftatateeta,
I shall wear the crown!
- For whom must the
queen put on her state?
- For a citizen of Rome,
a King of Kings, Tota.
- How dare you ask questions?
Go and do as you are told!
Caesar will know
that I am a queen
when he sees my crown
and robes, will he not?
- He will know
Cleopatra by her pride,
her courage, her
majesty, and her beauty.
Are you trembling?
- No, I, I, no.
- Of all the Queen's women,
these three alone are left.
The rest are fled.
- Good, three are enough.
Poor Caesar usually
has to dress himself.
Is it sweet or bitter to
be a queen, Cleopatra?
- Bitter.
- Cast out fear and you
will conquer Caesar.
Toto, the Romans are at hand.
- [Ftatateeta] They are at
hand, and the guard has fled.
- The Romans are
in the courtyard!
The Romans are in the courtyard!
[screaming]
- The queen must
face Caesar alone.
Answer, so be it.
- So be it.
- Good!
[soldier's feet
thumping in unison]
- You are my nursling.
You have said so be it,
and if you die for it
you must make the
queen's word good.
- Now, if you quail...
[soldier's feet
thumping in unison]
[soldiers chattering]
- [Soldiers] Hail Caesar!
Hail Caesar, hail!
[soldiers cheering]
[dramatic music]
[peaceful exotic music]
[people chattering faintly]
[gong sounding]
[lighthearted music]
- The King of Egypt
has a word to speak!
- Peace for the King's word!
- I am the firstborn
son of Auletes
the Flute Blower,
who was your King.
And now that my father is dead,
his daughter and my
sister, Cleopatra,
with the aid of the
witch, Ftatateeta,
hath cast a spell on the
Roman, Julius Caesar,
to make him uphold her
false pretense to my throne.
But, but...
- But I will not suffer.
- Oh yes, I know.
I will not suffer!
Will not suffer...
What shall I not suffer?
- The King will not
suffer a foreigner
to take from us the
throne of Egypt!
[council shouting]
Tell the King, Achillas, how
many soldiers follow the Roman?
- [Crowd] Yes, tell
us, tell us, tell us!
- Let the King's general speak!
- But two Roman legions, O King!
[council laughing]
There's three thousand
soldiers [laughing].
- Peace, ho!
Caesar approaches!
- The King permits the
Roman commander to enter.
- Which is the king,
the man or the boy?
- I am Pothinus, the
guardian of my lord the King.
- So you are the king.
Dull work at your age, hmm?
Your servant, Pothinus.
And this gentleman?
- Achillas, the King's general.
- A general!
Hmm, I'm a general myself.
Health and many
victories, Achillas.
- As the gods will, Caesar.
- And you, sir?
- Theodutos, the King's tutor.
- Oh, you teach mean
how to be kings.
That is very clever of you.
And this place?
- [Pothinus] The council
chamber of the chancellors
of the King's treasury, Caesar.
- Ah, that reminds
me, I want some money.
[council shouting]
- My master would say
there is a lawful debt due
to Rome from Egypt, contracted
by the King's father,
and it is Caesar's
duty to his country
to demand immediate payment.
- Ah, I forgot!
Forgive me, Pothinus.
This is Britannus, my secretary.
- How do you do?
- He's and islander
from the western end
of the world, a day's
voyage from Gaul.
And this is Rufio,
my comrade in arms.
Pothinus, I'm badly
in need of money.
[council chattering]
- [Pothinus] The King's
treasury is poor, Caesar!
- Yes, I notice there
is but one chair in it.
- Here, Caesar!
Sit on this.
[council shouting]
[council gasping]
- Now, Pothinus, to business.
I want 1600 talents.
[council chattering]
- Impossible!
There is not so much money
in the King's treasury.
We have been at
strife here, Caesar,
because the King's
sister, Cleopatra,
falsely claims his throne.
The King's taxes have not been
collected for a whole year!
- Oh, yes they have, Pothinus,
my officers have been
collecting them all morning.
- You must pay, Pothinus,
why waste words?
- Is it possible that Caesar,
the conqueror of the world,
can find time to occupy himself
with such a trifle as our taxes?
- My friend, taxes
are the chief business
of a conqueror of the world.
In exchange for your bounty,
I will settle this dispute
about the throne for
you, if you will.
What say you?
- If I say, no, will
that hinder you?
- No.
- But first, let us
have Cleopatra here.
- [Pothinus] She is
not in Alexandria,
she has fled into Syria.
- Oh, I think not.
Call Totateeta.
- Ho there, Teetatota!
- Who pronounces the
name of Ftatateeta,
the Queen's Chief Nurse?
- Nobody can pronounce
it, Tota, except yourself.
Uh, where is your mistress?
[council chattering]
- Am I to behave like a queen?
- Yes.
[council chattering]
[Ptolemy screaming]
[council shouting]
- I am the King!
- You are not to be king,
you little cry-baby,
you are to be eaten
by the Romans!
- Come here, my
boy, stand by me.
- Take your throne,
I don't want it.
Go this instant and sit down!
- Go, Ptolemy.
Always take a throne when
it is offered to you.
- I hope you will have
the good sense to follow
your own advice when we
return to Rome, Caesar.
- Now, Pothinus,
hear what I propose.
Cleopatra and Ptolemy shall
reign jointly in Egypt.
[council chattering]
For the sake of peace.
- Peace with honor, Pothinus.
- Caesar, the money you demand
is the price of our freedom.
Take it, and leave us to
settle our own affairs!
[council shouting]
- Egypt for the Egyptians!
- Mhmm.
How many men have you?
- That will appear
when I take the field!
[council laughing]
- Are your men Romans?
If not, it matters not
how many there are,
provided you're not
stronger than 500 to 10.
- What can you do with 3000 men?
- And without money?
Away with you!
- [Council] Yes, away, away!
- Achillas, if you
are not a fool,
you'll take that girl while
she's under your hands.
- Why not take Caesar
as well, Achillas?
- Well said, Rufio, why not?
- Try, Achillas.
[crowd chattering]
Guard, there!
[trumpets sounding]
[gasping]
- You are Caesar's
prisoners, all of you.
- Oh, no, no, no, no.
By no means, gentlemen.
Caesar's guests.
- Won't you cut their heads off?
- What, cut off
your brother's head?
- Why not?
He would cut off mine
if he got the chance,
wouldn't you, Ptolemy?
- I would, and I will,
too, when I grow up!
- Caesar, if you
attempt to detain us--
- He will succeed, Egyptian.
We hold the palace, the
beach, and the eastern harbor.
[council chattering]
The road to Rome is open,
and you shall travel
it if Caesar chooses.
- I could do no less, Pothinus,
to secure the retreat
of my own soldiers.
But you are free to go, and
so are all here in the palace.
- What?
[council chattering]
- You're turning us out of our
own palace into the streets,
and then you tell us with a
grand air that we're free to go!
Where is your right?
- Rufio's scabbard.
I may not be able
to keep it there
if you delay too long, Pothinus.
- This is Roman justice.
- But not Roman
gratitude, I hope.
Is Caesar's life worth of
so little account to him
that he forgets
we have saved it?
- My life, is that all?
- Your life, your
laurels, your future!
- It is true.
I can call a witness to
prove that but for us
the Roman occupation
led by Pompey,
your rival for the
empire of the world,
would now have
Caesar at his mercy.
Ho there, Lucius Septimius!
- Lucius Septimius!
[crowd chattering]
No, no.
- Yes, yes, I'd say.
Let the Roman military
tribune bear witness.
Lucius Septimius,
Caesar came here
in pursuit of Pompey, his foe.
Did we shelter his foe?
- As Pompey's foot touched
the Egyptian shore,
his head fell by the
stroke of my sword.
- Under the eyes of
his wife and child.
We have given you a sweet and
full measure of vengeance!
- Vengeance, vengeance!
Oh, if I could
stoop to vengeance
what would I not
exact from you as
the price of this
murdered man's blood.
Begone, you fill me with horror.
- You've seen severed
heads before, Caesar,
and severed right
hands, too, I think.
[council chattering]
Some thousands of them in Gaul.
Was that vengeance?
- No, by the gods!
Would that it had been.
Vengeance, at least, is human.
No, those severed right
hands were a wise severity,
a necessary protection
to the commonwealth,
a duty of statesmanship.
Follies and fictions, ten times
bloodier than honest vengeance!
Pardon me, Lucius Septimius,
why should the slayer
of thousands in Gaul rebuke
the slayer of Pompey?
You are free to go,
or stay if you will,
I'll find you a
place in my service.
[Lucius chuckling]
- The odds are
against you, Caesar.
I go.
Come, Achillas, while
there is yet time.
[council chattering]
- Do you suppose
they would let us go
if they had our
heads in their hands?
- I have no right to suppose
that his ways are
any baser than mine.
- Oh.
- Besides, every man
we imprison means
imprisoning two Roman
soldiers to guard him.
Have you thought of that, hmm?
- [laughing] I might have
guessed there was some
fox's trick behind
your fine talking.
Um, this piece of goods,
what's to be done with her?
Oh, I suppose I can
leave that to you.
- Did you mean me
to go with the rest?
- You're free to do just
as you please, Cleopatra.
- Then you do not care
whether I stay or not?
- Oh, well, of course, I'd
much rather you stayed.
- Then I consent to
stay, because I am asked.
But I do not want to, mind.
- Ho there, Teetatota!
[Cleopatra giggling]
- Her name is not
Teetatota, it is Ftatateeta!
- Oh.
Fta, ta, [throat clearing].
Uh, Tota, the Queen will hold
her state here in Alexandria.
You do what is necessary.
- Am I think the mistress
of the Queen's household?
- No, I am the mistress
of the Queen's household.
Go and do as you are told,
or I'll have you thrown
into the Nile to poison
the poor crocodiles!
- Oh, no, no, no, no.
- Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
You are very sentimental,
Caesar, but you are clever.
If you do as I tell you, you
will soon learn to govern.
- Hmm.
You know, Cleopatra, I'm afraid
I'm going to have to
eat you after all.
- You must not talk to me
anymore as if I were a child.
Are you angry with me?
- No, no.
I, uh, I have work to do.
- Work, what nonsense!
You must remember
you are a king now,
I have made you one.
Kings don't work!
- Oh, who told you
that, little kitten?
- My father was the king of
Egypt and he never worked!
But he was a great
king, and he cut off
my sister's head when
she rebelled against him
and took the throne from him.
- Well, and how did he
get his throne back?
- I will tell you.
A beautiful young man,
with strong round arms
came over the desert
with many horsemen
and slew my sister's husband
and gave my father
back his throne.
Oh, I wish he would come
again, now that I am queen.
I would make him my husband.
- Well, it might be managed,
for it was I who sent
that beautiful young
man to help your father.
- You know him!
- Mmhm.
- He is much, much younger
than you, of course.
- He is somewhat younger.
- Tell me, is he still
beautiful, with strong
round arms shining in
the sun like marble?
- Oh, he's in
excellent condition,
considering how much
he eats and drinks.
- You must not say common,
earthly things about him,
for I love him, he's a god.
- Hmm.
- What is his name?
- His name is Mark Antony.
- Mark Antony, Mark
Antony, Mark Antony!
What a beautiful name!
Oh, how I love you for
sending him to help my father!
- Uh, yes, no you must
run away for a little
and send my secretary to me.
- No, I want to stay and hear
you talk about Mark Antony.
- If I don't get back to
work, Pothinus and the rest
will seize the harbor and the
way from Rome will be blocked.
- No matter.
I don't want you
to go back to Rome.
No, but you want Mark
Antony to come from it.
- Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Go quickly to work,
Caesar, and keep the way
over the sea open
for my Mark Antony!
Ho, Britannus!
- [Soldier] Caesar!
- Britannicus!
- Caesar!
- Oh, what now?
- This Caesar, and two
my comrades killed.
- Ay, how?
- Achillas has turned
his army against us.
- Well?
- I was with two others
in the marketplace
when the news came.
The citizens fell upon us.
I cut my way through
and here I am.
- I'm glad to see you alive.
- Caesar, the
Egyptians are burning
our ships in the west harbor!
- Yes, yes, yes, yes, I
know, we are besieged.
Now get your wounds attended to
and pass the word to
turn out on the beach.
Rufio, take every ship we
have in the east harbor
and seize the lighthouse.
Leave half our men
behind to guard the beach
and the quay outside the palace.
That is the way home!
- But are we to
give up the city?
- We haven't got it, Rufio.
This palace, we have,
and the beach below.
For the rest, Egypt
for the Egyptians.
- Caesar, Pothinus
demands to speak to you.
His manner is most insolent.
- Caesar, I have brought
you our ultimatum.
- Ultimatum?
The door was open.
You should have gone out through
it before you declared war.
Now, you're my prisoner.
- I, your prisoner?
Do you know that
you're in Alexandria?
And that King Ptolemy's army,
outnumbering your little
troop a hundred to one,
is in possession of Alexandria?
- Turn him over to
the guard, Britannus.
And fetch my armor.
[faint shouting]
- My life will cost you
dear if you take it, Caesar!
- Horror unspeakable!
Woe, alas!
Help!
- What's the matter now?
- Who's slain?
- The fire has spread
from your ships.
The first of the seven
wonders of the world perishes.
- What?
- The Library of
Alexandria is in flames.
- Oh.
- Oh, is that all?
- All?
What is burning there is
the memory of mankind.
- A shameful memory.
Let it burn.
- Will you destroy the past?
- Ay, and build the
future with its ruins.
- Oh!
- But harken, Theodotus,
I cannot spare you a man
or a bucket of water just now.
Away with you to Achillas.
Borrow his legions
to put out your fire.
- Achillas?
Yes, Achillas!
- Ho there!
Pass Theodotus out.
- You let that Egyptian go?
Is this more clemency?
- He's gone to save the library.
We must respect
literature, Rufio.
- Folly on folly's head!
- Now where is Britannus?
I sent him for my
armor an hour ago.
Britannicus, thou
British islander.
Britannicus!
- I am going to
dress you, Caesar.
These Roman helmets
are so becoming!
Oh! [laughing]
- What are you laughing at?
- You're bald!
- Cleopatra, do you
like to be reminded
that you are very young?
- No.
- And neither do I
like to be reminded
that I am middle-aged.
- So that is why you wear
the wreath to hide it!
- Peace, Egyptian!
These are the bays
of the conqueror.
- Peace, thou islander!
Is it true that when Caesar
caught you on your island
you were painted all over blue?
- Blue is the color worn by
all Britons of good standing.
In war, we stain our bodies
blue so that though our enemies
may strip us of our
lives and our clothes,
they cannot strip us
of our respectability.
- Caesar, have you done talking?
- Is this well set, Britannicus?
- Oh, but you are not going
into battle to be killed?
- No, Cleopatra.
No man goes to
battle to be killed.
- But they do get killed!
[Rufio laughing]
Please, please,
please, don't go.
What will become of me
if you never come back?
- Are you afraid?
- No.
- Go to the balcony and you
shall see us take the Pharos.
You must learn to
look on battles.
Go.
March, Rufio.
- Oh, you will
not be able to go!
- Why, what now?
- They are drying up
the harbor with buckets.
Over there, look!
They are dipping up the water.
- It is true, the Egyptian army!
Crawling over the edge of
the west harbor like locusts.
This is your accursed
clemency, Caesar.
Theodotus has brought them.
- Ah, I meant him to.
They have come to
put out the fire.
The library will keep them busy
while we seize the lighthouse.
All ready, there?
- [Centurion] All ready!
Give way for Caesar!
Caesar's coming through!
- More foxing!
[trumpets sounding]
[soldiers cheering]
- [Centurion] All aboard!
Make way there!
- Goodbye!
Goodbye, dear Caesar!
Come back safe!
Goodbye!
[dramatic music]
[peaceful exotic music]
- Who goes there, huh?
- What's this?
Stand!
[Apollodorus laughing]
Who are you?
- I am Apollodorus the Sicilian.
Why, man, what are
you dreaming of?
We've come past three sentinels,
all so busy staring at the sea
that none of them challenged us.
Is this Roman discipline?
- We're supposed to watch
the sea as well as the land.
Caesar has just
taken the lighthouse.
What's all this?
- Carpets for the furnishing
of the Queen's apartments.
- Who's this bit of
Egyptian crockery?
- Apollodorus,
rebuke this Roman dog
and bid him bridle his tongue
in the presence of a Ftatateeta,
the Mistress of the
Queen's household!
- Oh, this is a great lady
who stands high with Caesar.
- Oh, so you're a
carpet merchant?
- [laughing] My
friend, my calling is
to choose beautiful things
for beautiful queens.
My motto is Art for Art's sake.
- That's not the password.
Either you give me the
password of the day
or get back to your shop.
- How if I do neither?
- Then I will drive
this sword through you.
- At your service, my friend!
[grunting]
- Thrust your knife into the
dog's throat, Apollodorus.
[Apollodorus laughing]
Stab the little Roman reptile!
Spit him on your sword!
- How now, how now?
What is all this?
- Centurion!
[soldier mumbling]
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!
I am here by order of
the Queen to deliver--
- The Queen!
Yes, yes, yes, pass him in.
Pass all these bazaar people
in to the Queen
with their goods.
- Yes, sir, but--
- But mind you pass no one out
that you have not passed in!
- Well--
- Not even the Queen herself.
To your post, march!
- Is this your wife?
- No, no, no.
Not that the lady is not a
striking figure in her own way.
But she is not my wife.
- Hmm.
Keep your hands off
my men, mistress,
or I'll have you
pitched into the harbor.
- Ftatateeta, Ftatateeta!
Ftatateeta, I have
thought of something!
I want a boat, at once!
- A boat, no, you
cannot, you cannot.
Apollodorus, speak to the Queen.
- Pearl of Queens!
I have brought you the
three most beautiful--
- I have no time
for carpets today.
Can you row, Apollodorus?
- Row?
My oars shall be
your majesty's wings!
Whither shall I row my Queen?
- To the lighthouse.
Come!
- Stand!
You cannot pass.
- How dare you?
Do you know that I am the Queen?
- I have my orders.
No one is to leave this palace,
not even the queen herself.
- Ftatateeta, strangle him.
- You come within a yard
of me, you old crocodile,
I'll give you this in the jaws.
- Hear my counsel,
Star of the East.
Until word comes to these
soldiers from Caesar himself,
you are a prisoner here.
Let me go to him with a message
from you, and a present,
and I will bring you back
Caesar's order of release.
- Apollodorus, you could
take a carpet to Caesar,
could you not?
- Assuredly.
- And you would have
it carried gently
and take great,
great care of it?
- Depend on me, beautiful Queen.
- Great, great care?
- Place the most
delicate glass goblet
in the palace in the
heart of the roll,
and if it be broken, my
head shall pay for it.
[giggling]
- Gods of the seas, bear
her safely to the shore!
[lighthearted music]
I wish I knew how our
men are getting on
with that barricade
across the causeway.
The Egyptians
cannot be such fools
as not to attack
before it's completed.
It is the first time I have
ever run an avoidable risk.
I should never have come
to Egypt, it was rash.
Boyish.
- Boyish?
What are these for?
- Eat, then have another
look at our chances.
When a man gets to your age,
he runs down before
his midday meal.
- My age.
Yes, yes, Rufio, I'm an old
man now, worn out, finished.
True, quite true.
Well, every dog has his
day, and I have had mine.
These dates aren't bad, Rufio.
Well, now that you've
been to the top
of the lighthouse, anyone there?
- One elderly Tyrian to
work the crane, and his son,
a well conducted youth of 14.
- And old man and
a boy work that?
- They have counterweights,
and a machine
with boiling water in it
which I do not understand.
It is not of British design.
You there!
What do you want?
What are you here for?
- Hello, there!
Calm yourselves my friends!
I've come by boat
from Alexandria
with precious gifts for Caesar.
- Tell Caesar about them.
- Hail, great Caesar!
I am Apollodorus the
Sicilian, an artist.
- An artist!
Who could have
admitted this vagabond?
- Peace, man.
Apollodorus is a famous
patrician amateur.
- Amateur, oh, I crave
the gentleman's pardon.
I understood him to say
he was a professional.
- Well, you're
welcome, Apollodorus.
What is your business?
- First, to deliver to you
a present from the
Queen of Queens.
- Who is that?
- Cleopatra of Egypt!
- Apollodorus, this is no time
for playing with presents.
Pray you, go back to
the Queen and tell her
that if all goes well I shall
return to the
palace this evening.
- Caesar, I cannot return.
As I approached the lighthouse
my boat struck a rock!
I had hardly the
time to get myself
and my charge to the shore
before the poor little
cockleshell sank.
- Well, well, well, what
have you brought me?
- Caesar, it is a Persian
carpet, oh, a beauty!
And in it are, so I
am told, pigeons' eggs
and glass goblets and
fragile precious things.
Oh, I dare not for
my head have it
carried up that narrow
ladder from the causeway.
- Then swing it up
by the crane, then.
- Oh you there!
Up there!
Lower away!
Thank you.
- The crane!
Caesar, I have sworn
to tender this bale
of carpet as I
tender my own life.
- Well, then let them swing
you up at the same time.
Then if the rope breaks,
you and the pigeons' eggs
will perish together.
- Is Caesar serious?
- His manner is frivolous
because he's an Italian,
but he means what he says.
- Good!
Soon you can see me rising
like the sun with my treasure!
- Are you going to wait
here for this foolishness?
- Why not?
- The Egyptians will
let you know why not
if they have the sense to attack
before our barricade
is finished.
- [Apollodorus] Ho!
Haul away!
- Away there!
Up there!
[playful music]
♪ Behold the blue that never
shone in woman's eyes ♪
Easy there!
Further around!
Slowly, gently, mind the eggs!
- Mind the eggs!
Lower away!
- Slowly, slowly!
- Thank you.
- Haul up!
- Stand off, my
friends, let Caesar see.
- Ha, treachery!
Caesar, stand back,
I saw the shawl move.
There's something
alive in there!
- A serpent!
- Treacherous dog!
- Peace, man, put up your sword.
Apollodorus, your serpent seems
to breathe very regularly.
Aha, this is a
pretty little snake.
Let's have the rest of you.
- Oh, Caesar, I'm smothered!
Caesar, a man stood
on me in the boat,
then we hit a rock,
then the boat sank,
then I was swung up in the
air and bumped back down.
- Well, never mind, here you
are safe and sound at last.
- Ay, and now that she's here,
what's to be done with her?
- She cannot stay here without
the companionship
of some matron.
- But you will not
leave me will you?
- What!
Not when the trumpet
sounds and all our lives
depend on Caesar's
being on the barricade?
- Let them lose their lives,
they are only soldiers.
- Cleopatra, when
that trumpet sounds,
we must take each man with
his life in his hands,
and throw it in
the face of Death.
And of my soldiers
who have trusted me,
there is not one whose hand
I do not hold more
sacred than your head.
[dramatic music]
Come, Rufio.
- Caesar, do not leave me!
- Caesar, we are cut off.
The Egyptians have landed
between us and the barricade!
- Then we must defend
ourselves here.
- Caesar, caught
like rats in a trap!
- Rufio, Rufio, my men at the
barricade, I've murdered them!
- I have thrown the
ladder into the sea.
They cannot get in without it.
- Ay, and we cannot get out,
have you thought of that?
- Get out, why not?
You have ships, too.
- They're standing in
towards us already.
- And by what road are we to
walk to the galleys, pray?
- The road that
leads everywhere,
the diamond path
of sun and moon!
How far off is the
nearest galley?
- Fifty fathom.
- Good, defend yourselves here
until I send you a
boat from that galley.
- You have wings, perhaps?
- Water wings, friend, behold!
- Bravo, bravo, bravo!
I will do that too.
- You shall not!
Are you mad?
- Can I not swim as well as he?
- Can an old fool dive
and swim like a young one?
He's twenty-five, you're fifty.
- Old!
I'll race you to
the nearest galley
for a week's pay, father Rufio.
- But me, me, me,
what's to become of me?
- I will carry you on my back
to the galley like a dolphin.
Rufio, when you see me rise
to the surface, throw her in,
and then in with you
after her, both of you.
- No, no, no, I
shall be drowned!
- Caesar, I am a man and
a Briton, not a fish.
I must have a boat,
I cannot swim.
- Neither can I!
- Then stay here alone until
I recapture the lighthouse.
Oho, Apollodorus!
The white upon the blue above!
- [Apollodorus] Is purple
on the green below!
- Aha!
- Oh, oh, oh, let me see!
He'll be drowned!
Oh, oh.
[screaming]
[laughing]
- He's got her!
Hold the fort, Briton.
Caesar will not forget you.
- All safe, Rufio?
- [Rufio] All safe!
- Caesar, one word more!
Do not show yourself to
the impressionable part
of Alexandria till you've
changed your clothes!
[soldiers cheering]
The boat has reached him!
Hip, hip, hip, hoorah!
[triumphant music]
[peaceful harp music]
- I wish I could play the
harp with my own hands.
Caesar loves music.
[giggling]
Who are you laughing at?
Me or at Caesar?
- Oh, at Caesar.
- If you were not a fool,
you would laugh at me,
and if you were not a coward
you would not be
afraid to tell me so.
Is that Ftatateeta?
They told me that Pothinus
has offered you a bribe
to admit him to my presence.
- Bribe?
No, by my father's gods, no!
- Have I not told you
not to deny things?
Go take the bribe and
bring in Pothinus.
Don't answer me, go!
- Heigho!
I wish Caesar were back in Rome.
- It will be a bad day
for you all when he goes.
Why do you wish him away?
- He makes you so
terribly prosy and serious
and learned and philosophical.
It is worse than being
religious, at our ages.
[laughing]
- Cease that endless
cackling, will you.
Hold your tongues!
- Pothinus craves
the ear of the Queen.
- Well, Pothinus, what
is the latest news
from your rebel friends?
- I am no friend of rebellion,
and a prisoner does
not receive news.
- You are no more a prisoner
than I am, than Caesar is.
These six months we've
all been besieged here
in this palace by my subjects.
- Cleopatra, you
are but a child,
and do not understand
these matters.
- Oh, I see you do not know
the latest news, Pothinus.
- What is that?
- Oh, that Cleopatra
is no longer a child.
Shall I tell you how
to grow much older,
and much, much wiser in one day?
Go to the top of the lighthouse
and get somebody to
take you by the hair
and throw you into the sea.
[laughing]
- They are right, Pothinus.
You will come to the shore
with much conceit
washed out of you.
[laughing]
I will speak with
Pothinus alone.
Begone!
All of you!
[giggling]
Now, Pothinus, why did
you bribe Ftatateeta
to bring you hither?
- Cleopatra, what
they tell me is true.
You are changed.
- Do you speak with Caesar
every day for six months,
and you will be changed.
If Caesar were gone, I think
I could govern the Egyptians.
For what Caesar is to me, I
am to the fools around me.
- Cleopatra, this may
be the vanity of youth.
- No, no, it is not
that I am so clever,
but that the others
are so stupid.
Well now, tell me
what you came to say.
- I, nothing.
- Pothinus, you came
here with some plan
that depended on Cleopatra
being a little nursery kitten.
Now that Cleopatra is a
queen, the plan is upset.
- And is Cleopatra
then indeed a queen,
and no longer Caesar's
prisoner and slave?
- Pothinus, we are
all Caesar's slaves,
all we in this land of
Egypt, whether we will or no.
And she who is wise
enough to know this
will reign when Caesar departs.
- You will harp on
Caesar's departure.
- What if I do?
You think that by
making my brother king
you will rule in Egypt,
because you are his guardian
and he is a little silly.
- The Queen is
pleased to say so.
- The Queen is pleased
to say this also.
That Caesar will eat
up you, and Achillas,
and my brother, as
a cat eats up mice!
- Cleopatra!
- And when he has done this,
he will return to Rome,
and leave Cleopatra
here as his viceroy.
- Cleopatra!
- Enough!
Caesar has spoiled me for
talking to weak things like you.
- What angers you?
- The curse of all the
gods of Egypt be upon her!
She's sold her
country to the Roman
that she may buy it back
from him with her kisses.
- Fool!
Did she not tell you that
she would have Caesar gone?
- Mark this, mistress.
You thought, before Caesar came,
that Egypt should
presently be ruled by you
and your crew in the
name of Cleopatra.
I set myself against it.
- Ay, that it might
be ruled by you
and your crew in
the name of Ptolemy.
- Better me, or even you, than
a woman with a Roman heart,
and that is what
Cleopatra has now become.
Whilst I live, she
shall never rule.
So guide yourself accordingly.
[dramatic music]
[peaceful music]
- Dinner will be
served on the terrace,
oh beloved of victory.
- Caesar, this fellow,
Pothinus, wants a word with you.
- You are welcome, Pothinus.
And what is your
news this evening?
- Caesar, I come to
warn you of a danger,
and to make you an offer.
- Well, never mind the
danger, what's the offer.
- Never mind the offer,
what's the danger?
- Caesar, you think that
Cleopatra is devoted to you.
- My friend, I already
know what I think.
Come to your offer.
- Go on, spit it out, man.
What have you got to say?
- I have to say you have
a traitress in your camp.
Cleopatra--
- The Queen!
- You should have spat
it out sooner, you fool.
Now it's too late.
- What is he doing here?
- Just going to tell
me something about you.
You shall hear it.
Proceed, Pothinus.
- Caesar, what I have
to say is for your ear,
not for the Queen's.
- There are means
of making you speak.
Take care.
- Caesar does not
employ those means.
- My friend, when a man has
anything to tell in this world,
the difficulty is not
to make him tell it,
but to prevent him from
telling it too often.
To show you I have no hard
feelings, I'm setting you free.
Farewell, we shall
not meet again.
- [Rufio] Come on.
Off with you, you've
lost your chance.
- I will speak!
- You see, torture would not
have wrung a word from him.
- Caesar, are you so
besotted with her beauty
that you do not see
that she is anxious
to reign in Egypt alone,
and that her heart is
set on your departure?
- Liar!
- What, protestations,
contradictions?
- No, I do not deign to
contradict, let him speak.
- From her own
lips I've heard it.
You are to be her catspaw.
You are to tear the crown
from her brother's head
and set it on her
own, delivering us all
into her hands,
delivering yourself also.
And then Caesar
can return to Rome,
or depart through
the gate of death,
which is nearer and surer.
- Well, my friend, and
is not this very natural?
- Natural?
Then you do not
resent treachery?
- But it is false, false.
I swear it!
- It's true, though you
swore it a thousand times,
and believed all you swore.
[crying]
- Rufio, let us see
Pothinus past the guard.
We give the Queen a
moment to recover herself.
You know, Pothinus,
[faint speaking].
- Ftatateeta, Ftatateeta.
- Peace, child: be comforted.
- Can they hear us?
- No, dear heart, no.
- Listen to me.
If he leaves the Palace alive,
never look upon my face again.
- He, Pothinus?
- Strike his life out as I
strike his name from your lips!
Dash him down from the wall.
Break him on the stones.
Kill, kill, kill him.
- The dog shall die.
- Fail in this, and you go
out from before me forever.
- So be it.
You shall not look upon my face
until his eyes are darkened.
- Come soon, soon.
[men laughing]
- [Man] Caesar.
- You have come
back to me, Caesar.
I thought you were
angry with me.
Welcome, Apollodorus.
- Cleopatra grows more womanly
beautiful from week to week.
Friend Rufio threw a
pearl into the sea,
Caesar fished up a diamond.
- Caesar fished up a touch
of rheumatism, my friend.
Come, dinner!
- Yes, to dinner.
I have ordered such a
dinner for you, Caesar!
- Ay, what have you got?
- Peacocks' brains.
- Peacocks' brains, Apollodorus!
- I prefer
nightingales' tongues.
- Roast boar, Rufio!
- Ah, good!
- Caesar will deign
to choose his wine?
- Bring me my barley water.
- Oh.
- It is waste of time ordering
dinner for you, Caesar.
My scullions would not
condescend to your diet.
- Oh, well, well, well,
let us try the wine.
There, now are you satisfied?
- And you no longer believe
that I long for your
departure for Rome?
- I no longer believe
anything, my brains are asleep.
Besides, who knows if
I shall return to Rome?
- What?
- One day of Rome is
very like another,
except that I grow
older, whilst the crowds
on the Appian Way are
always the same age.
- It is the same here in Egypt.
The old men, when they
are tired of life,
say we have seen everything
except the source of the Nile.
- And why not see that?
Cleopatra, will you come
with me and track the flood
to its cradle in the heart
of the regions of mystery?
Shall I find you a new kingdom
and build you a holy city
there in the great unknown?
- Yes, yes, you shall.
- Ah, now he will conquer
Africa with two legions
before we come to the roast.
- Come, no scoffing,
this is a noble scheme.
Let us name the holy city,
and consecrate it
with Sicilian wine.
- Cleopatra shall name it.
- No, the Nile shall
name it himself.
Send for him, and
away with you all!
- Why not appeal to our
hawk-headed friend here?
- Shh, he will hear
you and be angry.
- The source of the Nile is
out of his district, I expect.
- Shh!
- Oh now, what
hocus pocus is this?
- You shall see, and
it is not hocus pocus.
To do it properly, we should
kill something to please him,
but perhaps he
will answer Caesar
without that if we
spill some wine to him.
I am a priestess, and have power
to take your charge
from you, go.
Now, let us call on
the Nile all together.
You must say with me, send
us thy voice, Father Nile.
- [All] Send us thy
voice, Father Nile.
[screaming]
- What was that?
- Nothing, they are
beating some slave.
- Nothing?
- A man with a knife
in him, I'll swear.
- [Caesar] A murder!
- Shh, silence.
Did you hear that?
- Another cry?
- [Apollodorus] No, a thud.
Something fell, I think.
- Something with
bones in it, eh?
- [Caesar] Hush, hush, Rufio.
Apollodorus, go down
to the courtyard
and find out what has happened.
- The Queen looks again on
the face of her servant.
- Look, the whole town's
gone made, I think!
- This must be seen to.
- There's some mischief
between those two.
I shall know presently.
- Cleopatra, what is happening?
- Nothing, nothing
dearest Caesar.
I am innocent.
Why do you look at me so?
Are you angry with me?
I am only a child, and
you turn into stone
because you think
somebody has been killed.
I cannot bear it.
But of course, you
cannot bear tears.
Oh, you are quite right.
It is dreadful to think of anyone
being killed or even hurt.
- What has frightened
you into this?
What have you done?
[trumpet sounding]
Aha, That sounds
like the answer.
- I have not betrayed
you, Caesar, I swear it.
- I know that, I
have not trusted you.
- We laid hold of this
renegade in the courtyard!
He was trying to
get into the palace.
- Release him.
What has offended the
citizens, Lucius Septimius?
- What did you expect,
O Great Caesar?
Pothinus was a
favorite of theirs.
- Pothinus, what has
happened to Pothinus?
I set him free, here,
not half an hour ago.
Did they not pass him out?
- Ay, through the gallery arch
with three inches of
steel in his ribs.
He is as dead as Pompey.
[chuckling] We're quits now,
you and I, as to killing.
- Assassinated!
Our prisoner, our guest!
Rufio.
- Whoever did it was a wise man
and a friend of yours,
but we had no hand in it.
So it is no use to frown at me.
- He was slain by order
of the Queen of Egypt.
I am not Julius
Caesar the dreamer,
who allows every
slave to insult him.
Rufio has said I did well,
now the others
shall judge me too.
This Pothinus came to me and
sought to make me conspire
with him to betray Caesar
to Achillas and Ptolemy.
I refused and he cursed
me and came privily
to Caesar to accuse me
of his own treachery.
I caught him in the
act, and he insulted me.
Me, the Queen, to my face!
Caesar would not avenge me,
he spoke him fair
and set him free.
Was I wrong to avenge myself?
Speak, Apollodorus!
- I have only one word
of blame, most beautiful.
You should have called
upon me, your knight,
and in fair duel I should
have slain the slanderer.
- I will be judged by
your very slave, Caesar.
Britannus, speak, was I wrong?
- Were treachery, falsehood,
and disloyalty left unpunished,
society must become like an
arena full of wild beasts,
tearing one another to pieces.
Caesar is in the wrong.
- And so the verdict is
against me, it seems.
- Listen to me, Caesar.
If one man in all Alexandria
can be found to say
I did wrong, I swear to
have myself crucified
on the door of the
palace by my own slaves.
- If one man in all the world
can be found, now or forever,
to know that you did wrong,
that man will have either
to conquer the world as I
have, or be crucified by it.
[faint shouting]
Do you hear?
These knockers at your
gate are also believers
in vengeance and in stabbing.
You have slain their leader,
it is only right that
they shall slay you.
And so, to the end of history,
murder shall breed murder,
always in the name of
right and honor and peace,
until the gods
are tired of blood
and create a race
that can understand.
Hearken, you who
must not be insulted.
Let the Queen now give
her orders for vengeance,
and take her
measures for defense,
for she has renounced Caesar.
- You will not
desert me, Caesar!
You will defend the palace!
- I am only a dreamer.
- But they will kill me!
- And why not?
- Caesar, enough of preaching.
The enemy is at the gate.
- And who has held him baffled
at the gate all these months?
By the gods, I am
tempted to open my hand
and let you all
sink into the flood.
- But, Caesar, if you do,
you will perish yourself.
- Now, by great Jove, you
filthy little Egyptian rat,
that is the very word to
make him walk out alone
into the city and leave us
here to be torn to pieces.
Will you desert us because
we are a parcel of fools?
We are dogs at your heels, but
we've served you faithfully.
- Alas, Rufio, my son, my son,
as dogs we are now like
to die in the streets.
- But I don't want to die!
- Oh, ignoble, ignoble!
- It may be ignoble,
O Great Caesar,
but I also mean to
live as long as I can.
- Well, my friend, you are
likely to outlive Caesar.
- Does Caesar despair?
- He who has never
hoped can never despair.
Caesar, in good or bad fortune,
looks his fate in the face.
- Look it in the face,
then, O Great Caesar,
and it'll smile as it
always has on Caesar.
- Do you presume
to encourage me?
- I offer you my services.
I willing to change
sides if you'll have me.
- What, at this point?
- At this point.
I ask for my life, and for
a command in Caesar's army.
And since Caesar is a fair
dealer, I will pay in advance.
- Pay how?
- With a piece of
good news for you.
- What news?
- What news?
What news, dear Rufio?
The relief has arrived,
what else remains?
Is it not so?
- It is, sir.
- Mithridates of
Pergamos is on the march.
- He has taken Pelusium
and is marching
by the great road to Memphis.
Achillas will fight him there.
- Achillas will
fight Caesar there.
Rufio, the Egyptians must have
every soldier in the streets
to prevent Mithridates
crossing the Nile.
There's nothing in the
streets now but mob.
Mob!
Lucius Septimius, you are
henceforth my officer.
Away and give the word.
Brittanus, see to
my horse and armor.
Apollodorus, will you
lend your right arm
and your sword to this campaign?
- Ay, and my heart
and life to boot!
- I accept both!
- Come, this is
something like business!
- Is it not, my only son?
- Caesar!
Have you forgotten me?
- I am busy now, my child.
When I return your
affairs shall be settled.
Farewell, be good and patient.
- That game is played
and lost, Cleopatra.
The woman always
gets the worst of it.
- Go, follow your master.
- A word first.
Tell your executioner
that if Pothinus
had been properly
killed, in the throat,
he would not have called out.
Your man bungled his work.
- How do you know it was a man?
- Was it she?
With her own hand?
- Whoever it was, let my
enemies beware of her.
Look to it, Rufio, you who dare
make the Queen of Egypt
a fool before Caesar.
- I will look to it, Cleopatra.
[crying]
- Ftatateeta.
Ftatateeta!
It is dark, and I am alone.
Come to me.
Ftatateeta!
Ftatateeta!
Ftatateeta!
[screaming]
[dramatic music]
[people chattering]
- Behold, Caesar approaches!
[fanfare music]
- I see my ship awaits me.
The hour of Caesar's farewell
to Egypt has arrived,
and now, Rufio, what remains
to be done before I sail?
- Sir, you have yet to choose
a Roman governor
for this province.
- Indeed, well what say
you to, uh, yourself?
- I, a governor?
What are you dreaming of?
You know that I am only
the son of a freed man.
- And has not Caesar
called you his son?
Peace awhile there, and hear me!
- Hear Caesar!
- Hear the service,
quality, rank,
and name of the Roman governor.
By service, Caesar's shield,
by quality, Caesar's friend,
by rank, a Roman soldier!
[soldiers cheering]
By name, Rufio!
[soldiers cheering]
- Ay, I am Caesar's shield,
but of what use
shall I be to Caesar
when I am no longer on his arm?
Well, no matter.
- Where is that British
Islander of mine?
- Here, Caesar.
- Who bade you,
pray, thrust yourself
into the battle of the Delta,
uttering the barbarous
cries of your native land,
and affirming yourself a
match for any four Egyptians,
to whom you applied
unseemly epithets?
- Caesar, I beg that you
would forgive the language
that escaped me in the
heat of the moment.
- And how did you,
who cannot swim,
cross the canal with us
when we stormed the camp?
- Caesar, I clung to
the tail of your horse.
- These are not the deeds
of a slave, Britannicus,
but of a free man.
- Caesar. I was born free.
- But they call
you Caesar's slave.
- Only as Caesar's slave
have I found real freedom.
- Well said.
Ungrateful that I am, I
was about to set you free,
but now I would not part from
you for a million talents.
Apollodorus, I leave the
art of Egypt in your hands.
Remember, Rome loves art and
will encourage it ungrudgingly.
- I understand, Caesar.
Rome will produce
no art of itself,
but it will buy up and take
away whatever Egypt produces.
- Is government not an art?
Is civilization not an art?
All these we give you in
exchange for a few ornaments.
You will have the
best of the bargain.
And now, Rufio, what else
remains to be done before I sail?
There's something
I cannot remember?
what can it be?
Well, we must not waste
this favorable wind.
Farewell, Rufio.
- Farewell, Apollodorus,
and my friends, all
of you, farewell.
- Has Cleopatra no part
in this leave taking?
I knew there was something!
Oh Rufio, how could
you let me forget her?
Had I gone without seeing you,
I should never have
forgiven myself.
Is this mourning for me?
- No.
- For whom, then?
- Ask the Roman governor
whom you have left us.
He who is to rule
in Caesar's way,
without punishment,
without revenge.
- Rufio?
- Yes, Rufio.
- Caesar, Cleopatra
had a tigress
that killed men at her bidding.
I thought she might bid
it kill you some day.
Had I not been Caesar's pupil,
what pious things might I not
have done to that tigress?
I might have punished it.
I might have revenged
Pothinus on it.
- Pothinus?
- I might have judged it,
but I put all these
follies aside,
and without malice,
only cut its throat.
That is why Cleopatra
comes to you in mourning.
- He has shed the blood
of my servant Ftatateeta.
On your head be it, Caesar,
as upon his, if you
hold him free of it.
- On my head be it, then,
for it was well done.
Rufio, this was natural slaying.
I feel no horror at it.
- No, not when a Roman
kills an Egyptian.
All the world will now see how
unjust and corrupt Caesar is.
- Oh come, Cleopatra,
don't be angry with me.
I am sorry about
that poor Teetatota.
[Cleopatra laughing]
Aha, you are laughing.
Does that mean I'm forgiven?
- No, no, no! [giggling]
It is so silly to hear
you call her Teetatota.
- As much a child
as ever, Cleopatra!
Have I not made a
woman of you after all?
- Oh, it is you who
are a great baby.
You make me seem silly
because you will not
behave seriously.
But you've treated me badly,
and I do not forgive you.
- Bid me farewell.
- I will not.
- I will send you a
beautiful present from Rome.
- Beauty from Rome
to Egypt, indeed!
What can Rome give me
that Egypt cannot give me?
- You're forgetting
the treasures
for which Rome is
most famous, her sons.
Forgive me and bid me
farewell, Cleopatra,
and I will send you a man,
Roman from head to heel,
and Roman of the noblest.
Not old and ripe for the knife.
Not lean in the arms
and cold in the heart.
Not hiding a bald head beneath
his conqueror's laurels.
Brisk and fresh,
young and strong.
Hoping in the morning,
fighting in the day,
and reveling in the evening.
Will you take such an one
in exchange for Caesar?
- His name, his name?
- Shall it be Mark Antony?
- Oh!
- You are a bad hand
at a bargain, mistress,
if you will swap
Caesar for Antony.
- So now you're satisfied?
- You will not forget.
- I will not forget.
Farewell.
I do not think we
shall meet again.
[drumroll music]
- [Soldiers] Hail,
Caesar, and farewell!
Hail, Caesar, and farewell!
[cheering]
- No tears, dearest Queen.
They stab your
servant to the heart.
He will return some day.
- Oh, I hope not.
But I can't help
crying, all the same.
[jubilant music]
[peaceful orchestra music]
- [Announcer] Now the names
of tonight's production,
after which a special
guest will tell you
about our next presentation.