THE MAN. Hail, Sphinx: salutation from J...

THE MAN. Hail, Sphinx: salutation 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, and 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, and 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: have I not been conscious of you and of this place since I was born? Rome is a madman’s dream: this is my Reality. These starry lamps of yours I have seen from afar in Gaul, in Britain, in Spain, in Thessaly, signaling great secrets to some eternal sentinel below, who post I never could find. And here at last is their sentinel — an image of the constant and immortal part of my life, silent, full of thoughts, alone in the silver desert. Sphinx, Sphinx: I have climbed mountains at night to hear in the distance the stealthy footfall of the winds that chase your sands in forbidden play — our invisible children, O Sphinx, laughing in whispers. My way hither was the way of destiny; for I am he of whose genius you are the symbol: part brute, part woman, and part god — nothing of man in me at all. Have I read your riddle Sphinx?

THE GIRL. (who has wakened, and peeped cautiously from her nest to see who is speaking) Old gentleman.

CAESAR. (starting violently, and clutching his sword) Immortal gods!

THE GIRL. Old gentleman: don’t run away.

CAESAR. (stupefied) “Old gentleman: don’t run away”!!! This! to Julius Caesar!

THE GIRL. (urgently) Old gentleman.

CAESAR. Sphinx: you presume on your centuries. I am younger than you, though your voice is but a girl’s voice as yet.

THE GIRL. Climb up here, quickly; or the Romans will come and eat you.

CAESAR. (running forward past the Sphinx’s shoulder, and seeing her) A child at its breast! a divine child!

THE GIRL. Come up quickly. You must get up at its side and creep round.

CAESAR. (amazed) Who are you?

THE GIRL. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.

CAESAR. Queen of the Gypsies, you mean.

CLEOPATRA. You must not be disrespectful to me, or the Sphinx will let the Romans eat you. Come up. It is quite cozy here.

CAESAR. (to himself) What a dream! What a magnificent dream! Only let me not wake, and I will conquer ten continents to pay for dreaming it out to the end. (He climbs to the Sphinx’s flank, and presently reappears to her on the pedestal, stepping round its right shoulder).

CLEOPATRA. Take care. That’s right. Now sit down: you may have its other paw. (She seats herself comfortably on its left paw) It is very powerful and will protect us: but (shivering and with plaintive loneliness) it would not take any notice of me or keep me company. I am glad you have come: I was very lonely. Did you happen to see a white cat anywhere?

CAESAR. (sitting slowly down on the right paw in extreme wonderment) Have you lost one?

CLEOPATRA. Yes: the sacred white cat: is it not dreadful? 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?

CAESAR. (staring at her) Your great-great-great-grandmother! Well, why not? Nothing would surprise me on this night of nights.

CLEOPATRA. 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. That is why my hair is so wavy. And I always want to be let do as I like, no matter whether it is the will of the gods or not; that is because my blood is made of Nile water.

CAESAR. What are you doing here at this time of night? Do you live here?

CLEOPATRA. 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. When I am old enough I shall do just what I like. I shall be able to poison the slaves and see them wriggle, and pretend to Ftatateeta that she is going to be put into the fiery furnace.

CAESAR. Hm! Meanwhile why are you not at home and in bed?

CLEOPATRA. Because the Romans are coming to eat us all. You are not at home and in bed either.

CAESAR. (with conviction) Yes I am. I live in a tent; and I am now in that tent, fast asleep and dreaming. Do you suppose that I believe you are real, you impossible little dream witch?

CLEOPATRA. (giggling and leaning trustfully towards him) You are a funny old gentleman. I like you.

CAESAR. Ah, that spoils the dream. Why don’t you dream that I am young?

CLEOPATRA. I wish you were; only I think I should be more afraid of you. I like men, especially young men with round strong arms; but I am afraid of them. You are old and rather thin and stringy; but you have a nice voice; and I like to have somebody to talk to, though I think you are a little mad. It is the moon that makes you talk to yourself in that silly way.

CAESAR. What! you heard that, did you? I was saying my prayers to the great Sphinx.

CLEOPATRA. But this isn’t the great Sphinx.

CAESAR. (much disappointed, looking up at the statue) What?

CLEOPATRA. This is only a dear little kitten of a Sphinx. Why, the great Sphinx is so big that it has a temple between its paws. 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?

CAESAR. Why? Are you afraid of the Romans?

CLEOPATRA. (Very seriously) 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. (Caesar involuntarily rubs his nose) They all have long noses, and ivory tusks, and little tails, and seven arms with a hundred arrows in each; and they live on human flesh.

CAESAR. Would you like me to show you a real Roman?

CLEOPATRA. (Terrified) No. You are frightening me.

CAESAR. No matter: this is only a dream—

CLEOPATRA. (Excitedly) It is not a dream: it is not a dream. See, see. (She plucks a pin from her hair and jabs it repeatedly into his arm)

CAESAR. Ffff—Stop. (Wrathfully) How dare you?

CLEOPATRA. (Abashed) You said you were dreaming. (Whimpering) I only wanted to show you—

CAESAR. (Gently) Come, come: don’t cry. A queen mustn’t cry. (He rubs his arm, wondering at the reality of the smart) Am I awake? (He strikes his hand against the Sphinx to test its solidity. It feels so real that he begins to be alarmed, and says perplexedly) Yes, I— (quite panicstricken) no: impossible: madness, madness! (Desperately) Back to camp—to camp. (He rises to spring down from the pedestal)

CLEOPATRA. (Flinging her arms in terror around him) No: you shan’t leave me. No, no, no: don’t go. I’m afraid—-afraid of the Romans.

CAESAR. (As the conviction that he is really awake forces itself on him) Cleopatra: can you see my face well?

CLEOPATRA. Yes. It is so white in the moonlight.

CAESAR. Are you sure it is the moonlight that makes me look whiter than an Egyptian? (Grimly) Do you notice that I have a rather long nose?

CLEOPATRA. (Recoiling, paralyzed by a terrible suspicion) Oh!

CAESAR. It is a Roman nose, Cleopatra.

CLEOPATRA. Ah! (With a piercing scream she springs up; darts round the left shoulder of the Sphinx; scrambles down to the sand; and falls on her knees in frantic supplication, shrieking) Bite him in two, Sphinx: bite him in two. I meant to sacrifice the white cat-—I did indeed-—I (Caesar, who has slipped down from the pedestal, touches her on the shoulder) —Ah! (She buries her head in her arms)

CAESAR. Cleopatra: shall I teach you a way to prevent Caesar from eating you?

CLEOPATRA. (Clinging to him piteously) Oh do, do, do. I will steal Ftatateeta’s jewels and give them to you. I will make the river Nile water your lands twice a year.

CAESAR. Peace, peace, my child. Your gods are afraid of the Romans: you see the Sphinx dare not bite me, nor prevent me carrying you off to Julius Caesar.

CLEOPATRA. (In pleading murmurings) You won’t, you won’t. You said you wouldn’t.

CAESAR. Caesar never eats women.

CLEOPATRA. (Springing up full of hope) What!

CAESAR. (Impressively) But he eats girls (she relapses) and cats. Now you are a silly little girl; and you are descended from the black kitten. You are both a girl and a cat.

CLEOPATRA. (Trembling) And will he eat me?

CAESAR. Yes; unless you make him believe that you are a woman.

CLEOPATRA. Oh, you must get a sorcerer to make a woman of me. Are you a sorcerer?

CAESAR. Perhaps. But it will take a long time; and this very nice you must stand face to face with Caesar in the palace of your fathers.

CLEOPATRA. No, no. I daren’t.

CAESAR. Whatever dread may be in your soul—however terrible Caesar may be to you—you must confront him as a brave woman and a great queen; and you must feel no fear. If your hand shakes: if your voice quavers; then—night and death! (She moans) But if he thinks you worthy to rule, he will set you on the throne by his side and make you the real ruler of Egypt.

CLEOPATRA. (Despairingly) No: he will find me out: he will find me out.

CAESAR. (Rather mournfully) 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.

CLEOPATRA. (Hopefully) Then we will cheat him. I will put on Ftatateeta’s head-dress; and he will think me quite an old woman.

CAESAR. If you do that he will eat you at one mouthful.

CLEOPATRA. But I will give him a cake with my magic opal and seven hairs of the white cat baked in it; and—

CAESAR. (Abruptly) Pah! you are a little fool. He will eat your cake and you too. (He turns contemptuously from her)

CLEOPATRA. (Running after him and clinging to him) Oh please, please! I will do whatever you tell me. I will be good. I will be your slave. (Again the terrible bellowing sounds from across the desert, now closer at hand. It is the buchina, the Roman war trumpet)

CAESAR. Hark!

CLEOPATRA. (Trembling) What was that?

CAESAR. Caesar’s voice.

CLEOPATRA. (Pulling at his hand) Let us run away. Come. Oh, come.

CAESAR. You are safe with me until you stand on your throne to receive Caesar. Now lead me thither.

CLEOPATRA. (Only too glad to get away) I will, I will. (Again the buccina) Oh come, come, come: the gods are angry. Do you feel the earth shaking?

CAESAR. It is the tread of Caesar’s legions.

CLEOPATRA. (Drawing him away) This way, quickly. And let us look for the white cat as we go. It is he that has turned you into a Roman.

CAESAR. Incorrigible, oh, incorrigible! Away! (He follows her, the buccina sounding louder as they steal across the desert).

Shaw, George Bernard, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Modern Library, 1953, p. 98-104.