The purpose of the present text is to analyse the first two scenes of Antony and Cleopatra’s first act, and compare them to Shakespeare’s opening scenes.
The play opens with a monologue performed by Philo, Antony’s friend, who complains about his general’s behavior. On his opinion, he has “become the bellows and the fan to cool a gypsy’s lust”; the “gypsy” he’s referring to is Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, who soon after talks with Antony about their love. But when a messenger announces news from Rome, the queen interrupts the talk, asking Antony to hear him and predicting that the message will be from Caesar or Antony’s wife Fulvia and will tell him to come back to Rome. Antony replies saying that his place is next to Cleopatra in Egypt and, when the queen insists, commands the messenger to not talk. At the end of the first scene, they go out with their train while Antony suggests what to do that night and Demetrius comments with Philo his behavior.
In this scene, you can find recurring elements in Shakespeare’s plays, such as the early introduction of conflict. It is, indeed, introduced in Philo’s monologue, where he tells about his general’s behavior. He is soon after proved right by Antonio and Cleopatra’s actions; he is so concerned with her that he doesn’t care about his duty, putting her before his nation and disrespecting Caesar. Meanwhile Cleopatra teases him since her fist line; she even foresees sarcastically what the messenger is going to say, telling Antony that he puts Caesar before her and that he’ll treat her like his wife Fulvia, aiming to hear him tell about his independence from Rome and his faith to the queen. In this way he’s become just a puppet in her hands.
The second scene opens with Cleopatra’s servants entrance, Charmian, Iras and Alexas. The first one asks the last one to call a soothsayer that he had praised to the queen to read her and Iras’ future. This part of the scene ends with Cleopatra’s entrance. The queen asks her servants to bring her Antony, telling that he was merry, but a “Roman thought” had struck him. However, when he comes, she tells she doesn’t want to see him and goes out. Antony is talking with the messenger of the first scene and finds out that his wife, after fighting with his brother, allied with him against Caesar, but lost; and Labienus expanded his territories. After talking bitterly about his situation, he sends the messenger away and listens to another one, who tells him about Fulvia’s death. Antony elongates his wife and complains about how men understand the value of something only when its lost. The scene ends with a dialogue between Antony and Enobarbus, the first orders to come back to Rome, while the other replies ironically.
This scene introduces Egypt’s court life presenting some minor characters (Cleopatra’s servants). Their conversation produces a contrast with Antony and Cleopatra’s high declarations of love, since the kind of love they’re talking about is terrain and frivolous.
It also contrasts with the second part of the scene, where Antony talks with the messengers without Cleopatra’s influence. Learning about the last events, he immediately lets go of his love to embrace his Roman identity, deciding to come home and break “these strong Egyptian fetters”.
The last conversation with Enobarbus seems like a discussion between first scene’s Antony and second scene’s Antony, presenting the conflict between love and war interests, which is underlined by the contrast between the first part of the scene and the second part of it.
Cleopatra stays a little time on the scene, but the contrast between her love for Antony and her craftiness is evident even in the dialogue between “the two Antonys”. While one tells about her cunning, the other tells that “her passions are made of nothing but the finest part of pure love”.