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flye, and turne the Rudder Stapfer (p. 405): What had happened was very simple; it was only that Cleopatra had felt frightened: she was not a woman of heroic type, and her nerves were not strong enough to bear the excitement of a battle for any length of time,—that was the whole secret. Those who seek for any other explanation of the defeat at Actium, do so because they start with the notion that on great occasions Cleopatra could be truly brave, the splendid manner of her death having acquired for her a false reputation for courage; but her supposed heroism is only a brilliant theatrical cloak wrapped round the most feminine little person, presenting the most complete contrast to all manliness of character that ever wore a crown. We have only to study closely her ending, as it is given by Shakespeare, and the mask falls—the woman remains and the heroine vanishes.—Anatole France (iv, 130): This flight, Admiral Jurien de la Gravière holds to be a skilfull manœuvre and M. Victorien Sardou has given to it a highly dramatic effect by representing the enamoured queen as effecting thereby the defeat and disgrace of her lover, in order to keep him completely her own.
William Shakespeare. Horace Howard Furness. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra. Philadelphia and London. J. B. Lippincott Company. 1907.
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