FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY
THE ROMANCE OF DEVOTION
BY
LYNDON ORR
VOLUME I OF IV.
CONTENTS
THE STORY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA ABELARD AND HELOISE QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE EARL OF LEICESTER MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AND LORD BOTHWELL QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND THE MARQUIS MONALDESCHI KING CHARLES II. AND NELL GWYN MAURICE OF SAXONY AND ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR THE STORY OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART
THE STORY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Of all love stories that are known to human history, the love story of Antony and Cleopatra has been for nineteen centuries the most remarkable. It has tasked the resources of the plastic and the graphic arts. It has been made the theme of poets and of prose narrators. It has appeared and reappeared in a thousand forms, and it appeals as much to the imagination to-day as it did when Antony deserted his almost victorious troops and hastened in a swift galley from Actium in pursuit of Cleopatra.
The wonder of the story is explained by its extraordinary nature. Many men in private life have lost fortune and fame for the love of woman. Kings have incurred the odium of their people, and have cared nothing for it in comparison with the joys of sense that come from the lingering caresses and clinging kisses. Cold-blooded statesmen, such as Parnell, have lost the leadership of their party and have gone down in history with a clouded name because of the fascination exercised upon them by some woman, often far from beautiful, and yet possessing the mysterious power which makes the triumphs of statesmanship seem slight in comparison with the swiftly flying hours of pleasure.
But in the case of Antony and Cleopatra alone do we find a man flinging away not merely the triumphs of civic honors or the headship of a state, but much more than these--the mastery of what was practically the world--in answer to the promptings of a woman's will. Hence the story of the Roman triumvir and the Egyptian queen is not like any other story that has yet been told. The sacrifice involved in it was so overwhelming, so instantaneous, and so complete as to set this narrative above all others. Shakespeare's genius has touched it with the glory of a great imagination. Dryden, using it in the finest of his plays, expressed its nature in the title "All for Love."
The distinguished Italian historian, Signor Ferrero, the author of many books, has tried hard to eliminate nearly all the romantic elements from the tale, and to have us see in it not the triumph of love, but the blindness of ambition. Under his handling it becomes almost a sordid drama of man's pursuit of power and of woman's selfishness. Let us review the story as it remains, even after we have taken full account of Ferrero's criticism. Has the world for nineteen hundred years been blinded by a show of sentiment? Has it so absolutely been misled by those who lived and wrote in the days which followed closely on the events that make up this extraordinary narrative?
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: Famous Affinities of History — Volume 1 by Orr
- 2: Alexandria was a city of wealth
- 3: For Cleopatra was never beautiful
- 4: This was not the whole of Antony
- 5: Though still suspicious of Cleopatra
- 6: Then came the shock of Antony's final breach with Octavian
- 7: At last Cleopatra saw her great mistake
- 8: And originality utterly routed Champeaux
- 9: In the winter time wolves infested the town by night
- 10: From that time Abelard could visit Heloise without restraint
- 11: Were found and shown to Fulbert
- 12: Fulbert himself was accused before one of the Church courts
- 13: As Abelard represented pure reason
- 14: After some years Abelard left his dwelling at the Paraclete
- 15: The figure representing Heloise is not
- 16: For England she schemed and planned
- 17: The portrait of her by Zucchero
- 18: She brought counter charges against Tyrwhitt
- 19: During this time Elizabeth put aside her boldness
- 20: Avaricious suitors sought her destruction
- 21: She had great moments of passion for the Earl of Essex
- 22: Mary Stuart was born six days before her father's death
- 23: She held her own against the ambitious Catherine de' Medici
- 24: At eighteen she was a strangely amorous creature
- 25: Bothwell might well seem in reality a princely figure
- 26: Here was a Corsica of the north
- 27: Darnley and the others broke in upon her
- 28: After this Mary summoned Bothwell again and again
- 29: It is probably in Malmo Castle that he died
- 30: Gustavus was in truth a chivalrous
- 31: The king looked down at Christina
- 32: Christina consented to be crowned
- 33: By subtle means Bourdelot undermined her principles
- 34: Monaldeschi accompanied her to France
- 35: Send a challenge to Sentanelli
- 36: Father Le Bel undertook a like mission
- 37: The old Jacobite ballads still have power to thrill
- 38: Was indeed a kingly personage when viewed afar
- 39: To them Charles was no longer a penniless exile
- 40: The popular name for him was Rowley
- 41: Though he governed England very badly
- 42: Here was the earliest home of Eleanor Gwyn
- 43: Nell Gwyn was much with Charles
- 44: This woman was Adrienne Lecouvreur
- 45: Du Gue offered the spacious courtyard of her own house
- 46: Torn with passion or rollicking with mirth
- 47: Yet Adrienne had learned at least one thing
- 48: He in his turn called for a horseshoe
- 49: Saxe was not the man to hesitate
- 50: Maurice should be Duke of Courland
- 51: And when Adrienne appeared as Phedre
- 52: Must have despised the Stewards
- 53: The fascination of the Stuarts
- 54: To his followers he was the Young Chevalier
- 55: With the Chevalier himself at their head
- 56: Such was the famous battle of Culloden
- 57: She was often visited by Vittorio Alfieri