Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

SELEUCUS

in Cleopatra — Daniel, Samuel

Metadata

PlayCleopatra
AuthorDaniel, Samuel
Year (catalogued)1594
First performance1593
Decade1590s
GenreTragedy
Play typeCloset
Speech prefix(es)Seleu. | Sel.
Words323
Characters1663
Typicality0.38 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA19816.1
BritDrama no.949
ClusterCluster 20 — Conjurers, witches & physicians

Important excerpts

No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).

Full speech

Nay there's not all set down within that roll, I know some things she hath reserved a partly. Never friend Rodon in a better hour, Could I have met thee then even now I do Having affliction in the greatest pour Upon my soul, and none to tell it to. For 'tis some ease our sorrows to reveal, If they to whom we shall impart our woes Seem but to feel a partly of what we feel, And meet us with a sighs but at a close. Well then, thou knowest how I have lived in grace With Cleopatra, and esteemed in Court As one of counsel, and of chiefest place, And ever held my credit in that sort. Till now in this confusion of our state, When thinking to have used a mean to climb, And fled the wretched, slowne unto the great, (Follow'ing the fortune of the present time,) Am come to be cast down and ruined clean. And in the course of mine own plot undone. For having all the secrets of the Queen Revealed to Caesar, to have savour won: My treachery is quited with disgrace, My falsehood loathed, and not without great reason Though good for him, yet Princes in this case Do hate y e Traitor, though they love the treason. For how could he imagine I would be Faithful to him, being false unto mine own? And false to such a bounteous Queen as she, That had me raised, and made mine honour known. He saw it not for zeal to him I bore, But for base fear, or mine own state to settle. Weakness is false, and faith in Cowards rare, Fear finds out shyfts, timidity is subtle. And therefore scorned of him, scorned of mine own. Hateful to all that look into my state: Despised Seleucus now is only grown The mark of infamy, that's pointed at. But how hath Caesar now rewarded thee?

Plot summary

Plot — Cleopatra
Antony is dead, but Cleopatra still lives, holed up in her monument. She wants to join her lover in death, but is restrained by fear of how her children will be treated afterwards. Egypt has been conquered by Caesar, who visits the defeated Queen; she asks for mercy and hands over an inventory of her treasure, but her secretary Seleucus betrays her by notifying Caesar that she has kept some items back. Attempting to get her son Caesario out of Egypt, she entrusts him to his tutor Rhodon; but Rhodon is bribed by Caesar’s agents and hands the boy over to be killed by the Romans. Charmed by her beauty, Dolabella warns Cleopatra that Caesar intends to display her in his triumph, so she procures two asps and kills herself with them. ‘ —— ° ; 1593 B-Text In this version, more is told of the death of Antony before the start of the action: how Cleopatra sent him a false report of her death, which precipitated his attempted suicide, and how he was hoisted up into the monument to die. Cleopatra’s wish to kill herself is initially kept secret: she is first seen making arrangements to send Caesario to India, intending that he should one day return to supplant Caesar as the ruler of the Roman Empire.