Enobarbus

Play

Antony and Cleopatra

Summary

Domitius Enobarbus is Antony's blunt, sardonic lieutenant and the play's most penetrating commentator — a soldier of long experience who sees clearly what Antony's infatuation is costing him and yet cannot bring himself to leave until it is too late. His prose is among Shakespeare's sharpest, and his great set-piece description of Cleopatra's arrival on the Cydnus is the most celebrated piece of poetry in the play. When he finally deserts Antony for Caesar's camp, Antony responds with such extraordinary generosity — sending Enobarbus his treasure — that Enobarbus's heart breaks under the weight of his own betrayal. He dies calling on the moon to witness his shame, unmistakably of grief and self-reproach.

Notable Quotations

"The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, / Burned on the water; the poop was beaten gold, / Purple the sails, and so perfumed that / The winds were love-sick with them." *(2.2)*

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety." *(2.2)*

"Mine honesty and I begin to square. / The loyalty well held to fools does make / Our faith mere folly." *(3.13)*

"O Antony! Nobler than my revolt is infamous, / Forgive me in thine own particular, / But let the world rank me in register / A master-leaver and a fugitive." *(4.9)*

Cross-references

• Antony and Cleopatra — the play
• Tragedies
• character_mark_antony — his general and patron, whose generosity destroys him with guilt
• character_cleopatra — the subject of his famous description
• character_octavius_caesar — the master he deserts to, too late