Antony and Cleopatra

Cleopatra, the celebrated Egyptian beauty was made immortal by Shakespeare when he described her: ‘Age Cannot Wither Her, Nor Custom Stale Her Infinite Variety’. In reality a consummate and a tactful politician she used her wit, not her beauty, to become the most powerful woman in the world. Cleopatra was not the ‘dark seductress’ she was made out to be, but a scholar and a tactful politician.

For Rome and the Romans alike, the Roman civil wars brought about the end of an era. They also reconfigured Roman identity for good. The clash between factions prompted a fratricidal struggle, leading to citizens fighting citizens and to kinspeople killing each other. Anybody could be an enemy, a hostis. Only Octavian was able to put an end to the civil wars and to this climate of universal distrust. He alone could give back to his fellow citizens a history and a purpose in which they could recognise themselves.
Antonietta Castiello shows in her study how Octavian, later Augustus, was able to bring Rome back to life: not physically, but symbolically. Through a juxtaposition never made fully explicit, Augustus managed to enter the hearts of the Romans as their new leader, a charismatic ruler who could easily be assimilated to the Pater Patriae par excellence, Romulus. The revival of the figure of Romulus allowed Augustus and those who recognised in him the leadership of the first founder to breathe new life into the Romans’ legendary past: an intentional history linked to the birth of the city, the creation of its first sacred boundary, the pomerium, and in general to the myth of fratricide, a myth so brutally symbolic that it was open to an Augustan re-interpretation.

Just as Shakespeare asserted she always would, the fascinating Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, continues dazzle us. This book presents papers that consider Cleopatra and her legacies by scholars working in archaeology, art history, history and literary and film studies. The papers include discussion of Cleopatra’s obelisks; her use of traditional Egyptian imagery in sculpture; her time in Rome; her death; Egyptian themes in Augustan Rome; Cleopatra in Renaissance Rome; the afterlife of her love potions; how she is depicted by Sir Alma-Tadema; Cleomania in mass culture; and an overview of Cleopatra’s images in western painting.  The book concludes with a wonderful poem by Peter Green.

Abstract
This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in 53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

Cleopatra. L'autorità e l'audacia della donna egiziana si trovano nell'ultima e più famosa delle eroiche regine d'Egitto. E più precisamente quello spirito di iniziativa e quella sfrontatezza che la donna egiziana aveva acquistato alla fine dell'era tolemaica. Cleopatra è diventata una principessa da leggenda, il mito che l'ha fatta nascere l'ha trasformata nella nostra immaginazione. È necessario un certo sforzo per ritrovare, sotto le migliaia di sontuosi e barbari ornamenti che nascondono la sua vera fisionomia, la giovane donna che fu. Sposata a diciott'anni per condividere la tiara dei Tolomei con il fratello che ne ha nove di meno, Cleopatra incomincia col guidare un'armata per distruggere la fazione che le disputa il potere. Cesare si presenta come mediatore autoritario. Ed ecco apparire subito la donna calcolatrice. Il suo modo di chiedere un appuntamento è perfettamente orientale. Parte sola e in segreto, con uno dei suoi uomini più fidati. Avvolta in una coperta, proprio come una principessa cinese, si fa gettare nella stanza in cui dorme il conquistatore. Questa diplomazia diretta le riesce. Inutile precisare che il giovane fratello, nonché marito, morì accidentalmente poco tempo dopo, durante una passeggiata in barca. A Cleopatra venne dato come marito il fratello minore, assai meno ingombrante visto che aveva solo sei anni. Così potè fare la regina a suo talento, portò a spasso per tutto l'Egitto Cesare e lo seguì persino a Roma, dove egli pretendeva di ottenere dal Senato l'autorizzazione a sposarla. Le idi di marzo misero fine a questo sogno. Cleopatra tornò ad essere una regina d'Oriente. Il suo primo atto di governo fu quello di far avvelenare il suo piccolo marito che, avendo raggiunto i quattordici anni d'età, stava trasformandosi in un personaggio. A questo punto compare Antonio. È giovane, è bello, è pazzo: figliol prodigo che non si rifiuta nulla, vero figlio di re che vive nella porpora, adorato dai suoi uomini per il suo coraggio. In suo onore Cleopatra fece il gran gioco: tutti gli splendori di Hollywood, galea dorata, nereidi nude fra le onde, feste meravigliose. Volle essere un idolo d'Oriente. Antonio scoprì quella California che la grande banca aveva fatto sorgere sulle rive

For many reasons, Shakespearean texts have been used as test cases in continuing philosophical debates over the nature of the humanistic enterprise. This graduate seminar examines the dynamics of early modern criticism, concentrating on particular Shakespeare plays in relation to important theoretical developments, including the bourgeoning field of critical race studies propelled by a renewed awareness of the importance of religion in the period and in our post-9/11 world.

        A second focus of the course is major philosophers' engagement with Shakespeare, including Hegel, Karl Marx, Freud, Lacan, and Derrida. In addition to theoretical texts, we will work with a group of core play texts.

There will be ample opportunity to relate the course to any of your prior or developing interests or to work in original languages if you like. While an emphasis is placed on theoretical implications of various modes of confrontation with "Shakespeare," seminar members are encouraged to contribute to the reading list.

This book review is for Essays on the Medieval and the Renaissance: Things Old and New co-edited by Ágnes Matuska and Larisa Kocic-Zámbó. The volume is a fresh rethinking of things old and new in both Medieval and Renaissance literatures and scholarships. It covers a wide range of texts starting from Tudor drama, plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and eventually Milton. Transdisciplinary in its approach, the volume re-examines old paradigms of criticism from within to bring to the fore new readings and findings and to contribute to English studies in Hungary. The essays rely upon different approaches including digital humanities, film and drama studies, and social and cultural criticism.

I remember the first time I came upon the figure of Augustus. It wasn't a very good first impression for I met him in the movie Cleopatra (1963) with the beautiful on and off-screen couple of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. I remember pounding at the TV screen wailing in agony as I blamed him for stomping in a place that had nothing to do with him and for destroying Cleopatra and Mark Anthony's "perfect" love. As I watched the main couple die in suicidal ecstasy I pictured myself slapping the smug and triumphant smile off of Octavian's face and ripping his expertly coiffed Hollywood blonde curls out. I was deplored by his narcissistic figure and self-importance. My father warned me that I shouldn't dwell too much on the way they presented Augustus for it was after all, just a movie. Like the dramatic little girl I was, I stomped my foot and declared that I hated Octavian and that I would always hate him. So hate him, I did.

A previously anonymous Death of Cleopatra is here attributed to the Basel-born painter Matthaus Merian the Younger. Besides crucial stylistic connections with his known works, further evidence is given by a signed engraving, which was never associated with any known painting.
The print is inscribed with a poem and a dedication to his patron Baron Septimus Jorger von Toilet. Word and image summarize the fascination and criticism that Cleopatra has aroused since antiquity. Presenting a warning against the power of her seduction while exhibiting her stoic death by virtue of the constancy of her love for Mark Antony, they respond to Merian's adherence to the principles of Neostoicism. Merian creates a remarkably original Cleopatra that provides a key for future identifications of this lesser-known facet of his oeuvre.

This article explores the multiple genealogies of C. P. Cavafy’s
“Caesarion” (1918), a poem often claimed as a key to our understanding
of his historical poetics, by tracing its European cultural
and literary context. Despite his perception as an obsolete and
marginal historical figure, Caesarion was highly recognizable in
the poet’s time and was often portrayed in various contexts, from
scholarly studies to various forms of popular culture. The article
examines the unexpected ways in which Cavafy absorbed and
transformed elements from his main historical source, J. P. Mahaffy’s
"The Empire of the Ptolemies" (1895), and surveys the unknown
series of Caesarion’s literary depictions by several European
authors before the composition of Cavafy’s poem. As this discussion
demonstrates, Caesarion’s composite portrait is marked with insinuations of effeminacy, which may result from Caesarion's enfoldment in the legend of Cleopatra and explain this ancient historical figure’s transformation into an object of homoerotic desire in Cavafy’s
poetry. The article concludes with speculations connecting Cavafy’s
poem to the historical Caesarion’s treatment in early 20th-century
cinematic renderings of the story of Antony and Cleopatra.

Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic explores Shakespeare's representation of the failure of democracy in ancient Rome This book introduces Shakespeare as a historian of ancient Rome alongside figures such as Sallust, Cicero, St Augustine, Machiavelli, Gibbon, Hegel and Nietzsche. It considers Shakespeare’s place in the history of concepts of selfhood and reflects on his sympathy for Christianity, in light of his reception of medieval biblical drama, as well as his allusions to the New Testament. Shakespeare’s critique of Romanitas anticipates concerns about secularisation, individualism and liberalism shared by philosophers such as Hannah Arendt, Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel and Patrick Deneen.

Hasta aquí se ha hablado de festejos y solemnidades varias realmente acaecidos. Y, aunque Marco Antonio y Cleopatra, nuestros protagonistas, también tuvieron una existencia real y fueron famosos por los fastos de su vida en común, aquí van a ser solo protagonistas de papel de unas celebraciones que en la España áurea se habían convertido, por un lado, en proverbiales y casi vulgares, mientras que, por otro, daban lugar a un puñado de obras literarias entre las que sobresale, como veremos, alguna de muy alto nivel.

Detailed notes on the overall themes and structural oppositions of the play --  emphasizing its relation to the other "Roman Plays" and the end of the Roman Republic.  Given the play's connections to the writing of thinkers such as Polybius and Machiavelli, it is argued that the play points to the virtues of a "republican" or mixed regime.

SUMMARY: Updated sources: This power point provides a selection of sources (mainly book publications) dealing with many aspects of Ptolemaic-Roman Egypt, particularly the Hellenistic period, but includes the Roman period and some areas outside Egypt (e.g., Rome).  The power point has a table of contents outlining the various components, which consist of selected sources on Alexander the Great, the history and selected rulers (i.e., reign studies) during the Ptolemaic-Roman period, overviews on Hellenistic royalty/monarchy and their courts, Late Period-Roman period Egyptian interactions with Greeks, Romans and others, Graeco-Roman interactions with the Egyptian frontier and beyond, Ptolemaic-Roman period Alexandria (and its environs), Rome and  Roman architecture, art, etc., the Ancient Landscape of Egypt (especially Ptolemaic-Roman periods), Ptolemaic-Roman settlements in Egypt, Ptol.-Roman cemeteries in Egypt, Ptol.-Roman temples and priests in Egypt, Ptol.-Roman religion in Egypt, music, performance, dance, rituals, etc., some animal cults in Egypt, language and literature, engineering and technology, art and sculpture, men, women, and their appearance (especially clothing/garments), cooking, food, feasting, etc., law and enforcement, the military in Egypt and the Mediterranean Area, the navy in Egypt and the Mediterranean area, documentaries on Ptolemaic-Roman Egypt and related topics, and some other aspects of the Ptolemaic-Roman period (e.g., including non-sorted sources). This resource serves as a starting point for students and course materials I am currently preparing regarding "Cleopatra's World: From Alexander to early Imperial Rome" (2024). More sources will be added over time, but the current ones reflect fairly recent and more easily available sources dealing with the topic area and time frame. UPDATED: Dec. 7, 2024, adding a couple of dozen new sources (now that the course has been completed for the moment in this year's offering); ADDED: Jan.13/14, 2025 some new sources ...

De zeeslag bij Actium (noordwest Griekenland) op 2 september 31 v. Chr. betekende de beslissende overwinning van Octavianus Augustus op zijn tegenstrevers Marcus Antonius en Cleopatra. De betekenis van dit treffen op zee kan nauwelijks onderschat worden. Over het verloop van de daadwerkelijke slag is veel minder bekend en in de loop der eeuwen zijn feit en fictie steeds meer door elkaar gaan lopen. Dit artikel beoogt een reconstructie te geven van de zeeslag.

RE: Facades, illusions & ideological concepts created & promoted by ancient royalty out of necessity; effective creation of an alternate version of reality. It is only by knowing this information that the true nature of ancient texts may be understood correctly. Not knowing, means making incorrect assumptions & conclusions. Important!

Paper explores polarities in roles assigned to Shakespeare’s women characters in
context to societies. Feminism as a strong genre in feminist literature emerged much
later than Elizabethan period. Shakespeare brings forth lesser number of female
characters as compared to roles assigned to male characters. The dramatist chose
men to deliver more dialogues than their female counterparts. An attempt has been
made to explore power politics as brought forth through female gender in
Shakespearean plays.
Keywords: Tempest, Antony & Cleopatra, Hamlet, Elizabethan, Women

"Antony and Cleopatra" is one of the most mature of William Shakespeare’s tragedies. As such, it is arguably one of his finest and deepest works. Pride, love, and the Fall all factor into the play as much as does the contest between temporal politics and eternal love.

Inside:

--Tomb Robbery and Coffin Reuse
Was a coffin really meant for eternity? Was all tomb robbery a lawless abhorrence? We look at Kara Cooney’s study into “legal” coffin reuse. (Spoiler alert: there’s a lot of it!)

--Kleopatra Selene
The melodrama of Cleopatra VII’s political and not-so-private life has been well explored. What is less well known is that Cleopatra and Mark Antony had three children, including a daughter, Kleopatra Selene.

--The Unlucky Mummy
So, you think you know the story of the Unlucky Mummy? Think again. We explore the myths and the surprising truth about THAT mummy board.

--Spirit Birds
Not only could Egypt’s birds represent a specific deity, but also a number of concepts that were crucial to the Egyptians enjoying a successful afterlife.

--The Royal Tombs
In this final abridged instalment of Aidan Dodson’s The Royal Tombs of Ancient Egypt, the New Kingdom pharaohs embrace Senwosret III’s innovation, separate their tombs and temples, and head underground.

--What's New?
Alexandria’s “Big Black Sarcophagus” surprises with some impressed gold sheets, and the world’s oldest cheese yet discovered turns out to be the real evil.

--Plus, The Nile Crossword (NEW!), Looking Back and lots more. Enjoy your Nile time!

In the early modern period, the image of Cleopatra oscillated between that of neo­ Stoic heroine or loyal wife and the whore-queen who with her beauty and seductive arts plunged men into ruin. This second view was dominant until well into the late sixteenth century not only in literature: the critical aspects of contemporary visual depictions of Cleopatra have been overlooked. In particular the motif of the vipers at the breast with its allusion to nursing plays an important role here. Associations with the monstrous, and with well-known pains of hell and personifications of the vices seem quite intentional. This article looks at the origin of the motif from the point of view of the logic of punishment for sin and shows with what pre­cision the idea of a self-inflicted punishment could be implemented using the snakes and other visual clues. A thought pattern paradigmatic in Dante's "Inferno" became a pictorial concept that at the same time promised to take account of both artistic and social challenges.

This paper, written for a volume dedicated to client kingdoms in the Roman Near East, focuses on the Hellenistic background of the Roman system of client kingdoms. It is argued that the Roman system was essentially an adaptation of the complex of subsidiary kingdoms that had existed in (and had survived) the later Seleukid Empire. During the Seleukid centuries, the Middle East saw the emergence of autonomous client kings and other polities under Seleukid hegemony. The Hellenistic patchwork of kingdoms was held together by the charisma and military prestige of the Seleukid ‘Great King’, a status that implied the right to appoint lesser kings and went back to the millennia-old Near Eastern tradition of universal rulership and ontological ideal of world unity. As the rightful, matrilineal heir to the vanished Seleukid dynasty, Kleopatra VII and her son Caesarion possessed the necessary prestige to claim overlordship over the vassal states in the post-Seleukid Middle East, and to rival the Parthian kings’ claim to have acquired the title of Great King / King of Kings by right of victory over the Seleukids. Through Caesar’s and Antony’s paternity of Kleopatra’s children, Hellenistic monarchy could thus be brought into the (republican) Roman orbit.

En su obra Augusto y el poder de las imágenes, Paul Zanker disecciona con brillantez cómo el círculo de Octavio lograría -a través de algo que hoy llamaríamos propaganda y postureo-  hacerse con el gobierno unipersonal en Roma, después del malogrado intento de Julio César, cuyos asesinos, dicho sea de paso, no representaban el sentir general del pueblo romano ni de los principales lobbies de la época. Se presentará como restaurador del orden tradicional, artífice y garante de una suerte de reboot de la Res Publica, dando paso a una nueva edad de oro (y mármol). Pero, en el fondo, irá sumando potestades propias de las máximas magistraturas para volar por encima de todas ellas. Para ello tendría que librar la última de las guerras civiles deudoras de los desajustes derivados de las tensiones entre un modelo político obsoleto y la ineludible dinámica imperialista, resolviendo, como paletas de color del cubo de rubik, los desafíos de un rompecabezas no ausente de contradicciones. 
En la frenética sucesión de subterfugios que se sucedieron en poco más de una década desde el asesinato del dictador fallidamente perpetuo hasta la coniuratio Italiae, la guerra abierta entre los mismos cesarianos, y que dejan a House of Cards a la altura (po)ética de El Ala Oeste de la Casa Blanca, se detecta una maestría en la explotación de la imagen sin parangón en su época. Las monedas, por ejemplo, se revelarán como un arma de difusión masiva de los mensajes políticos. No obstante, el jovencísimo Octavio partía en desventaja frente a Marco Antonio, el general más popular y experimentado. Tuvo que explotar su condición de hijo adoptivo del ya divino César; mostrarse como un nuevo Apolo augurando prosperidad y orden, y, a resguardo de Venus, diosa que se había metido con calzador en el origen de la poco lustrosa gens Iulia, presentarse como último eslabón de los héroes fundadores de Roma, el leitmotiv, recuérdese, de la Eneida de Virgilio, spin off de la Ilíada, con ese Ascanio-Ilo, alias Iulo.
La guerra la ganaron los octavianos desde la comunicación (que seguirían redefiniendo una vez alcanzado el poder): Actium supondría solo la puntilla militar de una victoria que ya habían conseguido en la opinión pública con su campaña de desprestigio sobre Marco Antonio, dándole la vuelta al modelo de vida heroica, feliz y bondadosa que los partidarios de este veían en su figura, a través de su vinculación con Hércules y Baco, figuras que en contexto oriental se asociaban tradicionalmente con la cúspide del poder. Pese a que sus adversarios también intentaron difamar a Octavio, con proclamas que conocemos solo de forma tangencial gracias a Suetonio (el estupro como desencadenante del favor de César, su adicción al juego…), no sabemos cuánto recorrido tuvieron y en ningún caso podían competir con el escándalo levantado por el testamento del triunviro más veterano y su alianza con la última soberana de la dinastía ptolemaica. La intención de anexionar las provincias romanas al protectorado de Egipto, que Antonio regiría junto a Cleopatra VII y sus hijos (y el bastardo de esta con Julio César), más la voluntad de querer ser enterrado en Alejandría junto a su nueva esposa, marcaría un nuevo rumbo: la guerra ya no era entre romanos, sino de Roma, cohesionada ante su verdadero defensor (un Octavio al que se le concederían poderes extraordinarios) contra una potencia extranjera, el reino helenístico de Cleopatra. Poco importó que Antonio retomase una relación diplomática de alto interés geoestratégico y económico iniciada por Julio César. Marco Antonio, además de traidor y mal romano, quedaría reducido para siempre a algo peor: un calzonazos. Se habría dejado embelesar por Cleopatra, anulando su voluntad: era Hércules, pero despojado de su clava y leontea por la reina Ónfale.
Por “síndrome Cleopatra” (no confundir con el de “Eva y la expulsión del paraíso”) entendemos esa forma de desprestigiar al hombre en la medida en que se encuentre demasiado influido -con pérfidos resultados- por su pareja. Sería el reverso tenebroso del tópico igualmente sexista de “detrás de un gran hombre hay una buena mujer”. Curiosamente, en su traslación a nuestra cultura colectiva moderna y contemporánea (literatura y cine mediante), a Cleopatra se le añadió un nuevo matiz que ni siquiera estaba en la versión original: era bellísima. Al “síndrome Cleopatra” se le suma así el “síndrome Helena de Troya”. Y todo ello cuando Plutarco (fuente principal de la ficción desde Shakespeare hasta el Hollywood dorado) precisamente destaca que era irresistible, pero no por su aspecto, sino por su intelecto. Era persuasiva, sí, una superviviente, tremendamente hábil. Y era, no se olvide, la puñetera reina de Egipto, el gran granero del Mediterráneo. Todavía hoy asistimos absortos a titulares del tipo “Cleopatra era fea”, al compás de estudios a destiempo sobre su retrato en las monedas. O al más reciente: “Cleopatra podría no ser egipcia”, estulto e inquietante a partes iguales. Pero eso es otra historia.

Nessuna donna del mondo antico ha esercitato, sui contemporanei come sui posteri, una seduzione tanto potente quanto Cleopatra VII.
A più di duemila anni dalla sua morte, la personalità della regina non ha perduto affatto la sua capacità di attrazione; anzi, ancora meglio dei Faraoni di maggior rilievo storico, incarna simbolicamente il grande e per molti versi ancora misterioso fascino dell’antico Egitto .
L'obbiettivo del mio lavorò sarà quindi quello di ripercorrere, a grandi linee e attraverso alcune tappe fondamentali che segnarono il suo ventennale regno, gli interventi apportati da Cleopatra all'interno dell'economia dell'Egitto. Ma soprattutto il mio scopo sarà quello di analizzare il ruolo svolto dalle sue emissioni monetali a scopo di propaganda, che tanto hanno influenzato la monetazione successiva alla sua morte.

Les pouvoirs émetteurs en Gaule, des origines à l'époque augustéenne Cédric Lopez, Les coins à empreintes multiples : uid des Gaulois ? Benjamin D.R. Hellings & Marguerite Spoerri Butcher, uantifying relative coin production during the reigns of Nerva and Trajan (ad 96-117): Reka Devnia reconsidered in light of regional coin finds from Romania and the Northwest Koenraad Verboven & Wim De Clercq, L'ensemble monétaire (gallo-) romain de Merendree Molenkouter (Fl. Or., Belgique) Nick Vaneerdewegh, Fel Temp Reparatio: image, audience and meaning in the mid-4th century Antony Kropff, Diocletian's currency system aer 1 September 301: an inquiry into values David Martínez Chico, Un depósito de siliquae recortadas hallado en Teruel (Aragón) y asociado a clavi caligarii (post 408-411 d.C.) P.A.M. Beliën & W.A.B. van der Sanden, A sixth-century solidi hoard from the Netherlands (Zeegse 2014) Jérôme Jambu, Consulter, proposer, décider : Le processus d'élaboration d'une réforme des monnaies en pays frontalier (Flandre, 1685) Raf Van Laere, Loden penningen en aanverwante objecten operaven in de Verdronken Weide te Ieper (14de eeuw) Jan Moens, Reliability of the estimation methods of the total number of dies based on the Esty model * Chargédelacollectiondesmonnaiesgrecques,départementdesMonnaies,médailles& antiques,BibliothèquenationaledeFrance,58ruedeRichelieu,75002Paris.

Cleopatra has always been one of Shakespeare’s most controversial characters. As an ambitious, sexually-aggressive woman from the non-Western world, she seems to embody all of the conflicting and confused attitudes towards gender and race of Elizabethan England. Though some might view her treatment in the play as negative, or even “anti-feminist,” the odd mix of praise and censure that runs throughout seems to belie any definitive reading. Regardless of her author’s intentions, the overall impression that emerges of Cleopatra is a highly-favorable and sympathetic one. She is truly one of his greatest, tragic, and most complicated characters—of either sex.

Qui ne connaît pas la fin de la célèbre Cléopâtre qui mourut par la morsure d’un serpent ? Son destin brutalement achevé en l’an 30 av. J.-C., à l’aube de ses 40 ans, est digne d’une tragédie antique. Et là est toute la question : les sources antiques sont-elles vraiment fiables ou ont-elles composé et mis en scène, pour la postérité, les derniers moments de la souveraine la plus célèbre de l’Antiquité ?

Edinburgh Critical Studies in Shakespeare and Philosophy takes seriously the speculative and world-making properties of Shakespeare's art. Maintaining a broad view of 'philosophy' that accommodates fi rst-order questions of metaphysics, ethics, politics and aesthetics, the series also expands our understanding of philosophy to include the unique kinds of theoretical work carried out by performance and poetry itself. These scholarly monographs will reinvigorate Shakespeare studies by opening new interdisciplinary conversations among scholars, artists and students.

Between the late 1620s and late 1640s, Jacques Blanchard, Simon Vouet, and Claude Vignon all painted the femme forte, a type of exemplary, heroic womanhood whose popularity was linked to the presence of Marie de Medici and Anne of Austria on the royal stage. This article puts French paintings of femmes fortes (strong women) from the early seventeenth century into conversation with period discourse regarding the reception of paintings and the status of women. Pictorial representation tended to cast the femme forte into contexts that compromised her exemplary status. Nude, on the verge of death by her own hand, the figure of the femme forte invited the very kind of sensual consumption that the femme forte herself attempted to disavow. Yet the ultimate threat posed by the femme forte was that her image might ‘trick’ male viewers into unwise actions.