Mark Antony

In approving of Sally, the marvelous Murphys had been guilty of no lapse from their high critical standard.

I have been asked, proceeded Mr. Fawcett, though I am aware that there are others here far worthier of such a task, Brutuses compared with whom I, like Mark Antony, am no orator.

I have been asked to propose the health Who asked you? It was the smaller of the marvelous Murphys who spoke.

He was an unpleasant youth, snub-nosed and spotty.

Yes, exactly.

This is the famous conference in Bononia where, uh, the three kind of people who emerged victorious and alive from the civil wars, Lepidus, Mark Antony, and Octavius, um, met on an island, patted one another down to make sure no one had a concealed weapon, and then carved up the world, and then turned to the question of how they were to pay their soldiers, who were watching from the riverbanks where this, where the island was.

And, uh, they decided on proscriptions, as they called it, which was an extreme form of wealth tax, whereby they killed the top thousand wealthiest people in the country.

And Mark Antony said, "This could look bad.

We should, uh, each of us should sacrifice someone known to be close to us." And he went first, and he agreed that his uncle could be killed.

Lepidus went-

I mean, it's a male society, and, um, it's, it's a, it's a book about m- men, de- definitely.

But on the other hand, there are strong women in the book, and they do, they do have some say in the action.

So that was fascinating.

There were lots of other big characters like Mark Antony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.

And, you know, it was – several of them enjoyed writing a book as much as I did this one.

Is Actium the big naval showdown between Cleopatra, Mark Antony versus the other side? Is that kind of your favorite battle?

That is my favorite battle, yes.

Simply because, well, more than 20,000 men were involved and 400 or 500 ships.

And right until the last minute, it was unclear who was going to win.

And in the end, Cleopatra sailed away with the Egyptian fleet on which she had all the wealth of Egypt.

There was Joseph L. Mankiewicz's, shout out All About Eve, his movie Julius Caesar.

With Brando, right? Marlon Brando took the meaty role of Mark Antony.

He lost his third best actor Oscar in as many ceremonies.

And then The Robe took a different approach, focusing on a slightly more modern but more fantastical times, following a Roman soldier who helps to crucify Jesus and then finds himself in possession of his robe, an artifact that will begin to torment him psychologically.

Let me give one more instance of dramatic action.

When Antony speaks above the body of Caesar, he says, You all do know this mantle? I remember the first time ever Caesar put it on.

was on a summer's evening in his tent that day he overcame the nervii look in this place ran cassius's dagger through see what a rent the envious casca made through this the well-beloved brutus stabbed and as he plucked his cursed steel away mark how the blood of caesar followed it part seven there are men and many of them who are always trying to show that somebody else chiseled the statue or painted the picture that the poem is attributed to the wrong man and that the battle was really won by a subordinate of course shakespeare made use of the work of others and we might almost say of all others every writer must use the work of others the only question is how the accomplishments of other minds are used whether as a foundation to build higher or whether stolen to the end that the thief may make a reputation for himself without adding to the great structure of literature thousands of people have stolen stones from the colosseum to make huts for themselves so thousands of writers have taken the thoughts of others with which to adorn themselves these are plagiarists but the man who takes the thought of another adds to it gives it intensity and poetic form throb and life is in the highest sense original shakespeare found nearly all of his facts in the writings of others and was indebted to others for most of the stories of his plays the question is not who furnished the stone or who owned the quarry but who chiseled the statue we now know all the books that shakespeare could have read and consequently know many of the sources of his information we find in Pliny's Natural History, published in 1601, the following, quote, the sea puntus evermore floweth and runneth out to the propuntus, but the sea never retireth back again with the impuntus, close quote.

This was a raw material, and out of it Shakespeare made the following, Quote, like to the Pontic Sea, whose icy current and compulsive course ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due unto the pro-Pontic and the Hellespont, even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, shall ne'er turn back, ne'er ebb to humble love, till that a capable and wide revenge swallow them up.

Thou rememberest, since once I sat on a promontory and heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath that the rude sea grew civil at her song, and certain stars shot madly from their spheres to hear the sea-maid's music.

This is so marvelously told that it almost seems probable.

So the description of Mark Antony.

For his bounty there was no winter in it, and autumn t'was that grew the more by reaping.

the young men were deeply stirred by the music of the venerable master and handel stored away in his incredible retentive memory ideas which were to fertilize his imagination in later years the two youths actually competed for the post of organist and might like bach have won it but for the provision that whoever succeeded a retiring organist in lbeck had to marry the daughter or widow of his predecessor in this case the daughter seems to have been more than usually undesirable and like their famous contemporary the excursionists from hamburg turned their backs on Presently the friendship was imperiled once more, this time with what might have been disastrous results.

In October 1704, an opera, Cleopatra, which Madison had composed to a text by a certain Friedrich Feustkling, was produced with the composer in the part of Mark Antony and Handel at the harpsichord.

the piece won a success but on a later occasion matteson antony being dead hastened into the orchestra and tried to push handel from the instrument A quarrel flared up immediately, which seems to have broken up the performance and have lasted half an hour.

In the end, the throng repaired to the Gensmarket, outside the theatre.

The Greek historian, Starobo, studied there decades later, calling it the finest library from its antiquity.

But Mark Antony reportedly gave Cleopatra 200,000 scrolls from a rival library in Pergamon as a gift.

seemingly to help restock what had been lost if the whole library had burned to ashes in 48 bc none of this makes sense right definitely so the most likely you know what burnt were warehouse holding some scrolls near the harbor a real loss but not the debt of the institution right So there are so many angles

that

Mark.

Mark Antony is actually my name.

Technically Mark Antonio, born in Rome.

And your Scott Besson interview.