Aug 29– "Antony" from Plutarch’s Lives translated by Dryden and revised by Arthur Hugh Clough

 Cleopatra, probably

Aug 29– Antony from Plutarch’s Lives translated by Dryden and revised by Arthur Hugh Clough

Summary:

Commentary: Plutarch is doing the, "accidentally made X sound cool" thing with Cleopatra here. She speaks all these languages, yanks Antony around for a while, seduces him, and out pranks him. She also manages to be the original Manic Pixie Dreamgirl:

  To return to Cleopatra; Plato admits four sorts of flattery,

  but she had a thousand.  Were Antony serious or disposed to

  mirth, she had at any moment some new delight or charm to meet

  his wishes; at every turn she was upon him, and let him escape

  her neither by day nor by night.  She played at dice with him,

  drank with him, hunted with him; and when he exercised in arms,

  she was there to see.  At night she would go rambling with him

  to disturb and torment people at their doors and windows,

  dressed like a servant-woman, for Antony also went in servant's

  disguise, and from these expeditions he often came home very

  scurvily answered, and sometimes even beaten severely, though

  most people guessed who it was.  

This was slightly more interesting than the other Lives but Plutarch is, as usual, unfocused and light on detail.