This passage, adapted from Plutarch, describes a scene of feminine sumptuousness and sensual delight. The barge becomes indivisible from the body of the Queen. Cleopatra is fanned by cherubs as the perfumed sails are fanned by the winds and the water upon which the vessel floats desires the strokes of its silver oars. The female character of the ship is extended to the female crew and Cleopatra s attendants. Her gentlewomen, like Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i the eyes, And made their bends adornings.
Lavish excess replaces the poetic.
Leggy dancers usher in a bull and dance about it suggestively. Though Cleopatra s cat dancers frighten off Antony s hounds, they delight the stimulated Antony. The wine flows and Cleopatra further erodes his resolve. She puts a flower in his hair and playfully threatens him with a phallus shaped implement. At her command, the canopy raises, petals fall, and their union is consummated.