Antony and Cleopatra 2025 IGCSE Past Question
WILLIAMS SHAKESPEARE: Antony and Cleopatra 2025 IGCSE Past Question
Either 1(a) Read this passage, and then answer the question that follows it:
EROS:
What would my lord?
ANTONY:
Since Cleopatra died,
I have liv’d in such dishonour that the gods
Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword
Quarter’d the world, and o’er green Neptune’s back
With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack
The courage of a woman; less noble mind
Than she which by her death our Caesar tells
‘I am conqueror of myself’. Thou art sworn, Eros,
That, when the exigent should come – which now
Is come indeed – when I should see behind me
Th’ inevitable prosecution of Disgrace and horror, that, on my command,
Thou then wouldst kill me. Do’t; the time is come.
Thou strik’st not me; ’tis Caesar thou defeat’st.
Put colour in thy cheek.
EROS:
The gods withold me!
Shall I do that which all the Parthian darts,
Though enemy, lost aim and could not?
ANTONY:
Eros,
Wouldst thou be window’d in great Rome and see
Thy master thus with pleach’d arms, bending down
His corrigible neck, his face subdu’d
To penetrative shame, whilst the wheel’d seat
Of fortunate Caesar, drawn before him, branded
His baseness that ensued?
EROS:
I would not see’t.
ANTONY:
Come, then; for with a wound I must be cur’d.
Draw that thy honest sword, which thou hast worn
Most useful for thy country.
EROS:
O, sir, pardon me!
ANTONY:
When I did make thee free, swor’st thou not then
To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once,
Or thy precedent services are all
But accidents unpurpos’d. Draw, and come.
EROS:
Turn from me then that noble countenance,
Wherein the worship of the whole world lies.
ANTONY:
Lo thee! [Turning from him.]
EROS:
My sword is drawn.
ANTONY:
Then let it do at once
The thing why thou hast drawn it.
EROS:
My dear master,
My captain and my emperor, let me say,
Before I strike this bloody stroke, farewell.
ANTONY:
’Tis said, man; and farewell.
EROS:
Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike
ANTONY:
Now, Eros.
EROS:
Why, there then! Thus do I escape the sorrow
Of Antony’s death. [Kills himself.]
ANTONY:
Thrice nobler than myself!
Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what
I should, and thou couldst not. My queen and Eros
Have, by their brave instruction, got upon me
A nobleness in record. But I will be
A bridegroom in my death, and run into’t
As to a lover’s bed. Come, then; and, Eros,
Thy master dies thy scholar. To do thus
[Falling on his sword.]
I learn’d of thee. How? not dead? not dead? –
The guard, ho! O, dispatch me!
[Enter DERCETAS and a Guard.]
1 GUARD:
What’s the noise?
ANTONY:
I have done my work ill, friends. O, make an end
Of what I have begun.
2 GUARD:
The star is fall’n.
1 GUARD:
And time is at his period.
ALL:
Alas, and woe!
ANTONY:
Let him that loves me, strike me dead.
(from Act 4, Scene 14)
Question
1 (a) In what ways does Shakespeare make this such a tragic moment in the play?
Or
1(b) How does Shakespeare’s portrayal of Pompey contribute to the dramatic impact of the play.
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