Modern Age - Spring 2016 - 34

MODERN AGE

SPRING 2016

"Lord of lords, / O infinite virtue, com'st thou smiling from / The
world's great snare uncaught?" (Antony and Cleopatra, 4.8.16-18).
Antony's "infinite virtue" is his military prowess, although surely
Cleopatra has also in mind the power of love in Antony's life to
overcome all considerations of politics and world affairs.
Nor is virtue in this sense of physical strength of purpose confined to men. Cleopatra knows a liar when she hears one: when
Octavius Caesar falsely promises her merciful treatment in Rome,
she says, "He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not / Be
noble to myself" (5.2.191-92); she escapes his plotting by committing suicide through "the joy of the asp." When, in Julius Caesar, Brutus's wife, Portia, is troubled by her husband's distracted
behavior after he has been visited by the conspirators against
Caesar's life, she tells him that he has some "sick offense within
your mind, / Which by the right and virtue of my place / I ought to
know of" (2.1.269-71). In the same scene, she shows the strength
of her virtuous loyalty to Brutus-that is, a loyalty informed by
decisive action-by showing him the wound she has given herself in the thigh as a "strong proof of my constancy" (2.1.300).
Shakespearean virtue is not satisfied with half measures.
Shakespeare frequently shows us that virtue is not so much a
static state of character to be achieved as it is a dynamic activity
to be continually renewed, an idea Aristotle suggested in his definition of happiness as eudaemonia, "virtuous activity." Echoing
closely this definition, Lucentio at the beginning of The Taming of
the Shrew tells his servant that he has come to Padua to study that
part of philosophy "that treats of happiness / By virtue specially
to be achieved" (1.1.19-20). The animating power of virtue is also
seen in Hamlet's telling the visiting actors that their playacting
should show "virtue her feature" (3.2.23)-that is, should bring
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Modern Age - Spring 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Spring 2016

Contents
Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Cover1
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Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Contents
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