Modern Age - Winter 2017 - 83

LITERATURE AND MORALITY

patriotism, that self-sacrifice, even self-control, must not cause
one to relinquish self-fulfillment. This rather glamorous tragedy
would seem to be just what Dr. Johnson deprecated in Shakespeare's theatre: surely it can be said of Antony and Cleopatra
that "we lose the abhorrence of their faults, because they do not
hinder our pleasure or, perhaps, regard them with some kindness
for being united with so much merit." Octavian and his sister
Octavia are virtuous and honorable; they are also dull, and it is
a rare playgoer who leaves the theatre resolved to emulate their
stern Roman constancy.
We should, however, at least consider the possibility that the
apparent immorality of Antony and Cleopatra is actually a defect
in the cultural formation of modern audiences. Wimsatt himself
in a note quotes Dryden's preface to All for Love, his adaptation
of Shakespeare's original:20 "I doubt not but the same motive has
prevailed with all of us in this attempt: I mean the excellency of the
moral. For the chief persons represented were famous patterns
of unlawful love; and their end was accordingly unfortunate."21
Wimsatt finds Dryden's adaptation less provocative than Shakespeare's: "The victimized Octavia is a pallid and remote figure,
never (as in Dryden's version) made to appear as a rival motive to
the Egyptian seductions."22
But Dryden himself worries that this is an artistic fault because
it was already difficult to build sympathy for the illicit lovers: "for the
crimes of love which they both committed were not occasioned
by any necessity, or fatal ignorance, but were wholly voluntary;
since our passions are, or ought to be, within our power." Hence
he worries that he has spoiled the tragic effect by excessively
diminishing the moral standing of the tragic hero and heroine by
bringing Octavia into Alexandria:
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Modern Age - Winter 2017

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Contents
Modern Age - Winter 2017 - Cover1
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Modern Age - Winter 2017 - Contents
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