Cosmic imagery in Shakespeare

(Pheobus: the sun, the heavens, spheres)

Summary of PP content• Throughout ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ cosmic imagery is referenced on multiple occasions

• It is most prominent in scenes where Antony and Cleopatra are talking about one another

• This power point has been constructed to:

• show the most prominent instances of cosmic imagery throughout the play

• explain why the play is underscored with references to cosmic imagery

• Show why the Elizabethan audiences were interested in cosmology

Most prominent uses• “His face was as the heavens and therein stuck a sun and moon which kept their

course and lighted the little 'O the earth”

-Cleopatra

• “His legs bestrid the ocean: his reared arm crested the world; his voice was propertied as all the tuned spheres, and that to friends; but when he meant to quail and shake the orb, he was as rattling thunder”

• -Cleopatra

Why is the play underscored by cosmic imagery?

• Shakespeare used cosmic imagery to give the audience an amplified sense of a meaning, for example “She was beautiful” doesn’t produce the same kind of imagery as “She was more beautiful than all the stars in the heavens combined”

Why were Elizabethan audiences interested in cosmic imagery

• During the Elizabethan Era everyone barring maybe philosophers and scientists were highly superstitious

Unlike today where we can explain most things with science they didn’t have that back then.

• So instead believed everything was the work of cosmic forces, such as gods and magic.

• When something cosmic is brought into a play it is immediately captivating to the audience because it is explaining the unknown.