Cleopatra plans to commit suicide rather than be taken to Rome and paraded as a captive by Caesar. She is a queen and wants to die in a queenly manner. She obviously wants to look her best because she expects to meet Mark Antony again in the afterlife. She makes many references to seeing Antony after she dies. The Egyptians strongly believed in an afterlife, and Cleopatra is no exception. Proof that she is dressing in her best apparel for Antony is shown in the following:
Methinks I hear
Antony call. I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act. I hear him mock
The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
To excuse their after wrath. Husband, I come:
Now to that name my courage prove my title!
When she says "rouse himself" she means come back to life. It is significant that she calls Antony "Husband." Theirs is one of the great love stories of history.
Shakespeare is thinking of the spectacle Cleopatra's suicide will make on his stage. As usual, he uses few stage directions, but when Cleopatra orders her servants to bring her robe and put on her crown, two women will approach her and one will crown her while the other helps her into her robe. The audience knows that Cleopatra is about to commit suicide with the poisonous snakes she just procured. The spectacle will be most effective if Cleopatra is dressed like a queen when she applies two snakes to her breasts. It is a question of contrast—a beautiful queen and two snakes. Shakespeare didn't want her to look defeated and destitute but proud and noble. The opening lines prepare the audience to experience what is the most moving scene in the whole play.
Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have
Immortal longings in me.
This suicide scene is one of the most beautiful scenes Shakespeare ever wrote. Some of the lines are incredible. She picks up one of the snakes and says:
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie.
The venom takes effect immediately, and she speaks the rest of her lines in a sort of hypnotic trance. She imagines she has a baby at her breast rather than a snake. This is another example of how Shakespeare "feminizes" a male actor wearing a wig and woman's clothing.
Peace, peace!
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?
Then, still in a trance, she talks about the experience of dying (something we all wonder about).
As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle--
O Antony! Nay, I will take thee too.
This is marvelous! When she searches for a simile for "gentle" she naturally remembers the man she loves, who could be very tender, and she cries, "O Antony!" Then when she says, "Nay, I will take thee too," she imagines the other snake is a second baby showing that it also wants to be breast-fed. She picks it up and applies it to her other breast. No doubt Shakespeare also has her put on a voluminous robe when she says, "Give me my robe," because the male actor has no breasts and will have to place both of the snakes inside the half-open robe to hide them from the audience.
Thus Shakespeare commemorates a real moment in history.
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