George Bernard Shaw & Bauer Books 
Caesar and Cleopatra 

Caesar and Cleopatra is a play of vivid pictures and superb effects: in the desert at night an old Roman general speaks to a small Sphinx, oblivious to the child-woman asleep between its paws; the child-woman Cleopatra chooses the old general as her protector, against Caesar “who eats children, ” not realizing, until the Romans troops begin shouting “Hail Caesar” that her old general and Caesar are one in the same; Caesar arming himself for battle while the Library of Alexandria is burning in the background; Cleopatra in a carpet, unrolled and revealed to a surprisingly indifferent Caesar; Caesar and Cleopatra swimming to safety; a female assassin, with her throat cut, crumpled before an altar, is disclosed when a curtain is pulled back; amid the splendor of Caesar’s farewell procession, Cleopatra and her women appear, dressed in black.