Caesar and Cleopatra

Caesar is alone at night in the Egyptian desert, apostrophizing a statue of the Sphinx. Caesar is startled when a young girl, Cleopatra, addresses him from the paws of the Sphinx. He climbs up to her, thinking he is dreaming. She is full of superstitions about cats and Nile water.She tells Caesar she is there because the Romans are coming to eat her people. Caesar sees that he is not dreaming and identifies himself to Cleopatra as a Roman. She is terror-stricken, but Caesar tells her that he will eat her unless she can show herself to him as a woman, not a girl. Cleopatra puts herself in the hands of this Roman and they move to her throne room. Caesar tries to persuade Cleopatra to act like a queen; Ftatateeta enters and begins to order Cleopatra about until the nurse is chased from the room. Caesar orders Cleopatra's servants to dress her in her royal robes. When Roman soldiers enter and salute Caesar, Cleopatra finally realizes who he is and, with a sob of relief, falls into his arms.The ten-year-old king Ptolemy is delivering a speech from the throne in Alexandria, prompted by his tutor and guardian. Caesar enters and demands taxes, then calls for Cleopatra.

Autorentext

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950). Irish playwright, author, political activist.
George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin 1856. He was sent to various schools in Dublin but developed a great dislike for the formalised education systems and widespread use of corporal punishment which was prevalent at the time.
After working as a clerk in Dublin for several years, in 1876, Shaw left for London to join his mother who was living there. In London, he began reading extensively and writing his first novels. He also became increasingly devoted to the ideals of socialism. He joined the Fabian society and became one of its leading writers and activists, inspiring and helping activists such as Annie Besant. With fellow Fabians such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb, he helped found the London School of Economics (LSE) after receiving private bequests.
In 1898 he married Charlotte Payne Townshend, a fellow Irish Fabian. The marriage was never consummated and they remained childless. In 1906, they moved to Ayot St Lawrence in Hertfordshire, where they lived for the remainder of their lives.
By the 1890s, Shaw's plays were being performed in London. The income from his plays enabled him to devote his life to writing. Like his contemporary, Oscar Wilde, Shaw's plays were popular for their biting wit and humour. His plays were in contrast to many Victorian plays which tended to be sentimental, escapist and lacking in satire. Shaw wrote he was influenced by Henrik Ibsen who helped pioneer more realistic modern drama.
As a committed Socialist, Shaw infused his plays with his concepts of social justice and issues of class. For example, one of his best known plays Pygmalion (1912-13) (later made into a film and musical My Fair Lady) deals with the class divide which characterised British society at the time. However, to the disappointment of Shaw, his plays were mainly enjoyed as entertainment, rather than political commentary.
As well as plays, Shaw wrote novels, short stories and was a noted literary critic. In particular, he was influential in criticising the Victorian preference for performing edited Shakespeare plays.
By the start of the First World War, Shaw was a well-known playwright, so his strident opposition to the First World War gained him much criticism. He felt governments had coerced the population into needless wars. In Heartbreak House (1919) he said:

"It is said that every people has the Government it deserves. It is more to the point that every Government has the electorate it deserves; for the orators of the front bench can edify or debauch an ignorant electorate at will. Thus our democracy moves in a vicious circle of reciprocal worthiness and unworthiness."