The second story in Unrecorded Histories (1933) is called 'A Morning in Spring' and takes place on the day Caesar was assassinated in 42 BC. According to Ricketts's fancy, Cleopatra, who had been living in Rome for two years in the palace of the autocrat, had bought a small villa near the capital, where she secretly returned after Caesar had sent her back to Egypt. Here she would receive her new lover, Marc Antony.
Cleopatra, despite her veneer of Greek culture, had a profound belief in magic, fostered by her old nurse Tui, and Amenothes was almost the ruler of the queen's household.
He, her 'Egyptian soothsayer', used coloured sands and small idols to predict the future, and the signs were obscure: 'Absence and departure'. The absence turned out to be Julius Caesar's who was murdered that morning. The departure was Cleopatra's who subsequently escaped to Egypt. Thus, her absence from Rome was also predicted by Amenothes.
Marc Antony had sent a letter because he was delayed. Cleopatra feared that the 'absence' meant he would not arrive at all.
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| Charles Ricketts, 'A Morning in Spring' |
They were not yet lovers, apparently. While she reclined on a silver couch, she mused about his body:
What would the naked Antony look like? Well enough, for he had kept his body in athletic condition.
Presently, he arrived:
Cleopatra did not listen to his explanations. She merely noted the small beads of sweat upon his full brow, crowned with a matted pelt of auburn hair, his superb neck and his physical splendour which the loose-fitting tunic did not conceal.
The servants withdrew and Marc Antony 'mounted the silver couch'.
With delicate laughter his mistress unfastened the fibulae of his tunic [...] the lovers embraced and became united.
They did not take heed of a young black servant, 'cup in hand filled with wine-drenched snow'.
The illustration shows the silver couch and Cleopatra, the servant holding the cup, and the naked Marc Antony who 'began to put on his tunic' after a debate about the question who of them would follow or not follow the other. Ricketts's illustration confuses the moments of the attendance by the servant and Antony who was getting dressed. Unless, of course Ricketts meant to illustrate the fact that the servant stood by while their lovemaking was in progress and their discussion endured. However, the gesture seems to be that of a servant presenting a drink, not of someone who has been standing there for an hour waiting.
Finally, the message of Caesar's murder arrived, and Antony looked on as Cleopatra was brought to safety by her servants.
Already his mistress was being carried to the garden threshold, when she stretched out her lovely arms and cried:
'Farewell, farewell for ever!...
Forget Cleopatra.'
Of course, in reality they were reunited, and Cleopatra would bear him three children.
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Charles Ricketts, sketch for Unrecorded Histories
[Collection British Museum: 1946,0209.122]
[Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license]
[© With permission of the executors of the Charles Ricketts estate,
Leonie Sturge-Moore and the heirs of Charmain O'Neil] |
The original drawing for the illustration is rather messy, and the servant seems not to hold anything, or turn his head to the left. Ricketts's portrait of the servant is rather stereotypical for a black man, while his portraits of Marc Antony - his face is invisible - and Cleopatra - her famous nose is not depicted - are more general in character.
