Some notes on and views of this enigmatic figure of such importance to Antony and Cleopatra. (Also available here as a PDF file. Requires Acrobat Reader; can then be saved to your computer.)
Furthermore, he dealt very friendly and courteously with Domitius, and against Cleopatra’s mind. For, he being sick of an ague when he went and took a little boat to go unto Caesar’s camp, Antonius was very sorry for it, but yet he sent after him all his carriage, train and men; and the same Domitius, as though he gave him to understand that he repented his open treason, he died immediately after.Shakespeare’s Plutarch, ed. T. J. .B. Spencer (Penguin), Thomas North’s translation (1579)
Scenes in which Enobarbus appears: 1.2, 2.2, 2.6, 2.7, 3.2, 3.5, 3.7, 3.10, 3.13, 4.2, (4.5), 4.6, 4.9
Emrys Jones, Scenic Form in Shakespeare (Oxford, 1971):
• The play’s strongest supporting character and a structural device of great importance to the play’s dramatic effect, like the traditional figure of the Vice. (The Vice: a character in a morality play representing one or other vice; hence, a stage jester or buffoon. OED.)
• In the Vice tradition in other ways, too. For example: consider 2.2 — his rude interjections cause Antony to silence him. 3.7, silences Cleopatra via a characteristic Vice trick — ll 4-10: the Vice often made an improper remark which, when challenged, he covered up with an innocent gloss.
• Antony’s bluff soldier counsellor: exalts military life over love; therefore represents a structural principle of opposition to the dominant values of Egypt.
• Enjoys a sense of rapport with audience: off-hand informality which frequently arouses laughter — controlled indecorum. Imagine first two Acts without him: he contributes to play’s sense of inner perspective. Contributes and generates dramatic energy; arouses spirit of irreverence, mockery and humour. Sardonic.
• Loyal, but changes in second part of play, becoming tragically entangled in fall of Antony. Exercises key role here in guiding audience’s response. So, Shakespeare dramatises the complete process by which Enobarbus comes to leave Antony. In so doing, explores the conflict between a loyalty which may become, or seem to become, ‘mere folly’, and a disloyalty which may seem approved by reason. Dies acutely conscious (like other main characters) of the way posterity will remember him: as a deserter. The sad irony is that that is how he was remembered by the one historian who noticed his existence. The place Enobarbus ‘earns i’ th’ story’ is not, in the play, the one he expects.
Graham Bradshaw, Shakespeare’s Scepticism (Harvester Press, 1987):
Shakespeare has invented Enobarbus ... in order to project our own judgmental dilemma onto a character whose very life depends on a comparable choice. Enobarbus’ great speech on Cleopatra shows how he responds — like Antony and his great predecessors — to Cleopatra’s power to provoke desire and compel the imagination; and he provides the most sensitive register of the way in which Antony’s own prodigal generosity of feeling inspires loyalty and devotion, unlike Octavius’ ‘temper’ and ‘measure’. But when Enobarbus is brought to acknowledge that following Antony is self-destructive or suicidal, he goes over to the other side — and dies, apparently from the force of his own despairing conviction that life on these terms is not worth living, let alone saving. We see Enobarbus being pressed ... to arrive at an answer to the question, ‘In what, ultimately, does the significance of life reside?’ And this returns us to what is most challenging in Antony’s ‘Let Rome in Tyber melt’ speech, or Cleopatra’s ‘Think you there was, or might be ... ?’ Because the characters’ answers have consequences, and because we see how Enobarbus lives, and dies from, his answers, we are reminded that taking a ‘Roman’ view of the lovers also has consequences. Our own judgmental dilemma is being framed within the play by those dual or multiple perspectives which the play itself provides in furnishing opposed views of its characters and of issues like love and honour. ... We are (very daringly) not told how Enobarbus dies; he appears to die, like some North American Indians, from the intensity of his wish not to go on living. This is a paradoxical affirmation because he comes to regard that prudential decision which could have prolonged his life as a denial of those values which, for him, sustain life.
G. Wilson Knight, ‘The Diadem of Love’, in The Imperial Theme (London, 1931):
Through the early Acts he is very loveable, faithful to Antony, his caustic and illuminating commentary never quite hiding his warmth of heart. Often he is a chorus to the action: from time to time he voices that common-sense wisdom which is usually forgotten in the visionary brilliance. He both favours and criticises Antony’s reckless love. He, too, wavers, like the others. (See 1.2.11-12, 146-8, 156-8, 164, 185.) Notice the contrasts — between ‘women’ and a ‘great cause’; or the ‘business’ of state (1.2.183) and the ‘business’ referred to by Enobarbus, the business of love. War and Love ... In 2.2 he speaks his fine descriptions of Cleopatra’s magic fascination; but later he sternly opposes Antony’s rashness. He is the spokesman of enlightened common sense, both appreciative and critical. Often he sees the truth whilst his superiors blunder at cross-purposes. (For example: 2.2, 3.7.) ... Enobarbus recognises that loyalty may be called to rule by common sense (3.11.41). ... when he sees Cleopatra herself descend to treacherous betrayal (Enobarbus decides to leave Antony, 3.11). ... Cleopatra is treacherous, Antony a fool. He (Enobarbus) has all reason on his side. ... Antony’s rash conduct, kissing away all chances of success, for the sake of an unprincipled and disloyal woman, will ruin not only himself but his followers. ... He (Enobarbus ) is rationally excused. But events, as always in this play, press Enobarbus on to realisation of his true self. He deserts. He finds deserters coldly received by Caesar. Alexas was hanged (4.6.16). Canidius and others have ‘no honourable trust’ (4.6.18). Now he knows his fault (4.6.18). A soldier brings news that Antony has sent his treasure after him with ‘his bounty overplus’ (4.6.22). Now knowledge of his baseness inrushes, and he shivers in naked shame (4.6.30V). ... Enobarbus has throughout been a common-sense commentary on the action: this is the action’s commentary on common sense ... all expediency is dust and ashes beside the living flame of his love. ... In Enobarbus, in Antony, in Cleopatra, the same thing rings out: a wavering, a failing of trust in love’s unreason, a swift and beauteous recovery in death.
Harley Granville-Barker, Prefaces to Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra, (London, 1930): see pp 101-103.
John Wilders, editor, Antony and Cleopatra (The Arden Shakespeare, 1995): see p 59.
