Ah, Cleopatra, a woman who has inspired countless plays, poems, books, and films…
Statue of Cleopatra, Hampton Court Palace. Photo: Andrea Zuvich
As found in John Dunton’s “The Ladies Dictionary” of 1694:
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt:
The Wealth she wore about her seem’d to hide,
Not to adorn her Native Beauty’s Pride,
Tho there bright Pearls from
the Or’ential shoars,
From all th’Assyrian Lakes,
and wealthy Stores
Of Silves Ganges and Hy-
daspes shone,
From Egypt’s Eastern Isles
the Gold like Stone,
and cheerful Emeraulds ga-
ther’d from the Green
Arabian Rocks, were in full
splendor seen,
Pale Onyx, Jasper, of a va-
rious dye,
And Diamonds darken’d by
her brighter Eye;
The Saphires blew by her
more Azure veins,
Hung not to boast, but to
confess their stains,
And bushing Rubies seem’d
to lose their dye,
When her more Ruby Lips
were moving by;
It seem’d so well became her
what she wore,
She had not Robb’d at all
the Creatures store,
But had been Nature’s self,
there to have show’d,
What she on Creatures cou’d,
or had bestow’d.
