Caesar and Cleopatra | Page 7

Ftatateeta, the Queen's chief nurse.
THE WOMEN (calling into the palace). Ftatateeta, Ftatateeta. Come,
come. Speak to Belzanor.
A WOMAN. Oh, keep back. You are thrusting me on the spearheads.
A huge grim woman, her face covered with a network of tiny wrinkles,
and her eyes old, large, and wise; sinewy handed, very tall, very strong;
with the mouth of a bloodhound and the jaws of a bulldog, appears on
the threshold. She is dressed like a person of consequence in the palace,
and confronts the guardsmen insolently.

FTATATEETA. Make way for the Queen's chief nurse.
BELZANOR. (with solemn arrogance). Ftatateeta: I am Belzanor, the
captain of the Queen's guard, descended from the gods.
FTATATEETA. (retorting his arrogance with interest). Belzanor: I am
Ftatateeta, the Queen's chief nurse; and your divine ancestors were
proud to be painted on the wall in the pyramids of the kings whom my
fathers served.
The women laugh triumphantly.
BELZANOR (with grim humor) Ftatateeta: daughter of a long-tongued,
swivel-eyed chameleon, the Romans are at hand. (A cry of terror from
the women: they would fly but for the spears.) Not even the
descendants of the gods can resist them; for they have each man seven
arms, each carrying seven spears. The blood in their veins is boiling
quicksilver; and their wives become mothers in three hours, and are
slain and eaten the next day.
A shudder of horror from the women. Ftatateeta, despising them and
scorning the soldiers, pushes her way through the crowd and confronts
the spear points undismayed.
FTATATEETA. Then fly and save yourselves, O cowardly sons of the
cheap clay gods that are sold to fish porters; and leave us to shift for
ourselves.
BELZANOR. Not until you have first done our bidding, O terror of
manhood. Bring out Cleopatra the Queen to us and then go whither you
will.
FTATATEETA (with a derisive laugh). Now I know why the gods
have taken her out of our hands. (The guardsmen start and look at one
another). Know, thou foolish soldier, that the Queen has been missing
since an hour past sun down.
BELZANOR (furiously). Hag: you have hidden her to sell to Caesar or
her brother. (He grasps her by the left wrist, and drags her, helped by a
few of the guard, to the middle of the courtyard, where, as they fling
her on her knees, he draws a murderous looking knife.) Where is she?
Where is she? or-- (He threatens to cut her throat.)
FTATATEETA (savagely). Touch me, dog; and the Nile will not rise
on your fields for seven times seven years of famine.
BELZANOR (frightened, but desperate). I will sacrifice: I will pay. Or
stay. (To the Persian) You, O subtle one: your father's lands lie far from

the Nile. Slay her.
PERSIAN (threatening her with his knife). Persia has but one god; yet
he loves the blood of old women. Where is Cleopatra?
FTATATEETA. Persian: as Osiris lives, I do not know. I chide her for
bringing evil days upon us by talking to the sacred cats of the priests,
and carrying them in her arms. I told her she would be left alone here
when the Romans came as a punishment for her disobedience. And
now she is gone--run away--hidden. I speak the truth. I call Osiris to
witness.
THE WOMEN (protesting officiously). She speaks the truth, Belzanor.
BELZANOR. You have frightened the child: she is hiding. Search--
quick--into the palace--search every corner.
The guards, led by Belzanor, shoulder their way into the palace through
the flying crowd of women, who escape through the courtyard gate.
FTATATEETA (screaming). Sacrilege! Men in the Queen's chambers!
Sa-- (Her voice dies away as the Persian puts his knife to her throat.)
BEL AFFRIS (laying a hand on Ftatateeta's left shoulder). Forbear her
yet a moment, Persian. (To Ftatateeta, very significantly) Mother: your
gods are asleep or away hunting; and the sword is at your throat. Bring
us to where the Queen is hid, and you shall live.
FTATATEETA (contemptuously). Who shall stay the sword in the
hand of a fool, if the high gods put it there? Listen to me, ye young men
without understanding. Cleopatra fears me; but she fears the Romans
more. There is but one power greater in her eyes than the wrath of the
Queen's nurse and the cruelty of Caesar; and that is the power of the
Sphinx that sits in the desert watching the way to the sea. What she
would have it know, she tells into the ears of the sacred cats; and on her
birthday she sacrifices to it and decks it with poppies. Go ye therefore
into the desert and seek Cleopatra in the shadow of the Sphinx; and on
your heads see to it that no harm comes to her.
BEL