Famous Affinities of History

Affinities of History (Complete),
by Lyndon Orr

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Title: Famous Affinities of History (Complete) The Romance of
Devotion
Author: Lyndon Orr
Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4693] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 3,
2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY
THE ROMANCE OF DEVOTION
BY LYNDON ORR
VOLUME I OF IV.

CONTENTS
THE STORY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA ABELARD AND
HELOISE QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE EARL OF LEICESTER
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AND LORD BOTHWELL QUEEN
CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND THE MARQUIS MONALDESCHI
KING CHARLES II. AND NELL GWYN MAURICE OF SAXONY
AND ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR THE STORY OF PRINCE
CHARLES EDWARD STUART

THE STORY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Of all love stories that are known to human history, the love story of
Antony and Cleopatra has been for nineteen centuries the most
remarkable. It has tasked the resources of the plastic and the graphic
arts. It has been made the theme of poets and of prose narrators. It has
appeared and reappeared in a thousand forms, and it appeals as much to
the imagination to-day as it did when Antony deserted his almost
victorious troops and hastened in a swift galley from Actium in pursuit
of Cleopatra.
The wonder of the story is explained by its extraordinary nature. Many
men in private life have lost fortune and fame for the love of woman.
Kings have incurred the odium of their people, and have cared nothing

for it in comparison with the joys of sense that come from the lingering
caresses and clinging kisses. Cold-blooded statesmen, such as Parnell,
have lost the leadership of their party and have gone down in history
with a clouded name because of the fascination exercised upon them by
some woman, often far from beautiful, and yet possessing the
mysterious power which makes the triumphs of statesmanship seem
slight in comparison with the swiftly flying hours of pleasure.
But in the case of Antony and Cleopatra alone do we find a man
flinging away not merely the triumphs of civic honors or the headship
of a state, but much more than these--the mastery of what was
practically the world--in answer to the promptings of a woman's will.
Hence the story of the Roman triumvir and the Egyptian queen is not
like any other story that has yet been told. The sacrifice involved in it
was so overwhelming, so instantaneous, and so complete as to set this
narrative above all others. Shakespeare's genius has touched it with the
glory of a great imagination. Dryden, using it in the finest of