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Rufio
Ftatateeta is Cleopatra’s chief nurse. At the beginning of the play, Ftatateeta’s overbearing and aggressive personality instills terror in Cleopatra, though she becomes more subservient once Cleopatra meets Caesar and learns how to exert power over her charges. In the Alternative to the Prologue, Belzanor, Cleopatra’s head guard, states that Cleopatra’s nurses and other attendants “put their commands in her mouth,” implying that Ftatateeta, like Ptolemy’s guardians, seeks political power from her relationship to Cleopatra. Like Cleopatra, Ftatateeta is outspoken and has a penchant for violence. While Julius Caesar might resent unnecessary bloodshed, Ftatateeta has no qualms about threatening bodily harm to people who stand in her way. Despite Ftatateeta’s aggressive demeanor and possible aspirations for power, she raised Cleopatra from a child and genuinely cares about her. In Act III, for example, Ftatateeta exhibits immense concern over the porters’ handling of the rolled-up Persian rug in which Cleopatra is hidden. Ftatateeta exhibits her loyalty to Cleopatra in Act IV, when she follows through with Cleopatra’s command to murder Pothinus. When Rufio discovers that Ftatateeta has murdered Pothinus at Cleopatra’s request, he decides that Ftatateeta’s loyalty to Cleopatra is a threat to Caesar and the Roman army, and he kills her. Caesar ultimately agrees that Ftatateeta’s murder was justified.
Ftatateeta Quotes in Caesar and Cleopatra
The Caesar and Cleopatra quotes below are all either spoken by Ftatateeta or refer to Ftatateeta. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
An Alternative to the Prologue
Quotes
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 whom my fathers served.
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Act 1
Quotes
Of course not: I am the Queen; and I shall live in the palace at Alexandria when I have killed my brother, who drove me out of it. When I am old enough I shall do just what I like. I shall be able to poison the slaves and see them wriggle, and pretend to Ftatateeta that she is going to be put into the fiery furnace.
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Act 3
Quotes
APOLLODORUS. I do not keep a shop. Mine is a temple of the arts. I am a worshipper of beauty. My calling is to choose beautiful things for beautiful Queens. My motto is Art for Art's sake.
Act 4
Quotes
CLEOPATRA (sinking back trembling on the bench and covering her face with her hands). I have not betrayed you, Caesar: I swear it.
CAESAR. I know that. I have not trusted you.
CAESAR. If one man in all the world can be found, now or forever, to know that you did wrong, that man will have either to conquer the world as I have, or be crucified by it. […] These knockers at your gate are also believers in vengeance and in stabbing. You have slain their leader: it is right that they shall slay you. […] then in the name of that right (He emphasizes the word with great scorn.) shall I not slay them for murdering their Queen, and be slain in my turn by their countrymen as the invader of their fatherland? Can Rome do less than slay these slayers too, to show the world how Rome avenges her sons and her honor? And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand. […]
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Act 5
Quotes
CAESAR (energetically). On my head be it, then; for it was well done. Rufio: had you set yourself in the seat of the judge, and with hateful ceremonies and appeals to the gods handed that woman over to some hired executioner to be slain before the people in the name of justice, never again would I have touched your hand without a shudder. But this was natural slaying: I feel no horror at it.
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Ftatateeta Quotes in Caesar and Cleopatra
The Caesar and Cleopatra quotes below are all either spoken by Ftatateeta or refer to Ftatateeta. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
An Alternative to the Prologue
Quotes
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 whom my fathers served.
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Act 1
Quotes
Of course not: I am the Queen; and I shall live in the palace at Alexandria when I have killed my brother, who drove me out of it. When I am old enough I shall do just what I like. I shall be able to poison the slaves and see them wriggle, and pretend to Ftatateeta that she is going to be put into the fiery furnace.
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Act 3
Quotes
APOLLODORUS. I do not keep a shop. Mine is a temple of the arts. I am a worshipper of beauty. My calling is to choose beautiful things for beautiful Queens. My motto is Art for Art's sake.
Act 4
Quotes
CLEOPATRA (sinking back trembling on the bench and covering her face with her hands). I have not betrayed you, Caesar: I swear it.
CAESAR. I know that. I have not trusted you.
CAESAR. If one man in all the world can be found, now or forever, to know that you did wrong, that man will have either to conquer the world as I have, or be crucified by it. […] These knockers at your gate are also believers in vengeance and in stabbing. You have slain their leader: it is right that they shall slay you. […] then in the name of that right (He emphasizes the word with great scorn.) shall I not slay them for murdering their Queen, and be slain in my turn by their countrymen as the invader of their fatherland? Can Rome do less than slay these slayers too, to show the world how Rome avenges her sons and her honor? And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand. […]
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Act 5
Quotes
CAESAR (energetically). On my head be it, then; for it was well done. Rufio: had you set yourself in the seat of the judge, and with hateful ceremonies and appeals to the gods handed that woman over to some hired executioner to be slain before the people in the name of justice, never again would I have touched your hand without a shudder. But this was natural slaying: I feel no horror at it.
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