Lovers

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to Italy, where he took control of the eastern part of the Roman Empire and married Octavia, sister of the emperor, Augustus. After three years he left his wife and rejoined Cleopatra. Augustus eventually declared war on Cleopatra and the couplefledback to Egypt after their defeat at the battle of Actium in 31 BC. Antony, after being erroneously informed of Cleopatra's suicide, fell on his sword. Cleopatra is said to have committed suicide by being bitten by an asp.

Their love affair forms the basis of Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra (1623).

Passion is destructive. It destroyed Antony and Cleopatra, Tristan and Isolde. w. SOMERSET MAUCHAM The Razor's Edge, 1944

Sex has left the body and entered the imagination now; that is why Arnauti suffered so much with Justine, because she preyed upon all that he might have kept separate—his artist-hood if you like. He is when all is said and done a sort of minor Antony, and she a Cleo. You can read all about it in Shakespeare.

LAWRENCE DURRELL JUStme, 1957

'You could have telephoned.' 'I'm very sorry that I didn't' As indeed he was, and he knew he was going to go on being sorry. 'But you forgot me.' 'Not exactly forgot, Stella. And I have apologized.' 'And I have accepted it,' Stella said with dignity, with the air of one whom to do less would be beneath her. So might Cleopatra have spoken to Antony.

GWENDOLINE BUTLER The Coffin Tree, 1994

Aucassin and Nicolette Aucassin and Nicolette were the subjects of a popular late 13th-century French romance composed in alternating prose and songs. Aucassin, son of the count of Beaucaire, falls in love with Nicolette, a Saracen captive. They endure a number of misfortunes and adventures but are eventually reunited and married.

Beatrice and Benedick Beatrice and Benedick are the two chief characters in Shakespeare's romantic comedy Much Ado about Nothing (1600). At the start of the play Benedick is determined to remain a bachelor, and the characters engage in mutual barbed teasing. When their friends and relatives trick each of them into believing that the other is in love, each does, in fact, fall for the other. At the end of the play, still teasing each other, they agree to marry.

Cinderella and the prince In the fairy story, Cinderella is not allowed to go to the royal ball with her unpleasant stepsisters. Her fairy godmother, finding her in tears, transforms a pumpkin into a coach, mice into horses, her rags into suitable clothes, and provides her with a pair of glass slippers. At the ball, Cinderella meets the prince. They are so absorbed that she forgets she must leave by midnight, and when the clock strikes she runs off, leaving one of her slippers behind. The prince declares that he will marry whomever the slipper fits. When he comes to Cinderella's house she suggests that she try the slipper on, and when it fits perfectly she takes the other slipper out of her pocket. She and the prince marry. The prince in the fairy story has come to be known as Prince Charming. • See special entry D CINDERELLA on p. 56.

Darling John, I know I'm not exactly Cinderella but you really have come into my life like Prince Charming and I just can't bear the thought—I won't bear it! I know I'm an old silly, doubting you like this, but you've no idea how lonely it is without you!

JOAN SMITH Full Stop, 1995

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Cupid and Psyche Cupid (or Eros, as he was known to the Greeks) fell in love with the beautiful Psyche. He visited her only at night in the dark, insisting that she did not see what he looked like. When Psyche succumbed to curiosity and lit a lamp while he slept, a few drops of hot oil fell on him and woke him. He left her, and she wandered across the earth looking for him and accomplishing various tasks set for her by Venus. Eventually, Psyche was reunited with Cupid and married him in heaven.

face nearer and nearer to the round cheek, his lips are meeting those pouting childlips, and for a long moment time has vanished. He may be a shepherd in Arcadia for aught he knows, he may be the first youth kissing the first maiden, he may be Eros himself, sipping the lips of Psyche—it is all one.

CEORCE ELIOT Adam Bede, 1859

Dante and Beatrice Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet and author of the Divine Comedy. His first book, La Vita Nuova (c. 1290-4), details, in poetry and prose, his adoration for Beatrice Portinari (1265-90). He was platonically devoted to her all his life, although she did not apparently return

his love and both were married to others.

The way he was always pretending for the benefit of himself and everybody else that the world wasn't really the world, but either heaven or hell. And that going to bed with women wasn't really going to bed with them, but just two angels holding hands . . . And all the time he was just a young schoolboy with a sensual itch like anybody else's, but persuading himself and other people that he was Dante and Beatrice rolled into one, only much more so.

ALDOUS HUXLEY Point Counter Point, 1928

At seventeen, however, he met his Beatrice, who was three years his senior. A lovely, laughing, big-legged girl who worked as a clerk in a Chinese department store. TONi MORRISON The Bluest Eye, 1970

It was the purest, most selfless romantic devotion. It was Dante and Beatrice in a suburban key.

DAVID LODGE Therapy, 1995

Daphnis and Chloe Daphnis and Chloe are the subjects of an ancient Greek pastoral romance, Daphnis and Chloe by Longus (AD 2-3). The story relates how the two young people meet, fall in love, and discover sexual desire, eventually marrying.

Darby and Joan Darby and Joan are alluded to as personifying an elderly but happily married couple. They were originally described in a poem in the

Gentleman's Magazine (1735):

'Old Darby, with Joan by his side, You've often regarded with wonder: He's dropsical, she is sore-eyed,

Yet they're never happy asunder.'

I can assure you I don't want any procession at all. I should be quite contented to go down with Alexandrina, arm in arm, like Darby and Joan, and let the clerk give her away.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE The Small House at Allington, 1862

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Muses. Djuna became the woman with the face of all women. With strange omissions: he was neither Osiris nor Tristram, nor any of the mates or pursuers.

ANAÏS NIN Children of the Albatross, 1947

Jacob and Rachel In the Bible, Jacob, a son of Isaac, fell in love with Rachel, the daughter of his uncle, Laban. He offered to work for seven years in return for Rachel's hand in marriage. When the seven years were up, Jacob was tricked into marrying Leah, Rachel's older sister, in place of Rachel. Laban agreed that after a bridal week with Leah, Jacob could marry Rachel also, if he would then work for another seven years, and Jacob complied (Gen. 29: 13-30).

It's a deep mystery—the way the heart of man turns to one woman out of all the rest he's seen i' the world, and makes it easier for him to work seven year for her, like Jacob did for Rachel, sooner than have any other woman for th' asking.

CEORCE ELIOT Adam Bede, 1859

Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester Jane Eyre is the heroine of Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre (1847). Jane, an orphan, grows up to be an independent woman who earns her living first as a teacher then as a governess. In the latter occupation she meets Mr Rochester, father to her illegitimate pupil, Adèle. The couple fall in love and, although Jane is initially resistant to the idea, they eventually agree to marry. The ceremony is disrupted, however, and it is revealed that Mr Rochester is already married to an insane Creole woman, Bertha, who has been kept in an upstairs room in Mr Rochester's house. Jane flees and nearly marries another man, but is eventually reunited with Mr Rochester after his house has burned, his wife has been killed in the fire, and he himself has been badly burned and injured.

Lancelot and Guinevere Sir Lancelot, son of King Ban, a king in Brittany, was one of the greatest of King Arthur's knights of the Round Table. Unfortunately, he fell in love with Guinevere, Arthur's wife. When Arthur was informed about their affair the loversfledto Lancelot's castle. Arthur laid siege to the castle and Guinevere returned to him while Lancelot went back to Brittany. He returned to fight alongside Arthur in his battle with Mordred but was too late to save the king and, finding that Guinevere had taken the veil, became a priest.

Laon and Cythna Laon and Cythna are a brother and sister in Shelley's epic poem The Revolt of Islam (1818). The pair attempt to organize a revolution along the lines of Shelley's idea of the French revolution, and consummate their success sexually. However, their success is short-lived.

"Their supreme desire is to be together—to share each other's emotions, and fancies, and dreams."

"Platonic!"

"Well no. Shelleyan would be nearer to it. They remind me of—what are their names—Laon and Cythna. Also of Paul and Virginia a little . . . "

THOMAS HARDY Jude the Obscure, 1896

Merlin and Nimue In Arthurian legend, Merlin was the wizard who counselled and guided King Arthur and his father, Uther, before him. Late in his life he fell in love with Nimue. She tricked him into giving her the secrets of his magic and then imprisoned him in the forest of Broceliande, near Brittany. According to the legend, he never escaped and lies there still.

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And you know you were never much of a lover, Magnus. What does that matter? You were a great magician, and has any great magician ever been a great lover? Look at Merlin: his only false step was when he fell in love and ended up imprisoned in a tree for his pains. Look at Klingsor: he could create gardens full of desirable women, but he had been castrated with a magic spear.

ROBERTSON DAviES The Deptford Trilogy, 1975

Eugene Onegin and Tatiana In Pushkin's novel in verse form, Eugene Onegin (1823-31), Tatiana, a young country girl, falls in love with Eugene Onegin, the friend of her sister Olga's fiancé, Lensky. Onegin, who, though young, is cynical, disillusioned, and easily bored, is dismissive when Tatiana pours out her feelings to him in a letter. The following winter, Onegin flirts with Olga and Lensky challenges him to a duel in which Lensky is killed.

Some years later Tatiana meets and marries the middle-aged Prince Gremin. Onegin meets her at a ball, falls in love with her, and is subject to the same fevered passion as she had earlier experienced for him. Eventually he calls on her and manages to wring from her the admission that she does still love him. But she holds to her marriage and dismisses him.

Pushkin's poem is also the subject of Tchaikovsky's opera of the same name.

I felt like Eugene Onegin listening to that tiresome Prince hymn his Tatyana. JULIAN BARNES Talking It Over, 1991

Othello and Desdemona In Shakespeare's play Othello (1622), Desdemona marries Othello, a Moor, who is asked to command the Venetian forces fighting the Turks in Cyprus. Mistakenly believing that his wife has been unfaithful to him, Othello, in a state of acute jealousy, smothers Desdemona in her bed. Desdemona is subsequently proved innocent and Othello, in despair, kills himself.

Paolo and Francesca Paolo and Francesca were lovers whose story was immortalized in Dante's Inferno. Francesca da Rimini was married to Giovanni Malatesta but fell in love with his brother, Paolo. When their affair was discovered they were both put to death in 1289.

Paul and Virginia Paul and Virginia are two children in the pastoral romance Paul et Virginie (1788) by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint Pierre. The tale, inspired by Longus' Daphnis and Chloe, relates how the two are brought up by their respective mothers on a tropical island (Mauritius), as if brother and sister, under a regime designed to be in accordance with the laws of nature. They grow to adolescence in happy if frugal circumstances. Then Virginia moves to Paris to stay with a wealthy maiden aunt. On her return, some years later, she is shipwrecked off the Mauritian coast. She refuses to remove her clothing in order to save herself and drowns. In the shock and pain of bereavement, Paul and both mothers then also die.

She had recovered from her emotion, and walked along beside him with a grave, subdued face. Bob did not like to assume the privileges of an accepted lover and draw her hand through his arm; for, conscious that she naturally belonged to a politer grade than his own, he feared lest her exhibition of tenderness were an impulse which cooler moments might regret. A perfect Paul-and-Virginia life had not absolutely set in for him as yet, and it was not to be hastened by force.

THOMAS HARDY The Trumpet Major, 1880

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whom he met on his last leave before his departure for France in 1915. She had kissed him and given him a photograph which he carried until his death four weeks later. Jono, too, had kissed her, chastely, as Pyramus had kissed the Wall, which she still represented for him, dividing him from and uniting him with the golden Charles who had ridden off to war like one of Edith's troubadours, carrying Diana's favour in his breast.

ELIZABETH IRONSIDE Death in the Garden, 1995

Romeo and Juliet The young lovers in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1599) are the offspring of two warring families, the Montagues and the Capulets. They meet at a feast given by the Capulets, are instantly attracted, and marry in secret. Juliet's family, unaware of her marriage, plan to marry her to Count Paris. Juliet takes a potion on the eve of the wedding which will make her appear dead for twenty-four hours. A message to Romeo goes astray. Romeo, hearing of Juliet's death, returns to Verona and to Juliet's body, takes poison, and dies. Juliet awakes, sees his body, and stabs herself.

I watched Duncan clipping his hedge this afternoon and could barely remember the handsome man he was. If I had been a charitable woman, I would have married him forty years ago and saved him from himself and Violet. She has turned my Romeo into a sad-eyed Billy Bunter who blinks his passions quietly when no one's looking. MINETTE WALTERS The Scold's Bridle, 1994

Fleur's in love, I understand, with Phil Merrick—a Romeo-and-Juliet affair disapproved of by his grandfather; though his grandfather already has an Olympic bronze in disapproval.

STAYNES AND STOREY Dead Serious, 1995

Samson and Delilah The book of Judges in the Old Testament (Judg. 16: 4 - 22) relates that when Samson fell in love with Delilah, the Philistines asked her to discover the secret of his great strength. On three occasions when she asked him for the secret he lied to her. She continued to ask him, telling him that he could not love her as he claimed to if he did not tell her the truth. Eventually, Samson explained that the secret of his strength was in his hair, which had never been cut. Delilah arranged to have his hair shaved while he

slept, and as a result Samson was captured by the Philistines. • See special entry

D SAMSON on p. 336.

Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler Scarlett O'Hara is a beautiful and egotistical Southern belle, the heroine of Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind (1936), set during the American Civil War. The hugely successful 1939 film starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable further popularized the story of Scarlett and her stormy and ultimately unhappy love affair with the handsome Rhett Butler.

I found myself whistling Mozart under my breath as I got dressed. The Scarlett O'Hara syndrome. Rhett comes and spends the night and suddenly you're singing and happy again.

SARA PARETSKY Guardian Angel, 1992

Tristram and Iseult In the medieval legend, Tristram (or Tristan) is sent to seek the hand of Iseult (or Isolde) on behalf of his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. During the voyage in which Tristram escorts Iseult to Cornwall, the couple mistakenly drink a love potion which had been intended for Iseult and