All 3 Uses of
Cleopatra
in
The Count of Monte Cristo
- They were Phryne, Cleopatra, Messalina, those three celebrated courtesans.†
Chpt 31-32 *
- Franz went in with his eyes blindfolded, and was waited on by mutes and by women to whom Cleopatra was a painted strumpet.†
Chpt 39-40
- Rare birds, retaining their most brilliant plumage, enormous fish, spread upon massive silver dishes, together with every wine produced in the Archipelago, Asia Minor, or the Cape, sparkling in bottles, whose grotesque shape seemed to give an additional flavor to the draught,—all these, like one of the displays with which Apicius of old gratified his guests, passed in review before the eyes of the astonished Parisians, who understood that it was possible to expend a thousand louis upon a dinner for ten persons, but only on the condition of eating pearls, like Cleopatra, or drinking refined gold, like Lorenzo de' Medici.†
Chpt 63-64
Definition:
last Pharaoh of ancient Egypt; beautiful and charismatic queen; mistress of Julius Caesar and later of Mark Antony; killed herself to avoid capture by Octavian (69-30 BC)