{{One source, date=January 2022
''One of Cleopatra's Nights'' (french: Une nuit de Cléopâtre) is a historical
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
by the French writer
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.
While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...
, first published as a six-part serial from November 29-December 6 1838 in '' La Presse''.Pierre Laubriet, Une nuit de Cléopâtre - Notice in Théophile Gautier ''Romans, contes et nouvelles'', tome 1, bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard, 2002, pp. 1398-1414. It relates an imagined romantic incident in the life of the
Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to:
Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty
* Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter
* Ptolemaic Kingdom
Pertaining ...
queen of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
,
Cleopatra VII
Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
to her summer palace in her royal cangia (sailboat). She confesses to her slave
Charmion
Laverie Vallee ''née'' Cooper (July 18, 1875 – February 6, 1949), best known by her stage name Charmion, was an American vaudeville trapeze artist and strongwoman whose well-publicized suggestive performance was captured on film in 190 ...
to a horrible ennui. She is oppressed by the thought of the Egypt she rules and all its ancient, preserved dead; only love can redeem it for her.
Later Meïamoun, a hopeless admirer of the queen who has intrigued her with an arrow-borne declaration of love, is caught spying on her in the bath. In an act of capricious leniency, Cleopatra treats him to one night of love, hosting an orgiastic banquet in his company and even dancing before him. With the morning comes a cup of poison, which he willingly takes to drink. She stays his hand, only to be distracted by a clarion heralding the arrival of
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...
.
At this signal Meïamoun says "You see the moment has come: it is daybreak; it is the hour when happy dreams take flight." He drinks and falls dead, and Cleopatra lets fall a single teardrop, the only one she has ever shed.
Antony arrives and asks meaning of the corpse; it is only a poison she was testing, she tells him, and bids him sit beside her to watch the dancers.
In other media
The story is the basis of the short two-act opera ''
Cleopatra's Night
''Cleopatra's Night'' is a short opera in two acts by American composer Henry Kimball Hadley. Its libretto is by Alice Leal Pollock based on the 1838 short story " One of Cleopatra's Nights" by French author Théophile Gautier. The opera premiere ...
'' by American composer
Henry Kimball Hadley
Henry Kimball Hadley (20 December 1871 – 6 September 1937) was an American composer and conductor.''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'', 8th edition, p. 692
Early life
Hadley was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, to a musical ...
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...