Sardou's Cleopatra — page 107: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

92 SARDOU’S CLEOPATRA, “I feel how powerless I am to amuse you,” she said, softly. “But shall I try to read to you? An ode of Sappho’s ?” Cleopatra raised her head, and iabehed aloud, with sarcastic and yet not unkindly amusement. “Sappho! My poor child, I envy your sim- plicity. Do you think to cure love with verses flaming with passion? ‘To calm my mind with those delirious avowals? However, take the book and read them, if you like.” Iras selected a small volume from a table coy- ered with books of all descriptions, and, seeing that her mistress had composed herself to listen, began to read in a calm, monotonous voice: ‘‘Peer of gods he seemeth to me, the blissful Man who sits and gazes at thee before him, Close beside thee sits, and in silence ‘ She broke off in alarm, for Cleopatra had sud- denly leaped from the couch and snatched the book impetuously from her hand, exclaiming, im- patiently: | “Oh! how badly you read! It is plain to be seen that you have never loved! You have no conception of the words written here.” Then, with marvelous cadences, her exquisite voice now throbbing with tenderness, now pulsat- comicbooks.co 3