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In High Roman Fashion

A Shakespearean gloss on the death of Deborah Jean Palfrey.
p>The night before Deborah Jean Palfrey took a length of nylon rope and stepped into her mother's garden shed in a trailer park in Florida to hang herself, I went to see a production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Shakespeare Theatre of Washington. Among that play's memorable lines, you will remember, are those of Cleopatra's resolution on the death of Antony who, having been defeated in battle by Octavius Caesar, falls on his own sword rather than allow himself to fall into the hands of his enemy. "We'll bury him," says Cleopatra to her maid-servants, br> /p> blockquote> em>and then, what's brave, what's noble, br> Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, br> And make death proud to take us. /em> /blockquote> br> The rest of the story is well known, and the magnificence of the Shakespearean language continues with her to the end, through br> blockquote> em>Show me, my women, like a queen; go fetch
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About the Author

James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.

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