He who to enjoy
  Plato’s elysium leaped into the sea,
  Cleombrotus.

Milton, Paradise Lost, iii. 471, etc. (1665).

CLEOM’ENES (4 syl.), the hero and title of a drama by Dryden (1692).  As Dryden came out of the theatre a young fop of fashion said to him:  “If I had been left alone with a young beauty, I would not have spent my time like your Spartan hero.”  “Perhaps not,” said the poet, “but you are not my hero.”—­W.  C. Russell, Representative Actors.

Cleom’enes (4 syl.).  “The Venus of Cleomenes” is now called “The Venus de Medici.”  Such a mere moist lump was once ... “the Venus of Cleomenes.”—­Ouida, Ariadne, i. 8.

CLE’ON, governor of Tarsus, burnt to death with his wife Dionys’ia by the enraged citizens, to revenge the supposed murder of Mari’na, daughter of Per’icles, Prince of Tyre.—­Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608).

Cle’on, the personification of Glory.—­Spenser, Faery Queen.

CLEOP’ATRA, Queen of Egypt, wife of Ptolemy Dionysius, her brother.  She was driven from her throne, but re-established by Julius Caesar, B.C. 47.  Antony, captivated by her, repudiated his wife, Octavia, to live with the fascinating Egyptian.  After the loss of the battle of Actium, Cleopatra killed herself by an asp.

E. Jodelle wrote in French a tragedy called Cleopatre Captive (1550); Jean Mairet one called Cleopatre (1630); Isaac de Benserade (1670); J. F. Marmontel (1750), and Mde. de Girardin (1847) wrote tragedies in French on the same subject.  S. Daniel (1600) wrote a tragedy in English called Cleopatra; Shakespeare one called Antony and Cleopatra (1608); and Dryden one on the same subject, called All for Love or the World Well Lost (1682).

[Illustration] Mrs. Oldfield (1683-1730) and Peg (Margaret) Woffington (1718-1760) were unrivalled in this character.

Cleopatra and the Pearl.  The tale is that Cleopatra made a sumptuous banquet, which excited the surprise of Antony; whereupon the queen took a pearl ear-drop, dissolved it in a strong acid and drank the liquor to the health of the triumvir, saying:  “My draught to Antony shall exceed in value the whole banquet.”

[Illustration] When Queen Elizabeth visited the Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham pledged her health in a cup of wine containing a precious stone crushed to atoms, and worth L15,000.

Here L15,000 at one clap goes Instead of sugar; Gresham drinks the pearl Unto his queen and mistress.  Pledge it; love it!—­Th.  Heywood, If You Know not Me.  You Know Nobody.

Cleopatra in Hades.  Cleopatra, says Rabelais, is “a crier of onions” in the shades below.  The Latin for a pearl and onion is unio, and the pun refers to Cleopatra giving her pearl (or onion) to Antony in a draught of wine, or, as some say, drinking it herself in toasting her lover.—­Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii. 30 (1553).