Many people believe Cleopatra, the famed Egyptian queen, to have died from a snakebite to the chest as Shakespeare wrote it in Antony and Cleopatra. That is not the case. Georgia Bragg's book, How They Croaked,
shows that Cleopatra did not die from a snakebite to the chest, but a
poisoned hairpin prick to the arm! Georgia Bragg tells how it happened,
why it happened, and still keeps a somewhat casual attitude as she
gives you all of the details and background stories.
Cleopatra
had fallen in love with Mark Antony, and they were secretly married.
Years after the Romans, led by Octavian, waged war on them. Antony and
Cleopatra decided to split up to survive, and Cleopatra hurried home to
gather all of her valuable treasures and put them in a mausoleum in the
royal cemetery. She then took her hairdresser and her lady-in-waiting
and locked all of them and herself in the mausoleum with enough kindling
to burn it to the ground if needed. Antony got word that Cleopatra was
dead, so he stabbed himself in the stomach, but soon after he got word
that Cleopatra was not dead. So he went to Cleopatra and he died in her
arms. After that Cleopatra was captured and put on "palace arrest." She
sent a request to be buried next to Antony, and by the time the soldiers
got there she and her two maids were dead with no proof but two
pinpricks from a poisoned hairpin.
Throughout
the telling of the death of the two lovers, Bragg keeps an upbeat
attitude. She keeps the reader interested by adding her own fun facts at
the end of an article, and she uses a more casual wording. For example, when Bragg describes Cleopatra she uses words like, "glitzy," and "bling." So the reader stays interested throughout the
entire book and not just one article.
