Fragrance Quote
In Antony and Cleopatra, Enobarbus describes sails “so perfumed that / The winds were love-sick with them.”
In the Playwright’s Words
“The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
Burn’d on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,”
— Enobarbus in William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2 (c. 1606–07)
Essential Details
Shakespeare on Cleopatra’s Perfumed Barge at a Glance
- Speaker: Enobarbus, in a play by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
- Source: Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2
- Status: Public domain
- Theme: Scent that travels over water
Why the Quote Resonates
Shakespeare gives the scent a job: it reaches the wind before the barge reaches the shore. It is an early image of what perfumers call projection. The speech is one reason Cleopatra is so closely linked with perfume in popular imagination, alongside resins like myrrh and frankincense.
Where Shakespeare Found It
The speech follows the account in Plutarch’s Life of Antony, but the lovesick winds are Shakespeare’s own image. Read the comparison in Cleopatra’s Perfumed Sails: Plutarch and Shakespeare. For other poets who put scent on stage and page, see Twelfth Night and The History of Perfume.
Why it matters
The best-known image of ancient perfume is a stage speech, not a historical record.