[1] It relates an imagined romantic incident in the life of the Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII.
She is oppressed by the thought of the Egypt she rules and all its ancient, preserved dead; only love can redeem it for her.
Later Meïamoun, a hopeless admirer of the queen who has intrigued her with an arrow-borne declaration of love, is caught spying on her in the bath.
In an act of capricious leniency, Cleopatra treats him to one night of love, hosting an orgiastic banquet in his company and even dancing before him.
Antony arrives and asks meaning of the corpse; it is only a poison she was testing, she tells him, and bids him sit beside her to watch the dancers.