title: The New Patterns in the Sky: Myths and Legends of the Stars
author: Julius D Staal
description: "Interest in constellations and their lore has enjoyed a growing vogue. . . .Yet, there remains a need for quality popular works, ones that are comprehensive and well balanced. The New Patterns in the Sky.fills this need admirably. . . . Looking at the current [edition] of The New Patterns in the Sky, I can appreciate what a major effort it was; to cover the subject comprehensively would require a multivolume work. But Staal chose his samplings well, from the familiar to the exotic. Neat and accurate star maps depict the constellations with outline figures." -- <i>George Lovi, Sky and Telescope, January 1989</i><br /><br />"This is the best book now available on this material and well worth owning." -- <i>The Griffith Observer, 1989</i><br /><br />The narrative is lively; the book most readable. The illustrations are the best this reviewer has seen for showing the novice the very perspective he will have from earth. -- <i>The Classical Outlook, December-January, 1988-1989</i>
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  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # Caesar and Cleopatra
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### George Bernard Shaw
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  ACT I
  
  
  ACT II
  
  
  ACT III
  
  
  ACT IV
  
  
  ACT V
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ###
  
  
  ACT I
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  An October night on the Syrian border of Egypt towards the end of
  
  
  the XXXIII Dynasty, in the year 706 by Roman computation, afterwards
  
  
  reckoned by Christian computation as 48 B.C. A great radiance of
  
  
  silver fire, the dawn of a moonlit night, is rising in the east. The
  
  
  stars and the cloudless sky are our own contemporaries, nineteen and a
  
  
  half centuries younger than we know them; but you would not guess that
  
  
  from their appearance. Below them are two notable drawbacks of
  
  
  civilization: a palace, and soldiers. The palace, an old, low, Syrian
  
  
  building of whitened mud, is not so ugly as Buckingham Palace; and the
  
  
  officers in the courtyard are more highly civilized than modern
  
  
  English officers: for example, they do no