Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra. William Shakespeare. Ed. David Bevingon. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005.

Anthony and Cleopatra is a romantic tragedy about the relationship between Mark Antony and the Cleopatra, the famous Queen of Egypt.

The play was performed in 1606/7 and was first published in the First Folio (1623).

Shakespeare’s primary source material was North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (1579), Samuel Daniel’s tragedies Cleopatra (1594) and The Tragedy of Philotas (1604-5). 

Robert Louis Stevenson, “After Reading Antony and Cleopatra”

As when the hunt by holt and field 

Drives on with horn and strife, 

Hunger of hopeless things pursues 

Our spirits throughout life.  

The sea's roar fills us aching full 

Of objectless desire – 

The sea's roar, and the white moon-shine, 

And the reddening of the fire.  

Who talks to me of reason now? 

It would be more delight 

To have died in Cleopatra's arms 

Than be alive to-night. 

Seminar Questions: 

Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen said that Antony and Cleopatra is Shakespeare's most beautiful play: "Speech after speech soars like music while being grounded in precision of image." (p. 12, William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). 
What do you make of the speeches in the play? How does the language, tone and topic of A & C compare to Titus Andronicus?


In what way does Shakespeare contrast the ideals of both Egypt and Rome?

        

“Cleopatra and Shakespeare alike exploit with gusto the notion that men commonly find women mysterious.” (Bevington, 20). To what extent is gender performed in Antony and Cleopatra?

Discuss the different models of governing exhibited by Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra. To what extent do each of these characters embrace Machiavelli's political theory?

Why is Caesar insistent that Antony marry his sister Octavia?

What kind of spectacle does the revelry and drunkenness on board Pompey’s ship induce? How is the irony of monarchical power undermined in this scene?

Essay Questions: 

“Antony and Cleopatra has proved extraordinarily difficult for its leading actors. It is probably fair to say that there have been no immortal performances of this play” (Bevington, 57). Is there something about the way Shakespeare combined an emphasis on the outward appearances of the leading characters and their intellectual / emotional behaviour and language that prevents modern actors from fulfilling these roles?

Both politics and gender are acts of performance in Antony and Cleopatra. Discuss.

Mary Sidney’s The Tragedie of Antonie (1592) is a translation of the Senecan tragedy by the French author Robert Garnier, Antonie. Sidney’s play written in blank verse and is a model for Daniel’s Cleopatra, Thomas Kyd’s Cornelia (1594), Fulke Greville’s Mustapha (c. 1599). Examine the relationship between gender and politics in a close examination of two or more of these Senecan-inspired plays (you must include Titus). Excerpts from these plays can be found on Luminarium.org.

How does Shakespeare make use of or adapt the material found in North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (1579)? (Can be found here: http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/JC/plutarch.north.html).

How do Shakespeare’s other Roman plays make use of contemporary and classical source materials?

Short Bibliography (there are many good resources on Shakespeare’s plays):

This website has a list of sources and resources related to the play
(including t.v. and film adaptation information): http://pages.unibas.ch/shine/linkstragantonywf.html
 

Barroll, J. Leeds, "Antony and Cleopatra and Pleasure," JEGP 57 (1958), 708-20.

Berek, Peter, "Doing and Undoing: The Value of Action in Antony and Cleopatra," ShQ 32 (1981), 295-304.

Coppedge, Walter R., "The Joy of the Worm: Dying in Antony and Cleopatra," Renaissance Papers (1988), 41-50.

Fitz, L.T., "Egyptian Queens and Male Reviewers: Sexist Attitudes in Antony and Cleopatra Criticism," ShQ 28 (1977), 297-316.

Harris, Jonathan Gil, "'Narcissus in thy Face': Roman Desire and the Difference it fakes in Antony and Cleopatra," ShQ 45 (1994), 408-25.

Hillman, Richard, " Antony, Hercules, and Cleopatra: 'The Bidding of the Gods' and 'The Subtlest Maze of All,'" ShQ 38 (1987), 442-51.

Jones, Gordon, "The 'Strumpet's Fool' in Antony and Cleopatra," ShQ 34 (1984), 62-8.

Nevo, Ruth, "The Masque of Greatness," Shakespeare Studies 4 (1968), 111-28.

Rose, Paul L., "The Politics of Antony and Cleopatra," ShQ 20 (1969), 379-89.

Simmons, J.L., "The Comic Pattern and Vision in Antony and Cleopatra," ELH 36 (1969), 493-510.

Singh, Jyotsna, "Renaissance Antitheatricality, Antifeminism, and Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra," Renaissance Drama n.s. 20 (1989), 99-122.

Worthen, W.B., "The Weight of Antony: Staging 'Character' in Antony and Cleopatra," SEL 26 (1986), 295-308.