Antony and Cleopatra

For other uses, see Antony and Cleopatra (disambiguation).

Antony and Cleopatra, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Parthian War to Cleopatra's suicide. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumviri and the future first emperor of Rome. The tragedy is a Roman play characterised by swift, panoramic shifts in geographical locations and in registers, alternating between sensual, imaginative Alexandria and the more pragmatic, austere Rome.

Many consider the role of Cleopatra in this play one of the most complex female roles in Shakespeare's work. She is frequently vain and histrionic, provoking an audience almost to scorn; at the same time, Shakespeare's efforts invest both her and Antony with tragic grandeur. These contradictory features have led to famously divided critical responses.

Characters

• Mark Antony, Roman general and one of the three men (triumvirs) who rule Rome after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.
• Octavian, one of the three men (triumvirs) who rule Rome after the assassination of Julius Caesar.
• Marcus Aemilius Lepidus – one of the three men (triumvirs) who rule Rome after the assassination of Julius Caesar.
• Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt
• Sextus Pompey – Son of the late Pompey the Great.

Antony's Party

• Canidius, Lieutenant-general of Antony.
• Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, Follower of Antony
• Ventidius,
• Eros,
• Scarus,
• Dercetas,
• Demetrius,
• Philo: Friends of Antony.

Octavian's Party

• Octavia the Younger, Octavian's sister.
• Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Military commander and advisor of Octavian.

• Publius Cornelius Dolabella, Friend and attendant of Octavian.
• Gaius Maecenas, Friend of Octavian.
• Thyreus, Gallus, Proculeius, Friends of Octavian
• Taurus, Lieutenant-general of Caesar.
• Silius, Officer in Ventidius's army.

Friends of Sextus Pompey.

• Menecrates, Menas, Varrius,

Cleopatra's party

• Alexas, Mardian the Eunuch, Seleucus, Diomedes, Cleopatra's attendants.
• Charmian, Iras, Maids of honour attending Cleopatra.

• Euphronius, Ambassador from Antony to Caesar.
• Soothsayer
• Clown
• Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants

Synopsis

Cleopatra by John William Waterhouse (1888)

Mark Antony – one of the Triumvirs of Rome along with Caesar and Lepidus – has neglected his soldierly duties after being beguiled by Egypt's Queen, Cleopatra. He ignores Rome's domestic problems, including the fact that his third wife Fulvia rebelled against Caesar and then died.

Caesar calls Antony back to Rome from Alexandria in order to help him fight against Sextus Pompey, Menecrates, and Menas, three notorious pirates of the Mediterranean. At Alexandria, Cleopatra begs Antony not to go, and though he repeatedly affirms his love for her, he eventually leaves.

Back in Rome,a general brings forward the idea that Antony should marry Caesar's sister, Octavia, in order to cement the bond between the two men. Antony's lieutenant Enobarbus, though, knows that Octavia can never satisfy him after Cleopatra. In a famous passage, he delineates Cleopatra's charms in paradoxical terms (rhetorical antithesis): "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety: other women cloy / The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry / Where most she satisfies."

A soothsayer warns Antony that he is sure to lose if he ever tries to fight Caesar.

In Egypt, Cleopatra learns of Antony's marriage to Octavia and takes furious revenge upon the messenger that brings her the news. She grows content only when her courtiers assure her that Octavia is homely by Elizabethan standards: short, low-browed, round-faced and with bad hair.

At a confrontation, the triumvirs parley with Pompey, and offer him a truce. He can retain Sicily and Sardinia, but he must help them "rid the sea of pirates" and send them tributes. After some hesitation Pompey accedes. They engage in a drunken celebration on Pompey's galley. Menas suggests to Pompey that he kill the three triumvirs and make himself ruler of Rome, but he refuses, finding it dishonorable. Later, Caesar and Lepidus break their truce with Pompey and war against him. This is unapproved by Antony, and he is furious.

Antony returns to Alexandria, Egypt, and crowns Cleopatra and himself as rulers of Egypt and the eastern third of the Roman Empire (which was Antony's share as one of the triumvirs). He accuses Caesar of not giving him his fair share of Pompey's lands, and is angry that Lepidus, whom Octavian has imprisoned, is out of the triumvirate. Caesar agrees to the former demand, but otherwise is very displeased with what Antony has done.

In this Baroque vision, Battle of Actium by Lorenzo A. Castro (1672), Cleopatra flees, lower left, in a barge with a figurehead of Fortuna.

Antony prepares to battle Caesar. Enobarbus urges Antony to fight on land, where he has the advantage, instead of by sea, where the navy of Octavius is lighter, more mobile and better manned. Antony refuses, since Octavian has dared him to fight at sea. Cleopatra pledges her fleet to aid Antony. However, in the middle of the Battle of Actium, Cleopatra flees with her sixty ships, and Antony follows her, leaving his army to ruin. Ashamed of what he has done for the love of Cleopatra, Antony reproaches her for making him a coward, but also sets this love above all else, saying "Give me a kiss; even this repays me."

Octavian sends a messenger to ask Cleopatra to give up Antony and come over to his side. She hesitates, and flirts with the messenger, when Antony walks in and angrily denounces her behaviour. He sends the messenger to be whipped. Eventually, he forgives Cleopatra and pledges to fight another battle for her, this time on land.

On the eve of the battle, Antony's soldiers hear strange portents, which they interpret as the god Hercules abandoning his protection of Antony. Furthermore, Enobarbus, Antony's long-serving lieutenant, deserts him and goes over to Octavian's side. Rather than confiscating Enobarbus's goods, which he did not take with him when he fled to Octavian, Antony orders them to be sent to Enonobarbus. Enobarbus is so overwhelmed by Antony's generosity, and so ashamed of his own disloyalty, that he dies from a broken heart.

The battle goes well for Antony, until Caesar shifts it to a sea-fight. Once again, Antony loses when Cleopatra's ships break off action and flee – his own fleet surrenders, and he denounces Cleopatra: "This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me." He resolves to kill her for the treachery. Cleopatra decides that the only way to win back Antony's love is to send him word that she killed herself, dying with his name on her lips. She locks herself in her monument, and awaits Antony's return.

The Death of Cleopatra by Reginald Arthur (1892)

Her plan fails: rather than rushing back in remorse to see the "dead" Cleopatra, Antony decides that his own life is no longer worth living. He begs one of his aides, Eros, to run him through with a sword, but Eros cannot bear to do it, and kills himself. Antony admires Eros' courage and attempts to do the same, but only succeeds in wounding himself. In great pain, he learns that Cleopatra is indeed alive. He is hoisted up to her in her monument, and dies in her arms.

Caesar goes to Cleopatra, trying to persuade her to surrender. She angrily refuses, since she can imagine nothing worse than being led in triumph through the streets of Rome, proclaimed a villain for the ages. She imagines that "the quick comedians / Extemporally will stage us, and present / Our Alexandrian revels: Antony / Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see / Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness / I' th' posture of a whore." This speech is full of dramatic irony, because in Shakespeare's time Cleopatra really was played by a "squeaking boy", and Shakespeare's play does depict Antony's drunken revels.

Cleopatra is betrayed and taken into custody by the Romans. She gives Caesar what she claims is a complete account of her wealth, but is betrayed by her treasurer, who claims she is holding treasure back. Octavian reassures her that he is not interested in her wealth, but Dolabella warns her that he intends to parade her at his triumph.

Cleopatra resolves to kill herself, using the poison of an asp. She dies calmly and ecstatically, imagining how she will meet Antony again in the afterlife. Her serving maids, Iras and Charmian, also kill themselves. Caesar discovers the dead bodies and experiences conflicting emotions. Antony's and Cleopatra's deaths leave him free to become the first Roman Emperor, but he also feels some kind of sympathy for them: "She shall be buried by her Antony. / No grave upon the earth shall clip in it / A pair so famous..." He orders a public military funeral.

Source

The principal source for the story is Plutarch's "Life of Mark Antony" from Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Compared Together, in the translation made by Sir Thomas North in 1579. A large number of phrases within Shakespeare's play are taken directly from North's prose, including Ahenobarbus's famous description of Cleopatra's barge, beginning "The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne/Burned on the water." However, Shakespeare also adds scenes, including many of the ones portraying Cleopatra's domestic life, and the role of Enobarbus is greatly developed. Historical facts are also sometimes changed: in Plutarch Antony's final defeat was many weeks after the battle of Actium, and Octavia lived with Antony for several years and bore him two children: Antonia Major, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Nero and maternal grandmother of the Empress Valeria Messalina, and Antonia Minor, the sister-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, mother of the Emperor Claudius, and paternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger.

Date and Text

Facsimile of the first page of Antony and Cleopatra from the First Folio, published in 1623.

Many scholars believe it was written in 1606–07, although some researchers argue for an earlier dating, around 1603–04.Antony and Cleopatra was entered in the Stationers' Register (an early form of copyright for printed works) in May 1608, but it does not seem to have been actually printed until the publication of the First Folio in 1623. The Folio is therefore the only authoritative text we have today. Some Shakespeare scholars speculate that it derives from Shakespeare's own draft, or "foul papers," since it contains minor errors in speech labels and stage directions that are thought to be characteristic of the author in the process of composition.

Modern editions divide the play into a conventional five act structure, but as in most of his earlier plays, Shakespeare did not create these act divisions. His play is articulated in forty separate 'scenes', more than he used for any other play. Even the word 'scenes' may be inappropriate as a description, as the scene changes are often very fluid, almost montage-like. The large number of scenes are necessary because the action frequently switches between Alexandria, Italy, Messina in Sicily, Syria, Athens and other parts of Egypt and the Roman Empire. The play contains thirty-four speaking characters, fairly typical for a Shakespeare play on such an epic scale.

Analysis and Criticism

Themes and motifs

Relativity and ambiguity are prominent ideas in the play, and the audience is challenged to come to conclusions about the ambivalent nature of many of the characters. The relationship between Antony and Cleopatra can easily be read as one of love or lust; their passion can be construed as being wholly destructive but also showing elements of transcendence. Cleopatra might be said to kill herself out of love for Antony, or because she has lost political power. Octavian can be seen as either a noble and good ruler, only wanting what is right for Rome, or as a cruel and ruthless politician.

A major theme running through the play is opposition. Throughout the play oppositions between Rome and Egypt, love and lust, and masculinity and femininity are emphasised, subverted, and commented on. One of Shakespeare's most famous speeches, drawn almost verbatim from North's translation of Plutarch's Lives, Enobarbus's description of Cleopatra on her barge, is full of opposites resolved into a single meaning, corresponding with these wider oppositions that characterise the rest of the play:

The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water...
...she did lie
In her pavilion--cloth-of-gold of tissue--
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did. (Act 2, Scene 2)

Cleopatra herself sees Antony as both the Gorgon and Mars (Act 2 Scene 5, lines 118-19)

Adaptations and cultural references

Selected stage productions

• 1931, John Gielgud as Antony and Ralph Richardson as Enobarbus at the Old Vic Theatre.
• 1947, Katharine Cornell won a Tony Award for her Broadway performance of Cleopatra opposite the Antony of Godfrey Tearle. It ran for 126 performances, the longest run of the play in Broadway history.
• 1951, Laurence Olivier as Antony and Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra in a production that played in repertory with George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra at the St James's Theatre and later on Broadway.
• 1953, Michael Redgrave played Antony and Peggy Ashcroft played Cleopatra at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.
• 1972, Janet Suzman and Richard Johnson in Trevor Nunn's production for the Royal Shakespeare Company
• 1981, Timothy Dalton played Antony and Carmen Du Sautoy played Cleopatra at the Mermaid Theatre.
• 1986, Timothy Dalton and Vanessa Redgrave in the title roles at Clwyd Theatr Cymru and Haymarket Theatre.
• 1999, Alan Bates and Frances de la Tour in title roles, Guy Henry as Octavius (also David Oyelowo and Owen Oakeshott) at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• 1999, Paul Shelley as Antony and Mark Rylance as Cleopatra in an all male cast production at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.
• 2006, Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter in the title roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• 2010, Kim Cattrall and Jeffery Kissoon in the title roles at the Liverpool Playhouse.
• 2010, Kate Mulgrew and John Douglas Thompson in a production directed by Tina Landau at Hartford Stage.
• 2010, Kathryn Hunter and Darrell D'Silva in the title roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Films and TV

• Antony and Cleopatra, 1908
• Antony and Cleopatra, 1972, directed by and starring Charlton Heston as Antony, Hildegarde Neil as Cleopatra and also featuring Eric Porter as Enobarbus.
• Antony & Cleopatra, 1974, a television production of Trevor Nunn's stage version performed by London's Royal Shakespeare Company. This version was shown in the United States to great acclaim in 1975. It stars Janet Suzman (Cleopatra), Richard Johnson (Antony), and Patrick Stewart (Enobarbus).
• Antony & Cleopatra, 1981, a TV production made as part of the BBC Television Shakespeare series. It stars Colin Blakely (Antony), Jane Lapotaire (Cleopatra), and Ian Charleson (Octavius).
• Antony and Cleopatra, a 1983 TV movie. It stars Timothy Dalton (Antony) and Lynn Redgrave (Cleopatra).

Musical adaptations

• Samuel Barber's operatic version of the play was premièred in 1966.

Influence

• John Dryden's play All for Love was deeply influenced by Shakespeare's treatment of the subject.

External links

• No Fear Shakespeare: the text of the play with a glossary
• Cleopatra on the Web, particularly the Antony and Cleopatra section
• The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra – HTML version of this title.
• Antony and Cleopatra – Full text HTML of the play
• Full text of play
• Antony And Cleopatra – plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg
• Antony and Cleopatra – Scene-indexed and searchable version of the play.
• Antony and Cleopatra study guide, themes, quotes, character analyses, teaching guide
• Joyce Carol Oates on Antony and Cleopatra