Antony, one third of the Roman world, keeps choosing Egypt and Cleopatra over duty and Rome — or failing to choose, which chooses for him. The play sprawls across the Mediterranean in dozens of short scenes, alternating Roman marble with Egyptian excess.
Cleopatra is Shakespeare’s richest female role: vain, brilliant, theatrical, and finally magnificent. The verse is late-period Shakespeare at full stretch — opulent, elastic, occasionally showing off. A tragedy that somehow leaves you exhilarated.
Which edition?
1Arden Shakespeare, Third Series
Ed. John Wilders · Bloomsbury
Wilders is the steadiest guide through the play’s forty-two restless scenes.
2The New Cambridge Shakespeare
Ed. David Bevington · Cambridge University Press
Bevington is the great explainer, and this play needs explaining.
3Folger Shakespeare LibraryFirst read? Start here
Ed. Barbara Mowat & Paul Werstine · Simon & Schuster
Read it fast, the way it moves; the glosses let you.
4Oxford World’s Classics
Ed. Michael Neill · Oxford University Press
Neill’s introduction is the finest thing written on the play — when you can find it.
Antony and Cleopatra on stage
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Antony and Cleopatra on screen
1Antony and Cleopatra (1972)
Film · dir. Charlton Heston
Heston directs and stars
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Reading Antony and Cleopatra this year?
Mark it in your record when you finish — one seat, kept for decades.