Many consider Shakespeare's Cleopatra, whom Enobarbus describes as having "infinite variety", as one of the most complex and fully developed female characters in the playwright's body of work. The tragedy is mainly set in the Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Egypt and is characterized by swift shifts in geographical location and linguistic register as it alternates between sensual, imaginative Alexandria and a more pragmatic, austere Rome.
The main antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumvirs of the Second Triumvirate and the first emperor of the Roman Empire.
The plot is based on Thomas North's 1579 English translation of Plutarch's Lives (in Ancient Greek) and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Sicilian revolt to Cleopatra's suicide during the War of Actium. Its first appearance in print was in the First Folio published in 1623, under the title The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra. The play was first performed around 1607, by the King's Men at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre. For other uses, see Antony and Cleopatra (disambiguation).Ĭleopatra: "Sooth, la, I'll help: Thus it must be." Antony and Cleopatra 4.4/11 ( Edwin Austin Abbey, 1909)Īntony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare.
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