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How to Read Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (Pre-Play Preparation) (Patreon)

Published:
2022-05-13 14:55:26
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Antony and Cleopatra is treasure chest of sublime poetry, and marks Shakespeare drawing near the close of his tragic period. 

The tragedy is famously difficult to stage and also gifts us one of the strongest personages in all of Shakespeare: Cleopatra. 

As usual, use this pre-play prep in the way that best suits you. Feel free to utilise the timestamps to jump to the topics where you would like the most direction.

Below the timestamps, we have links to everything mentioned and reading assignments in anticipation for the deep-dive lecture and appreciation.

We are discussing:

  • film adaptations
  • recommended criticism
  • the characters, themes, and story
  • focused challenges and assignments

Video Timestamps:

  • 0:00 why read Antony and Cleopatra?
  • 2:00 is this a difficult play?
  • 4:00 Shakespeare at time of writing
  • 6:00 political and domestic drama
  • 7:00 a personal favourite speech
  • 8:00 Shakespeare's Roman plays
  • 9:45 "how you see is who you are"
  • 12:20 how to read Antony and Cleopatra
  • 13:13 another beautiful speech
  • 15:00 meeting Cleopatra
  • 18:00 the famous couple
  • 19:00 staging and performability
  • 19:30 Plutarch and source material
  • 20:00 challenges with this play
  • 21:00 Aristotle and Dryden 
  • 22:40 scenes and acts in Shakespeare
  • 24:20 the story of Antony and Cleopatra
  • 26:20 how to read Plutarch 
  • 27:30 deep-cuts recommendations
  • 28:20 who was Cleopatra?
  • 30:20 questions to think about
  • 33:00 recommended adaptations
  • 34:00 some words of encouragement

📚Recommended Editions:

  • Arden - Antony and Cleopatra: The introduction to this volume does a tremendous job with historical and theatrical contextualisation.
  • Everyman Tragedies Vol.2: This edition has all of the Roman plays under one roof: Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Titus Andronicus, along with Tony Tanner's superb introduction.

🎬 Recommended Film Adaptations:

  • Trevor Nunn's 1974 adaptation, with Janet Suzman's sublime Cleopatra and a wonderful Enobarbus from Patrick Stewart, is available to view in full on YouTube.
  • Charlton Heston's 1972 film adaptation, with Hildegard Neil as Cleopatra, doesn't receive much love, but is visually impressive.
  • Though not an adaptation of Shakespeare's play, it is still worth mentioning Cleopatra (1964) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton - a truly astonishing film, and a treat for any lover of epic films. 

🎙️Worthy Audio Productions

  • BBC 3 put out a brilliant radio drama in 2010 with Frances Barber as Cleopatra and David Harewood as Mark Antony.
  • The 1965 recording with Anthony Quayle and Pamela Brown is wonderful.

📖Deep-Cuts Criticism/Secondary Reading

  • Plutarch's Lives: One of the major influences upon Shakespeare, Plutarch forms the backbone of a serious deep-reading program. The best way to read Plutarch is to dip into relevant chapters over the long-term. 
  • Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: Schiff is one of my personal favourite historians, and her biography on Cleopatra makes for illuminating reading. 

(Optional) Reading Challenges:

  • As we recommended with Macbeth, you may wish to use Antony and Cleopatra as a gateway into Shakespeare's Histories. Despite being one of Shakespeare's Roman plays, I personally find A&C to be great grounding for an appreciation of works like Henry IV. 
  • If you're interested in source material, a copy of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans is an indispensable companion. Shakespeare would have enjoyed Sir Thomas North's translation, but I personally love John Dryden's translation.
  • Pay attention to the theatre of your mind. Antony and Cleopatra is notoriously difficult to stage, and you may find it useful to approach it as a long epic poem rather than a play. Think about how we might overcome some obstacles to performance.
  • Focus on Cleopatra. She is a personage of 'infinite variety'. As Whitman would say, she 'contains multitudes'. A. C. Bradley put her alongside Hamlet, Falstaff, and Iago as an inexhaustible character.
  • And do continue collecting your favourite passages, reading aloud, and comparing your reading of the play with any adaptations you enjoy.

Questions to think about:

1) Does Cleopatra love Mark Antony? Does he love her?

2) How does Cleopatra compare with Shakespeare's other grand female characters?

3) Is Antony and Cleopatra a tragedy? Is there anything different from King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello?

Happy reading, everybody!

Files

Previews only

How to Read Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (Pre-Play Preparation)

0:00 why read Antony and Cleopatra? 2:00 is this a difficult play? 4:00 Shakespeare at time of writing 6:00 political and domestic drama 7:00 a personal favourite speech 8:00 Shakespeare's Roman plays 9:45 "how you see is who you are" 12:20 how to read Antony and Cleopatra 13:13 another beautiful speech 15:00 meeting Cleopatra 18:00 the famous couple 19:00 staging and performability 19:30 Plutarch and source material 20:00 challenges with this play 21:00 Aristotle and Dryden 22:40 scenes and acts in Shakespeare 24:20 the story of Antony and Cleopatra 26:20 how to read Plutarch 27:30 deep-cuts recommendations 28:20 who was Cleopatra? 30:20 questions to think about 33:00 recommended adaptations 34:00 some words of encouragement

Comments

Ellen M

This will be my first read and the extent of my knowledge is solely on the mythology around Cleopatra. I loved watching Liz Taylor in the role as a child, my grandmother was my intro to old Hollywood and I remember those afternoons fondly. I’m very much looking forward to a strong female character after completing Moby Dick and Blood Meridian. Cleopatra’s place in the top 4 of Shakespeare’s characters has set my expectations quite high! I love historical figures who have become a larger than life character, one of those people for whom the history can’t be separated from the myth.

Scott W

This is my first read of A&C too. I'm somewhere in Act 3 at time of writing and finding the complexity a surprise after the other non-historical plays I've read this year. A&C are an interest of mine since covering them in a course with the OU last year. Plutarch's Cleopatra, IIUC, is one coloured by a combination of patriarchal Rome's need to blacken her name and Plutarch's being essentially a moral philosopher who reduced many of his 'lives' to moral caricatures. Cleo was undoubtedly an intelligent and respected woman; sadly many of the records we might have had were lost with Alexandria, and the Egyptian delta is no better place to find anything well preserved enough to counteract what accounts the Romans and their 'historians' left us with. But I digress.. I am enjoying the play, though it is difficult; novelistic, choppy, political.. So far the Cleo of A&C seems largely Plutarch's, but from what I've seen of other posts so far this may change as the play progresses. And perhaps my sympathy for Cleo, my anger at people's names and actions being unfairly sullied by others' motivations, my desire to know who Cleo really was, for her to be accorded an equity and fairness that history thus far seems not to have provided her.. maybe this is all just 'how I see', and therefore 'who I am'.. which will likely get more and more interesting as I finish the play and re-read it with Ben's next video. The BBC audio sounds good, I will surely listen to that. In fact accurate audio productions alongside reading the text are my absolute favourite way to enjoy Shakespeare's plays in depth. I have Bloom's Fire and Air here too and have not read it before. If A&C really captures me, I can see me reading that soon. Thanks for the prep, Ben.. and for really, unlocking Shakespeare for me this year, it must be said. It's been quite the discovery, and a lifetime of rewarding re-reading awaits me of course. Thank you. Really. (Oh, I would love to read the Schiff biography but have had to settle for adding it to my list.. I am reading so, so much at the moment, and none of it is anything I want to rush!)

Caroline P
>>90017509

Hello Scott, it is so good to keep these threads alive. I must admit I was concerned that the lack of historical accuracy might detract from this play. Not that we know too much from verifiable methods, as you say. But in the end I really managed to get over that and let myself treat this as a story with familiar names. So rather than seeing it as a historical play I saw it more as a look at humanity. I really fell in love with this story, I can see it is choppy and doesn’t maybe soar as Hamlet and Macbeth do. What I enjoyed was how it moved from being bawdy and frivolous to utterly heartbreaking. I think that is done so brilliantly. I look forward to seeing what you think as you move through the play.