Antony and Cleopatra

William Shakespeare's great Roman tragedy of passion and political conflict is now available in a richly documented and illustrated Norton Critical Edition. This edition of Antony and Cleopatra is based on the First Folio (1623), the only authoritative text of the play. The volume includes a preface, detailed explanatory annotations of the text, two maps, and visuals ranging from a silver tetradrachm (34 ace) to contemporary artwork inspired by the play.

"Sources, Analogues, and Contexts" allows readers to sample the rich array of classical, medieval, and Renaissance writings that shaped the legend of Antony and Cleopatra as it circulated in Shakespeare's day. These include versions of the story by Plutarch, Virgil, Chaucer, Mary Sidney (Countess of Pembroke), Samuel Daniel, and Aemilia Lanyer. This Norton Critical Edition also includes contemporary writings about Egyptians, gypsies, and women that help us understand the worldview of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

"Criticism" includes seventeen carefully chosen pieces representing four centuries of interpretation. These range from the observations of Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, and Anna Brownell Jameson, to recent essays by, among others, Jonathan Gil Harris, Patricia Parker, Kim Hall, and Ania Loomba.

"Adaptations, Rewritings, and Appropriations" presents a range of creative work that both is inspired by Shakespeare's play and offers us alternative interpretations of the Antony and Cleopatra story. These include John Dryden's All for Love; a burlesque by F.C. Burnand; poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Ted Hughes, and Barbara Chase-Riboud; a famous Arabic play by Ahmad Shawqi; and a recent art installation from India.