Antony and Cleopatra is an historical tragedy by William Shakespeare, first performed in 1607 or 1608 and printed in the First Folio, 1623.

The source for the story is Plutarch's "Life of Marcus Antonius" from "Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Compared Together" in the translations made by Sir Egypt, Syria and Rome. The play contains thirty-four speaking characters, fairly typical for a Shakespeare play on such an epic scale.

The play follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius from the time of the Parthian War to Cleopatra's suicide. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumvirs and the future first emperor of Rome.

The role of Cleopatra in this play is considered by many to be one of Shakespeare's greatest female roles and one of the greatest female roles in world theatre.

Films of the play

• Antony & Cleopatra 1974, performed by London's Royal Shakespeare Company. It stars Janet Suzman (Cleopatra), Richard Johnson (Antony), and Patrick Stewart (Enobarbus).

External links

• Cleopatra on the Web (http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/cleopatra/), particularly the Antony and Cleopatra (http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/cleopatra/16.html) section
• The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra (http://william-shakespeare.classic-literature.co.uk/the-tragedie-of-anthonie-and-cleopatra/) - HTML version of this title.
• Full text of play (http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/cleopatra/full.html)
• Antony And Cleopatra (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/2268) - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg