Click arrows to scroll through synopsis...

In essence, "Antony and Cleopatra" is a history play, heavily mined from Plutarch's "Life of Antonius" with Shakespeare's typical rehandling of history. The play is usually catalogued towards the end of 1606, closely following "King Lear", "Macbeth", "Timon of Athens" and just before "Coriolanus". It is significantly different in style and theme from the other plays of the period. There is a deliberate grandeur and political scope here which effects a self-conscious awareness of the greatness of its subject.

 A.C. Bradley terms the play "the picture of world catastrophe" for it treats Roman history at its turning point, at a time between the end of a pagan republic and the establishment of a Christian empire. The triumvirs of the play are Marc Antony, Octavius Caesar, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus although Lepidus is soon out of the picture and as history and the soothsayer tells us, Octavius wins in the end. The victory of Octavius was a tremendous world-altering event. He would eventually be crowned Augustus, and be regarded by historians as the embodiment of enlightened imperialism. The Renaissance idealized the age of Augustus but Shakespeare begged to differ, and wrote not on the journey of the victor, but the man who gambled in love, fate and war and did not live to tell his tale. Marc Antony was a man who might have ended up as a footnote in Octavius's victories but for his great love affair with the legendary Cleopatra who outdoes Cicero herself.

The play opens with Antony already in a dissolute state. He has neglected his military duties to cavort with Cleopatra in Egypt. Philo intones, "The triple pillar of the world transformed/Into a strumpet's fool. Behold and see." But a stunning opening puts all the cards on the table. The word "transform" is key here, for virtually everyone transforms or transcends something by the end of the play: Antony is transformed from a military leader into a man enslaved to sexual desire while Cleopatra is transformed from an erotic object to an earthy goddess. Following Philo's speech, Cleopatra asks Antony, "If it be love indeed, tell me how much." Antony says, "There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned." So the unquantifiable measure of love, and the antithetical tribal-like relation between Rome and Egypt are to be explored at length in the play. To Romans, Egypt is an exotic and erotic place, untempered and passionate. Rome is the more civilized of the two, prone to cool reason and Machiavellian tendencies.

Antony is compelled to return to Rome after receiving messages that his wife Fulvia has died and that Pompey is raising an army to rebel against the triumvirates. Upon his arrival, Caesar condemns Antony's neglectful sense of his duty as a statesman and military officer. An alliance is necessary to defeat Pompey, so Antony and Caesar pragmatically decide that Antony shall marry Caesar's sister, Octavia. Enobarbus, Antony's trusted lieutenant and friend, predicts that Octavia will not satisfy Antony and that Antony will return to Cleopatra. On the brink of war, Antony and Octavius make peace with Pompey. Soon after the truce, Antony learns that not only has Octavius attacked Pompey but he has also spoken scornfully of Antony in public and has had Lepidus imprisoned on dubious charges. Antony sends Octavia to negotiate with her brother while he secretly returns to Alexandria. There is little room for peace, however, and Antony prepares to battle Octavius. Enobarbus urges Antony to fight on land not sea because Antony has the advantage on land. Antony refuses, largely because Octavius challenged him to fight at sea. Cleopatra pledges her fleet to aid Antony. The battle ends disastrously, however, and Cleopatra flees the scene with her fleet. Antony follows, leaving his army in ruin. He is greatly ashamed of his dishonorable act and reproaches Cleopatra for making him a coward.

Eventually, Antony forgives Cleopatra and pledges to fight another battle for her, this time on land. On the eve of the battle, things look ominous, and Antony's soldiers grow fearful of what the battle may bring. Even Enobarbus deserts Antony for Octavius's side. He will later be so ashamed of his disloyalty, he will die of a broken heart. The battle is fought and badly lost. An enraged Antony accuses Cleopatra of treachery. Cleopatra decides the only way to win Antony back is to send a false report that she is dead. Antony attempts suicide upon hearing this. He dies in her arms, of symptoms parallel to Enobarbus. Cleopatra is taken into the custody of the Romans. In a bout of metatheatrics, Cleopatra imagines what it would be like to be a prisoner of the Romans, "…I shall see/Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness/I'th' posture of a whore", the dramatic irony being that a young boy would be squeaking Cleopatra's lines at the very moment (V.ii 259-61).Rather than be publicly humiliated by the Romans, she kills herself with the symbolic asps. In the end, she succumbs to greatness by becoming the symbol of the Nile's fertility and life. It is interesting that Shakespeare's play emphasizes the death of this woman, not that of the warrior's, as the climax of the story. At the end of the play, Octavius is an empty-handed victor. In a grand gesture, he decrees that Antony and Cleopatra will be buried together.

"Antony and Cleopatra" is a story about power thwarted by lust and explores the tension between a marriage forged by politics and a partnership conceived out of love. The disastrous military battles Antony fights, is as tumultuous as his inner conflict between reason and passion. Shakespeare knew that Antony and Cleopatra were personages already deeply entrenched in the public imagination. His response was to allow each character's sense of honor define themselves on their own terms.

John Dryden's 1677 play "All for Love" was heavily inspired by Shakespeare's treatment of the subject. It focuses on the last hours of the hero and heroine. It is Dryden's best-known play.

In 1947, there was a Broadway performance of "Antony and Cleopatra" that ran for 126 performances. The actress Katherine Cornell won a Tony for her performance as Cleopatra.

There is a highly acclaimed 1974 television production of Trevor Nunn's stage production performed by the RSC. It's very true to the original text. Derek Walcott's 1985 "A Branch of the Blue Nile" examines the applicability of European art and ambitions to a West Indies society. In the play, a West Indies theater company rehearses "Antony and Cleopatra".