Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare's Roman tragedy was first printed in the
First Folio
(1623). It had been entered in the
Stationers' Register
in 1608, and is usually dated 1606–7. The main source is
Plutarch's
Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
. Shakespeare's wording is often close to
North's
translation. No early performance is recorded.
Dryden
treated the subject in his
All for Love
(1678), with some debt to Shakespeare, and this probably had the effect of keeping Shakespeare's play off the stage. David
Garrick
revived it in a version prepared by Edward
Capell
, in 1759, without success. J. P.
Kemble's
acting version of 1813 incorporated passages from
All for Love
. ...