Table of Contents

Introduction; A summary of the plot; What is Antony and Cleopatra about? Who is Cleopatra? How does Cleopatra beguile Antony? Why does Cleopatra call Antony "Herculean"? What does Antony mean to Caesar? Why does Caesar sacrifice his sister? What does Caesar feel for his sister? Why does Caesar get so angry with his sister? How is Cleopatra's theatre different from Caesar's? Why does Shakespeare make so much of Enobarbus? How do you earn "a place in the story"? What's special about the play's language? What happens to Antony after Actium? Is Cleopatra's death too beautiful? Does it still make sense to think of the play as a tragedy? Ten Facts; A Short Chronology.

About the Author

Adrian Poole is Professor of English Literature and a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, where he has taught since 1975. His work addresses a constellation of four fields: tragedy, literary translation, Shakespeare, and nineteenth-century English literature. His publications include 'Tragedy: Shakespeare and the Greek Example' (1987) and 'Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction' (2005), and he is a general editor of the series 'Great Shakespeareans' (Continuum).