'Antony and Cleopatra' in Context

Tragic love story or the downfall of a drunken fool and a ruthless schemer? How did Jacobeans see this play? This guide recovers the various contexts that situate ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ in its time, explains the Christian ethics, the contemporary political scene, the literary atmosphere and requirements of tragedy that inform its background.

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This engaging book provides in-depth discussion of the various influences that an audience in 1607 would have brought to interpreting ‘Antony and Cleopatra’. How did people think about the world, about God, about sin, about kings, about civilized conduct? Learn about the social hierarchy, gender relationships, court corruption, class tensions, the literary profile of the time, the concept of tragedy – and all the subversions, transgressions, and oppositions that made the play an unsettling picture of a disintegrating world lost through passion and machination.