Provides a survey of the responses to this popular play, since the earliest published accounts. Leading the reader through the material in a chronological fashion, this book draws on a range of critical writings, including Dr Johnson, Bradley and Leavis. It relates this material to issues regarding Shakespearean criticism and scholarship.

This "Reader's Guide" provides a critical survey of the responses to this popular play, from the earliest published accounts to the present day. Leading the reader through the material in a chronological fashion, the book draws on a rich range of critical writings, including Dr. Johnson, Coleridge, Bradley and Leavis. Nicholas Potter carefully relates this material to more general issues regarding Shakespearean criticism and scholarship, and the development of literary history and theory.

Introduction: 'Like to a Vagabond Flag Upon a Stream': The Vagaries of Opinion Concerning Antony and Cleopatra -
'Let's Do It After the High Roman Fashion': Shakespeare's Classical World - Shakespeare's World Well Lost? Theatre in England During the Interregnum and After - Dryden's Re-Vision
of Antony and Cleopatra - Romantics to Victorians: 'This enchanting Queen' - Modernists: 'No more but e'en a woman' - The Editions: 'The varying shore o' the world' - The Romanness of the Roman Plays (1) - The Romanness of the Roman
Plays (2) - Postmodernists: Antony and Cleopatra: 'A
child o' the time'? - Conclusion: 'Infinite Variety'? - Notes - Select Bibliography - Index