This book considers some of the main adaptations of the character of Cleopatra for the Renaissance stage, travelling from Italy to England to arrive finally to Shakespeare. It shows how each reading of the story of Cleopatra is unique to and expressive of the culture which produced it, even as writers drew from the same sources from Antiquity. For the first time texts belonging to different cultures, rigorously presented, are brought into dialogue on such questions as moral standpoint, gender and the representation of the exotic. Moreover, through the fascinating figure of Cleopatra, the reader is able to explore the development of Renaissance tragedy, in its commercial and non-commercial versions. Ultimately both questions at the heart of this study - concerning Cleopatra's identity and her translation into theatre - converge to be (dis)solved by Shakespeare.
- Cover
- Contents
- A Note on the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1. ‘No Humble Woman She’
- 1.1 Cleopatra through the Eyes of Ancient Historians
- 1.2 The ‘Egyptian Wife’
- 2. ‘The Subject of Talk the World Over’
- 2.1 Enchantress and Martyr
- 2.2 ‘So lascivious, Cleopatra’
- 2.3 The Legend of a Bad Woman
- 3. The Egyptian Queen’s Rebirth
- 3.1 Cleopatra Revised
- 3.2 A Royal ‘Model’
- 3.3 ‘The Majestic Queen of the Nile’
- 3.4 Seneca, Giraldi Cinthio, and Cleopatra
- 4. The Great Theatre of Cleopatra
- 4.1 An ‘invincible heart’
- 4.2 A ‘wise and savvy’ Queen
- 4.3 The ‘greatest and most beautiful queen in the world’
- 5. ‘The wanton luxurie of Court’
- 5.1 From Cleopatra to Cléopâtre
- 5.2 ‘Or meurs donc Cleopatre’ / ‘Die Cleopatra then’
- 5.3 ‘A glorious Lady, and a mighty Queene’
- 5.4 ‘Beautiful, unchaste and evil’
- 6. ‘A lass unparalleled’
- 6.1 Dramatist, Actor and Poet
- 6.2 A ‘world of fluid size and shape’
- 6.3 ‘His speech sticks in my heart’
- 6.4 Dramatis Personae
- 6.5 ‘The witch shall die’
- 6.6 The Comi-tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Illustrations
- 1. Piero di Cosimo (1462-c. 1521), Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be of Simonetta Vespucci (c. 1490)
- 2. Andrea Solario (1460-1524), Death of Cleopatra (about 1514)
- 3. Michelangelo, Cleopatra’s Head (c. 1535)
- 4. Unknown artist, Portrait of Elizabeth Raleigh as Cleopatra
- 5. Unknown Venetian painter, Portrait of a Woman as Cleopatra (second half of the sixteenth century)
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