Antony and Cleopatra
A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare
- Editor: Marvin Spevack
- Pages: xxxvii & 885 pp.
- Published: 1990
- ISBN: 9780873522861 (Hardcover)
“[E]ven a superficial reading with random samples from various parts of the book gives sufficient reason to respect the achievement of Marvin Spevack and his associate editors Marga Munkelt and Michael Steppat, not only with regard to their collecting of extensive and heterogeneous materials, but above all with respect to their skill and . . . reader-friendly presentation.”
—Jahrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft West
The most comprehensive edition of Antony and Cleopatra ever produced, this volume is a guide to everything of significance known about the tragedy. It is divided into four main parts:
- the text of the play, reprinted from the First Folio edition of 1623
- textual notes indicating departures from the First Folio text in fifty-two other editions of the play
- explanatory notes summarizing the textual critiques of a long succession of editors and scholars
- an appendix that includes essays on the play’s date of composition, sources and influences, textual evolution, critical heritage, and stage history
The volume also reproduces seven major source texts: Plutarch’s Life of Marcus Antonius and Comparison of Demetrius with Antonius, Goulart’s Life of Octavius Caesar Augustus, Appian’s Romanes Warres, Pembroke’s Antonius, and Daniel’s Tragedie of Cleopatra and Letter from Octavia to Marcus Antonius. A bibliography and an index conclude the work.
Replacing the Variorum Edition of 1907, this volume is indispensable for all academic libraries and for students and scholars of Shakespeare.
Inaugurated in the 1860s and the standard reference edition of Shakespeare’s work, the New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare continues the tradition of the original Variorum editions of the early nineteenth century. The New Variorum editions are valuable resources for an international audience of scholars, students, directors, actors, and general readers. Overseen by two general editors and an MLA committee, the production of each edition is conducted by a team of scholars and researchers working over a number of years.
“It will take many years of use for any scholar and teacher to extract most from what is given in this volume.”
—Shakespeare Quarterly
