Tag Archives: Cleopatra

“Who besides Shakespeare can continue to inform an authentic idea of the human?”

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Dennis Abrams

Conclusion to The Play’s the Thing Part One By Dennis Abrams It’s hard to believe it’s been two and half years since we started our journey through Shakespeare’s plays. For me, it’s been incredibly educational, fulfilling, inspiring, and downright fun. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A Midsummer Night's Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra, Comedy, conclusion, drama, Elizabethan theater, Falstaff, Hamlet, Henry IV, history, king henry iv, King Lear, language, Lear, literature, Macbeth, Prince Hal, romance, Shakespeare, the play's the thing, tragedy, William Shakespeare | 16 Comments

“But this rough magic/I here abjure.”

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Dennis Abrams

The Tempest Act Five, Part One By Dennis Abrams ————————— Act Five: Ariel reports that the spirits of Alonso and the other Neapolitans have been broken, and Prospero instructs him to release them. Ariel leads the group in by magic, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Act Five, Ariel, Caliban, Cleopatra, Comedy, drama, Ferdiand, Henry V, language, literature, magic, Mark Van Doren, Milan, Prospero, romance, rough magic, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shakespeare, The Tempest, William Shakespeare, writing | 3 Comments

“If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there’s all the love they bear us.”

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Dennis Abrams

Coriolanus Act One, Part One By Dennis Abrams ————————————— MAJOR CHARACTERS Caius Martius, later known as Coriolanus, a Roman patrician Menenius Agrippa, another patrician Titus Lartius and Cominius, generals and patricians Volumnia, Coriolanus’ mother Virgilia, Coriolanus’ wife Young Martius, Coriolanus’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged act one, Caius Martius, Cleopatra, Coriolanus, drama, Elizabethan tragedy, entertainment, Falstaff, Hamlet, language, literature, politics, Roman Republic, Rome, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Voscians, William Shakespeare, writing | 2 Comments

“What I have been I have forgot to know.”

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Dennis Abrams

Pericles Act Two, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ——————————————— To continue with G. Wilson Knight’s “The Writing of Pericles”: “The opening of Act II brings us closer than ever before to the Shakespearean tempest; we have, as it were, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Act Two, Cleopatra, drama, entertainment, Falstaff, Gower, Hamlet, John Gower, King Simonides, language, literature, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, romance, Shakespeare, shipwreck, tempest, William Shakespeare, writing | 5 Comments

“I am fire and air; my other elements/I give to baser life.”

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Dennis Abrams

Antony and Cleopatra Act Five, Part Three By Dennis Abrams ——————— From A.D. Nuttall’s Shakespeare the Thinker: “Antony leaves cold, dry, military-political Rome for the wet, formless, erotic East (and South), for Egypt, much as Gustav von Aschenbach in Thomas … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Act Five, Antony, Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra, Cleopatra Antony, Comedy, drama, Egypt, Egyptian Cleopatra, Elizabethan theater, Falstaff, George Berkeley, Hamlet, history, King Lear, language, Lear, literature, Mark Antony, Octavius Caesar, Prince Hal, renaissance humanism, Rome, Shakespeare, Shakespeare Criticism, tragedy, William Shakespeare, writing | 2 Comments

“Give me my robe, put on my crown, I have/Immortal longings in me…”

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Dennis Abrams

Antony and Cleopatra Act Five, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ————————————– From Tony Tanner: “Cleopatra is, of course, above all a great actress. She can play with Antony to beguile him; she can play at being Isis, thus anticipating her … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Act Five, Antony, Antony and Cleopatra, asp, astrology, Cleopatra, Cleopatra Caesar, Comedy, death scene, drama, Egypt, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, history, language, literature, Mark Antony, Octavius, Octavius Caesar, politics, religion, renaissance humanism, Roman Empire, Rome, Shakespeare, tragedy, William Shakespeare, writing | 2 Comments

“Think you there was, or might be, such a man/As this I dreamt of?”

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Dennis Abrams

Antony and Cleopatra Act Five, Part One By Dennis Abrams ———————————– Act Five: When Antony dies, Cleopatra sees death as her only option, but she is prevented from stabbing herself by Caesar’s soldiers. When Dolabella reveals that Caesar intends to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Act Five, Antony, Antony and Cleopatra, asp, Cleopatra, Comedy, death scene, drama, Egypt, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, Enobarbus, entertainment, Hamlet, history, language, literature, Octavius Caesar, politics, renaissance humanism, Rome, Shakespeare, the Clown, William Shakespeare, writing | Leave a comment

“…young boys and girls/Are level now with men; the odds is gone,/And there is nothing left remarkable/Beneath the visiting moon.”

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Dennis Abrams

Antony and Cleopatra Act Four, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ——————————————– From Tony Tanner: “As well as being a history play, Antony and Cleopatra contains within it the traces of the outlines of a morality play – for by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Act Four, Antony, Antony and Cleopatra, antony cleopatra, Auntie Mame, battle of actium, Cavafy, Cleopatra, Comedy, drama, Egypt, Elizabethan theater, Elizabethan tragedy, entertainment, fairie queene, Hamlet, Hercules, language, literature, Mark Antony, morality play, Nile, Octavius, Octavius Caesar, politics, Rome, Shakespeare, tony tanner, tragedy, William Shakespeare, writing | 2 Comments

“I am dying, Egypt, dying; only/I here impórtune death a while, until/Of many thousand kisses the poor last/I lay upon thy lips.”

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Dennis Abrams

Antony and Cleopatra Act Four, Part One By Dennis Abrams —————————————————- Act Four: His challenge of single combat turned down (not surprisingly) by Octavius, Antony prepared for a decisive second battle. Although the omen are not promising – his soldiers … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Act Four, Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra, Comedy, drama, Egypt, Enobarbus, entertainment, Falstaff, Hamlet, history, Julius Caesar, language, literature, Mark Antony, Octavius, Octavius Caesar, politics, Pompey, Rome, Shakespeare, Tiber, William Shakespeare, writing | Leave a comment

“Come, Let’s have one other gaudy night!”

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Dennis Abrams

Antony and Cleopatra Act Three, Part Two By Dennis Abrams ———————————— From A.C. Bradley: “The political situation and its development are simple. The story is taken up almost where it was left, years before, in Julius Caesar. There Brutus and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A.C. Bradley, Act Three, Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra, Comedy, drama, Egypt, Elizabethan theater, Enobarbus, entertainment, Falstaff, history, Julius Caesar, language, literature, Mark Antony, Nile, Octavius, Octavius Caesar, politics, renaissance humanism, Rome, Shakespeare, tragedy, William Shakespeare, writing | Leave a comment