The Tragedy of Anthony and Cleopatra (Oxford World's Classics)
Contributors: Michael Neill (Editor)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: August 6, 2001
Language: eng
Number of pages: 400
ISBN-13: 9780192834256
First sentence: In the judgement of G. Wilson Knight, Anthony and Cleopatra was 'probably the subtlest and greatest play in Shakespeare'; and it says much about the tragedy that it should have moved this notoriously magniloquent critic to some of his most visionary flights of enthusiasm: This is the high metaphysic of love which melts life and death into a final oneness; which reality indeed is no pulseless abstraction, but rather blends its single design and petalled excellence from all life and death, all imperial splendour and sensuous delight, all strange and ethereal forms, all elements and heavenly stars; all that is natural, human, and divine; all brilliance and all glory.