Antony and Cleopatra Companion
(William Shakespeare’s)

Shakespeare’s Life

Widely considered the greatest playwright, as well as one of the greatest poets in the English language, William Shakespeare was the third of eight children born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon in April of 1564. John Shakespeare, a glover, among other things, was a well-to-do businessman who later ran into financial difficulties. William’s mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of an old aristocratic family from Warwickshire.

Although there are quite a few concrete records of William Shakespeare’s life, a number of details are unknown and must be left to conjecture. His writings imply by their subject matter and elegant yet profound style that he was familiar with the major classic religious, literary, and historic writings. Exactly where and when he went to school, however, is unknown, but it is currently assumed from the circumstances of his life, as well as his writings, that he attended grammar school, probably in his hometown.

When he was eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children—a girl and a pair of fraternal twins—all within a few years after their wedding in 1582. Within a decade or so, he was already well known on London’s stages as an actor and a playwright, and his first published poems appeared in 1593. By the end of 1594, Shakespeare was thoroughly involved with the theatrical company known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (afterwards, the King’s Men) as a shareholder, actor, and playwright. From 1599, when the company built itself the Globe theater in London, the site functioned as their primary performance venues, in addition to such places as the royal court, various touring venues, and the Blackfriars theatre, an indoor theater the company acquired in 1608. In 1613, the Globe caught fire and burned down but was rebuilt again in 1614.

Some time around 1613, Shakespeare, who by this time had acquired noticeable wealth through his earnings and investments, retired in Stratford-upon-Avon with his remaining family. He died three years later in 1616.

Dates and Sources

It is not specifically known when Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra, since its first printing, called the First Folio, did not actually occur until 1623, after his death. The name of the play appears in the Stationer’s Register, equivalent to our modern copyright, in 1608, but it is believed to have been written several years earlier, between 1603 and 1607. The original play also did not have officially marked acts and scenes, which were added by later editors.

Most of the information, as well as the rich descriptions and some of the language, are taken from Plutarch’s historical biography “Life of Antony” from the comparative biographies of famous Greeks and Romans called Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, as translated by Thomas North in the 1500s. Shakespeare did not stick exactly to the material in Plutarch but built upon it, sometimes adding and sometimes subtracting from the original characters, scene descriptions, and historical facts. The result is a complex mix of tragedy, history, and even a surprising amount of comedy, with the characters of Antony, Cleopatra, and Enobarbus being especially well developed.