Can a perfect couple truly stay together? Can you rule a country as well as you handle your personal life? Can you be overqualified for both? After writing introspective and anguished portrayals of good men and women destroyed by their own shortcomings and the circumstances that sprang from them, Shakespeare decided to have some fun with the genre of Tragedy and set it against the largest background he'd ever tackled the entire Eastern half of the Roman Empire and with one of histories greatest couples Antony and Cleopatra. Continuing with personalities that he created with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare imbued both his protagonists with a highly charged sexual relationship, a deep spiritual connection, but equally with a broad awareness of the worlds they ruled outside their relationship. While the Macbeths were held to a single task that spiraled out of control, both Marc Antony and Cleopatra were always aware of their place in the world and history, so much so that everything they did was large and grand. While both relished their power and prestige, it caused their personal relationship to suffer. Ultimately, in the grand political drama being played out in the Mediterranean, their final gestures of these two huge personalities were more toward personal than the grandiose.

In what reads like a modern fable for today's celebrities and their relationship problems, Shakespeare explores the human spirit and the way it vaccilates between the grandiose and the mundane. The celebrities of his time, the actions of his historical subjects give us a ringside seat in the personal struggle of the protagonists to remain faithful to their own beliefs.

Fully searchable via keywords, printable and totally portable, Antony & Cleopatra is a vital addition to any classics library.