Antonio y Cleopatra

Antonio and Cleopatra, Shakespeare's latest love tragedy, is the only one in which the love theme is fatally linked to the struggle for power. The action unfolds in a continuous alternation between Rome and Alexandria as opposite ends of the ancient world and symbols of Antony's conflict between his Roman duty and his Egyptian passion. Written around 1607, it seems that Shakespeare had set out to confront the neoclassical tendencies already begun in his time and to challenge the rationality of readers and spectators. Well, if daring is the love of the protagonists, the style and structure of the play are no less so. Whether or not, as has been suggested, an experimental work, Antony and Cleopatra is certainly different, and it is not surprising that it was called the joyous tragedy of Shakespeare: we do not mourn the tragic loss that it presents us, but its end we like and satisfy. Coleridge was the first poet who felt haunted by the style of Antonio and Cleopatra, singularly by the audacity of their expressive successes. However, it was necessary to wait for the 20th century to be generally recognized: T.S. Eliot proclaimed it, with Coriolano, the greatest artistic achievement of its author, and, according to Harold Bloom, if someone wants to see what Shakespeare was capable of doing, and in a single work, he can find it in this one.