A Tale of Two Cleopatras: Two Restoration Dramatic Treatments of the Story of Antony and Cleopatra
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2024 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | The story of Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemaic Queen of Egypt, was very popular among English early-modern playwrights, the most famous ones being Shakespeare with his Antony and Cleopatra (ca. 1607), and John Fletcher and Philip Massinger and their The False One (ca. 1620). In the Restoration era, two adaptations of the story appeared in the same year in two competing London theatres: Sir Charles Sedley’s Antony and Cleopatra that premiered in the Duke’s Theatre in February 1677, and John Dryden’s All for Love, or, The World Well Lost that premiered in the King’s Theatre in December of the same year. While Sedley’s version of the story does not seem to have any great impact and its stage-life was extremely brief, Dryden’s play became the preferred dramatic version of Queen Cleopatra’s life, replacing Shakespeare’s tragedy on English stages until the early 19th century. The presentation will outline both the dramatists’ approaches and strategies to their source material, stressing the differences in their treatments of the tragic genre that lead to the rejection of one play on the part of the London audience and the popularity of the other. |
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