--- title: "Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare — Classic Ebook | Publica…" description: "Read a free sample of Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare at Publica Now — a public-domain classic ebook, readable online." canonical: "https://publica.now/creators/vito/works/antony-and-cleopatra-3" --- Literary # Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare [ V Vito ](https://publica.now/creators/vito) Follow $2.99 [ Sign in to buy ](https://publica.now/access?redirect=%2Fcheckout%2Fantony-and-cleopatra-3) Secure payment on Stripe. publica.now never sees your card. Share Link copied Format epub Published May 02, 2026 Rating No reviews yet ![Antony and Cleopatra](https://fls-a13cb2d7-1b3e-4883-a0bd-297afd110a11.367be3a2035528943240074d0096e0cd.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/works/01kqn20zkj5t929h172hc1mcrz/editions/2026-09-06-html-v1/cover.png?X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=d29ce3bb571c165c97a702f29f7aee93%2F20260921%2Fauto%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20260921T142736Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Signature=8b0639a7018ea98db02ab02a1de97a0cff79c357f01b1472375d53312b5651bc) ## About this work Rome demands discipline. Egypt answers with splendour. Between them stand Antony, a celebrated general, and Cleopatra, its formidable queen—figures whose passion unsettles armies, rulers, and the course of history. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, private desire and public power are inseparable: devotion becomes a political force, while loyalty is tested against ambition, duty, and war. Set amid the Roman civil wars and the ancient world of Egypt, Antony and Cleopatra moves between states, courts, and battlefields with a language of extraordinary intensity. Its notes explain the editorial choices behind the spelling, punctuation, abbreviations, and occasional corrections, offering readers both the enduring tragedy and a glimpse into the complexities of early printing. This Publica.now Classics edition includes a new typographic cover and publisher opening and closing pages. Sample ## Take a look inside Executive Director's Notes: In addition to the notes below, and so you will \*NOT\* think all the spelling errors introduced by the printers of the time have been corrected, here are the first few lines of Hamlet, as they are presented herein: Barnardo. Who's there? Fran. Nay answer me: Stand & vnfold your selfe Bar. Long liue the King \* \* \* \* \* As I understand it, the printers often ran out of certain words or letters they had often packed into a "cliche". . .this is the original meaning of the term cliche. . .and thus, being unwilling to unpack the cliches, and thus you will see some substitutions that look very odd. . .such as the exchanges of u for v, v for u, above. . .and you may wonder why they did it this way, presuming Shakespeare did not actually write the play in this manner. . . . The answer is that they MAY have packed "liue" into a cliche at a time when they were out of "v"'s. . .possibly having used "vv" in place of some "w"'s, etc. This was a common practice of the day, as print was still quite expensive, and they didn't want to spend more on a wider selection of characters than they had to. You will find a lot of these kinds of "errors" in this text, as I have mentioned in other times and places, many "scholars" have an extreme attachment to these errors, and many have accorded them a very high place in the "canon" of Shakespeare. My father read an assortment of these made available to him by Cambridge University in England for several months in a glass room constructed for the purpose. To the best of my knowledge he read ALL those available .… [ Sign in to buy ](https://publica.now/access?redirect=%2Fcheckout%2Fantony-and-cleopatra-3) The sample continues in the full work. [ #Generals -- Rome -- Drama ](/search?query=Generals+--+Rome+--+Drama) [ #Queens -- Egypt -- Drama ](/search?query=Queens+--+Egypt+--+Drama) [ #Antonius, Marcus, 83 B.C.?-30 B.C. -- Drama ](/search?query=Antonius%2C+Marcus%2C+83+B.C.%3F-30+B.C.+--+Drama) [ #Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, -30 B.C. -- Drama ](/search?query=Cleopatra%2C+Queen+of+Egypt%2C+-30+B.C.+--+Drama) [ #Tragedies (Drama) ](/search?query=Tragedies+%28Drama%29) [ #Romans -- Egypt -- Drama ](/search?query=Romans+--+Egypt+--+Drama) [ #Egypt -- History -- 332-30 B.C. -- Drama ](/search?query=Egypt+--+History+--+332-30+B.C.+--+Drama) [ #Rome -- History -- Civil War, 43-31 B.C. -- Drama ](/search?query=Rome+--+History+--+Civil+War%2C+43-31+B.C.+--+Drama) [ #tragedies ](/search?query=tragedies) [ #Roman history ](/search?query=Roman+history) [ #Egyptian history ](/search?query=Egyptian+history) [ #love stories ](/search?query=love+stories) [ #power struggles ](/search?query=power+struggles) [ #ancient Rome ](/search?query=ancient+Rome) [ #ancient Egypt ](/search?query=ancient+Egypt) ## Reviews No reviews yet. 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