1st Edition
Cleopatra in Italian and English Renaissance Drama
By Anna Maria Montanari
Copyright 2019
310 Pages
by
Routledge
310 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This book considers some of the main adaptations of the character of Cleopatra for the Renaissance stage, travelling from Italy to England to arrive finally to Shakespeare. It shows how each reading of the story of Cleopatra is unique to and expressive of the culture which produced it, even as writers drew from the same sources from Antiquity. For the first time texts belonging to different... Read more
A Note on the Cover, List of Illustrations, List of Abbreviations, Acknowledgments, Introduction 'A Heart in Egypt' 1 'No Humble Woman She' 1.1 Cleopatra Through the Eyes of Ancient Historians 1.2 The 'Egyptian Wife' 2 'The Subject of Talk the World Over' 2.1 Enchantress and Martyr 2.2 'So lascivious, Cleopatra' 2.3 The Legend of a Bad Woman 3 The Egyptian Queen's Rebirth 3.1 Cleopatra Revised 3.3 A Royal 'Model' 3.3 'The Majestic Queen of the Nile' 3.4 Seneca, Giraldi Cinthio, and Cleopatra 4 The Great Theatre of Cleopatra 4.1 An 'invincible heart' 4.2 A 'wise and savvy' queen 4.3 'The greatest and most beautiful queen in the world' 5 'The wanton luxurie of Court' 5.1 From Cleopatra to Cléopâtre 5.2 'Or meurs donc Cleopatre' / 'Die Cleopatra then' 5.3 'A glorious Lady, and a mighty Queene' 5.4 'Beautiful, unchaste and evil' 6 'A lass unparalleled' 6.1 Dramatist, Actor and Poet 6.2 A 'world of fluid side and shape' 6.3 'His speech sticks in my heart' 6.4 Dramatis Personae 6.5 'The witch shall die' 6.6 The Comi-tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra Conclusion Exeunt omnes, Bibliography, Index.
Biography
Anna Maria Montanari studied in Italy (Master degrees in Italian Literature and Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Pavia) and in the UK (PhD, University of Cambridge). She is an Italianist and a comparatist and lectured on both Italian and English Renaissance at the University of Pavia. She is currently collaborating with the Università Cattolica, Milan and she is a member of the Centro Studi M. M. Boiardo, Scandiano. Together with Professor Stoppino (University of Illinois) she is preparing a catalogue of chivalric incunabula.
