Editing Antony and Cleopatra (section)

== Sources ==
[[File:Roman Wall painting from the House of Giuseppe II, Pompeii, 1st century AD, death of Sophonisba, but more likely Cleopatra VII of Egypt consuming poison.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|Roman painting from the House of Giuseppe II, [[Pompeii]], early 1st century AD, most likely depicting [[Cleopatra VII]], wearing her royal [[diadem]], consuming poison in an [[Death of Cleopatra|act of suicide]], while her son [[Caesarion]], also wearing a royal diadem, stands behind her<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roller |first=Duane W. |title=Cleopatra: a biography|year=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-536553-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EZo6DwAAQBAJ |pages=178–179}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Elia |first=Olga |title=La tradizione della morte di Cleopatra nella pittura pompeiana |journal=Rendiconti dell'Accademia di Archeologia, Lettere e Belle Arti |volume=30 |year=1955 |language=it |pages=3–7}}</ref>]]
[[File:Cleopatra Tetradrachm Antiochia.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Cleopatra and [[Mark Antony]] on the [[obverse and reverse]], respectively, of a silver [[tetradrachm]] struck at the [[Antioch]] mint in 36 BC]]

The principal source for the story is an English translation of a French translation of Plutarch's "Life of Mark Antony", from the ''[[Parallel Lives|Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Compared Together]]''. This translation, by [[Sir Thomas North]], was first published in 1579.<ref>[https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/norths-translation-of-plutarchs-lives "North's translation of Plutarch's ''Lives''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118034457/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/norths-translation-of-plutarchs-lives |date=18 January 2017 }}, [[British Library]]</ref> Many phrases in Shakespeare's play are taken directly from North, including Enobarbus' famous description of Cleopatra and her barge:<blockquote><poem>
I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion—cloth-of-gold of tissue—
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.
</poem></blockquote>This may be compared with North's text:

{{blockquote|Therefore when she was sent unto by diverse letters, both from Antonius himselfe, and also from his friends, she made so light of it and mocked Antonius so much, that she disdained so set forward otherwise, but to take her barge in the [[Berdan River|river of Cydnus]], the poope whereof was of gold, the sailes of purple, and the oares of silver, which kept stroke in rowing after the sound of musicke of flutes, [[hautbois|howboyes]] [[cittern|cithernes]], vials and such other instruments as they played upon the barge. And now for the person of her selfe: she was layed under a pavilion of cloth of gold of tissue, apparelled and attired like the goddesse Venus, commonly drawn in picture: and hard by her, on either hand of her, pretie fair boys apparelled as painters do set foorth god Cupid, with little fans in their hands, with which they fanned wind upon her.|The Life of Marcus Antonius<ref>Plutarch, editor: F. A. Leo, (1878). ''Four Chapters of North's Plutarch; Photolithographed in the Size of the Original Edition of 1595''. Trubner and Company, London. p. 980. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PNM5AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22poope+whereof+was+of+gold%22+north&pg=PA980]</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=[[Parallel Lives|The Lives of the Noble Graecian and Romains Compared]]|publisher=Thomas Vaueroullier and John Wright |last=North|first=Thomas|author-link=Thomas North| year=1579 | location=London|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=JREQ5Sok-p8C&pg=PA981 981]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare | url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeintrodu00smit_320 | url-access=limited | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Smith, Emma | year=2007 | page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeintrodu00smit_320/page/n124 113] | isbn=978-0-521-67188-0}}</ref>}}

However, Shakespeare also adds scenes, including many portraying Cleopatra's domestic life, and the role of Enobarbus is greatly developed. Historical facts are also changed: in Plutarch, Antony's final defeat was many weeks after the Battle of Actium, and Octavia lived with Antony for several years and bore him two children: [[Antonia Major]], paternal grandmother of the Emperor [[Nero]] and maternal grandmother of the Empress [[Valeria Messalina]], and [[Antonia Minor]], the sister-in-law of the Emperor [[Tiberius]], mother of the Emperor [[Claudius]], and paternal grandmother of the Emperor [[Caligula]] and Empress [[Agrippina the Younger]].