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John Bell [1774], Bell's Edition of Shakespeare's Plays, As they are now performed at the Theatres Royal in London; Regulated from the Prompt Books of each House By Permission; with Notes Critical and Illustrative; By the Authors of the Dramatic Censor (Printed for John Bell... and C. Etherington [etc.], York) [word count] [S10401].

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Introductory matter

Title page ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, A TRAGEDY, by SHAKESPEARE. AN INTRODUCTION, AND NOTES CRITICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE, ARE ADDED, BY THE AUTHORS of the DRAMATIC CENSOR. LONDON: Printed for JOHN BELL, near Exeter-Exchange, in the Strand; and C. Etherington, at York. MDCCLXXIV.

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INTRODUCTION.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. Whether this play, tho' excellently wrote, has any chance for long existence on the stage, is very doubtful. Twenty years since, that very able and successful Dramatic Modeller, Mr. Garrick, produced it under the most probable state of reformation; yet, tho' elegantly decorated, and finely performed, it too soon languished. Antony and Cleopatra are the chief marked characters in it: he is a flighty infatuated slave to an excess of love and luxury; she is a tinsel pattern of vanity and female cunning, which work the downfal of both. A double moral may be inferred, namely, That indolence and dissipation may undo the greatest of men; and that beauty, under the direction of vanity, will not only ruin the possessor, but admirer also.

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DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. Octavius Cæsar [Octavius Caesar], Triumvir. Marcus Antonius [Mark Antony], Triumvir. M. Æmil. Lepidus [Lepidus], Triumvir. Sextus Pompeius. Mecænas [Maecenas], Cæsarian: Agrippa, Cæsarian: Taurus, Cæsarian: Thyreus, Cæsarian: Dolabella, Cæsarian: [Gallus,] Cæsarian: Proculeius, Cæsarian: Messengers [Messenger], three; Soldiers [Soldier], [Sentinel 1], [Sentinel 2], [Sentinel 3], six; the same. Demetrius, Antonian: Philo, Antonian: Enobarbus [Domitius Enobarbus], Antonian: Ventidius, Antonian: Silius, Antonian: Canidius, Antonian: Scarus, Antonian: Euphronius, Antonian: Eros, Antonian: Dercetas, Antonian: Attendants [Attendant], [Attendant 1], [Attendant 2], five; Messengers [Messenger], six; Soldiers [Soldier], [Soldier 1], [Soldier 2], [Soldier 3], [Soldier 4], [Guard 1], [Guard 2], [Guard 3], [Guard], (or Guards) nine; the same. Varrius, Friend to Pompey Menas, Friend to Pompey Menecrates, Friend to Pompey Servants of the same [Servant 1], [Servant 2], two. A Soothsayer. Alexas, Attendant upon Cleopatra. Mardian an Eunuch, Attendant upon Cleopatra. Seleucus Attendant upon Cleopatra. Diomedes, Attendant upon Cleopatra. Clown, Attendant upon Cleopatra. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Octavia, Wife to Antony. Charmian, Attendant on Cleopatra. Iras, Attendant on Cleopatra. Other Attendants, Officers, Soldiers, &c. [Domestics], [Officer 1], [Officer 2] SCENE, dispers'd; in several Parts of the Roman Empire.

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^note.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA* [Footnote:
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