‘All the unlawful issue that their lust / Since then hath made between them’: children and absent motherhood in Early Modern English Cleopatra plays

Lawrence, Jason

Abstract

Recent criticism on 'Antony and Cleopatra' has started to argue for a closer correspondence between Shakespeare’s play and the English closet dramas ('The Tragedie of Antonie' by Mary Sidney Herbert, and 'The Tragedie of Cleopatra' by Samuel Daniel), which preceded it by a decade or more. This essay explores the relationship between these three plays, and their common historical source in Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s ‘Life of Marcus Antonius’, through the specific comparative lens of their dramatic treatment of motherhood and children. It demonstrates that the conspicuous absence of emphasis on Cleopatra’s role as a mother in Shakespeare is actually closer to the characterization of the Egyptian queen in Plutarch than are the earlier English plays, both of which highlight the maternal aspect more strongly, particularly in the relationship between Cleopatra and her oldest son Caesarion in Daniel’s play, in both its original and revised forms. The essay also examines the puzzling absence of any sustained reference to Octavia’s status as a historically significant mother in the three English plays, particularly in Antony and Cleopatra, despite the centrality of this role in Plutarch’s account of her character.

Citation

Lawrence, J. ‘All the unlawful issue that their lust / Since then hath made between them’: children and absent motherhood in Early Modern English Cleopatra plays. In C. Ragni (Ed.), Shakespeare and the Mediterranean 3: Antony and Cleopatra (127-150). Edizioni ETS. https://doi.org/10.13136/wf4xrq28

• Online Publication Date: Aug 28, 2024
• Deposit Date: May 1, 2024
• Pages: 127-150
• Series Title: Skenè Texts and Studies. Studies I
• Series Number: 6
• Series ISSN: 2464-9295
• Book Title: Shakespeare and the Mediterranean 3: Antony and Cleopatra
• Chapter Number: 5
• ISBN: 9788846769923
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13136/wf4xrq28
• Keywords: Motherhood; Shakespeare; Plutarch; Daniel; Sidney Herbert
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4658629
• Publisher URL: https://textsandstudies.skeneproject.it/index.php/TS/catalog/book/88
• Contract Date: Apr 26, 2024