Antony And Cleopatra (Vol. 27) | Janet Adelman (essay date 1973)
Janet Adelman (essay date 1973)
SOURCE: "The Common Liar: Tradition as Source in Antony and Cleopatra," in The Common Liar: An Essay on Antony and Cleopatra, Yale University Press, 1973, pp. 53-101.
[In the following excerpt, Adelman examines parallels to the myth of Venus and Mars in Antony and Cleopatra, commenting that "[the] significance of the mythological allusions in [the play] is not in their number but in their use: the gods are generally adduced as analogues for the protagonists."]
Yet have I fierce affections and think
What Venus did with Mars.
(1.5.17-18)
It is at first hardly startling to find a great many allusions to mythological personages and events in Antony and Cleopatra: the play deals, after all, with classical matter in a high style to which Thetis, Bacchus, Hercules, Venus,...
[The entire page is 7358 words long]
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