All for Love
by John Dryden
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1677
- Form
- Tragedy
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 90 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendAll for LoveNew Mermaids, Bloomsbury, 2007A cheap annotated student edition; the play is also in the Harvard Classics volume of modern English drama.
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Dryden's blank verse tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, written in deliberate imitation of Shakespeare but obeying the unities. The action is confined to Alexandria on the last day of Antony's life. His general Ventidius, his friend Dolabella and his wife Octavia try in turn to draw him from Cleopatra back to Rome and honour; the eunuch Alexas's false report of her death brings on his suicide, and she follows him. Dryden's preface defends the play against French rules and English critics.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns All for Love are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.