What striking points differentiate Shakespeares Antony & Cleopatra from Drydens Cleopatra drama All For Love?
kplhardison Student Graduate School eNotes Editor Dryden’s versification in All for Love, his blank verse poem about the love between Marc Antony and Cleopatra, is competent and interesting, but it doesn’t not have the majestic ring of Shakespeare’s elegant verse in his blank verse dramatic work Antony and Cleopatra. Nonetheless, Dryden’s story and Shakespeare’s story of the world’s most famous lovers are approached so differently that once the modesty of Dryden’s poetry as compared to Shakespeare’s poetic prowess is acknowledged, it is fair to speak in some regards of the superiority of Dryden’s version of the story of Marc Antony and Cleopatra over Shakespeare’s version. Shakespeare approach his version of the story from an historical perspective, attempting to give his, sometimes not very flattering, perception of these two lovers as powerful leaders who often act for their own aggrandizement rather than from a notion of being monarchs. One way Shakespeare accomplishes this is to fo
