Shakespeare’s Response to Dramatic Tradition in Antony and Cleopatra

There has been considerable disagreement over Shakespeare’s use of earlier dramatic tradition in Antony and Cleopatra. Scholars from White (in 1861) to Williamson (in 1974) ¹ think Shakespeare owes no debt to the Countess of Pembroke’s translation of Robert Garnier’s Marc Antoine, ² whereas Kenneth Muir believes “there is some evidence that Shakespeare consulted” it, ³ and Ernest Schanzer holds that Shakespeare read it with some care and gathered a number of suggestions for his own formulations from it. ⁴ Similarly, John Payne Collier (in 1843) claims that Shakespeare “was clearly under no obligation” to Samuel Daniel’s Tragedie of Cleopatra, ⁵ whereas Franklin M. Dickey argues that “Shakespeare had been attracted enough by Daniel’s version of the love tragedy to imitate it in some particulars,” adopting elements of “action and characterization.” ⁶