All For Love

Synopsis

All for Love (New Mermaids)

All for Love or, The World Well Lost is John Dryden's 1677 adaptation

of the tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra into a neo-classical quintet

with supporting voices: After Cleopatra's desertion of Antony at the

battle of Actium, not only his wife Octavia but also his general

Ventidius and his friend Dolabella strive to win him over to their

side.

Antony, torn between the claims of duty, friendship, dignity and

love, despairs when he hears the rumour of Cleopatra's death, which is

not, as in Shakespeare's version, spread by the queen herself but by

her deceitful eunuch.

This edition includes Dryden's dedication of the

play to the Earl of Danby and his preface, in which he defends against

French neo-classicist strictures the liberties he took with his

sources; it further discusses the play's austere power in the theatre,

which is unjustly considered to be inferior to Shakespeare's quite

distinct version of the story.