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Work #1016 · Mature

Antony and Cleopatra

William Shakespeare
c. 1606-07 · English (Early Modern)
Tragic drama in five acts · Elizabethan-Jacobean English Renaissance drama

Love and empire — the fall of Antony and Cleopatra and the end of the Roman Republic

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Antony and Cleopatra (Mature)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Multiple
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency None
Observer · Moral Authority Experience
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Antony and Cleopatra

Historical time of late Roman Republic — Caesar's assassination, Antony-Octavian rivalry, battle of Actium.

Space

Antony and Cleopatra

Mediterranean — Rome, Alexandria, Greece.

Matter

Antony and Cleopatra

Embodied bodies of Antony and Cleopatra; material apparatus of empire.

Observer

Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra as central tragic consciousnesses; Enobarbus as eloquent observer.

Energy

Antony and Cleopatra

Erotic love and political ambition; Roman military-imperial expansion.

Information

Antony and Cleopatra

Political-military intelligence flowing through the play.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Antony and Cleopatra

Global scope made it harder to stage; twentieth-century revival restored its standing. Cleopatra's racial-political identification variously read in recent criticism.