Antony and Cleopatra in Dryden's Time.

Dryden created a script based on Shakespeare's "Antony & Cleopatra." Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra "diffused the action of his play over Italy, Greece, and Egypt," while Dryden laid his scenes in Alexandria, and "contents himself with the concluding scene of Antony's history, instead of introducing the incidents of the war with Pompey, the negotiation with Lepidus, death of his first wife, and other circumstances which, in Shakespeare, only tend to distract our attention from the main interest of the drama" (Sir Walter Scott). The original 1678 production of Dryden's play by the King's Company starred Charles Hart as Marc Antony and Elizabeth Boutell as Cleopatra, with Michael Mohun as Ventidius and Katherine Corey as Octavia. The exploitation of the actresses' physiques is very evident in this print from Rowe's edition of Shakespeare (1709), anticipating modern use of stage nudity.