Antony and Cleopatra
So here’s the numerical breakdown…
- 3039 total lines; longer than the average (play: 2768; tragedy: 2936)
- Act Two, Scene Seven is the longest of its kind in the Canon (135 lines); Act Three, Scenes Nine through Thirteen, and Act Four, Scenes Eleven through Fifteen, are the only examples of their kinds in the Canon
- Act Two, Scene Four, Act Three, Scenes Four & Eight, and Act Four, Scenes One, Seven, Eight & Ten, are the shortest of their kinds in the Canon (11, 22, 6, 16, 16, 39, and 9 lines, respectively)
- Act One: 525 lines; much shorter than average (play: 582; tragedy: 660)
- Act Two: 747 lines; much longer than average (play: 567, tragedy: 606)
- Act Three: 749 lines; much longer than average (play: 576; tragedy: 644)
- Act Four: 576 lines; slightly longer than average (play: 560, tragedy: 547)
- Act Five: 442 lines; shorter than average (play: 484, tragedy: 479)
- 332 lines of prose (10.92% of total lines, which is much less than average [play: 26.32%; tragedy: 16.44%]); compare with The Comedy of Errors: 13.31%, Titus Andronicus: 1.39%, The Taming of the Shrew: 20.82%, 1HenryVI: 0.37%, 2HenryVI: 16.64%, 3HenryVI: 0.14%, Richard III: 2.89%, Love’s Labor’s Lost: 35.08%, The Two Gentlemen of Verona: 26.81%, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: 19.75%, Romeo and Juliet: 14.18%, King John: 0.0%, The Merchant of Venice: 21.79%, Richard II: 0%, 1HenryIV: 44.7%, 2HenryIV: 50.36%, HenryV: 40.89%, Merry Wives: 88.20%, As You Like It: 56.12%, Much Ado: 77.78%, Caesar: 7.47%, Twelfth: 64.44%, Hamlet: 27.33%, Troilus: 32.30%, All’s Well: 48.20%, Measure: 41.40%, Othello: 19.96%, King Lear: 26.28%, and Macbeth: 8.19%)
- 30 rhyming lines (0.99% of total lines, which is less than the average [play: 8.35% and tragedy: 5.09%]; compare with Comedy: 20.10%, Titus: 2.42%, Taming: 3.93%, 1HenryVI: 9.79%, 2HenryVI: 3.16%, 3HenryVI: 5.37%, Richard III: 7.55%, LLL: 40.86%, 2Gents: 35.08%, Midsummer: 43.5%, Romeo: 16.61%, King John: 6.19%, Merchant: 5.16%, Richard II: 18.95%, 1HenryIV: 1.04%, 2HenryIV: 2.32%, HenryV: 1.80%, Merry Wives: 3.79%, As You Like It: 10.87%, Much Ado: 2.43%, Caesar: 0.41%, Twelfth: 6.09%, Hamlet: 4.91%, and Troilus: 5.40%, All’s Well: 9.05%, Measure: 3.16%, Othello: 3.09%, King Lear: 4.02%, and Macbeth: 12.58%)
- 43 scenes; the most of any play in the Canon, and thus more than average (plays: 21; tragedy: 24)
- 57 characters; more than the average (plays: 36; tragedy: 39)
Check out our “by the numbers” breakdown as an infographic!
