Dryden himself acknowledged that his 1667 play All for Love is an imitation of William Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, which was written in the early 1600s). It is a heroic drama that follows many of the same story beats of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, but Dryden confines the action of the story to Alexandria and details the last hours of Anthony and Cleopatra's doomed relationship. It examines not only the end of their relationship, but the end of the Egyptian empire.
The original production premiered in 1677 and was performed by the King's Company, then revived in 1704 at Lincoln's Inn Fields. For a time, Dryden's version of the story became the preferred one, and Shakespeare's version was not performed again after its premiere until 1813 in London.
All for Love has become Dryden's best-known and most widely-read play. It is rarely performed by contemporary theater companies.
