The False One

<p>Advertised in its Prologue as a prequel to Shakespeare's <i>Julius Caesar</i> and <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i> Fletcher and Massinger's <i>The False One</i> is the first literary work completely to revolve around the affair between Caesar and Cleopatra. In its deployment of their liaison as a venue for the exploration and criticism of contemporary political manoeuvring and its high-spirited and pungent appropriation of Roman history the play proves to be one of the most compelling Jacobean dramatizations of the classical past. <br><br>This Revels Plays edition offers the first fully annotated single-volume critical edition of <i>The False One</i> with a thorough introduction that provides new insights on the date and the theatre of the play's first performance examines the playwrights' reworking of their sources and explores the theatrical potential of a play that has hitherto regrettably been lost to the dramatic repertory.</p>