Publisher's Synopsis
"The first English self-labeled "tragicomedy" about Octavia's failed attempts to win back her inconstant husband, Antony, from his Egyptian lover, Cleopatra, and to prevent her brother, Octavius, from waging retaliatory war on Antony and Cleopatra. This volume presents overwhelming evidence for the re-attribution of the "Samuell Brandon"-bylined The Virtuous Octavia (1598) to Gabriel Harvey. The introduction raises questions about potential attribution leads and revealing relevant sources, which are answered with the evidence in the "Primary Sources" section that includes: three letters exchanged between William Byrd and Harvey while both were teaching at Cambridge, the "Octavia to Anthony" poetic epistle from the Arundel Harington Manuscript, and fragments from Plutarch's "Mark Antony" chapter. The "Exordium" includes sections that present revealing clues in seemingly mundane details, such as this play's typesetting. Another introducto
