Advertised in its Prologue as a prequel to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, John Fletcher and Philip Massinger’s The False One is the first literary work completely to revolve around the affair between Caesar and Cleopatra in Egypt. By frankly portraying the weakness and pettiness of such great historical personalities alongside their strength and nobility, the play brilliantly exposes Caesar and Cleopatra as flawed individuals who eventually turn out to be capable of transcending their own limits. Witty, fast-paced and laced with irony, The False One is informed by early modern discussions of issues connected with the role of courtiers, King James I’s pacifist policy and the dangers of colonialism. In its deployment of the liaison between Caesar and Cleopatra as a venue for the exploration and criticism of contemporary political manoeuvring and its high-spirited and pungent appropriation of Roman history, The False One proves to be one of the most compelling Jacobean dramatizations of the classical past. This Revels Plays edition offers the first fully annotated, single-volume critical edition of The False One, with a thorough introduction that provides new insights on the date and the theatre of the play’s first performance, examines the playwrights’ imaginative reworking of their classical and contemporary sources, and explores the considerable theatrical potential of a play that has hitherto regrettably been lost to the dramatic repertory. With its modernized spelling and detailed on-page commentary, this edition makes the play newly accessible to readers, students and theatre practitioners.
