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Seven of the founding editors were there and, well, as Shakespeare wrote of Cleopatra, age cannot wither her nor custom stale her infinite variety.

Shakespeare might have had Mirren in mind when he wrote, “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety.”

I can sort of understand; I’ve always wanted to be described in the terms Shakespeare used to describe Cleopatra’s charm: “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety. Other women cloy the appetites they feed, but she leaves hungry where most she satisfies.”

Three hundred years earlier, Shakespeare had described Cleopatra as follows: “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.”

Still, while knowledge of historical and textual parallels obviously adds to our appreciation of Shakespeare’s three masterworks, Shapiro admits, near the end of his fine book, that it is ultimately the wondrous poetry that gives “King Lear,” “Macbeth” and “Antony and Cleopatra” their immortality: “I am a man more sinned against than sinning”; “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more”; “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.”