Shakespeare was a master of both verbal and dramatic irony. The first of these—verbal irony—involves the expression of meaning by using language that signifies the opposite. The latter is a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the significance of a character's words or actions is clear to the audience while being unknown to the character, thereby building dramatic tension.

While Romeo and Juliet (1597) is famous for its use of irony, another set of lovers in the canon presents a rivalling use of the device to great effect. Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1607) dramatises the historic, ancient pairing of Marcus Antonius of Rome and Cleopatra VII Philopator, Queen of Egypt, and their deaths by suicide. In Act 4 Scene 14, Antony mourns Cleopatra’s supposed death, not knowing she has faked it to win back his love, which she jeopardised by withdrawing her forces at the Battle of Actium.

Before taking his own life to join her in death, Antony lauds Cleopatra’s courage:

ANTONY: Since Cleopatra died,
I have lived in such dishonour, that the gods
Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword
Quarter'd the world, and o'er green Neptune's back
With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack
The courage of a woman; less noble mind
Than she which by her death our Caesar tells
'I am conqueror of myself.'

The last of these lines presents a poignant statement of empowerment and self-determination, steeped in irony. Cleopatra is not dead, but Antony does not know this; as such, the audience is made to watch him fall on his sword unnecessarily. Also ironic is such a ‘noble’, self-sacrificing assertion being attributed to Cleopatra, whom the audience know to be petulant, impulsive and selfish.

Most ironic is how the line prefigures Cleopatra's ultimate act of self-conquering, already known in history. According to the Roman historian Titus Livius (Livy), Cleopatra—when faced with the capture of Egypt by Octavian (Caesar Augustus)—told the emperor boldly, ‘I will not be led in a triumph’ (Ancient Greek: οὑ θριαμβεύσομαι; romanised: ou thriambéusomai). Cleopatra refused to be paraded in a Roman victory, and while her physician offered no cause of death, it has since been mythologised that she committed to being poisoned by the bite of an asp—an Egyptian cobra. As Shakespeare reimagined, in refusing to be mastered, Cleopatra mastered herself.

In a fitting tribute, to both her brave act and the ultimate triumph of love, Octavian gave Cleopatra a royal funeral and buried her in her tomb—'by her Antony'.