We had a "senior paper" to write for our gifted program in high school. We were all in the same British History Class, so we all picked Shakesperean works to write about. I used Antony and Cleopatra, and how it is the most impactful Shakesperean play...it heralds the final days of the Greek World, ending finally at the Battle at Actium with the deaths of Antony and Cleo. blablaba. I thought I was SOOO cool.
It was supposed to be under 20 pages, and I some how ended up with over 30 and a bibliography. I did have giant sections of quotes from the play and from Plutarch's The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, which was Shakespeare's main source. That probably took up a lot of space.