I Will Give thee Bloody Teeth

The introduction to Antony & Cleopatra has a picture of Vivian Leigh (Scarlett O'Hara!) as Cleo so naturally I couldn't help but think of Scarlett (and Elizabeth Taylor) when reading Cleopatra's lines.  It seems as though the female characters are getting increasingly bold as we read these plays.  We saw a hint of it in Rosalind's wit but we haven't seen anything like Cleopatra's love games she plays on poor but not so innocent Antony:

"If you find him sad

Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report

That I am sudden sick." 

Even with the news of his wife's death she mocks Antony for his faithfulness but it only makes him want her more.  She is sexually explicit, pining for Antony and envying the horse he rides while away for "bearing the weight of Antony" and uses her beauty as a weapon to manipulate Antony and to get her way. My favorite line of hers is when Charmian has compared Antony to Caesar, and she basically tells him she's going to punch him in the mouth: 

"By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth,

If thou with Caesar paragon again

My man of men." 

She's cool, calm, sexy, but if you talk about her man she'll bust your teeth. 

Too bad Antony hasn't turned around yet on some grand staircase and told her "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." 

Shakespeare really had a firm understanding of manipulative women.  It makes perfect sense today to have these strong female actors playing the feisty Cleopatra, but how did the male actor play her at the time of its publication?  Did he overact like the mechanics in MSND to exaggerate the wiles of a woman, or did he understand like Shakespeare that coolness and subtlety are the tools of a woman's cruelty?