Measure for Measure

by William Shakespeare

Genres: Classics, Plays, Shakespeare, Theatre

308 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2011

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Ethan]

Some good bits, some implausible bits.
It's worth it just to see Shakespeare's timelessness in an exchange between the heroine, Isabel, and the villain, Angelo. Isabel is petitioning Angelo -- the temporary ruler of Vienna -- to pardon her brother, Claudio, who is to be executed for fornication. When Angelo offers to pardon Claudio if Isabel, who is a novice at a convent, will have sex with him, Isabel responds that now Angelo must pardon Claudio or she will expose Angelo:

ANGELO

Plainly conceive, I love you.

ISABELLA

My brother did love Juliet,
And you tell me that he shall die for it.

ANGELO

He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

ISABELLA

I know your virtue hath a licence in't,
Which seems a little fouler than it is,
To pluck on others.

ANGELO

Believe me, on mine honour,
My words express my purpose.

ISABELLA

Ha! little honour to be much believed,
And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming!
I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world aloud
What man thou art.

ANGELO

Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,
Will so your accusation overweigh,
That you shall stifle in your own report
And smell of calumny. I have begun,
And now I give my sensual race the rein:
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will;
Or else he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.

Exit

[Arlene Starr]

Measure for Measure, a comedy by William Shakespeare
Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna has agreed with Escalus, an ancient Lord, to put Angelo, the Deputy, in charge of the government while he is absent. They have given him all their own power, "lent him their terrors, dressed him with their love," to undergo such grace and honor as exercising the powers of a Duke.
Angelo at first is a little hesitant. There are many laws that have been on the books but have never been enforced. Angelo will have the responsibility of exercising wisdom and compassion in handling the situations that arise and passing out judgments. It’s a tragic-comedy with intensity and excitement, and deals with social, moral and religious issues. There are other primary actors in this play such as Claudio and his sister Isabella and Mariana who help bring the plot to its conclusion, and others who help develop the story as it unfolds. The ending comes as an unexpected development.

[Steve Campbell]

In this play, Shakespeare presents one of his better plots, or at least one of the better resolutions of his plots, and tackles the ticklish subject of the balance of justice and mercy. He also delves into the subjects of temptation, hypocrisy, chastity, and the limits to which one will go to rescue a loved one. Referred to as a problem comedy, this play has its humorous moments moments, but its classification as a comedy comes more from its happy ending rather than its side-splitting humor.

[Jon]

Alright, but a bit shallow. The female characters are insipid, the rest are paper thin and ironed flat. The moralising about virginity is tiresome. Wouldn’t recommend.