Measure for Measure falls under the description “problem play”, because unlike most of Shakespeare’s other plays it doesn’t fit neatly into one category. While it is not a tragedy, it contains many serious elements, including death and the threat of more death. On the other hand, while it has light and romantic moments, it isn’t really funny enough to think of as a comedy. It’s possible that it was originally intended to be a tragedy, and then reworked to have a happy, if somewhat contrived, ending. It is often, like Cymbeline, Winter’s Tale and others, called a romantic comedy or sometimes tragicomedy.

Adding to the comedy are the foolish characters, such as Froth, Pompey, Constable Elbow, and the madam Overdone. As with so many of Shakespeare’s works, these characters are not introduced just for laughs, but are essential elements of the story. Furthermore, since the play’s “big question” has to do with society’s attitudes toward sexual liberty, it is highly appropriate that both Pompey and Mistress Overdone work in a whorehouse.

I don’t for a second believe that Shakespeare was deliberately satirizing prevailing social conditions; certainly not to the extent that Jonathan Swift would in the following century. It was more likely that he merely had a dramatic need to set this play in a society in which the laws, though long unenforced, mandated restrictions on sexual relations between unmarried people.

Nonetheless, it does present several interesting predicaments for discussion: to my mind, the discussions might be more interesting than the play itself. For one, what is the advantage of a law which requires the beheading of a man for getting his fiancé pregnant, since this would leave the mother and child with no means of support? Had such a law been in place in Shakespeare’s England, we would have been robbed of his genius: Shakespeare’s wife Anne was several months pregnant with their daughter Susanna at the time of their marriage.

We can certainly debate the character of Angelo, who has convinced both the citizens and Duke of Vienna of his high morality and then instantly behaves like an utter tyrant once power is given to him: he sentences Claudio to death (“for unlawful carnal knowledge”, as a later repressive society would term it) and then offers to spare his life if his virginal sister Isabella would basically commit the same crime with Angelo. Yet despite all this, Mariana pines with love for Angelo, and both she and Isabella plead with the Duke to spare his life in Act V.

Records seem to indicate that the play was first performed in 1604, possibly the first play his troupe performed for the new king, James I, following the death of Queen Elizabeth and an outbreak of the plague which led to the closing of the theaters. Shakespeare’s source was an Italian fable by Geraldi Cinthio, which was then dramatized by George Whetstone as Promos and Cassandra. The storylines of the different versions are almost identical, except for some alterations made by Shakespeare, perhaps to make the play more palatable for his conservative audience. For example, rather than allow the heroine Isabella to be defiled by the false judge Angelo, Shakespeare incorporated a device he had introduced just two years earlier in All’s Well That Ends Well: the substitution in the dark of a willing bedpartner for an unwilling one. In addition, the character of the Duke was considerably strengthened, from an absentee and impotent ruler to a wily and perceptive father figure who takes an active, if secretive role, in his subjects’ lives. Certainly one could be indulged for seeing this portrayal as Shakespeare’s inaugural gift to the new king.

There are many Shakespeare plays in which nobles disguise themselves (Warning: there will be a quiz on this at the next meeting, so try to think of some examples! [Just kidding. Answers are below] ) just as Duke Vincentio does in Measure for Measure. Somehow, those disguises were always so effective that nobody could recognize them, not even their closest friends! We see the same thing here, as even Lord Escalus, his chief advisor, can’t recognize the voice of the duke under the monk’s robe.

Pompey (the Great) was the name of a Roman general who was defeated by Julius Caesar in Rome’s civil war. When Escalus compares himself to Caesar in Act Two, he means that he will whip this Pompey as badly as the original Caesar beat the original Pompey.

The name Abhorson seems to be a complicated pun: a combination of “abhor” (hate) and the standard insult “whoreson”.

Answers to quiz: Nobles who assume a disguise

• As You Like It: Celia
• Coriolanus: Caius Marcius, when he visits Tullius
• Cymbeline: Belarius
• Henry V: Hal (on the battlefield)
• Henry VIII: King (at Wolsey’s party)
• King Lear: both Edgar and Kent
• Love’s Labours Lost: King and Princess
• Taming of the Shrew: Lucentio; also Lord, during Prologue
• Winter’s Tale: Florizel

Sub-category: noblewomen disguised as boys

• As You Like It: Rosalind
• Cymbeline: Imogen
• Merchant of Venice: Portia (and Nerissa, who is not nobility)
• Twelfth Night: Viola
• Two Gentlemen of Verona: Julia (technically, she may not be a noble)

New vocabulary:

• dolour – sorrow. However, it is also used for the pun on “dollar”, which was a form of money even in Shakespeare’s day.
• fallow – farmland
• foison – rich harvest
• giglot – prostitute
• meddlar – prostitute
• provost – jailer
• punk – prostitute
• snatch – joke, pun

In The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the world was introduced to the character Mrs. Malaprop, whose humorously mistaken use of words gave rise to the term “malapropism.” However, two hundred years earlier Shakespeare had already done the same with characters like Mistress Quickly. Here, Elbow does the same thing. Some of Elbow’s malapropisms in Act 2:

• benefactors – for malefactors (evildoers)
• cardinally – for carnally
• detest – for protest
• Hannibal – it’s possible that Elbow mistook one historical general’s name (Pompey) for another (Hannibal), or maybe he meant to say “cannibal”
• honourable – for dishonourable
• profanation (irreverence) – for reverence
• respected – for suspected

ACT I

scene 1

Duke Vincentio announces that he is leaving Vienna for an unspecified trip, and leaving the administration in the able hands of Lord Angelo, who has long demonstrated his unimpeachable character and good judgment.

scene 2

Claudio is to be executed under an old law that punishes premarital sex with death. He asks Lucio to notify his sister, Isabella, and get her to plead with Angelo to spare his life.

scene 3

The Duke admits to Friar Thomas that he is going to disguise himself as a monk instead of going on a trip so he can spy on his citizens, especially Angelo. Also, he knows that after so long not enforcing the laws, the people would resent him for suddenly enforcing them, so instead he decided to let Angelo take the blame for it.

scene 4

Isabella, preparing to enter a convent, hears about Claudio. She immediately sets out to beg Angelo to spare his life.

ACT II

scene 1

Although Escalus argues for mercy, Angelo insists that Claudio must be put to death as a lesson for others. He instructs Escalus to hear the complaint between Pompey and Froth. Like other Shakespearean fools, Elbow uses the wrong words when he speaks, such as “benefactors” instead of “malefactors”.

scene 2

Isabella, urged on by Lucio, begs Angelo to have mercy. He tells her to come back later, not because he changes his mind, but because to falls in love with her and wants to see her again. He also orders Juliet, Claudio’s fiance, to stay in prison until her baby is born.

scene 3

Duke Vincentio, in his disguise, ministers to Juliet in prison and learns that Claudio is sentenced to death.

scene 4

Isabella learns that she can save her brother’s life if she agrees to have sex with Angelo. She refuses, saying Claudio would rather die than let his sister be soiled that way. She threatens to tell everyone what he had said, but he says that no one would believe her.

ACT III

scene 1

The duke, in disguise, counsels Claudio. When Isabella tells Claudio what Angelo said, he actually wants her to do it to save his life. The duke, overhearing this, suggests a trick: Mariana had been betrothed to Angelo, but he rejected her when her brother was lost at sea and couldn’t pay her dowry. Nonetheless, she is still in love with Angelo. The duke tells Isabella to accept Angelo’s demand, but in the darkness substitute Mariana in the bed.

scene 2

In what is really a continuation of scene 1, the duke lectures Pompey on the evils of brothels. Lucio discusses the absent duke with the friar, insulting him several times, not knowing that the friar is the duke himself! After Lucio leaves, Mistress Overdone accuses Lucio of being dishonest with women, and Escalus sends for him.

The duke now talks to Escalus, who praises the “absent” duke.

ACT IV

scene 1

At the duke’s prompting, Isabella and Mariana make plans to fool Lucio into having sex with Mariana instead.

scene 2

Pompey is enlisted to assist the executioner, whose name is Abhorson.

The duke is sure that Angelo will pardon Claudio, but instead Angelo sends a message insisting that Claudio be killed on time. However, the duke persuades the provost to substitute another criminal, Barnardine, in his place.

scene 3

Pompey and Abhorson try to prepare Barnardine for execution, but he won’t cooperate. Even “the friar” (the duke) can’t persuade him to consent; he claims that he’s too sleepy and isn’t in the mood to get his head cut off!

However, the provost announces that another prisoner, who looks a lot like Claudio, died of a fever that night, so they send his head to Angelo instead, claiming that it is proof of Claudio’s death. However, “the friar” tells Isabella that Claudio is dead, and instructs her to complain to “the duke” upon his return to the city. Lucio admits to “the friar” that he did get a woman pregnant, but lied about it to “the duke”.

scene 4

Angelo learns that the duke is returning to the city, and that he will hear petitions from anyone wanting justice.

scene 5

The duke, no longer in disguise, calls his faithful supporters to follow him.

scene 6

Mariana and Isabella prepare to follow “the friar’s” instructions for confronting Angelo.

ACT V

scene 1

Isabella calls for justice against Angelo, and the duke pretends not to believe her. Angelo denies all her claims, of course, and Lucio doesn’t help by speaking up even when the duke tells him to be quiet. Mariana also accuses Angelo, claiming that he is her “husband.”

The duke leaves the stage, and comes back as “the friar” to settle the issue. He reveals himself as the duke, and orders Angelo to marry Mariana, then be put to death for his treachery. However, both Mariana and Isabella plead for his life, so he is spared, as is Barnardine. Finally the duke admits that Claudio was never executed, releases him from prison, and has him wed to Juliet. He also forces Lucio to marry the woman he impregnated. Last of all, he takes Isabella as his own wife.