Comedies Flashcards
Characters of All’s Well That Ends Well
- Protagonist: Helena
- Bertram: Self-centred and immature Count of Roussillon, who rejects the woman who loves him because of her inferior social status.
- Countess of Roussillon: Kindly and level-headed mother of Bertram.
- Helena: Gentlewoman protected by the Countess; she is in love with Bertram even though he believes she is not good enough for him. When he leaves his home in Roussillon to make his mark in Paris at the court of the King of France, she later follows him in hopes of winning his love. Bertram’s mother, the countess, abets her in her plan.
- King of France: He suffers from a chronic ailment which Helena, schooled in the healing arts, has the power to cure.
- Duke of Florence
- Parolles: Follower of Bertram. Parolles is a bad influence on the young man and is, in part, responsible for Bertram’s less than gentlemanly behaviour.
- Lafeu: An old lord who warns Bertram that Parolles is a coward.
- Steward, Clown: Servants to the Countess of Roussillon.
- Old Widow of Florence
- Diana: Daughter of the Widow. Diana cooperates with Helena in a scheme to trick Bertram into pledging his love for Helena.
- Violenta, Mariana: Neighbours and friends of the Widow
- Minor Characters: Lords, Officers, Soldiers, Gentlemen (French and Florentine).
Plot of All’s Well that Ends Well
he Countess of Rousillon has taken in an appealing young woman named Helena after the death of her father, Gerad de Narbon, a highly respected physician. While in the household, Helena falls in love with the countess’s son, Bertram, but keeps her feelings to herself. Bertram pays her no heed and does not hesitate to go off to serve in the court of the King of France, a friend of Bertram’s late father. Accompanying Bertram is his friend, Parolles, a braggart who is a corrupting influence on Bertram throughout the play. The king suffers from what is believed to be an incurable fistula.
The king says he would submit himself to treatment under Gerad de Narbon, who also attended Bertram’s father, if the great physician were still alive. All other physicians have done him no good, and the king thinks death is near. While Bertram is in Paris, Helena pines for him even though he may be out of reach because of his high social station. Under prodding from the countess, Helena admits the cause of her melancholy: her seperation from Bertram. Then Helena reveals a plan to go to Paris to heal the king with a potion left behind by her father. While in Paris, she will have an opportunity to be with Bertram. The countess, pleased that Helena loves her son, encourages her in her plan. After Helena arrives in Paris, an old lord of the court, Lafeu–who had accompanied Bertram and Parolles to Paris–tells the king of her wondrous healing powers:
…….I have seen a medicine
That’s able to breathe life into a stone,
Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary
With spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch,
Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay,
To give great Charlemain a pen in’s hand,
And write to her a love-line. (Act II, Scene 1, Lines 75-81)
But the king at first refuses to let her treat him because he has had his fill of failed cures. She then stakes her life on the efficacy of her medicine, but stipulates a condition: If her treatment works, the king wil allow her to select a husband from among the eligible bachelors at court. The king aggrees. Within days, his illness disappears, and the king presents five worthy gentlemen for her to chose from. Helena rejects all of them and selects Bertram as her husband-to-be. However, Bertram complains that she is the daughter of a mere physician and, thus, unworthy of him. He vows and that he cannot and will not love her. Helena, heartbroken, is wiling to let the matter end there. The king is not. After elevating Helena to a higher social rank, he commands Bertram to marry her, telling him,
My honour’s at the stake; which to defeat,
I must produce my power. Here, take her hand,
Pround scornful boy, unworthy this good gift. (Act II, Scene III, Lines 156-158)
Bertram yields, and the wedding ceremony takes place that evening. Meantime, Lafeu and Parolles discuss the events of the evening. When Lafeu criticizes Bertram for his ungentlemanly conduct, Parolles threatens the old man but backs down, revealing himself as a coward, after Lafeu threatens him in return. After the wedding, headstrong Bertram refuses to stay with Helena even for a single night, preferring instead to hie off to join other young French lords in a military campaign in Florence, Italy. Parolles praises his decision, saying it is better to seek glory in war than wallow in the hellhole of France. As Bertram prepares for his military venture, Lafeu warns him that Parolles is cowardly and untrustworthy, but Bertram is heedless. Befre leaving, Bertram orders Helena to return home to Rousillon with a letter for his mother. In the letter, Bertram infuriates his mother by writing, “I have sent you a daughter in-law: she hath recovered the king and undone me. I have wedded her, not bedded her; and sworn to make the NOT eternal.” Helena then receives a letter of her own from Bertram. It says,
When thou canst get the ring upon my finger which
never shall come off, and show me a child begotten
of thy body that I am father to, then call me
husband: but in such a ‘then’ I write a ‘never.’
This is a dreadful sentence. (Act III, Scene II, Lines 59-63)
Deeply hurt, Helena leaves Roussillon and goes on a pilgramage to Saint Jaques monastery in Spain. However, her feet do not cooperate, and, instead, lead her to Florence, where Bertram is encamped with troops. Helena stays at a lodging house for pilgrims run by an elderly widow. The widow’s daughter, Diana, tells Helena that a certain Count Rousillon (Bertram) has distinguished himself in battle. “Know you such a one?” she asks. Helena says she has heard of him, but does not know him personally. Helena also learns that Bertram has been trying to seduce Diana. In public, Diana points out the Count Roussillon to Helena. Later Helena tells her whole sad story to the widow, revealing herself as the rejected wife of the young court. Then she enlists Diana’s help in a plot to win back her husband. Diana agrees to help her. Here is the stratagem. Bertram has been attempting to seduce Diana. Diana will agree to a midnight tryst with Bertram if he will give her his ring, yielding her chastity in exchange. When Bertram agrees to all the conditions, Diana says,
And on your finger in the night I’ll put
Another ring, that what in time proceeds
May token to the future our past deeds. (Act IV, Scene II, Lines 71-73)
After Diana obtains the ring, all goes well. At the appointed hour, Helena takes Diana’s place in a darkened room, going unrecognised, and she and Bertram make love. During the night she places on his finger a ring given to her by the King of France. Meanwhile, Parolles has been exposed as a simpering coward by French lords who ambushed and captured him, then make him think he was in the custody of the enemy. Parolles, whose name means “words” in French, tells his “captors” everything they want to know in order to save his skin. Elsewhere, Bertram’s mother, who has ben led to believe that Helena has died, sends a letter to Bertram announcing Helena’s death and asking her son to return home. After he arrives, he begins to realize what a good and loving woman Helena was. When the king visits Roussillon, Bertram claims that he loved Helena. The king forgives him for rejecting her. But life must go on, and the king thinks Bertram should now marry Lefeu’s daughter. However, before he makes the match, the king notices the ring on Bertram’s finger–the very ring he gave Helena, the ring that Helena placed on Bertram’s finger in the dark room after first removing Bertram’s own ring. While Bertram lamely tries to explain how he obtained the king’s ring, Diana shows up, saying it was she who placed the ring on Bertram’s finger while in bed with him. Then she demands that Bertram marry her. (Diana is really acting on Helena’s behalf. Helena must first prove that a midnight meeting took place before she can disclose that it was she, not Diana, who met with Bertram.) Next, the widow arrives with Helena. Helena announces that not only does she have Bertram’s own ring, but she also carries his child. Thus, she has met both of the conditions Bertram set forth in his letter to her. The whole truth of what happened in Florence then unravels, and Bertram accepts his wife. The king says, “All is well ended” (Act V, Scene III, Line 336).
Quotes from All’s Well that Ends Well
Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, excessive grief the enemy of the living.”
Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 56-5 Lafew talking about Helena’s supposed grief of her father.
2)”Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy Rather in power in use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life’s key.”
Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 66-69
Countess Rossillion giving advice about love.
3)” ‘Twere all one That I should love a bright particular starAnd think to wed it, he is so above me.”
Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 90-92 Helena when she reveals her love for Bertram to the audience.
4)”You know, Helen, I am a mother to you.”
Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 139-138 Countess Rossillion tells Helena when she is trying to find out about Helena’s love for Bertram.
5)”Make choice and see; Who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me.”
Act 2, Scene 3, Lines 74-75
6)”She had her breeding at my father’s charge. A poor physician’s daughter, my wife! Disdain Rather corrupt me ever.”
Act 2, Scene 3, Lines 125-127
7)”Make me but like my thoughts and I shall prove A lover of my drum, a hater of love.” Act 3, Scene 4
Bertram speaking about his desire to serve in the war.
8)”Alls well that ends well: still the fine’s the crown; Whate’er the course, the end is the renown.”
Act 4, Scene 5, Lines 40-41 Helena foreshadowing the end of the play.
9)” We lost a jewel of her, and our esteem was made much poorer by it: but your son, As mad in folly, lacked the sense to know Her estimation home.”
Act 5, Scene 3, Lines 1-4 The King of France talking about Helena’s death.
10)”I’ll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.”
Act 5, Scene 3, Line 367 Bertram at the sudden changing point in his thoughts of Helena.
Plot of As You Like It
The play is set in a duchy in France, but most of the action takes place in a location called the Forest of Arden, which may be intended for the Ardennes in France, but is sometimes identified with Arden, Warwickshire, near Shakespeare’s home town.
Frederick has usurped the Duchy and exiled his older brother, Duke Senior. The Duke’s daughter Rosalind has been permitted to remain at court because she is the closest friend and cousin of Frederick’s only child, Celia. Orlando, a young gentleman of the kingdom who has fallen in love at first sight with Rosalind, is forced to flee his home after being persecuted by his older brother, Oliver. Frederick becomes angry and banishes Rosalind from court. Celia and Rosalind decide to flee together accompanied by the jester Touchstone, with Rosalind disguised as a young man and Celia disguised as a poor lady.
Rosalind, now disguised as Ganymede (“Jove’s own page”), and Celia, now disguised as Aliena (Latin for “stranger”), arrive in the Arcadian Forest of Arden, where the exiled Duke now lives with some supporters, including “the melancholy Jaques,” a malcontent figure, who is introduced to us weeping over the slaughter of a deer. “Ganymede” and “Aliena” do not immediately encounter the Duke and his companions, as they meet up with Corin, an impoverished tenant, and offer to buy his master’s rude cottage.
Orlando and his servant Adam (a role possibly played by Shakespeare himself, though this story is said to be apocryphal),[1] meanwhile, find the Duke and his men and are soon living with them and posting simplistic love poems for Rosalind on the trees. Rosalind, also in love with Orlando, meets him as Ganymede and pretends to counsel him to cure him of being in love. Ganymede says “he” will take Rosalind’s place and “he” and Orlando can act out their relationship.
The shepherdess Phebe, with whom Silvius is in love, has fallen in love with Ganymede (actually Rosalind), though “Ganymede” continually shows that “he” is not interested in Phebe. Touchstone, meanwhile, has fallen in love with the dull-witted shepherdess Audrey, and tries to woo her, but eventually is forced to be married first. William, another shepherd, attempts to marry Audrey as well, but is stopped by Touchstone, who threatens to kill him “a hundred and fifty ways”.
Finally, Silvius, Phebe, Ganymede, and Orlando are brought together in an argument with each other over who will get whom. Ganymede says he will solve the problem, having Orlando promise to marry Rosalind, and Phebe promise to marry Silvius if she cannot marry Ganymede.
Orlando sees Oliver in the forest and rescues him from a lioness, causing Oliver to repent for mistreating Orlando. Oliver meets Aliena (Celia’s false identity) and falls in love with her, and they agree to marry. Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, Silvius and Phebe, and Touchstone and Audrey all are married in the final scene, after which they discover that Frederick has also repented his faults, deciding to restore his legitimate brother to the dukedom and adopt a religious life. Jaques, ever melancholy, declines their invitation to return to the court preferring to stay in the forest and to adopt a religious life as well. Rosalind speaks an epilogue to the audience, commending the play to both men and women in the audience.
Characters in As You Like it
The Court of Duke Frederick:
Duke Frederick, Duke Senior’s younger brother and his usurper, also Celia’s father
Rosalind, Duke Senior’s daughter
Celia, Duke Frederick’s daughter & Rosalind’s cousin
Touchstone, a court fool
Le Beau, a courtier
Charles, a wrestler
The Exiled Court of Duke Senior in the Forest of Arden:
Duke Senior, Duke Frederick’s older brother and Rosalind’s father
Jaques, a discontented, melancholic lord
Amiens, an attending lord and musician
The Household of the deceased Sir Rowland de Bois:
Oliver de Bois, the eldest son and heir
Jacques de Bois, the second youngest son.
Orlando de Bois, youngest son.
Adam, a faithful old servant who follows Orlando into exile
Dennis, Oliver’s servant
Important Quotes From As You Like It
“All the world ‘s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts” - ( Quote Act II, Scene VII).
“Can one desire too much of a good thing?”. As You Like It ( Quote Act IV, Sc. I).
“I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it” - ( Quote Act II, Scene IV).
“How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!” As You Like It ( Quote Act V, Sc. II).
“Blow, blow, thou winter wind! Thou art not so unkind as man’s ingratitude”. ( Quote Act II, Scene VII).
“True is it that we have seen better days”. - ( Quote Act II, Scene VII).
“For ever and a day”. As You Like It ( Quote Act IV, Sc. I).
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool”. - ( Quote Act V, Scene I).
The Comedy of Errors Plot
Due to a law forbidding the presence of Syracusian merchants in Ephesus, elderly Syracusian trader Egeon faces execution when he is discovered in the city. He can only escape by paying a fine of a thousand marks. He tells his sad story to the Duke. In his youth, he married and had twin sons. On the same day, a poor woman also gave birth to twin boys, and he purchased these as slaves to his sons. Soon afterwards, the family made a sea voyage, and was hit by a tempest. Egeon lashed himself to the main-mast with one son and one slave, while his wife was rescued by one boat, Egeon by another. Egeon never again saw his wife, or the children with her. Recently, his son Antipholus of Syracuse, now grown, and his son’s slave Dromio of Syracuse, left Syracuse on a quest to find their brothers. When Antipholus of Syracuse did not return, Egeon set out in search of him.
Solinus, Duke of Ephesus, is moved by this story, and grants Egeon one day to pay his fine.
That same day, Antipholus of Syracuse arrives in Ephesus, searching for his brother. He sends Dromio of Syracuse to deposit some money at The Centaur (an inn). He is confounded when the identical Dromio of Ephesus appears almost immediately, denying any knowledge of the money and asking him home to dinner, where his wife is waiting. Antipholus, thinking his servant is making insubordinate jokes, beats Dromio.
Dromio of Ephesus returns to his mistress, Adriana, saying that her “husband” refused to come back to his house, and even pretended not to know her. Adriana, concerned that her husband’s eye is straying, takes this news as confirmation of her suspicions.
Antipholus of Syracuse, who complains “I could not speak with Dromio since at first I sent him from the mart,” meets up with Dromio who now denies making a “joke” about Antipholus having a wife. Antipholus begins beating him. Suddenly, Adriana rushes up to Antipholus and begs him not to leave her. The Syracusans cannot but attribute these strange events to witchcraft, remarking that Ephesus is known as a warren for witches. Antipholus and Dromio go off with this strange woman, to eat dinner and keep the gate, respectively.
Antipholus of Ephesus returns home for dinner and is enraged to find that he is rudely refused entry to his own house by Dromio of Syracuse, who is keeping the gate. He is ready to break down the door, but his friends persuade him not to make a scene. He decides, instead, to dine with a Courtesan.
Inside the house, Antipholus of Syracuse discovers that he is very attracted to his “wife”’s sister, Luciana, telling her “train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note / To drown me in thy sister’s flood of tears.” She is flattered by his attentions, but worried about their moral implications. After she exits, Dromio of Syracuse announces that he has discovered that he has a wife: Nell, a hideous kitchen-maid. He describes her as “spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her”. Antipholus jokingly asks him identify the countries, leading to a witty exchange in which parts of her body are identified with nations. Ireland is her buttocks: “I found it out by the bogs”. He claims he has discovered America and the Indies “upon her nose all o’er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, sapphires, declining their rich aspect to the hot breath of Spain; who sent whole armadoes of caracks to be ballast at her nose.” This is one of Shakespeare’s few references to America. The Syracusans decide to leave as soon as possible, and Dromio runs off to make travel plans. Antipholus is apprehended by Angelo, a goldsmith, who claims that he ordered a chain from him. Antipholus is forced to accept the chain, and Angelo says that he will return for payment.
Antipholus of Ephesus dispatches Dromio of Ephesus to purchase a rope so that he can beat his wife Adriana for locking him out, then is accosted by Angelo, who tells him “I thought to have ta’en you at the Porpentine” and asks to be reimbursed for the chain. He denies ever seeing it, and is promptly arrested. As he is being led away, Dromio of Syracuse arrives, whereupon Antipholus dispatches him back to Adriana’s house to get money for his bail.
After completing this errand, Dromio of Syracuse mistakenly delivers the money to Antipholus of Syracuse. The Courtesan spies Antipholus wearing the gold chain, and says he promised it to her. The Syracusans deny this, and flee. The Courtesan resolves to tell Adriana that her husband is insane. Dromio of Ephesus returns to the arrested Antipholus of Ephesus, with the rope. Antipholus is infuriated. Adriana, Luciana and the Courtesan enter with a conjurer named Pinch, who tries to exorcise the Ephesians, who are bound and taken to Adriana’s house. The Syracusans enter, carrying swords, and everybody runs off for fear: believing that they are the Ephesians, out for vengeance after somehow escaping their bonds. Adriana reappears with henchmen, who attempt to bind the Syracusans. They take sanctuary in a nearby priory, where the Abbess resolutely protects them.
The Duke and Egeon enter, on their way to Egeon’s execution. Adriana begs the Duke to force the Abbess to release her husband. Then, a messenger from Adriana’s house runs in and announces that the Ephesians have broken loose from their bonds and tortured Doctor Pinch. The Ephesians enter and ask the Duke for justice against Adriana. Egeon believes he has found his own son, Antipholus, who will be able to bail him, but both Ephesians deny having ever seen him before.
Suddenly, the Abbess enters with the Syracusan twins, and everyone begins to understand the confused events of the day. Not only are the two sets of twins reunited, but the Abbess reveals that she is Egeon’s wife, Emilia. The Duke pardons Egeon. All exit into the abbey to celebrate the reunification of the family.
Characters in The Comedy of Errors
Solinus – Duke of Ephesus
Egeon (or Ægeon) – a merchant of Syracuse
Emilia (or Æmilia) – his lost wife, now Lady Abbess at Ephesus
Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse – twin brothers, sons of Egeon and Emilia
Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse – twin brothers, bondmen, each serving his respective Antipholus
Adriana – wife of Antipholus of Ephesus
Luciana – her sister
Luce – maid to Adriana
Balthazar – a merchant
Angelo – a goldsmith
Courtesan
First merchant – friend to Antipholus of Syracuse
Second merchant – to whom Angelo is in debt
Doctor Pinch – a conjuring schoolmaster
Gaoler, Headsman, Officers, and other Attendants
Quotes from the Comedy of Errors
The pleasing punishment that women bear. (1.1.47)
I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself. (1.2.36)
A wretched soul bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain. (2.1.35)
Every why hath a wherefore. (2.2.45)
Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast. (3.1.29)
They brought one Pinch, a hungry, lean-faced villain,
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
A threadbare juggler, and a fortune-teller,
A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,
A living-dead man. (5.1.239)
Let ’s go hand in hand, not one before another. (5.1.432)
Plot of Love’s Labour’s Lost
The play opens with the King of Navarre and three noble companions, Berowne, Dumaine, and Longaville, taking an oath to devote themselves to three years of study, promising not to give in to the company of women – Berowne somewhat more hesitantly than the others. Berowne reminds the king that the princess and her three ladies are coming to the kingdom and it would be suicidal for the King to agree to this law. The King denies what Berowne says, insisting that the ladies make their camp in the field outside of his court. The King and his men meet the princess and her ladies. Instantly, they all fall comically in love.
The main story is assisted by many other humorous sub-plots. A rather heavily-accented Spanish swordsman, Don Adriano de Armado, tries and fails to woo a country wench, Jaquenetta, helped by Moth, his page, and rivalled by Costard, a country idiot. We are also introduced to two scholars, Holofernes and Sir Nathaniel, and we see them converse with each other in schoolboy Latin. In the final act, the comic characters perform a play to entertain the nobles, an idea conceived by Holofernes, where they represent the Nine Worthies. The four Lords – as well as the Ladies’ courtier Boyet – mock the play, and Armado and Costard almost come to blows.
At the end of this ‘play’ within the play, there is a bitter twist in the story. News arrives that the Princess’s father has died and she must leave to take the throne. The king and his nobles swear to remain faithful to their ladies, but the ladies, unconvinced that their love is that strong, claim that the men must wait a whole year and a day to prove what they say is true. This is an unusual ending for Shakespeare and Elizabethan comedy. A play mentioned by Francis Meres, Love’s Labour’s Won, is believed by some to be a sequel to this play
Characters of Loves’s Labour’s Lost
Ferdinand – King of Navarre
Lord Berowne – attending on the King (also spelt Biron)
Lord Longaville – attending on the King (also spelt Longueville)
Lord Dumaine – attending on the King
Princess of France
Lady Rosaline – attending on the Princess
Lady Maria – attending on the Princess
Lady Katharine – attending on the Princess
Boyet – attending on the Princess
Marcadé – messenger
Don Adriano de Armado – a fantastical Spaniard
Moth – Armado’s page
Sir Nathaniel – curate
Holofernes – schoolmaster
Dull – constable
Costard – a rustic
Jaquenetta – country wench
Forester
Officers and Others, Attendants on the King and Princess
Quotes from Love’s Labour’s Lost
Painfully to pore upon a book
To seek the light of truth; while truth the while
Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look. (1.1.73)
Study is like the heaven’s glorious sun,
That will not be deep-searched with saucy looks;
Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from others’ books.
These earthly godfathers of Heaven’s lights
That give a name to every fixed star,
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk and wot not what they are. (1.1.84)
How well he’s read, to reason against reading! (1.1.94)
Plot of Measure for Measure
Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna, makes it known that he intends to leave the city on a diplomatic mission. He leaves the government in the hands of a strict judge, Angelo.
Claudio, a young nobleman, is betrothed/unofficially married to Juliet. At the time, marriages were supposed to be announced by banns in advance. Due to lack of money, Claudio and Juliet did not observe all the technicalities. This did not make them unique however; at the time most people (including the Church) would have considered them married. Technically, however, all the formalities for a civil marriage had not been followed and so a strict judge might rule that they were not legally married. Angelo, as the personification of the law, decides to enforce the ruling that fornication is punishable by death, and since he does not accept the validity of the marriage, Claudio is sentenced to be executed. Claudio’s friend, Lucio, visits Claudio’s sister, Isabella, a novice nun, and asks her to intercede with Angelo on Claudio’s behalf.
Isabella obtains an audience with Angelo, and pleads for mercy for Claudio. Over the course of two scenes between Angelo and Isabella, it becomes clear that he harbours lustful thoughts about her, and he eventually offers her a deal: Angelo will spare Claudio’s life if Isabella yields him her virginity. Isabella refuses, but she also realises that (due to Angelo’s austere reputation) she will not be believed if she makes a public accusation against him. Instead she visits her brother in prison and counsels him to prepare himself for death. Claudio vehemently begs Isabella to save his life, but Isabella refuses. As a novice nun, she feels that she cannot sacrifice her own immortal soul (and that of Claudio’s, if he causes her to lose her virtue) to save Claudio’s transient earthly life.
The Duke has not in fact left the city, but remains there disguised as a friar (Lodowick) in order to spy on the city’s affairs, and especially on the actions of Angelo. In his guise as a friar he befriends Isabella and arranges two tricks to thwart Angelo’s evil intentions:
First, a “bed trick” is arranged. Angelo has previously refused to fulfill the betrothal binding him to Mariana, because her dowry had been lost at sea. Isabella sends word to Angelo that she has decided to submit to him, making it a condition of their meeting that it occurs in perfect darkness and in silence. Mariana agrees to take Isabella’s place, and she has sex with Angelo, although he continues to believe he has enjoyed Isabella. (In some interpretations of the law, this constitutes consummation of their betrothal, and therefore their marriage. This is the same interpretation that assumes that Claudio and Juliet are legally married.)
After having sex with Mariana (who he thinks is Isabella), Angelo goes back on his word, sending a message to the prison that he wishes to see Claudio’s head, and necessitating the “head trick.” The Duke first attempts to arrange the execution of another prisoner whose head can be sent instead of Claudio’s. However, the villain Barnardine refuses to be executed in his drunken state. As luck would have it, a pirate named Ragozine, of similar appearance to Claudio, has recently died of a fever, so his head is sent to Angelo instead.
This main plot concludes with the ‘return’ to Vienna of the Duke as himself. Isabella and Mariana publicly petition him, and he hears their claims against Angelo, which Angelo smoothly denies. As the scene develops, it appears that Friar Lodowick will be blamed for the ‘false’ accusations levelled against Angelo. The Duke leaves Angelo to judge the cause against Lodowick, but returns in disguise moments later when Lodowick is summoned. Eventually the friar reveals himself to be the Duke, thereby exposing Angelo as a liar and Isabella and Mariana as truthful. He proposes that Angelo be executed but first compels him to marry Mariana— with his estate going to Mariana as her new dowry, “to buy you a better husband”. Mariana pleads for Angelo’s life, even enlisting the aid of Isabella (who is not yet aware her brother Claudio is still living). The Duke pretends not to heed the women’s petition, and only after revealing that Claudio has not, in fact, been executed, relents. The Duke then proposes marriage to Isabella. Isabella does not reply, and her reaction is interpreted differently in different productions: her silent acceptance of his proposal is the most common in performance. This is one of the “open silences” of the play.
A sub-plot concerns Claudio’s friend Lucio, who frequently slanders the duke to the friar, and in the last act slanders the friar to the duke, providing opportunities for comic consternation on Vincentio’s part and landing Lucio in trouble when it is revealed that the duke and the friar are one and the same. His punishment, like Angelo’s, is to be forced into an undesired marriage: in this case with the prostitute Kate Keepdown.
Characters in Measure for Measure
Men
Vincentio, The Duke, who also appears disguised as Friar Lodowick
Angelo, the Deputy, who rules in the Duke’s absence
Escalus, an ancient lord
Claudio, a young gentleman
Lucio, a “fantastic”, a foppish young nobleman
Two gentlemen, friends to Lucio
The Provost, who runs the prison
Thomas, a friar
Peter, a friar
Elbow, a simple constable
Froth, a foolish gentleman of fourscore pound a year
a clown, called Pompey
Abhorson, an executioner
Barnardine, a dissolute prisoner
a Justice, friend of Escalus
Varrius (silent role), a friend of the Duke
Women
Isabella, sister to Claudio
Mariana, betrothed to Angelo
Juliet, beloved of Claudio, pregnant with his child
Francisca, a nun.
Mistress Overdone, a bawd
Quotes for Measure for Measure
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt”. - ( Quote Act I, Scene IV).
“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall”. - ( Quote Act II, Scene I).
“The miserable have no other medicine but only hope”. - ( Quote Act III, Scene I).
