Context

Question 1

the First Folio (1623)

Answer 1

the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays

published in 1623 (eight years after his death)

included ’Measure for Measure’ among the comedies

Question 2

comedic structure of the play

Answer 2

the play is very dark and complex, featuring themes of sex, judicial punishment and prostitution

many prefer to see comedies as lightweight, with love and romance, but despite its controversial themes MFM still fits the comedic criteria….

• begins in trouble, ends in peace
• ends with multiple marriages
• features characters intended for comedic relief

Question 3

Thomas Heywood

Answer 3

Thomas Heywood, a Jacobean playwright, said that “comedies begin in trouble and end in peace: tragedies begin in calms and end in tempest”

Question 4

King James I

Answer 4

James recently became King of England following the death of Elizabeth I in 1603

the first documented performance of Measure for Measure was in 1604 and it is possible that Shakespeare had been influenced by the attributes of King James when creating the character of the Duke

this was a period of great social change - Elizabeth I was dying without an heir, so her cousin James took the throne (a time of fear and anxiety)

James was also the King of Scotland and was known as a foreign king who did not seem to understand key English values (e.g. Scotland had no theatres at all, so English culture was strange to him)

he was unpredictable, fond of grand gestures and a complex and admired intellectual (parallels to the Duke)

Question 5

James i parallels to the Duke and Angelo (qualities of James are reflected in both the Duke and Angelo)

Answer 5

he hated crowds and public acclaim, there is a line in MFM linking James to the Duke through their dislike of crowds (“I love the people but do not like to stage me to their eyes”)

Angelo and James both enforced the laws and were quite unpredictable (e.g. James executed a man on the spot without trial, this was not how things were done in England so made a huge impression, links to Angelo’s execution of Claudio to set an example of his power)

Question 6

Basilikon Doron (1599)

Answer 6

James I wrote the Basilikon Doron, in which he described what qualities he believed would make a good ruler and king, specifically a balance of justice and mercy

he admitted that he had been too lax at the beginning of his reign, just as the Duke admits “twas my fault to give the people scope”

Question 7

source of the play: Cinthio

how does Claudio’s character differ from his equivalent in the play’s source?

Answer 7

the man in Claudio’s position has raped the woman in Juliet’s position

however, in MFM, Claudio and Juliet are in love and plan to get married, their relations have been purely consensual

this makes the audience react differently to the male character, leading us to feel more sympathy for Claudio and therefore view Angelo as all the more harsh and overly severe

Question 8

The Prince by Machiavelli

influenced the character of the Duke

Answer 8

Richard Wilson argues that the Duke is a scheming and manipulative Machiavellian figure

the term Machiavellian comes from ‘The Prince’ by Niccolo Machiavelli in which a duke rules over a state where laws are disregarded

he gives absolute power to his deputy to reinstate the laws, the deputy does this cruelly and becomes very unpopular with the people (similar to the Duke and Angelo in MFM)

the duke then returns and tells the people this cruelty had not come from him, essentially the laws have been reinstated and he gets to retain the love of the people

therefore, a Machiavellian character is manipulative and scheming, getting what they desire by using someone else, they have hidden motives

the story essentially describes a manipulative figure with mysterious motives and influenced Shakespeare’s creation of the character of the Duke

Question 9

deus ex machina

Answer 9

the Duke returns at the end of the play to restore peace and harmony and wishes to be credited with doing so, despite the fact that he is partly responsible for the lack of peace to begin with

Question 10

typical features of Shakespeare’s plays

Answer 10

they tend to end with the restoration of order and stability

frequently, authority figures are undercut and undermined by a comic or parodic figure such as the Duke with Lucio and Prospero with Caliban in ‘The Tempest’

such rebellious and mocking voices often reject and defy the established order

potentially good characters with a fatal flaw are seen in numerous Shakespeare plays (Macbeth, Othello, etc) - arguably, Angelo is a potentially good man, albeit vulnerable, that has a fatal flaw that leads to his downfall

Angelo can therefore be seen as a ruthless hypocrite or a sympathetic tragic hero with a fatal flaw

Question 11

censorship of stage plays

Answer 11

stage plays were subject to censorship and any criticism had to be muted or oblique

direct criticism of the monarch or contemporary English court would not be tolerated

this could explain why Shakespeare’s plays are always set in the past or abroad (e.g. MFM is set in Vienna, but many believe it is about London society)

Question 12

sources of the play

Answer 12

sources provide the plot of MFM…

• Hecatommithi by Cinthio (1565)
• Sermon on the Mount
• Promos and Cassandra by Whetstone

Shakespeare altered Cinthio’s Hecatommithi and Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra, which creates a much more complex plot (e.g. we feel sympathetic towards Claudio)

Question 13

Cinthio (1565)

Answer 13

a story by Cinthio, published in 1565, is a source for the play

however, in Cithio’s tale, the woman is the sister of the condemned man and he is in prison for rape

Question 14

how did Shakespeare depart from his source?

Answer 14

Shakespeare departed from the source in several ways

he ‘softened’ Claudio’s crime (he is not in prison for rape, his relationship with Juliet was consensual and his crime in merely extra-marital sex)

he elaborated Isabella’s chaste instincts by giving her a religious vocation

he allows Isabella to retain her chastity through the ‘bed trick’

Question 15

Sermon on the Mount

Answer 15

another source is the biblical Sermon on the Mount

the play’s title echoes Jesus’ passage: “with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again”

a warning against judging others harshly without looking at one’s own faults, Christ taught that if we judge others we can expect a similar judgement for ourselves (Angelo? a message to the audience themselves?)

Shakespeare uses Christ’s teachings to explore justice and mercy and introduce the overall theme of balance and equivalence

Question 16

coins

Answer 16

when the Duke tells Angelo that he is to be appointed as deputy, Angelo likens himself to a metal coin that should be tested for its value and worth – “Let some more test be made of my metal / Before so noble and so great a figure / Be stamp’d upon it”

in the 16th century, the value stamped on the coin was equal to the value of the metal used to make it, so Angelo feels that he should be tested to be sure he can fulfil the task

Question 17

the angel-noble coin

Answer 17

the angel-noble was a gold coin bearing the image of the Archangel Michael defeating Satan in the form of a dragon

Angelo seems to feel that, like the Archangel, he should actively destroy the evil which infects the state and so decides to sentence Claudio to death for fornication

however, this may also be a pun on his name, as Angelo is far from an ‘angel’ and may even be the ‘evil’ that needs destroying rather than the angel doing the destroying

Question 18

lessons featured in the Basilikon Doron

Answer 18

Basilikon Doron was essentially a guideline on how to be an effective monarch and contained James’ views on the attributes needed to be a good ruler

the first part describes a king’s duty towards God and the Duke believes that “He who the sword of heaven will bear / Should be as holy as severe”

the second part focuses on the roles and responsibilities in office, James encouraged his son to be a good king rather than a tyrant by establishing and executing laws as well as governing with justice and equality, emphasising the need to balance “mortality and mercy”, which is the central theme of the play

he also advocated the need to be well acquainted with one’s subjects, understand the laws of one’s own kingdom and actively participate in the Council

the third part concerns proper behaviour in daily life: “Pattern in himself to know / Grace to stand, and virtue go”

James also revealed that he was very sensitive to slander (“the malice of the children of envy”) just like the Duke, who has two soliloquies complaining about “back-wounding calumny” and is so wounded by Lucio’s accusations that he sentences him extremely harshly, stating that “Slandering a prince deserves it”

Question 19

J W Lever

similarity between the Duke and James

Answer 19

“The need to hold on firmly to a middle way in the church, the state and in private life was repeatedly stressed by the king himself”

Question 20

the position of women: example of the Duke and Mariana

Answer 20

Shakespeare clearly portrays the position of women in 17th century England

the Duke tells Mariana in the final scene, if she is neither maid nor widow nor wife then she is nothing, which reinforces the idea that a woman’s worth lies in serving men, either by being their maids or their wives, and if a woman fulfils none of these prescribed roles then she is worthless

Question 21

the position of women: restrictions placed upon women

Answer 21

unless she was a widow, a woman no matter what class had no status and was not allowed to own property, even high-class women were not allowed to participate in government, to go to school or university or to work

they tended to be tutored at home in attributes that would make them attractive to a future husband such as dancing, music, drawing, sewing and running a household

women were not allowed to inherit money or a title

their closest male relative could dictate whom they married and withhold their dowries if they wanted to (a woman’s dowry was important because the future husband would have to provide everything for his wife, so it was legal to dissolve an engagement if the dowry was nor forthcoming)

if a woman did marry, everything she had including her children would belong to the husband

Question 22

the position of women: the Church

Answer 22

the Church supported the state’s position, arguing that Eve had played the principal role in the fall of man

Saint Paul, in the New Testament, said about the duty of women in marriage: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection” and “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence”

he urged obedience, commanding “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands” and young wives who followed these writings were “discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands”

Question 23

the position of women: King James

Answer 23

King James enshrined the husband’s authority in Basilikon Doron

he said that “Ye are the head, she is your body: it is your office to command, and hers to obey; but yet with such a sweet harmony, as she should be as ready to obey, as ye to command”

he also said that a man should choose his wife as he would choose a servant, a dog or a horse (obedient, subservient, etc)

Question 24

the position of women: Isabella

Answer 24

Isabella says what men want women to say when she admits to Angelo “Nay, call us ten times frail / For we are soft as our complexions are / And credulous to false prints”

however, she is making the point that women are easily influenced by a man’s false persuasion and Angelo interprets this to mean that she is ready to give in to him so he tries more direct seduction, to which she strongly resists

Question 25

the position of women: examples throughout the play

Answer 25

Mariana did not fight Angelo’s unfair slanders against her reputation, she instead hid herself away from society

Isabella’s reaction to Mariana’s story by claiming that she would be better off dead

Juliet is told by the so-called friar that her sin is “of a heavier kind” than Claudio’s even though they committed the same crime and the Provost tells the friar that she has “blistered” her reputation

the verb blister refers to the fact that her women is swollen and she is pregnant, which reflects the fact that pregnancy in an unmarried woman was likened to a disease

it is also a reference to the fact that convicted prostitutes were branded on the forehead, so Juliet is now seen as an outcast and a ‘fallen woman’, she is no better than a prostitute

Question 26

the position of women: Claudio and Lucio

Answer 26

in Renaissance England, a woman must be pure but this is not so important for men

as seen in how the Provost thinks that Claudio is “more fit to do another such offence / Than die for this”, so he may lose his life but his reputation is not “blistered” unlike Juliet’s, even though they committed the same crime

Lucio promised marriage to Kate Keepdown but when she fell pregnant he abandoned her

her reputation, as an unmarried pregnant woman, was “blistered” and it can be assumed that she had no choice but to turn to prostitution and let Mistress Overdone take care of her child

if Claudio had been executed, the same thing may have happened to Juliet

Question 27

Puritanism

Answer 27

Puritanism was a religious reform movement that sought to ‘purify’ the Church of England and rid it of remnants of the Roman Catholic ‘popery’ after the Reformation

they became known for their moral and religious seriousness that informed their whole way of life and they sought, through church reform, to make their lifestyle of restriction and utmost purity the lifestyle of the whole nation

they viewed themselves as chosen by God to live godly lives

Question 28

Angelo’s Puritanism

Answer 28

this explains Angelo’s belief that he is a “saint” as well as the determination he had as he undertook the task of rooting out “future evils”

Puritans were originally called Precisionists and Angelo is frequently referred to as “precise”, reinforcing the fact that he is a Puritan

Question 29

Puritanism: immoral hypocrites

Answer 29

through the 16th century, Puritans began to be portrayed by their enemies as people who slavishly followed their Bibles as guides to daily life

they were also caricatured as immoral hypocrites who adopted a grave demeanour but exploited those whom they judged to be inadequate Christians

through Angelo’s character, Shakespeare seems to be adhering to the theatrical tradition of Puritans as secretly lecherous, merely hiding behind a façade of strict piety

although, Angelo is much more complex than previous stage villains

Question 30

Angelo’s quote about his heart being suffocated by his own blood

Answer 30

Angelo compares the way his blood suffocates his heart to the way “obsequious” subjects crowd their ruler

this may be a reference to the visit of King James to the Royal Exchange in 1604 where he intended to watch unobserved but was recognised and the crowds pressed round him

Question 31

sexually transmitted diseases

Answer 31

much of the joking in the brothel relates to sexually transmitted diseases

in Shakespeare’s time, there was no cure but there were various useless treatments such as mercury which made people bald, hence the reference to “French crown”

when Mistress Overdone laments that she has fewer customers due to the “sweat”, she could be referring to the sweating sickness brought to England by the soldiers of Henry VII

Pompey later says that “she hath eaten up all her beef, as she herself is in the tub” which refers to both the method of preserving beef by salting it in a tub and the treatment for STIs

Question 32

sexual innuendo

Answer 32

Pompey’s apparent innocent speech is full of sexual innuendo that even a modern audience will be able to understand

his references to “stewed prunes”, “dishes” and “cracking the stones” are slang terms for sexual activity

the reference to a “pick-lock” is also a sexual innuendo referring to action of opening a chastity belt, which was an iron contraption into which a woman could be locked to prevent her having sexual intercourse

Lucio uses lots of euphemisms for sex, like when he accuses the Duke of putting a ducat in a beggar’s “clack-dish” and “filling a bottle with tundish” (a tundish was a funnel, a phallic image)

Question 33

Catholic saints

Answer 33

Catholic saints such as Agatha, Agnes, Bibiana and Lucy, who had been tortured and killed in the protection of their virginity, would have been held up as role models for nuns like Isabella

this explains her readiness to die rather than give up her virginity as well as her romantic view of herself as a martyr, as this is what she has been taught is the right thing to do

these saints act as a reminder of the importance and meaning of purity, it is a treasure to be guarded and protected at any cost

Question 34

marriage law

Answer 34

the Duke says that Angelo and Mariana had promised to marry each other but before the marriage could be solemnised, her dowry was lost in a shipwreck

Angelo treated this promise as a verbal agreement to marry at some time in the future and legally, such a contract could be dissolved by either party for good reason

Angelo broke off the contract because she failed to produce a dowry and because “her reputation was disvalued / In levity”

so when Mariana goes in place of Isabella and sleeps with Angelo, she is consummating their union which validates the contract according to the common law on marriage

the religious ceremony conducted by Friar Peter at the end makes this contract valid according to the Catholic Church, and Angelo and Mariana are married

Question 35

sources for the plot

Answer 35

Shakespeare derived his plot principally from two sources…

• a story in Cinthio’s Hecatommithi (1565)
• a play by George Whetstone called The Right Excellent and Famous Historye of Promos and Cassandra (1578)

Question 36

Hecatommithi (1565) by Cinthio

Answer 36

the tale of Epitia illustrates ingratitude – it is a version of the story of the corrupt magistrate

in the primary version, a woman pleads with a local authority on behalf of her husband who is to be executed for murder

she surrenders to the magistrate’s desires in exchange for her husband’s freedom, she keeps her side of the bargain but her husband is put to death anyway

she appeals for justice to the ruler of the land who then orders the magistrate to marry her and then executes the magistrate immediately after the wedding , thereby rehabilitating and revenging the wife

Cinthio keeps this plotline but makes significant changes – Epitia is the sister, not the wife, of the condemned man, his crime is rape instead of murder and Epitia persuades the emperor not to execute the magistrate

Question 37

Promos and Cassandra (1578) by George Whetstone

Answer 37

a tragicomedy based on the tale of Epitia – involves a self-righteous deputy, Promos, who seduces Cassandra by promising to pardon her condemned brother

Whetstone adds a comic subplot in which the high-class prostitute, Lamia, is the chief figure

this subplot is closely linked to the main theme as it heightens the impression of social demoralisation and also the hypocrisy of Hungarian officials

Question 38

important differences between Measure for Measure and these sources, Shakespeare made significant adaptations, which complicate the plot and our view of certain characters, including….

Answer 38

developed Isabella’s role and character – making her a novice nun and thus strengthening her resistance to Angelo’s proposal as she would regard fornication as a mortal sin, she would also believe that if Claudio had allowed her to save him by giving in to Angelo’s demands, he would have been damned as well

invented the character of Mariana and her pre-contract with Angelo – Mariana enables Isabella’s honour to be saved, gives a credible reason for Isabella to plead for Angelo’s life and avoids Cinthio and Whetstone’s ending whereby the young virgin is married to the man who raped her, Mariana and Juliet also give Shakespeare the opportunity to explore the nature of love

Angelo is developed from a straightforward villain into a complex character who is highly religious and severely puritanical with the potential to be a tragic hero, forced into his downfall by the Duke who gave him the position in the first place despite doubting him

the Duke’s role is significantly developed – Shakespeare adds his disguise and the way he takes control, manipulating events to a harmonious outcome, this raises philosophical questions about justice and morality rather than simply being a superficial tale about blackmail

Claudio is made into a much more sympathetic character because instead of raping Juliet (as his character equivalent did in the sources), their relationship is consensual and they are as good as married, as a result Angelo is seen as all the more unreasonable and overly harsh – Shakespeare also allows Claudio to survive

Shakespeare introduces Lucio, who not only provides much of the humour, but is also used to undercut the Duke by exposing his paranoia about slander and interrupting his carefully orchestrated denouement

Question 39

Angelo’s Puritan beliefs leading him to give fully into temptation

Answer 39

Angelo spends the night thinking about Isabella, but being a committed Christian and strict Puritan, instead of deciding to be merciful he comes to the conclusion that he has already sinned by lusting after Isabella so he might as well give his “sensual race the rein”

this reflects the teaching in the Bible: “Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart”

Question 40

Isabella asking Angelo to model himself on God, the supreme judge, and be merciful

Answer 40

“How would you be / If he, which is the top of judgement, should / But judge you as you are? Oh, think on that, / And mercy then will breathe within you lips / Like man new made”

she seems to be referring to the passage in the Bible that says: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your father also is merciful”

Question 41

The Prince (1513) by Niccolo Machiavelli

Answer 41

The Prince (1513) by Machiavelli explores the ways in which strong rulers assert their authority, it accepts that the aims of princes can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends

his book was largely based on a Duke called Cesare Borgia, who took over an area called Romagna only to find that it had been controlled by “impotent masters” and now the whole province was full of “robbers, feuds and lawlessness of every description”

to establish peace and order, he decided that a good government was needed so he granted absolute powers to a “cruel and vigorous” man named Messer Remirro de Orca

this man pacified and unified the whole district so the Duke decided that such excessive authority was no longer needed, he knew that the recent severity and harshness had generated some hatred so he made it clear that whatever cruelty had occurred had come from his deputy, not from him

in doing this, he was able to return to an obedient city without being hated by the people

Question 42

how is the Duke in MFM similar and different to the Duke in The Prince?

Answer 42

but unlike Cesare Borgia, the Duke in Measure for Measure admits that he is responsible for the corruption in Vienna

but he dismisses Friar Thomas’ point that it is his responsibility to put things right as he fears that “Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them / For what I bid them do”

so, like Cesare Borgia, the Duke has “on Angelo imposed the office” and given him “My absolute power and place here in Vienna” only to then return, seize power once the city has been cleaned up and disassociate himself from Angelo’s methods, making it clear that all severity came from Angelo and not him

the Duke plans a public humiliation for Angelo “at the consecrated fount” and arranged for trumpets and various important figures to be present

he then acts the merciful ruler, publicly pardoning all miscreants, even Barnadine – so he appears as the merciful leader who the people are relieved to see return while Angelo is blamed and hated for his actions

Question 43

F S Boas: the problem play

Answer 43

the term ‘problem play’ was coined in 1896 by F S Boas to identify “dramas so singular in theme and temper that they cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies”

he said that “throughout these plays, we move along dim untrodden paths, and at the close our feeling is neither of simple joy nor pain”