(FINISHED) 1.5 Miscellaneous Articles: Measure For Measure

Question 0

“An introduction to genre”: According to Stephen Gosson, what are comedies and tragedies defined as?

Answer 0

‘Tragedies is wrath, crueltie, incest, injurie, murther, eyther violent by sworde, or voluntary by posion’
‘The grounde worke of the commedies is love, consenedge, flatterie, bawderie, slye conveighance of whoredom’

Question 1

“The Duke in Measure for Measure”: What are some of the key points made by Glyn Austen within his article?

Answer 1

• the duke is a character of ambivalence and contradiction
• measure for measure is characterised by contradiction: justice vs mercy, law vs grace, appearance vs reality
• The Duke is comparable to King Lear, who dispenses his power in the beginning scenes of Lear: yet the duke never relinquishes influence
• the duke provides opportunity for sin
• The duke dissembles and deceives so constantly and so successively that it is difficult to make a comprehensive analysis of his character

Question 2

“The Problem of Measure for measure”: what are some of the key arguments made within the article?

Answer 2

• The duke is the anchor of the play and of all other characters
• As the scene progresses, Shakespeare uses the duke to uncover deepening levels of irony in the situation - through mock amazement, such as ‘nay, it is ten times strange’
• Shakespeare is at pains to establish the gulf between Angelo’s fine public image, and his gross private behaviour
• Opposed strains or sardonic humour and deep moral seriousness run side by side throughout this scene

Question 3

What did Richard Wilson say about the Duke?

Answer 3

A Machiavellian power monger. One who moves unseen and all seeing through his subjects - all the better to dominate them. A political manipulator out for himself

Question 4

What did G Wilson Knight say about the Duke

Answer 4

Believes him to be a Christ-like figure with “an ethical attitude exactly correspondent with Jesus”. The duke bears “the sword of heaven”

Question 5

Where does the sword of Spirit come from?

Answer 5

Ephesians 6 (1599 Geneva Bible)

Question 6

What did Matthew 4.1-11 (King James Version, 1611), the Temptation of Jesus state?

Answer 6

The story of the temptation of Jesus involves the three attempts by Satan to persuade Jesus to sin (he doesn’t)