Measure for Measure context

Question 1

James I similarity

Answer 1

Asserts authority over ‘his laws’ and acts through intermediaries
1599 publication of Basilikon Doron showed interest in ethics of leadership - sympathetic to Roman laws that eventually triumph

Question 2

Stevenson

Answer 2

Play written to flatter James as Duke ‘based on many of his attributes’

Question 3

James and the King’s Men

Answer 3

Shakespeare was likely reinforcing the patriarchal rule of his patron - James took over the King’s Men from George Carey in 1603

Question 4

Popham

Answer 4

Angelo’s corruption in office is similar to Chief Justice Popham, who spearheaded anti-brothel initiatives in London and led a precise life, but was widely suspected of hypocrisy

Question 5

Play exemplifying Puritan agenda

Answer 5

Shakespeare exemplifies the Puritan agenda by purposely setting his play in an extreme world where the crime of sexual misconduct is punishable by death

Question 6

Satirical of Puritans

Answer 6

The play is arguably satirical of hypocrisy and the righteous nature of Puritanism
Written 1603-04, a time of Puritan activity demonstrated by the 1603 Millenary Petition

Question 7

Puritan characters and values

Answer 7

Angelo and Isabella are key puritanical figures
Followed Calvinist doctrine, double predestination stated only ‘elect’ would go to heaven
In late 16th century, Puritans wanted reform of the Church from within

Question 8

Contemporary marriage complications

Answer 8

Marriage complications added to by change in canon law following the Hampton Court Conference of 1604
Long, complicated and drawn out process
Ironically targeted invalid Puritan marriages due to rejection of ‘superstitious’ ceremony

Question 9

Contemporary punishments

Answer 9

Audiences used to public pillory and stocks
Church courts punished sexual transgressions, however there were inconsistencies due to sporadic campaigns of Puritan moralists

Question 10

Claudio’s punishment

Answer 10

Extreme
Conventional for couple to take each other as man and wife well before ceremony - had legal force
Incontinence denounced by Puritans, but no laws against it

Question 11

Allusion of title

Answer 11

Alludes to Matthew 7.1-2
Extract centred around retribution, justice and mercy
1559 proclamation banned religious plays - allusions common

Question 12

Play ambiguity

Answer 12

Characterised by indeterminacy - could be comedy or dark play
Read in multiple ways to please nobles and wider social spectrum

Question 13

1950 interpretation

Answer 13

Peter Brook - Memorial Theatre in Stratford

Question 14

Brook - registers

Answer 14

Played in 2 registers to ‘follow the movement’ from Holy to Rough
Holy - attempts to go beyond physical
Rough - belongs to folk culture, improvisatory

Question 15

Brook - darkness

Answer 15

Darkness in this world ‘absolutely necessary’
More meaning in Dostoevskian setting
Depends on interrelationship of registers

Question 16

Brook - Vienna setting

Answer 16

Sleazy, grimy Vienna where bawds dominated

Stage populated with ‘prostitutes, beggars, cripples and degenerates’ (Venezky) - detached from rulers

Question 17

Brook - Holy theatre role

Answer 17

Only dominated final scene

2 mins for Barbar Jefford’s Isabella to kneel

Question 18

Brook - Pompey

Answer 18

George Rose played him with ‘leering amiability’ (Venezky)

Question 19

Brook - Angelo

Answer 19

John Gielgud - grave and unsmiling, shocked by his own desires

Question 20

Brook - Duke

Answer 20

Harry Andrewes - benevolent and taught moral lessons
Patient and Christlike
Brook didn’t question motives - production ‘Duke-central’ (Weil)

Question 21

1970 interpretation

Answer 21

John Barton

Question 22

Barton - proposal

Answer 22

Met with silence for 1st time

Question 23

Barton - nature of the problem

Answer 23

First time Isabella’s dilemma was the problem - having been abused by men, she might not want to marry one she hardly knows

Question 24

Barton - end of play

Answer 24

Ends with Isabella alone and ambivalent on stage - her play

Question 25

Barton - setting and costume

Answer 25

Chamber drama in a large and empty room - gloomy
Authority figures dressed in black and uptight, same badges
Bawds more at ease in bodies, even sensual

Question 26

Barton - Duke

Answer 26

Sebastian Shaw - ‘bumbling and ineffectual’ figure (Reeves), rather than traditional hero
Sermons ignored by Claudio - he eats his dinner
Text cut and scenes rearrange to make Duke problematic
Laughed at by own courtiers

Question 27

Barton - Isabella

Answer 27

Estelle Kohler - young rather than dowdy
Counterpart of Duke - both in white habits
Complex and unsympathetic - ‘frigid enigma’ (Gay)

Question 28

Barton - Angelo

Answer 28

Ian Richardson - physically aggressive and sexual

‘marble embodiment of dehumanised logic’ (Wardle)

Question 29

2003 production

Answer 29

Sean Holmes

Question 30

Holmes - Vienna

Answer 30

Set in the 1940s - ‘brooding sense of violence’ and fascist setting echoed in the play
‘Monolithic and inescapable’ (Reeves) brick wall in the middle of the stage - line between court and city, used for bartering for sex, represented corrupt authority

Question 31

Holmes - Isabella

Answer 31

Emma Fielding - differential and loathed to act, hesitant and self-doubting

Question 32

Holmes - Angelo

Answer 32

Daniel Evans - almost inhuman, loathed to act, hesitant + self-doubting
Accepted death - pardon was an excruciating charade

Question 33

Holmes - context

Answer 33

Produced at time of Iraq - worked on the principle of every authority figure failing in some way

Question 34

2004 production

Answer 34

Simon McBurney - Royal National Theatre

Question 35

McBurney - Angelo

Answer 35

Paul Rhys - his play
Bassett - ‘desperately repressed priest’
Damaged by desires, bookish and ordered
Sexually abuses Isabel in 2nd exchange
Sel-harms in ‘perversely orgasmic’ manner (Taylor)
Carries Ragazine’s head and smears himself in blood - symbolic of guilt

Question 36

McBurney - Duke

Answer 36

David Troughton - ‘boomingly sadistic’ (Spencer)
Showed contemptuousness towards subjects - spoke on phone or microphone
Threats of violence were real

Question 37

McBurney - set

Answer 37

Visually exciting, modern set

Cameras, microphones and monitors

Question 38

McBurney - context

Answer 38

Explored contemporary criticisms of leaders in the wake of Iraq
Prisoners in orange jumpsuits e.g. Guantanamo/beheaded prisoners

Question 39

McBurney - sexuality

Answer 39

Extremely sexualised, with sex presented as abuse

Seedy disco in Act 1 Scene 2

Question 40

2015 production

Answer 40

Dominic Dromgoole - Globe

Question 41

Dromgoole - Duke

Answer 41

Dominic Rowan - less surrogate divinity than ‘frantic improviser’

Question 42

Dromgoole - Angelo

Answer 42

Kurt Egywian - shocked by ‘dormant sensuality’ (Billington)

Question 43

Dromgoole - Isabella

Answer 43

Mariah gale - modest but ‘absolute spiritual certainty’ (Billington)