Measure for Measure context Flashcards
James I similarity
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
Stevenson
Play written to flatter James as Duke ‘based on many of his attributes’
James and the King’s Men
Shakespeare was likely reinforcing the patriarchal rule of his patron - James took over the King’s Men from George Carey in 1603
Popham
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
Play exemplifying Puritan agenda
Shakespeare exemplifies the Puritan agenda by purposely setting his play in an extreme world where the crime of sexual misconduct is punishable by death
Satirical of Puritans
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
Puritan characters and values
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
Contemporary marriage complications
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
Contemporary punishments
Audiences used to public pillory and stocks
Church courts punished sexual transgressions, however there were inconsistencies due to sporadic campaigns of Puritan moralists
Claudio’s punishment
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
Allusion of title
Alludes to Matthew 7.1-2
Extract centred around retribution, justice and mercy
1559 proclamation banned religious plays - allusions common
Play ambiguity
Characterised by indeterminacy - could be comedy or dark play
Read in multiple ways to please nobles and wider social spectrum
1950 interpretation
Peter Brook - Memorial Theatre in Stratford
Brook - registers
Played in 2 registers to ‘follow the movement’ from Holy to Rough
Holy - attempts to go beyond physical
Rough - belongs to folk culture, improvisatory
Brook - darkness
Darkness in this world ‘absolutely necessary’
More meaning in Dostoevskian setting
Depends on interrelationship of registers
Brook - Vienna setting
Sleazy, grimy Vienna where bawds dominated
Stage populated with ‘prostitutes, beggars, cripples and degenerates’ (Venezky) - detached from rulers
Brook - Holy theatre role
Only dominated final scene
2 mins for Barbar Jefford’s Isabella to kneel
Brook - Pompey
George Rose played him with ‘leering amiability’ (Venezky)
Brook - Angelo
John Gielgud - grave and unsmiling, shocked by his own desires
Brook - Duke
Harry Andrewes - benevolent and taught moral lessons
Patient and Christlike
Brook didn’t question motives - production ‘Duke-central’ (Weil)
1970 interpretation
John Barton
Barton - proposal
Met with silence for 1st time
Barton - nature of the problem
First time Isabella’s dilemma was the problem - having been abused by men, she might not want to marry one she hardly knows
Barton - end of play
Ends with Isabella alone and ambivalent on stage - her play
Barton - setting and costume
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
Barton - Duke
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
Barton - Isabella
Estelle Kohler - young rather than dowdy
Counterpart of Duke - both in white habits
Complex and unsympathetic - ‘frigid enigma’ (Gay)
Barton - Angelo
Ian Richardson - physically aggressive and sexual
‘marble embodiment of dehumanised logic’ (Wardle)
2003 production
Sean Holmes
Holmes - Vienna
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
Holmes - Isabella
Emma Fielding - differential and loathed to act, hesitant and self-doubting
Holmes - Angelo
Daniel Evans - almost inhuman, loathed to act, hesitant + self-doubting
Accepted death - pardon was an excruciating charade
Holmes - context
Produced at time of Iraq - worked on the principle of every authority figure failing in some way
2004 production
Simon McBurney - Royal National Theatre
McBurney - Angelo
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
McBurney - Duke
David Troughton - ‘boomingly sadistic’ (Spencer)
Showed contemptuousness towards subjects - spoke on phone or microphone
Threats of violence were real
McBurney - set
Visually exciting, modern set
Cameras, microphones and monitors
McBurney - context
Explored contemporary criticisms of leaders in the wake of Iraq
Prisoners in orange jumpsuits e.g. Guantanamo/beheaded prisoners
McBurney - sexuality
Extremely sexualised, with sex presented as abuse
Seedy disco in Act 1 Scene 2
2015 production
Dominic Dromgoole - Globe
Dromgoole - Duke
Dominic Rowan - less surrogate divinity than ‘frantic improviser’
Dromgoole - Angelo
Kurt Egywian - shocked by ‘dormant sensuality’ (Billington)
Dromgoole - Isabella
Mariah gale - modest but ‘absolute spiritual certainty’ (Billington)
