.......After assuming control as chief law-enforcement officer of Venice, Angelo, who prides himself on his own strict moral code, vows to enforce every statute to the letter of the law. In a blink of his severe eyes, he closes the houses of prostitution and arrests Claudio, a young nobleman, for getting his sweetheart, Juliet, pregnant. Under provisions of an old law that had long been ignored, Claudio is to be executed in three days. Claudio says he had long wished to marry Juliet, whom he truly loves, but could not because of financial problems. Lucio, a friend of Claudio, reports the news of the arrest to Claudio’s sister, Isabella, an aspiring nun. She lives in a cloistered convent governed by strict rules that she thinks should be even stricter. Lucio suggests that she use her womanly power to persuade Angelo not to execute her brother. Although Isabella has plenty of what it takes for the task–namely charm and exceptional beauty–she doubts that she can succeed. But Lucio tells her that

Our doubts are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
Men give like gods. (1. 4. 87-91)

    it is excellent
To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant. (2. 2. 133-135 )

Better it were a brother died at once, 
Than that a sister, by redeeming him, 
Should die for ever. (2. 4. 119-121)

She, Claudio, that you wrong’d, look you restore. 
Joy to you, Mariana! love her, Angelo:
I have confess’d her and I know her virtue.” (5. 1. 539-541) 

I have a motion much imports your good; 
Whereto if you’ll a willing ear incline, 
What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. (1. 5. 549-551).

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First Performance and First Printing

First Performance: Probably December 26, 1604, at Whitehall before King James I.
First Printing: 1623 in the First Folio.
Number of Words in Complete Public-Domain Text: 23,200.
Individual Copies for Schools: Folger Shakespeare Library Edition (Low Cost).
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Type of Play: Problem Comedy
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Measure for Measure, although technically a comedy, has earned distinction as one of Shakespeare's three "problem plays" (along with All's Well That Ends Well and Troilus and Cressida) because it presents as heroes or heroines characters who are seriously flawed in some way and, thus, problematical for audiences used to applauding and identifying with flawless heroes and heroines. For example, the duke is fair and just–but weak. Claudio grovels for his life. Mariana loves Angelo in spite of his egregious behavior. Isabella is admirable for her virtue but censurable for her coldness. (However, this criticism of Isabella–propounded by many critics over the years–may be unfair and unjustified. See Exploitation of Women, below.)

Measure for Measure centers on offenses against moral and temporal law, on the administration of justice, and on the severity of punishment for lawbreakers, one of whom–Claudio–faces a death sentence for impregnating his sweetheart. Consequently, much of the memorable imagery in the play focuses on these and related matters. Following are examples:

We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
Setting it up to fear¹ the birds of prey,
And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch and not their terror. (2. 1. 3-6)
In a metaphor, Angelo compares the law to a scarecrow.

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. (2. 1. 43)
Escalus, using paradox and irony, says that some people gain status by doing wrong and that others lose status by doing right. 

They say, best men are moulded out of faults;
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad. (5. 1. 451-453)
In a paradox, Mariana says the best men are a “little bad.” 

    O, it is excellent
To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant. . . . (2. 2. 133-135)
In an implied metaphor, Isabella compares the power of the law to a giant’s strength. In a simile, she compares Angelo’s use of the law to a giant’s use of his strength.

    If I must die,
I will encounter darkness as a bride,
And hug it in mine arms. (3. 1. 91-93)
In a metaphor-personification, Claudio compares darkness to a bride. 

He who the sword of heaven will bear
Should be as holy as severe. (3. 2. 112-113)
In a metaphor, Duke Vincentio compares the moral law to a heavenly sword wielded by the enforcer of the law.

.......In the Viennese society of Measure for Measure, men exploit and maltreat women. For example, Angelo jilts Mariana and Lucio rejects the woman who bore his child. Moreover, Claudio impregnates Juliet before they are married, then speaks of their encounter disparagingly:

Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die.(1. 2. 78-80)

Facing execution, Claudio muses about death in the same way that Hamlet does in his “To be or not to be” soliloquy. The thought of what happens after death unnerves both Claudio and Hamlet. They wish to cling to the here and now as long as possible. Claudio vividly describes the possibilities in a conversation with his sister, telling her that

To die, and go we know not where; 
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;
This sensible warm motion² to become 
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit 
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 
In thrilling³ region of thick-ribbed ice; 
To be imprison’d in the viewless winds, 
And blown with restless violence round about 
The pendant⁴ world; or to be worse than worst 
Of those that lawless and incertain thoughts 
Imagine howling: ’tis too horrible! 
The weariest and most loathed worldly life 
That age, ache, penury and imprisonment 
Can lay on nature is a paradise 
To what we fear of death. (3. 1. 131-145)

The title of the play appears to come from a biblical passage: With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again (Matt: 7: 2-3). In other words, what you do unto others, they will do unto you. This is the lesson that Angelo learns. The words of the title are spoken by Duke Vincentio when he condemns Angelo in Act V, Scene I. The lines are as follows:

The very mercy of the law cries out
Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!'
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE.
Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested;
Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage.
We do condemn thee to the very block
Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste.
Away with him! (5. 1. 415-424)

1. Which character in the play is the most admirable? Which is the least admirable?
2. Write a short essay explaining how Elbow’s language in Act II infuses the dialogue with humor. Note, in particular, his use of malapropisms, such as nortorious benefactors (49), detest (58),  cardinally (64), and respected (105 and succeeding lines). 
3. Write an essay defending Escalus’s observation: “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall” (2. 1. 43). In your essay, present examples from history that attest to the truth of these words. 
4. One of the messages of the play, it seems, is that government officials should temper justice with mercy. In the United States today, are persons in power overly strict or overly lenient in their interpretation of the law? Or, do they strike a reasonable balance between the two extremes?
5. Are you satisfied with the ending of the play? Explain your answer. 

1. Fear: Scare.
2. This sensible warm motion: Claudio refers to his warm, living body.
3. Thrilling: Frigid. 
4. Pendant: Suspended, like a jewel on an earring.

Measure for Measure: Audiocassette  Audiocassette of the Play Available at Amazon.com
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