Measure For Measure Tracklist
Written c. 1603-04 and published in the First Folio of 1623, Measure for Measure is frequently grouped among Shakespeare’s “problem plays” or dark comedies–in fact, it may be his darkest.
The title is a reference to Matthew 7:2: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Set in Vienna and centered on the themes of sex, justice, hypocrisy, and the corruptions of power, the plot concerns a Duke who temporarily leaves his post in the hands of the puritanical, yet secretly lust-filled judge Antonio. Featuring the chaste and wronged Isabella, her virtuous and imprisoned brother Claudio, a pimp, a brothel mistress, a drunk death’s-row inmate, and a rogue’s gallery of other Vienna denizens, Measure for Measure is a whirlwind tour through one of the seediest worlds Shakespeare ever created.
Measure for Measure editions:
The Arden Shakespeare
The New Cambridge Shakespeare
The Oxford Shakespeare
Signet Classics Shakespeare
Oxford Professor Sir Christopher Ricks on the play:
