Measure for Measure

236 Pages·2006·5.304 MB·English

by  William Shakespeare, Brian Gibbons

THE NEW CAMBRIDGE SHAKESPEARE
GENERAL EDITOR
Brian Gibbons
ASSOCIATE GENERAL EDITOR
A. R. Braunmuller
From the publication of the first volumes in 1984 the General Editor of the New Cambridge
Shakespeare was Philip Brockbank and the Associate General Editors were Brian Gibbons and
Robin Hood. From 1990 to 1994 the General Editor was Brian Gibbons and the Associate General
Editors were A. R. Braunmuller and Robin Hood.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Since the rediscovery of Elizabethan stage conditions early in the twentieth century, admiration
for Measure for Measure has steadily risen. It is now a favourite with the critics and has attracted
widely different styles of performance. At one extreme, the play is seen as a religious allegory; at
the other, it has been interpreted as a comedy protesting against power and privilege.
Brian Gibbons focuses on the unique tragi-comic experience of watching the play, the intensity
and excitement offered by its dramatic rhythm, the reversals and surprises which shock the
audience even to the end. His introduction considers how the play's critical reception and stage
history have varied according to prevailing social, moral and religious issues, which were highly
sensitive when Measure for Measure was written, and have remained so to the present day. This
updated edition contains a new introductory section by Angela Stock, which describes recent
stage, film and critical interpretations, and an updated reading list.
THE NEW CAMBRIDGE SHAKESPEARE
All's Well That Ends Well, edited by Russell Fraser
Antony and Cleopatra, edited by David Bevington
As You Like It, edited by Michael Hattaway
The Comedy of Errors, edited by T. S. Dorsch
Coriolanus, edited by Lee Bliss
Cymbeline, edited by Martin Butler
Hamlet, edited by Philip Edwards
Julius Caesar, edited by Marvin Spevack
King Edward III, edited by Giorgio Melchiori
The First Part of King Henry IV, edited by Herbert Weil and Judith Weil
The Second Part of King Henry IV, edited by Giorgio Melchiori
King Henry V, edited by Andrew Gurr
The First Part of King Henry VI, edited by Michael Hattaway
The Second Part of King Henry VI, edited by Michael Hattaway
The Third Part of King Henry VI, edited by Michael Hattaway
King Henry VIII, edited by John Margeson
King John, edited by L. A. Beaurline
The Tragedy of King Lear, edited by Jay L. Halio
King Richard II, edited by Andrew Gurr
King Richard III, edited by Janis Lull
Macbeth, edited by A. R. Braunmuller
Measure for Measure, edited by Brian Gibbons
The Merchant of Venice, edited by M. M. Mahood
The Merry Wives of Windsor, edited by David Crane
A Midsummer Night's Dream, edited by R. A. Foakes
Much Ado About Nothing, edited by F. H. Mares
Othello, edited by Norman Sanders
Pericles, edited by Doreen DelVecchio and Antony Hammond
The Poems, edited by John Roe
Romeo and Juliet, edited by G. Blakemore Evans
The Sonnets, edited by G. Blakemore Evans
The Taming of the Shrew, edited by Ann Thompson
The Tempest, edited by David Lindley
Timon of Athens, edited by Karl Klein
Titus Andronicus, edited by Alan Hughes
Troilus and Cressida, edited by Anthony B. Dawson
Twelfth Night, edited by Elizabeth Story Donno
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, edited by Kurt Schlueter
THE EARLY QUARTOS
The First Quarto of Hamlet, edited by Kathleen O. Irace
The First Quarto of King Henry V, edited by Andrew Gurr
The First Quarto of King Lear, edited by Jay L. Halio
The First Quarto of King Richard III, edited by Peter Davison
The First Quarto of Othello, edited by Scott McMillin
The Taming of a Shrew: The 1594 Quarto, edited by Stephen Roy Miller
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Updated edition
Edited by
BRIAN GIBBONS
Professor of English Literature, University of Munster
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sào Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521670784
© Cambridge University Press 1991, 2006
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1991
Reprinted 1995, 1997, 1999, 2003 (twice), 2004 (twice)
Updated edition 2006
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
ISBN-13 978-0-521-85448-1 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-85448-2 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-67078-4 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-67078-0 paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or
third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such
websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
CONTENTS
List of illustrations page vi
Preface vii
Acknowledgements viii
List of abbreviations and conventions ix
Introduction 1
Date 1
Puritanism, political allusion and censorship 1
The sources and their shaping 6
The play 23
The play on the stage 49
Recent stage, film and critical interpretations,
by Angela Stock 68
Note on the text 84
List of characters 86
THE PLAY 88
Textual analysis 202
Reading list 220
ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Act 4, Scene 3: a reconstruction of the court performance at
Whitehall, 26 December 1604. Drawing by C. Walter Hodges
2 Triumphal arch erected for the Royal Entry of James I in 1604. From
Harrison's Seven Arches of Triumph ( 1603-4) 13
3 Act 5, Scene 1: as presented on a public playhouse stage. Drawing by
C. Walter Hodges 14
4 The trial of Froth and Pompey
a In Peter Brook's 1950 production
b In Jonathan Miller's 1974 production 28
5 Act 2, Scene 2: a reconstruction of a performance on a public
playhouse stage. Drawing by C. Walter Hodges 32
6 Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse (1784). Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds 53
7 Claudio and Isabella (1850-3). By W. Holman Hunt 55
8 William Poel's production of Measure for Measure at the Royalty
Theatre, 1893 57
9 Peter Brook's 1950 production, showing the versatile set
a The prison
b Claudio and Juliet 60
10 Peter Brook's 1950 production
a Mistress Overdone and Lucio
b The Duke overhearing Claudio and Isabella 64
11 The Duke (Philip Madoc) reasoning with Claudio (Jason Durr) about
death. From Trevor Nuun's production for the RSC, 1991. Joe Cocks
Studio Collection. 74
12 Juliet (Penny Layden) and Claudio (Stephen Kennedy) shamed. From
Michael Boyd's production for the RSC, 1998-9. Malcolm Davies
Collection. 75
Illustration 2 is reproduced by permission of the Master and Fellows of Magdalene
College, Cambridge; illustration 6 by permission of the Henry E. Huntington Library
and Art Gallery; illustration 7 by permission of the Trustees of the Tate Gallery;
illustrations 8, gb, 11 and 12 by permission of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust;
illustrations ga, 10a, 10b and 10a by permission of Angus McBean; and illustration ^b
by permission of Sophie Baker.
PREFACE
Between the closing of the theatres by the Puritans at the time of the English Civil
War in 1642 and the rediscovery of Elizabethan stage conditions in the period near the
beginning of the First World War in 1914, Measure for Measure was not one of Shake-
speare's more popular plays, either with readers or on the stage. Its out-spokenness on
sex, crime and social divisions, topics which increasingly polite society preferred not
to mention, would perhaps have been enough to secure unpopularity, but in addition
the play's exploitation of the mixed dramatic mode of tragi-comedy was not under-
stood, especially by readers familiar only with neoclassical dramatic rules for comedy
and tragedy. Certainly the play deals with painful experience, and to read it or see it
performed may be a troubling as well as a humorous and moving experience, although
in recent times admiration for it has steadily risen and since the end of the Second
World War the play has been more and more frequently performed in the theatre.
In this play the mixed genre of tragi-comedy involved the bringing together of seem-
ingly incompatible narrative materials and deliberately contrasting dramatic styles,
which the dramatist would strive to combine in a design offering a spectacularly sur-
prising conclusion, just when this seemed least possible. Perhaps it is more true of this
play than of other Shakespeare plays that each fresh production presents it in a differ-
ent shape by making its own choice of tone, rhythm and emphasis among a number of
different yet most important issues. Yet where a selective emphasis may be the key to
theatrical interpretation (as the stage history on pp. 51-68 shows) it is one of the duties
of an editor to try to give recognition to the sheer variety of elements - heterogeneous
and volatile though they may be - which Shakespeare includes in Measure for Measure.
Shakespeare is inspired to exceptional and adventurous artistry in imposing an
answerable style on his materials. The release of such conflicting energies within the
chosen frame is daring, and it is important to recognise the newness and complexity
of the challenge he sets himself: the play, in performance, speaks for itself, its robust
form sturdy enough for stage interpretations giving release to the darkest forces, or to
stage productions in which the comic elements achieve control of the tone. The play's
design generates energies which in some productions may, after thrilling excitement,
be brought to a harmonious close, while in other productions they prove resistant to
any such harmonious resolution, seeming to justify the claim that this is a problem play.
The Introduction which follows on pp. 1-83 develops this sense of the play by three
related approaches: though they may be read separately, they are also a continuous
argument.
B.C.G.
2006
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The scholarship of the past as well as the present concerning Measure for Measure is
extensive, and it is a pleasure to acknowledge it, particularly in the work of three recent
editors: Mark Eccles in his New Variorum edition (1980), with its large bibliography,
G. Blakemore Evans in his Riverside Shakespeare (1974), with its judicious decisions on
textual and lineation problems, and J.W. Lever, whose Arden edition of 1965 presented
new and stimulating material. For more particular assistance of various kinds, all in
their way valuable, I am indebted to the late Philip Brockbank, to David Bevington,
A.R. Braunmuller, Peter Blayney, Ben Daniel, Jude Davies, Dieter Mehl, Kurt Tetzeli
von Rosador, Peter Thomson and the Northcott Theatre, Exeter, the Librarian of the
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Marianne Kaempf, Annette Kreis, Marion
Pringle.
I owe a special debt to Robin Hood for his general editorial work on this edition,
for his stimulating criticism and eagle eye for detail. At Cambridge University Press I
thank the copy-editor, Paul Chipchase, for his exemplary attention to the manuscript,
and Sarah Stanton for her help with the illustrations and much else. The drawings of
C. Walter Hodges were produced with his customary vitality and good humour, and
patience in handling my suggestions. The errors and misjudgements that remain I do
acknowledge mine.
Fulford-Leeds-Zurich B.C.G.
1991
ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS
Shakespeare's plays, when cited in this edition, are abbreviated in a style modified
slightly from that used in the Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare. Other editions of
Shakespeare are abbreviated under the editor's surname (Rowe, Eccles) unless they
are the work of more than one editor. In such cases, an abbreviated series title is used
(Cam.). When more than one edition by the same editor is cited, later editions are
discriminated with a raised figure (Collier2). All quotations from Shakespeare, except
those from Measure for Measure, use the text and lineation of The Riverside Shakespeare,
under the general editorship of G. Blakemore Evans.
i. Shakespeare's plays
Ado Much Ado About Nothing
Ant. Antony and Cleopatra
A WW AW s Well That Ends Well
AY LI As You Like It
Cor. Coriolanus
Cym. Cymbeline
Err. The Comedy of Errors
Ham. Hamlet
1H4 The First Part of King Henry the Fourth
2H4 The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth
H5 King Henry the Fifth
1H6 The First Part of King Henry the Sixth
2H6 The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth
3H6 The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth
H8 King Henry the Eighth
JC Julius Caesar
John King John
LLL Love's Labour's Lost
Lear King Lear
Mac. Macbeth
MM Measure for Measure
MND A Midsummer Night's Dream
M V The Merchant of Venice
Oth. Othello
Per. Pericles
R2 King Richard the Second
Rj King Richard the Third