We also depart from editorial tradition in sometimes admitting uncertainty and thus printing permissive stage directions, such as an Aside? (often a line may be equally effective as an aside or as a direct address—it is for each production or reading to make its own decision) or a may exit or a piece of business placed between arrows to indicate that it may occur at various different moments within a scene.

Explanatory Notes explain allusions and gloss obsolete and difficult words, confusing phraseology, occasional major textual cruces, and so on. Particular attention is given to non-standard usage, bawdy innuendo, and technical terms (e.g. legal and military language). Where more than one sense is given, commas indicate shades of related meaning, slashes alternative or double meanings.

Textual Notes at the end of the play indicate major departures from the Folio. They take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign, with “F2” a reading that derives from the Second Folio of 1632 and “Ed” one that is derived from the subsequent editorial tradition. The rejected Folio (“F”) reading is then given. Thus, for example, “3.1.143 penury = F2. F = perjury.” This indicates that at Act 3 Scene 1 line 143 the Folio compositor erroneously printed “perjury,” which the Second Folio corrected to “penury.”

KEY FACTS

MAJOR PARTS: (with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes on stage) Duke (30%/194/9), Isabella (15%/129/8), Lucio (11%/111/5), Angelo (11%/83/5), Escalus (7%/78/5), Provost (6%/65/7), Pompey (6%/60/4), Claudio (4%/35/4), Elbow (2%/28/2), Mariana (2%/24/3), Overdone (1%/15/2).

LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 65% verse, 35% prose.

DATE: Performed at court December 26, 1604, probably written earlier the same year.

SOURCES: Main plot from George Whetstone’s two-part play Promos and Cassandra (1578) and the novella in Giraldi Cinthio’s Hecatommithi (1565) that was Whetstone’s source; the bed trick was a common romance motif, though not in these sources; the “disguised duke” motif appears in a number of contemporaneous plays, such as John Marston’s The Malcontent and Thomas Middleton’s The Phoenix (both c. 1603).

TEXT: The 1623 Folio is the only early text. It was typeset from a transcript by the scribe Ralph Crane, though the nature of Crane’s copy is not clear. The absence of swear words from the play’s seamy underbelly suggests a theatrical script from after the 1606 Act against profanity. The song at the beginning of Act 4 also occurs (with a second stanza) in Rollo Duke of Normandy by John Fletcher and others (1616–19). It has been suggested that the song, perhaps together with the ensuing dialogue between the duke and Mariana, was introduced as part of a revision of the play in which a five-act structure was imposed. The soliloquy “O place and greatness” (4.1.60) has often been regarded as an interpolation. The duke is unnamed in the text, but called Vincentio in Crane’s list of parts. These, and other minor inconsistencies and loose ends, have led to the supposition that the Folio text is a theatrical adaptation—in which some have detected the hand of Thomas Middleton—as opposed to a pure Shakespearean original.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

LIST OF PARTS

The DUKE, unnamed in play, but ‘Vincentio’ in Folio list of roles

ANGELO, the Deputy

ESCALUS, an ancient lord

CLAUDIO, a young gentleman

LUCIO, a fantastic

Two other like GENTLEMEN

PROVOST

THOMAS AND PETER, two friars (probably the same character, with misremembered name)

A JUSTICE

VARRIUS, a lord, friend to the duke

ELBOW, a simple constable

FROTH, a foolish gentleman

POMPEY, the clown, servant to Mistress Overdone

ABHORSON, an executioner

BARNARDINE, a dissolute prisoner

ISABELLA, sister to Claudio

MARIANA, betrothed to Angelo

JULIET, beloved of Claudio

FRANCISCA, a nun

MISTRESS OVERDONE, a bawd

BOY, singer attending Mariana

Lords, Officers, Citizens, Servants, Messenger, Attendants

The Scene: Vienna

fantastic extravagant, showy dresser/person with fanciful ideas

PROVOST officer in charge of the arrest, custody, and punishment of offenders

ISABELLA sometimes “Isabel” for sake of meter

JULIET sometimes “Julietta” for sake of meter

bawd pimp

Act 1 Scene 1

running scene 1

Location: with the exception of Act 4 Scenes 1 and 5, the entire play is set in Vienna, moving between the duke’s palace, the street, the monastery, the nunnery, the prison and, in the final scene, the city gates

Enter Duke, Escalus, Lords [and Attendants]

DUKE    Escalus.

ESCALUS    My lord.

DUKE    Of government the properties3 to unfold
    Would seem in me t’affect4 speech and discourse,
    Since I am put to know5 that your own science
    Exceeds, in that6, the lists of all advice
    My strength7 can give you. Then no more remains
    But that to your sufficiency as your worth is able,
    And let them work8. The nature of our people,
    Our city’s institutions10, and the terms
    For common justice, you’re as pregnant11 in
    As art and practice12 hath enrichèd any
    That we remember. There is our commission,

Hands him a paper

    From which we would not have you warp14. Call hither,
    I say, bid come before us Angelo.

[Exit an Attendant]

    What figure of us think you he will bear?16
    For you must know, we have with special soul17
    Elected him our absence to supply18;
    Lent him our terror19, dressed him with our love,
    And given his deputation20 all the organs
    Of our own power. What think you of it?

ESCALUS    If any in Vienna be of worth
    To undergo23 such ample grace and honour,
    It is Lord Angelo.

DUKE    Look where he comes.

Enter Angelo

ANGELO26  Always obedient to your grace’s will,
    I come to know your pleasure27.

DUKE    Angelo,
    There is a kind of character29 in thy life
    That to th’observer doth thy history30
    Fully unfold31. Thyself and thy belongings
    Are not thine own so proper32 as to waste
    Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
    Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
    Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues
    Did not go forth of36 us, ’twere all alike
    As if we had them not. Spirits37 are not finely touched
    But to fine issues38, nor nature never lends
    The smallest scruple39 of her excellence
    But, like a thrifty40 goddess, she determines
    Herself the glory of a creditor,
    Both thanks and use. But I do bend42 my speech
    To one that can my part in him advertise43.
    Hold44 therefore, Angelo.
    In our remove45 be thou at full ourself:
    Mortality46 and mercy in Vienna
    Live in thy tongue and heart. Old Escalus,
    Though first in question48, is thy secondary.
    Take thy commission.

Offers a paper

ANGELO    Now, good my lord,
    Let there be some more test made of my mettle51,
    Before so noble and so great a figure52
    Be stamped upon it.

DUKE    No more evasion.
    We have with a leavened55 and preparèd choice
    Proceeded to you: therefore take your honours.

Angelo takes paper

Our haste from hence is of so quick condition57
    That it prefers itself58 and leaves unquestioned
    Matters of needful value59. We shall write to you,
    As time and our concernings60 shall importune,
    How it goes with us, and do look61 to know
    What doth befall you here. So, fare you well:
    To th’hopeful63 execution do I leave you
    Of your commissions.

ANGELO    Yet give leave65, my lord,
    That we may bring you something66 on the way.

DUKE    My haste may not admit67 it,
    Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
    With any scruple68. Your scope is as mine own,
    So to enforce or qualify70 the laws
    As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand,
    I’ll privily72 away. I love the people,
    But do not like to stage me73 to their eyes:
    Though it do well74, I do not relish well
    Their loud applause and aves75 vehement,
    Nor do I think the man of safe discretion76
    That does affect77 it.