Measure for Measure (The New Cambridge Shakespeare)

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing but Engrossing
Review: I picked up Measure for Measure knowing nothing about the play other than it was not an early work and that it was a comedy. I knew Shakespeare as an enjoyable Wit and was looking forward to a virtuoso display of the English Language. I certainly got this, but this is by no means a "light" play. In fact, the more I looked into it, the more disturbing it became.

The plot is quite involved with many twists and turns, based on many unlikely situations. Read it like any other comedy and you will be fine.

The characters are what's disturbing. There are no clear "white hats" in this story. Claudio sets his sister up which causes much of the story. The Duke handles people like puppets. Angelo is certainly not worthy of trust and there are some hints that the Duke even knows this when he leaves him in charge. Isabella? Well, there are two strong attributes to her personallity - Future Nun and also as Harold Bloom described her, the sexiest female character in Shakespeare.

There are many "lowlife" characters as well. Most important and probably most interesting would be Lucio who moves the plot around. Also quite interesting and infuriating would be Pompey.

I read it in the New Cambridge Edition. Brian Gibbons gives an interesting introduction which goes over the original context for the play, a discussion of its sources, as well as a production history. His notes to the text are also quite good. My eyes glazed over a bit on the textual analysis...not interesting to me at this point.

If you want "uplifting" or "inspirational", pick something else. If you are willing to let these interesting, ambigious characters into your mind, you will have a fine time as one of the finest artists of the English Language leads you around their stories.