Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I do think that Shakespeare here abandons some of the ambiguity that is a signature of his work. It’s just very difficult to take the conniving and duplicitous duke seriously as a force for moral and political instruction. His enthusiasm for manipulation tips the scales of sympathy against him, and it’s very clear how his whims have made a mockery of the laws of Vienna. The way he twists a tragic situation towards a comic resolution offends all sense of justice, and pushes the play towards satire. One wonders what James I would have thought of it. This may be Shakespeare at his most rancid and disillusioned, and it’s one of his finest statements on political decay and corruption.

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Love's Labour's Lost

Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This probably works really well on stage but I found it a bit of a slog to read – it felt like an awful long time for love's labours to get lost. The feel of the play is close to The Importance of Being Earnest via Jane Austen – gentility trading witty barbs and wasting time on dressing up and playing silly games. Woudhuysen's introduction in the Arden third edition provides a comprehensive guide to the way the jokes comment on the instability inherent to the use of language. Shakespeare is poking fun at booksmart narcissists, and engineers an ending that defers the marriages and undermines the expectations of the comic genre. Death and reality gatecrash the party and leave conclusions open. It should feel like a more radical break than it does, maybe because all the characters are so unserious that you can't invest much in their fates. The problem plays this gestures towards have higher stakes and are more effective in discomforting the audience.

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Pericles

Pericles by William Shakespeare
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was wildly popular when it came out – audiences really responded to the divinely-assisted reversal of fortune in the back half. The play feels quite flat to me – Pericles is a bit of a heroic non-entity who does the right thing and is eventually rewarded with the restoration of his family. Bearing misfortune nobly, and resisting the temptations of the world, may have resonated more strongly in a religious age where random ‘acts of god’ regularly ruined lives.

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The Two Noble Kinsmen

The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A play more Fletcher’s than Shakespeare’s and the Fletcher bits are great. I had a wonderful time with this. The scene where two good friends politely prepare to fight each other to the death is superb black comedy. The Jailer’s Daughter being driven literally mad with lust is dramatic and absurd. The tone is complex throughout – starting and ending with the concurrent evocation of nuptial and funeral rites. It is subtle and strange and very involving. An underrated gem and a play that should be performed more often.

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