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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