Absorbing strength and eloquence
Except for the structaral impression
of Measure for Measure, Shakespeare set his characters differently to
the ones created by Whetsone
Sited in Vienna, a favourite location of Shakespere, and written in
1604, this tragi-comedy is a crowded play where Shakespeare got much of
his material from an unacted play in two parts called promos and
cassandra by George Whetsone who sited his play in Hungary. Except for
the structaral impression of this play, Shakespeare set his characters
differently to the ones created by Whetsone.
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Issabella of Measure for Measure |
Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna in an attempt to watch the doings of
his severe deputy, Angelo, resolving on the enforcement of the city's
ignored laws against immorality, announces his departure to Poland but
remains in disguise as a friar. This act of Shakespeare can be
interpreted in so many ways.
It could have been an examination of moral values. It could have been
a chameleon-play as with our time of the day. Angelo is personified as a
sinister hypocrite and as a complacent state-man and even as a master
intriguer. In doing so, Shakespeare has made measure for measure an
allegory, an attack on didctatorship as well as a sociological exercise.
Under these circumstances, we find Angelo living up to Vincentio's
suspicion.
One of Angelo's first acts is to imprison Claudio for getting his
bethrothed Juliet pregnant with child.
This is an offence that carries death penalty by law in the city.
Isabella is Claudio's sister who is planning to be a novice in a
religious order. She is a beautiful unsuspecting, innocent woman who,
when she learns of her brother's plight, come to plead with Angelo.
Isabella - 'Iam come to know your pleasure
Angelo - That you might know it would much better please me Than to
demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live
Isab - Even so; Heaven keep your honour
Ang. Yet, may he live awhile, and, it may be As long as you or I; yet
he must die
Isab - Under your sentence?
Ang - Yea
Isab - When? I beseach you; that in his reprieve
Longer or shorter, he may be fitted
That his soul sicken not.....
Act II Scene IV
Angelo invites her to come the next day and when she does, he tells
her that if she is willing to be his mistress that he would pardon her
bother and set him free.
Isabella is horrified at his suggestion and calls upon her brother to
let him know what Angelo wants from her to set him free. The desperate
Claudio bids her to agree to Angelo's request.
Isabella refuses because she values chasitity above all, especially
in the face of her attempt to join the order.
However, the the disguised Duke/Friar suggests that she gives way and
that Mariana who was once Angelo's spurned love, take her place at
night.
Which ever the choice and in spite of its shameless use of the
'bed-trick' whereby one girl takes place of the other, Measure for
measure has been written with absorbing strength and eloquence that is
ideal for the stage.
Mariana accepts the plan to do what the Duke had warranted and along
with Isabella, the' bed trick' takes place.
Duke - Welcome, how agreed?
Isabella - She'll take the enterprise upon her father,
If you advise it
Duke - It is not my consent but my entreaty too
Isab - little have you to say, when you depart from him but soft and
low
Remember now by brother;
Mariana - Fear me not
Duke - He is your brother on a pre-contract
To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin
Sith that the justice of your title to him
Doth flourish the deceit; Come let us go
Our corn's to reap for yet our tithe's sow....exite
Act IV Scene I
In the meantime Angelo who faithlessly has ordered Claudio's
death,finds it prevented by the Duke/Friar. Later, the Duke returns as
himself and in a complex scene Angelo is pardoned and will marry Mariana
whom he abandoed while Claudio marries Juliet.
The Duke confesses his love to Isabella who has to give up her choice
of entering the holy order.
In performance This multi-faceted play after its free versions,
Shakespeare's text was revived in 1738 at Drury Lane with James Quinn as
the Duke.
The great Isabella was Sarah Siddons who using all her passionate
emotional integrity between the years of 1783 to 1811. John Phillip
often acted with her as the Duke.
William Poel mounted the play in 1893 less strangely than some of his
previous productions.
The play was so much in demand that all the great Thespians of the
day wanted to act in it and went on until 1978 in its original version
when Measure for Measure was experimented differently.
There was also a spoken version in BBC, television in 1979.
Duke Vincentio - Disguises himself in Vienna to bring law and order
and succeedes. It is a long part, meticulously delevered dialogue in 834
lines at Bristal Old Vice in 1966 with Vincentio as Power Divine.
Angelo - The puritan who falls acted defiantly by Charles Lauhton in
1933
Isabella - A testing part. Her plea for mercy outmatches Portia
Mariana - Angelo'd wife after being foresaken
Juliet - Shakespraee uses this name for the second time
Claudio - Comes out sharply in his fear of death. Will marry Juliet
later in the play.
Issabella: 'Most strange, but yet most truly, I will speak'
Measure for Measure.
Act V Scene I |
