Measure for Measure

Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition. Volume 6

George L. Geckle

• Publisher: The Athlone Press
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN:
  9780485810042
• eBook ISBN:
  9781847141927
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro shakespeariano

In this critical evaluation of the classic, the discussion focuses on the nature of the major characters, the morality of their behavior, the conclusion of the play, and the genre of a play that was listed in the First Folio as a comedy. The contents of this volume cover texts by English, American and European scholars and critics including Malone, Stevens, Schlegel, Hazlitt, Coleridge, Hallam, Gervinus, Bagehot, Pater, Dowden, Furnivall, Swinburne, Symons, Boas, Shaw, Bradley, Chambers, Bridges, Masefield and Croce.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE
• PREFACE
• INTRODUCTION
• 1 Correcting Shakespeare's editors, 1783
• 2 Isabella 'pious, . . . determined, and eloquent', 1789
• 3 Topical allusions in Measure for Measure, 1790
• 4 Identifying the main source, explaining the text, 1793
• 5 On the play's sources, 1807
• 6 'A faulty play, 1807
• 7 Character and characterization, 1808
• 8 'The triumph of mercy over strict justice', 1815
• 9 Measure for Measure in performance, 1816
• 10 Isabella, a 'lovely example of female excellence', 1817
• 11 'A general system of cross-purposes', 1817
• 12 The Family Shakespeare, 1818
• 13 Character and morality in Measure for Measure, 1822
• 14 The play's major source, 1824
• 15 A play about mercy, 1826
• 16 Isabella compared to Portia, 1832
• 17 A 'hateful' and 'painful' play, 1835, 1836
• 18 A struggle between drama and philosophy, 1839
• 19 An introduction to the play, 1840
• 20 On the play's date and sources, 1842
• 21 Striking passages in a play that gives little pleasure, 1845
• 22 An expression of New Testament morality, 1846
• 23 'This remarkable drama', 1847
• 24 The betrothal contracts and their significance, 1850
• 25 Dispraise for Angelo, praise for Isabella, ambivalence about the Duke, 1851
• 26 Angelo a natural hypocrite, 1853
• 27 Sympathy for Angelo, criticism of Isabella, 1854
• 28 An uncongenial play, 1856
• 29 On Isabella, the epitome of goodness, and some minor characters, 1863
• 30 A play expressing equity, not justice, 1863
• 31 'The central expression' of Shakespeare's 'moral judgments', 1874
• 32 A dark and bitter play, 1875
• 33 Mediation by the monastic life, 1875
• 34 The place of Measure for Measure in Shakespeare's canon, 1877
• 35 Measure for Measure and Roman Catholicism, 1877
• 36 On the play's analogues and early performance, 1880
• 37 A tragedy, 1880
• 38 Measure for Measure as dramatic literature, 1886–1909
• 39 A lesson from the Sermon on the Mount, 1889
• 40 The 'painfulness' of Measure for Measure, 1889
• 41 A 'disconsolate and bitter' play, 1891
• 42 A recapitulation of Shakespeare's earlier work, 1894
• 43 A problem play, 1896
• 44 Measure for Measure and Puritan hypocrisy, 1898
• 45 Shakespeare elevated 'a degraded and repellent theme', 1898
• 46 A play 'full of prophetic intimations', 1899
• 47 A 'painful and repellent' play, 1900
• 48 Measure for Measure as 'a moral experiment', 1903
• 49 Miscellaneous comments, 1904
• 50 A critical introduction, 1905
• 51 An 'unclassifiable play' with a 'half satirical title', 1905
• 52 'The limits of comedy ... sorely strained', 1906
• 53 Measure for Measure and 'the philosophy of morals', 1906
• 54 On the 'inconsistency in the character of Angelo', 1907
• 55 Shakespeare's representation of 'a weak world', 1907
• 56 A play dramatizing 'the central truth of Christian morality', 1907
• 57 A play better read than acted, 1907
• 58 Duke Vincentio as Shakespeare's alter ego, 1909
• 59 'A dramatised Sermon on the Mount of Genius', 1909
• 60 An attack on Puritanism, 1909
• 61 'An early, half finished piece', 1910
• 62 Historical criticism and Measure for Measure, 1910
• 63 'One of the greatest works of the greatest English mind', 1911
• 64 William Poel's 'Elizabethan' production, 1911
• 65 Characterization, style and structure, 1912
• 66 An 'eminently disagreeable' piece of cynicism, 1913
• 67 A play 'as painful as it is ill-shapen', 1913
• 68 A play 'unfit for the modern Theatre', 1913
• 69 Measure for Measure and 'the ethical spirit of western literature', 1915
• 70 The 'happy ending . . . fails to persuade', 1920
• NOTES
• SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX