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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 30 general entries.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Measure for Measure
The Gospels. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matthew VII.2; there are similar quotes in Mark and Luke). Meaning those who show mercy shall receive mercy.
Vienna. Unusual; Shakespeare usually seems to prefer Italian or English settings for his plays.
| The play begins with the Duke, Vincentio, leaving his deputy in charge of the city in his absence. Where does the Duke say he is going? | Measure for Measure
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Poland. "...he {Angelo) supposes me travell'd to Poland; for so I have strew'd it in the common ear and so is it receiv'd."
| In reality, the duke intends to remain in town incognito in order to observe how Angelo handles the job. Why? | Measure for Measure
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Angelo's moral standards have never been tested by reality.. The duke respects Angelo's fastidious and well-honed moral code, but knows that Angelo's principles have never been tested by human passion or the temptations that come with temporal power. He fears that Angelo, left to his own devices, will adopt a Draconian stance towards the city's laws. And he is right!
A friar. As he tells his friend, Friar Thomas "My holy sir, none better knows than you how I have always lov'd the life removed"
| One of Angelo's first acts is to sentence a young man named Claudio to death. What was Claudio's crime? | Measure for Measure
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Lechery. Claudio has slept with Juliet, to whom he is married by mutual agreement (such marriages, before proper witnesses, were recognized in Shakespeare's England as valid. However they could not be consumnated without a religious ceremony). The legal punishment for this is death- a law which heretofore was never enforced.
| Claudio's sister Isabella is about to enter a convent belonging to which religious order? | Measure for Measure
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St. Clare. The order of St. Clare was one of the most severe of all female religious orders; however, when we first meet Isabella she is complaining about the insufficient strictness of the order!
| Ironically, Isabella's great friend, who brings her word of Claudio's arrest and condemnation, is Lucio, a character whose ribald tongue rivals Mercutio. Lucio later utters one of the great Shakespearean insults when he says of Angelo that "...it is certain that when he makes water, his urine is..." what? | Measure for Measure
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congeal'd ice.. He also opines that Angelo "was begot between two stock-fishes". One of Shakespeare's funniest characters.
| When Isabella goes to Angelo to plead for her brother's life what, to Angelo's great surprise, happens? | Measure for Measure
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He falls in love (or at least in lust) with her.. It was inevitable that when these two uptight characters met, something like this would happen to one of them.
| A desparate Isabella turns for advice to her confessor, Friar Lodowick (the disguised Duke). He introduces her to Mariana, Angelo's repudiated fiance. What does Mariana offer to do for Isabella? | Measure for Measure
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Take Isabella's place in her tryst with Angelo.. Isabella agrees to Angelo's demand, on the condition that their tryst will take place at night in complete darkness. Mariana will thus take Isabella's place in Angelo's bed.
| Angelo had renounced his betrothal to Marianna, citing some question that he had heard about her virtue. What does the Duke believe to have been the real reason Angelo renounced Marianna? | Measure for Measure
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She had lost her dowry.. Poor Mariana's brother perished at sea shortly before her marriage was to have taken place. In the shipwreck, the chest with her dowry was also lost. Angelo, not wanting to marry a dowerless bride, cited some statements that he had heard made in jest about her virtue and renounced his engagement; thus she lost a brother, her dowry, and her husband all at once.
| Mariana, still hopelessly in love with the man so who heartlessly rejected her, is one of the most poigant characters in Shakespeare. What nineteenth-century English poet was moved to write a poem about her? | Measure for Measure
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Alfred Lord Tennyson.. Tennyson's poem, subtitled "Mariana in the Moated Grange", memorably depicts her state of desolation after Angelo's abandonment ("She cried 'I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead'"). The poem begins with the line "With blackest moss the flower pots were thickly crusted, one and all" which, you may remember, is the line Henry Higgins has poor Eliza Doolittle try to recite with a mouthful of marbles in "My Fair Lady".
| After the supposed tryst with Isabella has taken place, Angelo goes back on his word and gives the order for Claudio's execution, requiring that Claudio's head be brought to him as assurance. Vincentio tells the jailer to bring Angelo the head of another prisoner, resembling Claudio, who has died that morning. What is this prisoner's name? | Measure for Measure
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Ragozine. Ragozine is described as "..a most notorious pirate, a man of Claudio's years; his beard and head just of his color."
| Yes or no- does the Duke tell Isabella about the business of the switched heads? | Measure for Measure
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No. The duke tells Isabella that her brother has been executed as per Angelo's order, prompting Isabella to denounce Angelo publicly along with Mariana.
| In the final scene of the play, Angelo is exposed by Isabella, Mariana, and the now undisguised Duke. Angelo begs the Duke to sentence him to death for his gross misuse of power. Does the Duke fulfill his request? | Measure for Measure
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No. Vincentio seems about to grant Angelo's request. In one of the most moving moments in Shakespeare, Mariana appeals to Isabella to join her in pleading for Angelo's life. Isabella (not yet knowing that Claudio is still alive) does join her, whereupon Vincentio reveals the ruse and produces Claudio. Vincentio, feeling that this experience has reformed Angelo, entreats him to love Mariana.
| In this final scene, Vincentio, whilst disguised as Friar Lodowick, is roundly abused by Lucio, who is much chagrined when he discovers his true identity. How does Vincentio punish Lucio? | Measure for Measure
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Requires him to marry a whore.. Vicentio at first threatens to have Lucio whipped, then hanged. In the end, he forgives Lucio's slanders, but orders him to marry any "punk" (whore) who could be found whom Lucio had gotten with child. Lucio complains "marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging." Vicentio replies "Slandering a prince deserves it."
| At the play's conclusion, Vincentio, who has fallen in love with Isabella, asks her to marry him (she has not yet taken her vows). How does she respond? | Measure for Measure
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She does not reply.. The play ends without Isabella having given a response, however in most productions it seems clear that she accepts Vincentio's proposal.
Vincentio. In the play he is never referred to as Vincentio, but the character list at the beginning cites him as "Duke Vincentio".
Friar. He disguises himself as a friar so that he can watch the events in his town unfold before him, and see if his deputy is taking care of Vienna well.
Duke. It has been debated for a long time by critics whether she actually wanted to marry him or not, as she seemed so set on becoming a nun during the play.
Claudio. Juliet is pregnant with Claudio's child, which is why Claudio is in jail.
slander. He is the only character that ends up dying, (maybe - there is some controversy over this). This is why "Measure for Measure" is thought of as one of Shakespeare's problem plays, because it combines tragedy and comedy.
Angelo. She loved him even though he left her when she had no dowry!
Vienna. "Mortality and mercy in Vienna/Live in thy tongue and heart." Act 1, Scene 1, lines 44-45.
sleep with him. She is shocked and appalled, and totally disagrees.
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