Measure for Measure (Bard to the Bone #07)

Year written: 1603-4

Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): xx

Plot in a paragraph: The Good Duke goes on a trip, leaving Vienna in the hands of his deputy Angeo, who has a stick up his ass about “fornication”. A guy called Claudio is condemned to death for impregnating his almost-bride, and only Claudio’s sister, a would-be nun called Isabella, can save the day? But will she have Claudio’s back by getting on her back (Angelo’s indecent proposal). Odd hi-jinks ensue…

Things that worked well: Claudio’s volte-face on Isabella putting out

Things that didn’t work well: The lack of consequences for Angelo?!

Favourite character: none of them, really

Words I learnt: 

Word	Definition
Kersey	Kersey – is a kind of coarse woollen cloth that was an important component of the textile trade in Medieval England
Foison	Foison – abundance
Federy	Federy – accomplice
Serpigo	Serpigo – skin disease, like ringworm
Leiger	Leiger- obsolete form of ledger
Enew	Enew – to drive or plunge a fowl into water
Tundish	Tundish – The word tundish originates from a shallow wooden dish with an outlet channel, fitting into the bunghole of a tun or cask and forming a kind of funnel for filling it
Gyves	Gyves – a fetter, or shackle
Postern	Postern – back or side entrance
Medlar	Medlar – A fruit which is rotten before it is ripe, the medlar is used figuratively in literature as a symbol of prostitution
Credent	Credent – believing, giving credence to
Hent	Hent – to seize, to grasp
Razure	Razure – the act of erasing or effacing, or the state of being effaced; obliteration. ·
Charact	Charact – A letter or character. · (obsolete)
Touse	Touse – to handle roughly, dishevel or pull about
Giglets	Giglets – wanton, giddy or lewd women

Lines worth knowing: 

Act scene lines	Character	Lines	Comment
Act 1, scene 4, lines 77-9	Lucio	Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we ot might win, by fearing to attempt.
Act 2, Scene 1, lines 1-4	Angelo	We must not make a scarecrow o the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape till custom kae their persch, and not their terror
Act 2, Scene 1, lines38	Escalus	Some rise by sin,and some by virtue fall
Act 3, Scene 1, 2-3	Claudio	The miserable have no other medicine  But only hope
Act 3, Scene 1, 306	Duke	That we were all as some would seem to be – Free from our faults, or faults from seeming free
Act 3, Scene 1, 446	Duke	What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
Act 3, Scene 1, 527	Duke	Oh what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side!
Act 5, scene 1, xx	Lucie	My lord, she may be a punk, for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.
Act 5, scene 1, 436	Mariana	They say best men are moulded out of faults
Act 5, scene 1, 553	Duke	The offence pardons itself

Marc’s entirely subjective verdict and score out of 5 bards (ymmv): xx

Will I be tracking down movies of this? : yes, no, hell no.

How far would I travel to see a good production of this? Xx

Limericks

There was a young noble called Claud

With a lass called Juliet he’d scored

For that sin he’ll be chopped

Unless his sis is shopped

To a sleazebag so deeply flawed…

and

Veinna’s rule by a duke

Whose deputy is pure puke

This Angelo fella

Hunts Isabella

But lives, with barely a rebuke?

and

The duke is disguised as a friar

And his plans go down to the wire

Fake “wives” in a bed

And a substitute head

He learns that his veep is a liar