The Role of James I in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure

Bibliographic Data

ID16006218
AuthorsDavid L Stevenson (corresponding author)
Year1959
Volume26
Issue2
Pages188-188
Publication date1959-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueELH (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-8304 • E-ISSN: 1080-6547
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2872025
OpenAlexW2334717943
LanguageEN
Citations received6

One is easily tempted by twentieth century literary criticism of Measure for Measure to regard the play as a dramatic study wholly concerned with the ironies resulting from the moral decisions of Isabella and of Angelo. And the decisions of these two public advocates of virtue are no doubt the heart of the matter. But one needs to remind oneself occasionally that these characters, however fascinating as pawns in an intellectual comedy, are caught up in a play which is also very much concerned (in the Duke's initial words) with the properties of government and with sufficiency in office. substantial political substratum of this comedy, indeed, is entirely Shakespeare's addition to his principal source, Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra. And the importance of this material to our total understanding of Measure for Measure is suggested by the fact that it was from this material that Shakespeare fashioned the longest single role in the play, that of the Duke. Oddly, despite the intense scrutiny to which the play has been subjected in our time, Shakespeare's political additions to his source have gone almost unremarked. Miss Elizabeth M. Pope's article The Renaissance Background of Measure for Measure A' 'is an exception, to be sure: she has at least called attention to the fact that Measure for Measure has a political aspect. She has argued that it reflects conventional Renaissance attitudes toward matters of state, interesting to its local Jacobean audience, but lost to a contemporary one unschooled in historical criticism. She would see Shakespeare's presentation of the conflict between mercy and justice in the play, and his dramatization, in Duke Vincentio, of the powers and obligations of a prince, as echoing current discussions of such matters in Renaissance theological treatises and in Jacobean sermons. She has suggested, further, that the inclusion

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