A play for today

As I read Measure for Measure again in a deeper dive, I’m feeling something I don’t remember feeling about many other plays in the Canon: This is a play that speaks directly to the current world.

[The following entry is going to expose my fairly liberal leanings. If that sort of politics (or any political discussion, for that matter) is not your cup of meat, skip today’s entry and come back tomorrow…]

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Measure for Measure: righteous, (wo)man (Isabella!)

Yesterday, I looked at Angelo’s righteousness in Measure for Measure. Today, let’s take a look at that other righteous hard-liner: Isabella.

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Measure for Measure: righteous, man (Angelo?)

On a first read, the first scene of Measure for Measure sets up Angelo–as his name intimates–as pure and righteous, using the word’s historically accurate meanings:

  • conforming to the precepts of divine law or accepted standards of morality; upright, virtuous
  • true; correct, exact
  • “righteous, adj., n., adv., and int.; A.1.a, and 3.a” Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press, September 2015. Web. 1 November 2015.

Note: it’s not until the nineteenth century that the word takes on its more negative connotation (“characterized by affected or hypocritical moral rectitude or superiority; self-righteous, sanctimonious” [“righteous, adj., n., adv., and int.; A.1.c” OED Online.])

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Measure for Measure: Juliet(ta)

Last week, I spent a few entries discussing Mariana from Measure for Measure. Today, I want to talk about another of the supporting female characters: Claudio’s pregnant betrothed, Juliet. Within the play, she is called both Juliet and Julietta, interchangeably.

Seemingly.

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Podcast 115: Measure for Measure – Video Reviews and the enigma that is Mariana

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This week’s podcast continues our two month-long discussion of Measure for Measure with reviews of some of the video productions available and a discussion of the fascinating (at least to me) character of Mariana.

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Mariana and the Duke

I’m going to wrap up my series of discussions of the Mariana character from Measure for Measure with a look at what I find the most fascinating question of all: What is her history with Duke Vincentio and Friar Lodowick (who are, remember, the same guy, our ever-lovin’ fruke)?

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The Role(s) of Mariana

Continuing with my ongoing fascination with the Mariana character in Measure for Measure, I want to look at a three-way exchange in the play’s final scene between the duke, Mariana, and Lucio. Mariana has appeared before the duke and Angelo, following the accusation by Isabella.

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Mariana (a Shakespeare / Tennyson / Millais threeway)

A couple of days back, I mentioned my fascination with the Mariana character in Measure for Measure. I guess I’m not alone. In 1830, Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote his poem “Mariana.” Twenty one years after that, English painter John Everett Millais used the Tennyson poem as the inspiration of his oil painting of the same name.

Let’s take a look at Tennyson’s work first:

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