M4M Critics

William Lawrence - Lucio

William Lawrence 1958 - “He is fundamentally a gentleman.”

L C Knight - Lucio

L C Knight 1942 - Characters like Lucio 'follow their impulses without scruple or restraint'

Wilson Knight - Lucio

Wilson Knight 1930 - “Lucio is a typical loose-minded, vulgar wit. He represents indecent wit.”

H. W. Bennett - Lucio

H. W. Bennett 1966 - 'The thread on which the action of the play is strung'

Robert Rodgers - Lucio

Rober Rodgers 1970 - A 'comic scapegoat figure'

M.C. Bradbrook - Lucio

M.C. Bradbrook 1982 - Lucio has a ‘symbiotic’ relationship with the Duke.

Schulte - Lucio

Schulte 2003 - “Misogyny is a basic component of the actions and words of Measure for Measure male characters.” “Lucio’s incessant commentary draws attention to his derogatory attitude towards women.” Lucio classifes women by their sexual histories.

Elizabeth Pope - Lucio

Elizabeth Pope 2007 - Lucio is the 'Ultimate truth teller'

Bate - Lucio

Bate 2010 - To see Isabella’s sexuality being used by Claudio and Lucio, and conceivably even herself, is to see that Angelo is not the main plot’s only sexual user.

Wilson Knight - The Duke

Wilson Knight 1930 - The Duke is compared to Jesus. He stands for “a psychologically sound and enlightened ethic.”

Lawrence - The Duke

Lawrence 1931 - “plot device” who was “unashamedly manipulated and manipulating to bring about the comic resolution”

Leavis - The Duke

Leavis 1952 - the Duke’s attitude is ‘meant to be ours’

Dolomore - The Duke

Dolomore 1980s - The Duke is responsible for the play’s movement from subversion to containment. Sinister perspective of the Duke.

Michael Bogandov - The Duke

Michael Bogandov 1985 - “Why does the scumbag Duke get the girl?”

Roger Allam - The Duke

Roger Allam 1993 - “The Duke is in a personal crisis just as the state is in a public crisis.”

Schulte - The Duke

Schulte 2003 - The Duke classifies women by their sexual histories. ”Misogyny is a basic component of the actions and words of Measure for Measure’s male characters.” The Duke’s misogynistic qualities stem from a desire to dominate women.

Greenblatt - The Duke

Greenblatt 2010 - The character of the Duke is actually a wider commentary, as James I is similar to the Duke, as in he creates high stake scenarios, only to solve them himself. A Deus Ex Machena figure.

Langley - The Duke

Langley 2022 - Shouldn’t hate The Duke, but rather Shakespeare. The Duke simply stands in for him to control the plot.

Coleridge - Angelo

Coleridge 1818 - “Our feelings of justice are grossly wounded in Angelo’s escape.”

Wilson Knight - Angelo

Wilson Knight 1930 - Angelo stands for “pharisaical righteousness.”

Leavis - Angelo

Leavis 1952 - “Should see ourselves in Angelo.” His sin is “natural guiltiness.”

Alex Aronson - Angelo

Alex Aronson 1972 - “Split personality” of Angelo between his public and private personae. He falls short of his expectations as a leader, but fulfils his expectations as a man.

Rosalind Miles - Angelo

Rosalin Miles 1976 - “In his treatment of Angelo’s hypocrisy, Shakespeare refuses to allow Angelo and his actions to be condoned, or sentimentalised, or ignored.”

Boxer - Angelo

Boxer 1997 - “He is the most corrupted character yet Shakespeare allows him to share his thoughts with the audience…a sympathy for the character even in his blackened, most disgraceful moments.”

Schulte - Angelo

Schulte 2003 - “Very close to evil.” ”Misogyny is a basic component of the actions and words of Measure for Measure’s male characters.”

Donnellan - Angelo

Donnellan 2016 - “He is in fact vulnerable to the same temptations of everybody. The fact that he doesn’t realise this makes him dangerous.”

Bate - Angelo

Bate 2010 - Angelo is ‘one of the few characters who can self analyse in an honest way.’

Hazlitt - Claudio

William Hazlitt 1817 - “Claudio is the only person who feels naturally.”

Colerdige - Claudio

Colderidge 1818 - “Claudio is detestable”

Wilson Knight - Claudio

Wilson Knight 1930 - Believes that Claudio is “scarcely a character at all”

Stevenson - Claudio and Juliet

Stevenson 1966 - 'Claudio and Juliet are placed by Shakespeare at dead centre...they are relatively passive...they neither defend nor reject their actions.’

Greenblatt - Claudio

Greenblatt 2004 - “The fear of extinction had been given its most powerful articulation not in this play alone but in all of Shakespeare by the condemned Claudio.” Sees Claudio as one of the most important characters in the play.

Jonathan Bate - Claudio

Jonathan Bate 2010 - ”To see Isabella’s sexuality being used by Claudio and Lucio, and conceivably even herself, is to see that Angelo is not the main plot’s only sexual user.”

Emma Smith - Claudio

Emma Smith 2019 - Claudio is a tragic character - too tragic

Schlegel - Pompey

Schlegel 1811 - Pompey is a “wretch”

Wilson Knight - Pompey

Wilson Knight 1930 - Pompey and Mistress Overdone represent “professional immorality.” '...Pompey with his rough humour and honest professional indecency is the only one of the major persons, save the Duke, who can be called 'pure of heart'.’

E. M. W Tillyard - Pompey

E. M. W. Tillyard 1950 - ‘It is the comedy of Pompey learning the mystery of the executioner from Abhorson that makes the second half of the play possible to present on the stage.’

Rosalin Miles - Pompey

Rosalin Miles 1976 - ‘The comments of Pompey are as valuable of those of the Duke in creating the total impression.’

Leggatt - Pompey

Leggatt 1988 - ‘The defiance of Pompey and th e final distribution of pardons make law enforcement look futile.’

Dollimore - Pompey

Dollimore 1994 - The state is not transgressive because Pompey becomes a hangman - he simply becomes an arm of the state’s oppression. M4M emphasises the lack of uprising from the lower characters. They are simply happy where they are.

Patsy Hall - Pompey

Patsy Hall 2003 - Lucio and Pompey 'comically reflect images of a diseased world in which those who make the rules are as tainted as those who break them’ "Pompey and Lucio have a better knowledge of their deficiencies than the three major characters" / "consistently faithful to their fallen natures"

Antonia Reed - Pompey, Lucio and MO

Antonia Reed 2005 - 'it is questionable whether (Lucio, Pompey and MO) truly are the fools of the play...’

Matt Frye - Pompey, Elbow

Matt Frye 2024 - Thinks there are ‘two separate plays within Measure for Measure: A comedy which surrounded Elbow, Pompey and the like, and a drama between Angelo and Isabella and their various accomplices.

Lennox - Isabella

Lennox 1753 - “A mere vixen in her virtue.”

Jameson - Isabella

Jameson 1882 - “Angel of light.”

Wilson Knight - Isabella

Wilson Knight 1930 - Isabella “lacks human feelings” and is full of “self-centred saintliness.” Like a “fiend.” “Isabella stands for sainted purity.”

Judi Dench - Isabella

Judi Dench 1962 - 'Isabella learns to be compassionate and to make allowances for other people...but by the end of the play, Isabella, like Angelo, has been made to face reality.’

McGuire - Isabella

McGuire 1985 - Isabella “defies easy categorisation.”

Marowitz - Isabella

Marowitz 1991- “No one treated women with exquisite cruelty than Shakespeare.” Isabella is a “helpless pawn of the law.”

Schulte - Isabella

Schulte 2003 - “Male critics tend to views as a temptress or a saint, while female critics refrain from categorising Isabella on the basis of her chastity.

Kirsch - Isabella

Kirsch 2010 - Isabella offers unconscious sexual provocation.

Greg Doran - Isabella

Greg Doran 2019 - “Shakespeare’s #MeToo play.”

Lennox - Mariana

Charlotte Lennox 1753 - “fair and virtuous woman”

Hazlitt - Mariana

William Hazlitt 1817 - 'Mariana is also in love with Angelo, whom we hate. In this respect, there are may be said to be a general system of cross-purposes between the feelings of the different characters and the sympathy of the reader or the audience.’

Rosalind Miles - Mariana

Rosalind Miles 1976 - 'Mariana is not a direct and active personality.’

Hazlitt - Barnadine

Hazlitt 1817 - ‘[Barnadine] is a fine antithesis to the morality and the hypocrisy of the other characters of the play.’

Wilson Knight - Pompey and MO

Wilson Knight 1930 - Pompey and Mistress Overdone represent “professional immorality.”

Alexander Leggatt - Ragozine

Alexander Leggatt 1988 - “Ragozine bears the sins of the other characters and purges them by his death.” “Ragozine will do as a Claudio substitute because he is not really an individual.”

Harold Bloom - Barnadine

Harold Bloom 1998 - “Particularly comic genius of this authentically outrageous play. The imaginative centre (and greatest glory), of Measure for Measure.” “The only certainty in the play is Barnadine’s refusal to die.’

Kate Chedgzoy - Barnadine

Kate Chedgzoy 2000 - ‘Barnadine’s zest for continued life, however squalid, and resistance to this moral manipulation makes him an engaging character who marks the limits of the law’s ability to compel a particular response from its subjects.’

Emma Smith - Barnadine

Emma Smith 2019 - ‘Death is transported into a blatant prop.’

Michael Billington - Escalus

Michael Billington 2019 - "Escalus becomes the embodiment of rectitude in a corrupt society”

Lennox - Genre

Lennox 1753 - “torture it into a comedy.” “Measure for Measure ought not to be the title, since justice is not the virtue it inculates.”

Boas - Genre

Boas 1896 - Coined Measure for Measure as a “problem play.” Which dramatises a moral problem that can only be explored, not resolved. “At the close, our feeling is neither simple joy nor pain.”

Wilson Knight - Genre

Wilson Knight 1930 - “Parable” “the play tends towards allegory or symbolism.” “Each person illustrates some fact of the central theme: man’s moral nature.”

Gless - Genre

Gless 1979 - not a religious allegory but is informed by religious atmosphere of the times.

Frederic Jameson - Genre

Frederic Jameson 1981 - Genre theory. Semantic - Aim to describe the essence or meaning of a given genre, the spirit of comedy or tragedy. Sense that comedies are light hearted etc. Syntactic - Focuses of mechanisms and structure of a genre such as a comedy to determine its laws and limits. Syntactically comedic with the bed trick, disguises and ends in ‘happy’ marriages. But also semantic with its dark themes.

Frye - Genre

Frye 1990 - Structure is more important. In a structuralist view, Measure for Measure is entirely a comedy, it’s only because of the emotional content that the play creates issues for us.

Keith Hack production

1974. The Duke gropes Isabella while disguised as the Friar - highlights abuse of religion and the extent of how the sexual depravity of Vienna has infiltrated the Church. The Duke is a ‘satanic rapist’, playing on the religious imagery.

Adrian Noble production

1983 “Quite hot-headed, quite politicised.” Julian Stevensons wears red heels under her nun outfit to suggest an awareness of Isabella’s sexuality.

Michael Bogandov production

1985 Machiavellian-Freudian world of “dark, libidinous appetites.” Gender fluid cabaret setting with a provocative style that implicated the audience in its corrupt world. Bogandov invited audience members on stage to take part. Emphasising themes of power, sexual desire, and social control.

RSC 1983 + 1987 + 2019

Claudio and Juliet joyfully display their new baby

Only Claudio and Juliet are embracing at the end of the play

Claudio has a placard over his head saying ‘Lecher’, and his hands are tied in front of him.

Steven Pimlott production

1994 Victorian setting imitating the Conservatives ‘back to basics’ agenda with emphasis on sexual morality. First act: long black nun dress. Later changes into gender neutral trousers shifting a shift in the power dynamic between herself and the figures in authority. Responds to the proposal by slapping the Duke, kissing him, turning away and collapsing into tears, leaving the ending of the play ambiguous.

Complicite production

2004 The bed with a red rose on a pillow is revealed at the end and the audience become aware that the entire plot of the play was The Duke’s trick to bed Isabella. As the lights faded, Isabella was left gasping and choking, desperately trying to find words with which to respond to a proposal that left her with neither choice nor voice. Portrays The Duke as immoral, who uses his power for his own benefit and Isabella is a victim.

Dominic Dromgoole production

Dandies like Lucio strut across the stage in inch-high-heels.’ Angelo is played as a young man shocked into awareness of his dormant sensuality and his attraction to a woman whose passion matches his own.

McIntyre prduction

2021 male characters played by women. Lucio responds to his punishment violently adding to the sense of unease at the ending. Sexual violence added #MeToo overtones between Angelo and Isabella - but also sympathetic towards Angelo in places. Queer reading. Evening Standard said The Duke was ‘too likeable’. The female duke’s proposal to Isabella had ‘lesbian overtones.’ (The Guardian)

Golden Goose production

2026 Both Pompey and Lucio were played by women, who shared a kiss before Pompey went to prison. Playing on the homoerotic themes of the play, as well as the immense sexual corruption of the two characters.