Measure For Measure: Second Series

Justice weighed against mercy, and public authority tested by private appetite, give this Shakespeare play its uncomfortable edge. The Arden presentation supplies an authoritative text with an introduction, explanatory notes and commentary covering language, staging and the moral questions the play refuses to settle. That apparatus makes a difficult comedy approachable for readers meeting it on a syllabus as well as for those returning to it years after a first encounter. A few specifics: • An edited text with scholarly introduction and critical framing • Notes clarifying the legal and religious vocabulary of the period • Discussion of power, law, corruption, forgiveness and consent • Material that supports essays, seminars and rehearsal preparation Well matched to literature students, teachers, theatre practitioners and readers assembling a Shakespeare shelf, offered by Boipoka.