Measure for Measure: Texts and Contexts / Edition 1

by William Shakespeare

Overview

This edition of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure reprints the Bevington edition of the play accompanied by four sets of thematically arranged primary documents and illustrations designed to facilitate many different approaches to Shakespeare's play and the early modern culture out of which the play emerges. The texts include royal proclamations, speeches, court records, sermons, biographical writings, prayers, ballads, poetry, excerpts from plays and the Bible, and drawings, woodcuts, and engravings. These documents contextualize the role of rulers and government in Jacobean society, crime and punishment in London's underworld, the religious and secular laws that regulated marriage and sexuality, Catholic and Puritan morality, and the religious and cultural significance of chastity and virginity in Shakespeare's time. Editorial features designed to help students read the play in light of the historical documents include an intelligent and engaging general introduction, introductions to each thematic group of documents, thorough headnotes and glosses for the primary documents (presented in modern spelling), and an extensive bibliography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900312395062
Publication date:	05/28/2004
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.53(w) x 8.24(h) x 0.96(d)

About the Author

Widely esteemed as the greatest writer in the English language, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an actor and theatrical producer in addition to writing plays and sonnets. Dubbed "The Bard of Avon," Shakespeare oversaw the building of the Globe Theatre in London, where a number of his plays were staged, the best-known of which include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. The First Folio, a printed book of 36 of his comedies, tragedies, and history plays, was published in 1623.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Table of Contents

Contents
ABOUT THE SERIES
ABOUT THIS VOLUME
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Introduction

PART ONE
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
(Edited by David Bevington)

PART TWO
Cultural Contexts

1. Governance
The King James Version of Measure for Measure
Divine Right of Kings and Absolution
Machiavelli
Anxiety
Resistance
Slander
King James I, From The True Law of Free Monarchies
King James I, From Basilikon Doron
Barnaby Rich, From The Adventures of Brusanus, Prince of Hungary
Niccoló Machiavelli, From The Prince
Hugh Latimer, From First Sermon upon the Lord’s Prayer
George Buchanan, From A Dialogue Concerning the Due Privilege of
Government in the Kingdom of Scotland
Sir Walter Raleigh, From The Prince, or Maxims of State
Richard Martin, From A Speech Delivered to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty,
in the Name of the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex
Ben Jonson, Epigram 35. To King James
Thomas Middleton, From The Phoenix

2. Marriage, Sex, and Society
Marriage á la Mode
Understanding Isabella
Chastity and Eloquence
Mariana and the Play’s Resolution of Women’s Rights
T.E., From The Law’s Resolution of Women’s Rights
William Perkins, From Christian Economy
Henry Swinburne, From A Treatise of Spousals
Church of England, Of Matrimony
A Selection of Court Cases Concerned with Sex
Richard Day, From A Book of Christian Prayers
Juan Luis Vives, From Instruction of a Christian Woman
St. Augustine, From The Lord’s Sermon on the Mount
G. B. Geraldi Cinthio, From The Story of Epitia
Christine de Pisan, From The Book of the City of Ladies
Tarrant House Convent, From The Nun’s Rule
Francis Dupuis, From The Life and Legend of the Lady Saint Clare

3. The Underworld
Social and Moral Geography
Prostitution, Pox, and Plague

John Stow, From The Survey of London
Thomas Dekker, From Lantern and Candlelight
Ben Jonson, From Epigrams
King James I, Proclamation against Inmates
Thomas Harman, From A Caveat for Common Cursitors
Philip Stubbes, From Anatomy of Abuses
Richard Lovelace, The Fair Beggar
John Marston, From The Dutch Courtesan
From Trial of a Procurer
William Fennor, From The Counter’s Commonwealth
The Prisoner’s Petition
James Gryffon, The Song of a Constable

4. Geography and Religion
Puritanism

From the Geneva Bible
Fynes Moryson, From An Itinerary
The Catholics’ Supplication
Christopher Muriell, From An Answer unto the Catholics’ Supplication
From News from Rome, Venice, and Vienna
Gábor Bethlen, Letter to the King of Bohemia
Letter from Vienna

BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX