1437700 1623 Shakespeare. Measure for Measure. Complete.

 

Measure, for Measure [Extracted from the First Folio]. [London: Isaac Jaggard..., 1623.]  Folio (307 x 194 mm). Modern paneled calf, blind ruled, gilt titles on spine. Margins trimmed, some repairs, tear at bottom of F5 along old repair.  

 

FIRST PRINTING of this play, from the famous First Folio edition of Shakespeare, consisting of 24 pages on leaves F1 to G6. This dark comedy is set in Vienna and deals with morality and justice. Young Claudio is sentenced to death for fornication when his betrothed becomes pregnant, but others intercede to prevent this injustice. It was first performed in December, 1604, and first published in this form in the First Folio. See Pforzheimer 905 (for First Folio).

 

The play, along with All's Well and Troilus and Cressida has long been considered a "problem play" in that it does not conveniently fit into either a comedy or tragedy classification, not can it be called a romance.  It is a dark, brooding work that primarily deals with Christian morality and hypocrisy.  The received text of The Winter's Tale is also somewhat problematic.  It is set from text supplied by scribe Ralph Crane and scholarly debate has raged for centuries over the possibility that Thomas Middleton revisited the play after first performance, removed someswear words in order to conform to the Jacobean dictate against profanity on stage.  It is also suggested that Middleton interpolated changes as well.