For the play Measure for Measure, as it does not exist outside of complete works editions:

Well, this is complicated. You have the Duke of Vienna who has promoted Lord Angelo to chief constable of the city because of his morality. The Duke decides to "leave" the city for a while, under Angelo's care, and come back in the disguise of a friar. While away, the supposed maiden Juliet (yes, Shakespeare reuses names, quite frequently) is discovered to be with child by Claudio. They are very much in love, and would like to get married, but because of this unpardonable sin, Angelo sentences Claudio to death the next morning.

Claudio has his friend go to his sister, who was planning on entering a convent the very day of his arrest, to try to persuade Angelo with her piety to let him go.

Meanwhile, the head of the jail has been brought the infamous Shakespearen clown, who in this case is a frequent visitor to a (now closed) brothel. They argue and the clown, as always, twists around everything he is asked.

So, Claudio's sister, Isabel, leaves the convent to try to convince Angelo to at least reduce her brother's unjust sentence. Isabel twice goes to him, and is unsuccessful in her first attempt. However, Angelo has been so taken by her beauty and words that he agrees to save his life IF she will give up her virginity to him.

A "strange" friar enters the scene, and decides to go to the jail in order to see how the prisoners are. Claudio has basically resigned himself to death, and with the help of the Duke is prepared to be beheaded in the morning.

Isabel comes in to see her brother, and the friar hides in a place where they do not know he is listening. At first Claudio agrees with Isabel that it would be best if she kept her innocence and he dies, when suddenly he has a change of heart, and begs for her to yield to Angelo.

The friar has a solution, though. He tells Claudio that Angelo is merely testing his sister, and then wisks Isabel away. He has her agree to Angelo's terms, so long as they are in a dark place where she could not be recognized. He then explains to her that 5 years prior, he had broken his engagement to a woman, Marianna, because her brother had drown and her dowry had been lost at sea. Since then, Marianna had been lamenting over her lost love, but would want the chance to revenge herself.

The friar arranges for her to take Isabel's place that night, reasoning that they may as well have been married, because Angelo had at one time intended to marry her. However, Angelo discovers that the woman he slept with was not a virgin, and decides to go through with the execution.......

And the rest you'll have to discover on your own.

The realistic personalities Shakespeare gives to most of his characters. Also, I thought the plot was great, something I wouldn't even have thought of.

Read more Shakespeare! Which was good, because I had to finish Hamlet for English.

Well, lemme put it this way, I was laughing through most of it, although I wanted to hurl it at something when Angelo proposed that Isabel share his bed to save Claudio's life.

is a god! I love Shakespeare, and, while the only way you can really gain access to this play is through obtaining his complete works, I think it's worth it.

Granted, Shakespeare is a hard read, but there was only one scene that I didn't understand. As a note, a "bawd" referring to a woman would be a prostitute, and referring to a man would be a pimp.

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Created Nov 29, 2001 at 9:20pm • Submit your own review...