Table of Contents
General Editor's Preface Preface Introduction
1. Correcting Shakespeare's editors, 1783
2. Isabella "pious,...determined, and eloquent", 1789
3. Topical allusions in Measure for Measure, 1790
4. Identifying the main source, explaining the text, 1793
5. On the play's sources, 1807
6. A faulty play, 1807
7. Character and characterization, 1808
8. "The triumph of mercy over strict justice", 1815
9 . Measure for Measure in performance, 1816
10. Isabella, a "lovely example of female excellence", 1817
11. "A general system of cross-purposes", 1817
12. The Family Shakespeare, 1818
13. Character and morality in Measure for Measure, 1822
14. The play's major source, 1824
15. A play about mercy, 1826
16. Isabella compared to Portia, 1832
17. A "hateful" and "painful" play, 1835, 1836
18. A struggle between drama and philosophy, 1839
19. An introduction to the play, 1840
20. On the play's date and sources, 1842
21. Striking passages in a play that gives little pleasure, 1845
22. An expression of New Testament morality, 1846
23. "This remarkable drama", 1847
24. The betrothal contracts and their significance, 1850
25. Dispraise for Angelo, praise for Isabella, ambivalence about the Duke, 1851
26. Angelo a natural hypocrite, 1853
27. Sympathy for Angelo, criticism of Isabella, 1854
28. An uncongenial play, 1856
29. On Isabella, the epitome of goodness, and some minor characters, 1863
30. A play expressing equity, not justice, 1863
31. "The central expression" of Shakespeare's "moral judgments", 1874
32. A dark and bitter play, 1875
33. Mediation by the monastic life, 1875
34. The place of Measure for Measure in Shakespeare's canon, 1877
35. Measure for Measure and Roman Catholicism, 1877
36. On the play's analogues and early performance, 1880
37. A tragedy, 1880
38. Measure for Measure as dramatic literature, 1886-1909
39. A lesson from the Sermon on the Mount, 1889
40. The "painfulness" of Measure for Measure, 1889
41. A "disconsolate and bitter" play, 1891
42. A recapitulation of Shakespeare's earlier work, 1894
43. A problem play, 1896
44. Measure for Measure and Puritan hypocrisy, 1898
45. Shakespeare elevated 'a degraded and repellent theme', 1898
46. A play "full of prophetic intimations", 1899
47. A "painful and repellent" play, 1900
48. Measure for Measure as "a moral experiment", 1903
49. Miscellaneous comments, 1904
50. A critical introduction, 1905
51. An "unclassifiable play" with a "half satirical title", 1905
52. "The limits of comedy...sorely strained", 1906
53. Measure for Measure and "the philosophy of morals", 1906
54. On the "inconsistency in the character of Angelo", 1907
55. Shakespeare's representation of "a weak world", 1907
56. A play dramatizing "the central truth of Christian morality", 1907
57. A play better read than acted, 1907
58. Duke Vincentio as Shakespeare's alter ego, 1909
59. "A dramatised Sermon on the Mount of Genius", 1909
60. An attack on Puritanism, 1909
61. "An early, half finished piece", 1910
62. Historical criticism and Measure for Measure, 1910
63. "One of the greatest works of the greatest English mind", 1911
64. William Poel's Elizabethan' production, 1911
65. Characterization, style and structure, 1912
66. An "eminently disagreeable" piece of cynicism, 1913
67. A play "as painful as it is ill-shapen", 1913
68. A play "unfit for the modern Theatre", 1913
69. Measure for Measure and "the ethical spirit of western literature", 1915
70. The "happy ending...fails to persuade", 1920
Notes Select Bibliography Index.
