ABSTRACT
One of the essential qualities of the stories upon which Shakespeare draws for All’s Well and Measure for Measure is that they are fables which set forth a series of events that are to be taken as given. Measure for Measure portrays a whole stratum of individuals who operate in an environment where gaining a livelihood calls for guile and dexterity. In the real world which Shakespeare has created in Measure for Measure, and in the other two problem plays, can there be such a thing as happy ever after? The prosaic nature of social reality is rendered in the opening scene of Measure for Measure. Jonathan Dollimore has argued persuasively that at the time Shakespeare was writing Measure for Measure the traditional legitimation of law was under severe pressure. Ernest Schanzer attributes a good deal of the perplexity and disagreement to the complexity of the characters in Measure for Measure.
