ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been a marked tendency to dismiss the term ‘problem plays’ as a useful label for encompassing Troilus and Cressida, All’s Well and Measure for Measure, or for any other combination of plays. In All’s Well and Measure for Measure the actions of Bertram and Angelo reveal their contempt for women; they are saved by the bed-trick — though this ‘elegant’ solution involves some disparagement in itself, as Helena’s reflection seems to imply. The most brilliant of Shakespeare’s plays shares with All’s Well and Measure for Measure a desire to engage the intellect in an examination of the formation and transmission of values and their embodiment in institutions. As with All’s Well and Measure for Measure we are left contemplating the past events and attempting to visualise the future, both in the world of the stage and in the wider world of human action. Measure for Measure is Shakespeare’s most modern political play.
