ABSTRACT
Measure for Measure draws on a variety of sources in the construction of a complex web of substitution motifs. The action is set in motion by the Duke's nomination of Angelo as his deputy during his apparent absence from the city, and it is notable that this first act of substitution is met with a measure of resistance. Shakespeare's version of the tale of the heroic sacrifice may be described as an alternative one in more than one respect. The traditional tale of the heroic sacrifice exhibits the harmonious operation of a divinely ordained hierarchical system, whereas Shakespeare's alternative version reveals that political power depends on consent, and that it collapses when that consent is withheld. The dramatist's political stance, that the earliest recorded reference to Measure for Measure is to a performance at court in 1604, following the accession of a monarch prepared to countenance a greater degree of reflection than his immediate predecessor on the mystique of royalty.
