Measure for Measure and the best joke in Shakespeare Right let’s get this out of the way, I have never read a Shakespeare play cover to cover and finished it thinking that’s a great read. I’ll read that again for fun. Then I read Measure for Measure. I think I can say without hyperbole that Measure for Measure is Shakespeare’s most relevant play. You can talk about your universal themes in the great tragedies – fate, revenge, ambition, failure but Measure for Measure has specific themes that are so dead on the nose they could have been written a few weeks ago. Measure for Measure is a play about sexual misconduct and corrupt powerful men. It’s a play about how a legal system becomes corrupt when everyone working in it shares the same corrupt values. It takes those two ideas and tackles them in-depth. Mercifully, loads of other people have picked up on this and you can be spared my thoughts on the matter. If you’re interested just google Measure for Measure #metoo. Here’s the
Disguise isn't necessary for a certain type of man . All’s Well That Ends Well is one of the more interesting Shakespearean comedies, at least philosophically speaking – the plot does drag a little in parts. One thing you might notice about it right off the bat is that it doesn’t read like Shakespeare. It is more grammatically modern than most Shakespeare plays and a little bit easier to read. This has led some very, very clever people to argue that it is written by Thomas Middleton. This may or may not be true, it would be difficult to prove without at least secondary evidence. For sure, the subject matter is way off from Shakespeare’s usual woman-hating, Jew bating, servant kicking provender and a lot of critics actively dislike this play. I don’t, to be clear, it’s one of the better ones. Anyway, to get this out of the way, the main claims to it being at least co-written by Middleton are as follows: Firstly: The grammar tends towards clarity and simplicity of meaning and the rh