Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare | Introduction & Overview

Measure for Measure Introduction

The earliest authoritative text available for Measure for Measure was published in the First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays dated 1623. Today, most critics accept this version of the playas a transcription of Shakespeare's "foul papers," that is, an uncorrected manuscript written in the playwright's own hand. This theory is based on the presence in the text of anomalies often found in uncorrected manuscripts, such as sparse stage directions, omitted and transposed words, and mislineations. The first recorded performance of Measure for Measure was on December 26, 1604, when a play entitled "Mesur for Mesur" by "Shaxberd" was performed at Whitehall before King James I and his court by "his Maiesties players," the troupe with which Shakespeare was associated from early 1603 until his retirement

Two works have traditionally been regarded as the Primary sources of Measure for Measure: a novella in a collection of tales entitled Hecatommithi (1565)...
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