Measure for Measure
The third Approaching Shakespeare lecture, on Measure for Measure, focuses on the vexed question of this uncomic comedy's genre.
This lecture begins with the question of genre: what kind of play is Measure for Measure, a dark, queasy play from 1604 which ends in some enforced marriages and seems almost to throw down a generic challenge in its final scene. The lecture talks about Shakespearean comedy more widely to try to understand, not explain away, this play's difficulties. Emma Smith says: "There's also a mistake in it - apologies. I was quite wrong to say that no Shakespeare play has a woman speaking the majority of its lines: both As You Like It (Rosalind has 25% of the lines) and All's Well that Ends Well (Helen has 16%) do."
Date Published:
26 October 2010
Writer:
Source:
Contributors:
Emma Smith
In Collection(s):
William Shakespeare, Questioning Genre
Keywords:
Key Stage 5, lesson, Teaching, #greatwriters, theatre, play, language, english, literature, criticism, shakespeare
Cite:
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare at https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/ via https://dev.writersinspire.it.ox.ac.uk/content/measure-measure. Published on 26 October 2010. Accessed on 14 May 2026.
If reusing this resource please attribute as follows: Measure for Measure (https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/) by William Shakespeare, licensed as Creative Commons BY-NC-SA (2.0 UK).
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