Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare , believed to have been written in or and first performed in , according to available records. It was published in the First Folio of The play centers on the despotic and puritan Angelo , a deputy entrusted to rule the city of Vienna in the absence of Duke Vincentio, who instead disguises himself as a humble friar to observe Angelo's regency and the lives of his citizens. Angelo persecutes a young man named Claudio for the crime of fornication , sentencing him to death on a technicality, only to fall madly in love with Claudio's sister, a chaste and innocent nun named Isabella, when she comes to plead for her brother's life.
Measure for Measure was printed as a comedy in the First Folio and continues to be classified as one. Though it shares features with other Shakespearean comedies, such as the use of word play and irony , and the employment of disguise and substitution as plot devices, it also features tragic elements such as executions and soliloquies , with Claudio's speech in particular having been favorably compared to the speeches of tragic heroes like Prince Hamlet.
Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna , must leave the city on a diplomatic mission. He instates a strict judge, Angelo , to act as his deputy until he returns. The next scene opens with Lucio and a group of soldiers bantering on the topics of religion, prostitution, and sexual disease, as they walk along a Viennese street, hopeful that they will soon find work when war breaks out with Hungary.
Mistress Overdone, the operator of a nearby brothel, interjects to scold them for their flippant talk. She compares their bad behavior to that of the relatively upstanding Claudio, who is, she tells them, soon to be executed for the crime of sleeping with a woman out of wedlock.
One of the gentlemen, Claudio's friend, Lucio, a "fantastic", is astonished at this news and rushes off. Pompey Bum, an employee of Mistress Overdone, enters as he leaves, bringing more distressing news: Angelo has issued a proclamation that all the brothels in the suburbs are to be torn down.
