Measuring the Unmeasurable: A Tridimensional Gender Comparison Between Measure for Measure,
Two Renaissance Plays and their Common Source
Measuring the Unmeasurable: A Tridimensional Gender Comparison Between Measure for Measure,
Two Renaissance Plays and their Common Source
Author(s): Patricia NedeleaSubject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Philology, Drama
Published by: Universitatea de Vest din Timişoara
Keywords: Measure for Measure; Shakespeare; gender; proto-feminism;
Summary/Abstract: This article offers a tridimensional gender comparison between Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure (1604) and two other plays having the same Hecatommithi (1565) plot: Cinthio’s Italian Renaissance play Epitia (1583) and Whetstone’s Elisabethan play Promos and Cassandra (1578). Both plays were inspired by Cinthio’s Hecatommithi novella (Story 5 from Day 8) before Shakespeare wrote Measure for Measure, so that the Bard’s use of the proto-feminist spirit from the novella and the two subsequent dramatizations can be comparatively analysed. The second part of my article offers a further analysis of Measure for Measure, suggesting that it still can be seen as a proto-feminist drama, even if without a happy-ending, from a gender perspective.
Journal: DramArt.Revistă de studii teatrale
- Issue Year: 2020
- Issue No: 9
- Page Range: 77-98
- Page Count: 21
- Language: English