In Wells, Stanley, ed. Shakespeare: Select Bibliographical Guides. London: Oxford UP, 1973.
London: Croom Helm, 1987. Wilders, John. "The Problem Comedies." In Wells, Stanley, ed. Shakespeare: Select Bibliographical Guides.
Abstinence and Orgy in Measure for Measure Many existing views of Measure for Measure seem intriguing but incomplete. They might reinforce our perception of this play as fragmented and baffling, because they do not integrate apparently conflicting outlooks presented in the play’s Vienna, and generated by the mysterious action of Vincentio. Notice how the following different interpretations display the conflicts: the extreme view proposed by Roy Battenhouse that the Duke stands for God (Rossiter 108-28); the modified position of Elizabeth Marie Pope that the Duke is a successful magistrate with divinely-delegated powers ("Renaissance" 66-82), almost in line with Eliade’s version of a receding sky-god replaced by a local delegate (see Eliade 52); the attack upon Vincentio’s foolish "mystification" by Clifford Leech (69-71); and the concomitant understanding by Wylie Sypher that the Duke’s Vienna is merely an arbitrary, chaotic locale where passion and abstinence indifferently change place (262-80). Missing from such interpretations of Measure for Measure is isolation of controlling motifs: that of trial by temptation—or "assaying," as both the play and contemporary religious tracts name it; and of classical concepts of restrained chaos. Understanding these ideas will not resolve all the necessary ambiguities, but may provide a coherent approach to viewing or directing this perplexing drama.
The Riddle of Shakespeare's Sonnets. New York: Basic Books, 1982. Landry, Scott. ed. A Companion to Shakespeare.
"The Unfolding of Measure for Measure." Shakespeare Survey 26 (1973): 119-28. Leech, Clifford. "The 'Meaning' of Measure for Measure." Shakespeare Survey 3 (1950): 69-71.
Modern Critical Interpretations William Shakespeare's Henry V. Ed. Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. 1-4. Brennan, Anthony.
"The 'Meaning' of Measure for Measure." Shakespeare Survey 3 (1950): 69-71. New American Standard Bible. Reference ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1975.
67-81 Wells, Stanley, and Gary Taylor. The Complete Works. By William Shakespeare, The Oxford Shakespeare. Compact ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, 231-241.
Thomas, Vivian. The Moral Universe of Shakespeare's Problem Plays. London: Croom Helm, 1987.
Macmillan New York, NY 1994. (page 39-55) Neely, Carol. "Women and Men in Othello" Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s Othello. Ed. Anthony G. Barthelemy Pub.