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Monday 22 June 2020

Sofa Spotlight - Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare

The latest conquest in my read all of Shakespeare mission this year. And also the first that really engaged me, to the point where I wasn’t sure how this was going to end and I needed to find out. So well done Mr. Shakespeare – you had me going there.

Once again characters in disguise feature heavily in this. Basically the Duke of Vienna leaves for a while and leaves Angelo in charge. Angelo is very much a “do it by the book” kind of guy. Which doesn’t work out well for Claudio who is sentenced to death for getting Julietta pregnant. Claudio’s sister Isabella goes Angelo to plead for Claudio. Angelo unsurprisingly says no. But then he has a second thought, because it occurs to him that he quite likes Isabella and would marry her. But Isabella is a nun so there’s the problem. Angelo gives her the ultimatum – be his wife or he makes sure Claudio is executed.

There are some great lines in this and I loved reading it. Angelo is despicable but with the help of some characters in disguise, the story ends satisfactorily. So yeah I would recommend this one.


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