Man’s Need and God’s Plan in ‘Measure for Measure’ and Mark iv

Summary

Shakespeare might have taken the title of Measure for Measure from any one of the three synoptic gospels “For with what iudgement yee iudge, ye shall be iudged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall bee measured to you againe” (Matthew vii 2); “With what measure ye mete, it shall bee measured vnto you” (Mark iv 24); “For with what measure ye mete with the same shal men mete to you again” (Luke vi 38). Few Shakespeare editions consider a source for the title and those that do generally give 3 Henry VI or Matthew vii without arguing the point, and apparently without having examined the contexts in the three gospels. A. D. Nuttall, however, has suggested that Shakespeare was probably thinking of Mark iv as he wrote because the Duke’s lines, ‘Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, / Not light them for themselves’ (i, i, 32–3) are a restatement of Mark iv 21: ‘Is the candle lighted to be put vnder a bushell, or vnder the table, and not to be put on a candlesticke?’ An examination of Mark iv reveals other striking analogues to the language of Measure for Measure and – beyond language – to the characterization and theme of the play; it can be argued that Mark iv was the focus of Shakespeare’s biblical background for the play, though elements from all three evangelists are woven into its fabric.