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Political power and Measure for Measure

This chapter analyses Shakespeare’s consideration of the pulls of seclusion, and of concealment, against the demands of public government and open contestation of the power to rule. Measure for Measure dramatizes the abuse and corruption of authoritarian governing power, in particular in the form of male sexual coercion and exploitation of females. The plot focuses on a ruler’s use of secrecy and surveillance in order to monitor their attempts to counter overly lax law enforcement with authoritarianism. It also puts questions of market rationality, and the imperatives that govern poor people’s attempts to earn livings in constrained urban circumstances in relation to questions of political order, and into relation with the imperatives of theological truth and spiritual virtue. The claims and imperatives of frank public speech, as a method of revealing corruption and pursuing justice, are brought into relationship with the political strategy of trickery.