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Robert B. Bennett (essay date 2000)

SOURCE: Bennett, Robert B. “Measure for Measure as Comic Romance.” In Romance and Reformation: The Erasmian Spirit of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, pp. 55-68. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 2000.

[In the following excerpt, Bennett maintains that unlike the utopian moral framework of Shakespeare's previous festive comedies, Measure for Measure is a comic romance that highlights the paradoxical qualities of human nature.]

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Comedy designed in the spirit of Erasmian humanism assumes that restoration of order occurs because of the reordering powers of Nature itself when these are coupled with human gifts of the spirit that participate in the power of the mediating Logos. This spiritual element—as distinct, for example, from fortune and cleverness that rule in Roman comedy—is what I mean to signal by the term “romance.” It is a scholar's label, like...

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1. Introduction
2. Criticism: Overviews And General Studies
   1. Nigel Alexander (essay date 1975)
   2. Robert B. Bennett (essay date 2000)
3. Criticism: Character Studies
   1. Vivian Thomas (essay date 1987)
   2. Mark Taylor (essay date spring 1994)
   3. Natasha Korda (essay date 2002)
4. Criticism: Production Reviews
   1. Charles Isherwood (review date 25 June 2001)
   2. Michael Billington (review date 5 May 2003)
   3. Celia Baker (review date 27 June 2003)
   4. Kenneth Tucker (review date summer 2003)
   5. Robert Hurwitt (review date 11 August 2003)
5. Criticism: Themes
   1. Harold C. Goddard (essay date 1951)
   2. William B. Bache (essay date 1969)
   3. Harriet Hawkins (essay date 1987)
   4. Martha Widmayer (essay date 1999)
6. Further Reading
7. Copyright