‘Dark Deeds Darkly Answered’ – The Political Economy of Prodigality in Measure for Measure

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper re-examines Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure as an extension to the prodigal plays in early modern England. Tracing the literary evolution of prodigals on stage, this paper explores diverse dimensions of prodigality and their dynamics in Measure by looking into three unconventional ‘prodigals’ – Angelo, Claudio, and the Duke. Angelo and Claudio, in line with Mat in London Prodigal, adopt the issues of marriage and dower that connect Measure to the prodigal husband plays of early seventeenth-century England. Duke Vincentio’s prodigality is investigated through the play’s oblique link between the ruler’s generosity and laxity of the state. His political strategies to manoeuvre the prodigal state, on the one hand, resemble prodigal husbands’ pursuit of self-interest in that his political use of deceit reinforces his sovereignty by achieving both fear and love of his people to his benefit. On the other, his political prudence pertains to another aspect of a prodigal, that of a risk-taking prince anticipating the proto-capitalist combination of creditor and debtor whose delegation of power and disguise foreground the political economy of security.