Sejanus, Measure for Measure, and Rats Bane

Abstract

SEJANUS was likely first performed by the King’s Men at Court in the winter of 1603 and at the Globe early in 1604.1Measure for Measure was probably first performed at the Globe in the summer of 1604 and at Court the day after Christmas that same year.2 The general scholarly consensus is that Shakespeare played the part of the Emperor Tiberius in Jonson’s play.3 If this is the case then not only would Shakespeare have known the text of Sejanus, he would have been learning and performing it as he was writing Measure for Measure. That said, comparatively little attention has been paid to possible connections between the two plays. In his First Arden edition of Measure for Measure, H. C. Hart pointed out some parallels between the scene in Act Four where Angelo and Escalus discuss the letters that have distracted Angelo, and a scene in the last act of Sejanus where Cotta and Latiaris discuss the letters that precipitate the downfall of the titular character.4 Drawing on Hart’s work, Brian Gibbon’s Cambridge edition observes the same thematic parallel and suggests an additional small verbal parallel between III.i. of Sejanus and V.i. of Measure for Measure.5