Measure for Measure
Edition. Only in the folio, 1623.
Date. In the Accounts of the Revels at Court, we are informed that this play was performed at Whitehall December 26, 1604. It was therefore probably written in that or the preceding year.
Origin. “The right excellent and famous History of Promos and Cassandra, a drama in Two Parts, by George Whetstone,” published in 1578. Whetstone’s drama was taken from one of the tales in the Hecatommithi of Cinthio, which Shakespeare may also have read. The comic scenes are of course all his own.