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Measure for Measure

From Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by E. Nesbit (1907) and William Shakespeare

This reader is adapted from E. Nesbit's 1907 retelling of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (first performed c. 1604). The play is one of Shakespeare's 'problem plays'—a dark comedy that explores justice, mercy, authority, and hypocrisy. Nesbit's prose version preserves the plot and moral complexity while making the story accessible to younger readers. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. The play asks whether justice can exist without mercy, and whether a ruler may deceive in order to achieve a just end—questions as urgent now as they were in Jacobean England. It is worth reading because it forces the reader to think about power, integrity, and the gap between what people profess and what they do.

Band

Red · Complex language and analysisTypical starting range: ages 15–17

Length

long · about 1361 words in 4 sections · 2 pictures

Source

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, E. Nesbit and William Shakespeare

First published

1907

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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