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16 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XII fallen madly in love with “Cesario” who is really Viola. Meanwhile Sebastian is rescued and comes to Illyria. The plot gets unbelievably complicated, with everybody now mistaking Sebastian for “Cesario” and vice-versa. Olivia flings herself at the happily confused Sebastian and they get married. Somehow, the “dead” brother and sister are identified and reunited onstage to the astonishment of all. Viola marries Orsino, and everybody lives happily ever after. Here the poet combines themes again. To the “resurrection” of Sebastian he adds the theme of the Lost Being Found, which occurs at many places in the New Testament, especially in the parables of Luke. 3. All’s Well That Ends Well This play about unrequited love centres on Helena, daughter of a famous doctor, now deceased. Helena is protected by the old Countess of Rossillion, and loves the Countess’s son, Bertram. Bertram, a nobleman, disdains the commoner Helena. As the plot develops, Helena uses her medical knowledge to heal the King of France, who, in gratitude, gives her his ring and commands her to choose a husband. Guess who she picks? Bertram behaves like a cad, and goes through with the ceremony as required by the King but immediately leaves for the war in Florence. “Although before the solemn priest I have sworn, / I will not bed her” (II.iii.269-70). Bertram writes a letter—which Helena finds—in which he swears not to fulfil his marriage vow and consummate the relationship until Helena can do two impossible things: get the ancestral ring which he never takes off, and also present him with a child. Helena contrives a letter to the Countess which establishes to the court that she has “died”, then leaves for Florence. Bertram meanwhile has fallen in love with a girl named Diana, and is trying to seduce her. A bed trick is arranged, with Helena taking Diana’s place, and during the night of passion Helena and Bertram exchange rings. Bertram then returns to Paris, but is accused of murdering Helena when the King recognizes his ring. Chaos ensues until Helena appears, pregnant, and bearing Bertram’s ring. She has done the two impossible tasks, so all’s well. When Helena makes her entrance, Diana exclaims, “One that’s dead is quick” (V.iii.303). By now the reader is seeing the advantage of poetry in harmonizing themes. Here is the virtuous woman, perhaps a type of the Church, a Christlike healer who comes back to life again. 4. Measure for Measure Shakespeare cites the Bible over 800 times, showing familiarity with several translations. This is his only title with a Biblical reference, citing Matthew in the Geneva translation: “Judge not … with what measure ye mete, it shall be
BAUE: REDEMPTIVE THEMES IN SHAKESPEARE 17 measured unto you again.” The play centres around a corrupt governor who perverts justice to gratify his own lust. Critic Anne Barton misses the Christian truth in this play when she says, “Doctrinaire Christian interpretations … are untractable. … Shakespearean comedy is in general deeply distrustful of absolutes” (RS, 546). The drama begins in Vienna, where the laws against immorality are exceedingly strict. The Duke of Vienna, a moderate man, decides to “go away” in order to test the laws. He disguises himself as a friar to stick around and observe things, and leaves in charge a man named Angelo, outwardly a sober judge, but inwardly seething with lust. Angelo immediately arrests young Claudio for impregnating his fiancée Julia and sentences him to death. There are mitigating circumstances: Claudio and Julia have a civil, and hence a legal, marriage, but have not yet been blessed by the church. Isabella, Claudio’s sister, comes to plead for her brother’s life. Angelo, who, like Bertram in All’s Well, has jilted his own fiancée Marianna, begins to lust after Isabella, even as she speaks. He makes a proposition: Claudio’s life in exchange for Isabella’s body. Isabella, who is preparing to enter a convent, agonizes over the moral dilemma she faces. Meanwhile the “friar” has been observing all of this, and arranges a bed trick in which Marianna is substituted for Isabella. Even so, the unjust Angelo orders Claudio executed. However the “friar” has been busy in the dungeon preventing Claudio’s death. Casting off the friar disguise, the Duke suddenly “returns” to judge, and sentences Angelo to death for his hypocrisy: “an Angelo for Claudio, death for death … Measure still for Measure” (V.i.409, 411). A stricken Marianna beseeches Isabella for help. Still thinking her brother dead, she nobly begs mercy for the unjust Angelo. The “resurrected” Claudio is produced, the Duke is gracious to Angelo, and everybody ends up marrying the person they are supposed to. The virtuous woman is here again in this play, but this time she is an advocate for mercy like Portia in The Merchant of Venice. In pleading for the life of her enemy Angelo, she is much like Jesus who says, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” As for the resurrection in this play, it is the redeemed sinner Claudio who finds new life. 5. Pericles, Prince of Tyre Pericles is being pursued by assassins. He is shipwrecked and washes up in Pentapolis. There he falls in love and marries Thaisa, the daughter of the king. As they return to Tyre, Thaisa gives birth to Marina, but “dies” in childbirth. They put her in a coffin and bury her at sea. The coffin washes up in Ephesus, where Thaisa is recovered alive and becomes a priestess in the temple of Diana. Years go by, and Marina grows up to be a beautiful young lady. She is captured by pirates, and sold to a brothel in Myteline. There she preaches holiness so effectively that business falls off sharply in the
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