Measure for Measure in Shakespeare’s first collection of plays was listed as a comedy, however many modern researchers classify it as a “problem play”.

The play was performed on 26 December, 1604 and written not long before this. The plot comes from one of the novellas of Italian poet Giraldi Cinthio, published in 1565. Before Shakespeare, this novella became a basis for George Whetstone’s tragedy Promos and Cassandra (1578) which wasn’t essential in artistic point of view. The action of the play happens during an uncertain epoch and develops within four days.