Abstinence and Measure for Measure Orgy Many existing views of Measure for Measure seem intriguing but incomplete. They may reinforce our perception of this work as fragmented and disconcerting, because they do not integrate seemingly conflicting perspectives presented in the play's Vienna and generated by Vincentio's mysterious action. Note how the following different interpretations show conflicts: the extreme view proposed by Roy Battenhouse that the Duke represents God (Rossiter 108-28); Elizabeth Marie Pope's modified position that the Duke is a successful magistrate with divinely delegated powers ("Renaissance" 66-82), almost in line with Eliade's version of an elusive sky god replaced by a local delegate (see Eliade 52) ; Clifford Leech's attack on Vincentio's silly "mystification" (69-71); and Wylie Sypher's concomitant interpretation that the Duke's Vienna is simply an arbitrary and chaotic place where passion and abstinence indifferently change places (262-80). Missing from such interpretations of Measure for Measure is the isolation of the controlling motifs: that of trial by temptation – or “essay,” as both the play and contemporary religious treatises call it; and classical concepts of contained chaos. Understanding these ideas won't resolve all the necessary ambiguities, but it might provide a coherent approach to watching or directing this perplexing drama. To analyze Vincentio as a self-proclaimed "taster" is to explore the chaotic world of Vienna, transformed by Vincentio's incompetence into predatory dis-order. To refer again to Eliade, the Duke perhaps assumed the role of demiurge and then retreated, giving way to a minor divinity (40, 50-52) in Angelo, a significant character... half of the paper.. .... n UP, 1966.Knight, G. Wilson. The Wheel of Fire: Essays on the Interpretation of Shakespeare's Dark Tragedies. London: Oxford UP, 1930.Leech, Clifford. "The 'Meaning' of Measure for Measure." Shakespeare Survey 3 (1950): 69-71.Pope, Elizabeth Marie. Paradise reconquered: tradition and poetry. 1947. New York: Russell and Russell, 1962.---. "The Renaissance backdrop of measure for measure." Shakespeare Survey 2 (1949): 66-82. Rossiter, A. P. Horned Angel and Other Shakespeare Lectures. Ed. Piano by Graham. London: Longmans, Green, 1961.Shakespeare, William. William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Ed. Alfred Harbage. 1969. Baltimore: Penguin, 1971. Sypher, Wylie. "Shakespeare as casuist: measure for measure." The Sewanee Review 58 (1950): 262-80.Taylor, Thomas. The struggle and conquest of Christ. Cambridge, 1618.