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Adaptations and cultural references

Film adaptations

• 1979 BBC Version shot on videotape, directed by Desmond Davis, generally considered to be a faithful rendition of the play. Kate Nelligan plays Isabella and Tim Pigott-Smith plays Angelo. Shown on PBS in the United States as part of the BBC Shakespeare series.
• 1994 TV Adaptation set in the present, starring Tom Wilkinson, Corin Redgrave and Juliet Aubrey.
• 2006 Version directed by Bob Komar, set in the British Army.

Musical adaptations

• The opera Das Liebesverbot (1836) by Richard Wagner with the libretto written by the composer based on Measure for Measure

• The musical Desperate Measures (2004), with book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg and music by David Friedman

Cultural references

• The character of Mariana inspired Tennyson for his poem Mariana (1830).
• The plot of the play was taken by Alexander Pushkin in his poetic tale Angelo (1833). Pushkin had begun to translate the Shakespearean play, but finally arrived at a generally non-dramatic tale with some dialog scenes.
• Thomas Hardy's novel, The Woodlanders, quotes the Duke.
• The Bertolt Brecht play, Round Heads and Pointed Heads, was originally written as an adaptation of Measure for Measure.
• Thomas Pynchon's early short-story, "Mortality and Mercy in Vienna", take its title from a verse in this play, and has also been inspired by it.
• The plot of the second episode of Blackadder II, "Head", echoes plot elements of the play, with the titular character, as Executioner, swapping around heads in order to pretend that a criminal is alive rather than dead.