From Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" , Mariana was the rejected lover of Vienna's governor, Angelo. When Angelo proposed to Isabella that he would pardon her brother Claudio (who had been sentenced to death) provided she would go to bed with him, it was secretly arranged that Mariana would go in her stead. In Tennyson's poem of the same name, Mariana believes she has been forgotten and will die alone. With love letters from her former lover scattered around her, she wishes she was dead.