236
I
n the opening scene, Duke
Vincentio reveals to Escalus
his plan to leave Vienna,
lending Angelo “all the organs /
Of our power” (1.1.20–21) to rule in
his absence. He is keen to hear
Escalus’s opinion of his plan: “What
think you of it?” (1.1.21). He is also
eager to know his companion’s
estimation of Angelo himself:
“What figure of us think you he
will bear?” (1.1.15–16). In asking so
many questions, the dramatist is
readying his audience to observe,
evaluate, and pass judgement
upon Angelo’s behavior. Angelo’s
reaction to being “Dressed in a
little brief authority” (2.2.121) will
be a concern throughout the drama.
Shakespeare builds a sense
of anticipation around Angelo’s
arrival. By the time Vincentio
announces “Look where he comes”
(1.1.24), the audience is sure to be
curious about this mysterious
figure with whom the Duke seems
somewhat obsessed. Angelo shows
respectful reticence at first to
taking control of “Morality and
mercy in Vienna” (1.1.44); he asks
that “there be some more test made
of [his] metal” (1.1.48) before he
assumes this powerful role. Little
does he realize that the Duke will
be testing him throughout the rest
of the drama.MEASURE FOR MEASURE
Testing times
Angelo’s job will not be easy,
for law and order have all but
disappeared in Vienna. Having
passed responsibility to Angelo,
the Duke confides in a friar that:
“We have strict statutes and most
biting laws, / The needful bits and
curbs to headstrong weeds, / Which
for this fourteen years we have let
slip... / And Liberty plucks Justice
by the nose, / The baby beats the
nurse, and quite athwart / Goes
all decorum” (1.3.19–31).
During the Duke’s time,
Vienna has become a city where
criminality and prostitution are
rife; and slanderous allegations are
even made about the Duke’s own
behavior: “Ere he would have
hanged a man for the getting a
hundred bastards, he would have
paid for the nursing a thousand”IN CONTEXT
THEMES
Justice, morality,
power, sexSETTING
ViennaSOURCES
1565 Shakespeare may have
been familiar with Giraldi
Cinthio’s Italian novella
Hecatommithi. However, he
introduced Mariana and the
“bedtrick.” In the source
material, the Isabella figure
sleeps with the Angelo
character, and marries him.1578 Shakespeare made
use of George Whetstone’s
English tragicomedy Promos
and Cassandra.LEGACY
1818 The poet Samuel Taylor
Coleridge writes of the play
that it is “the most painful”
of Shakespeare’s works.1836 Richard Wagner
composes a two-act opera,
Das Liebesverbot (The Ban of
Love), which follows the story
of Measure for Measure.1950 In a thought-provoking
twist, the director Peter Brook
instructs the actress playing
Isabella to pause for as long as
possible before joining Mariana
to plead for Angelo’s life.1970 In another approach
to this problem play, Estelle
Kohler’s Isabella turns to the
audience in despair following
the Duke’s proposals in John
Barton’s production staged at
Stratford-upon-Avon.The virtuous character of Isabella
is played here by Flora Robson in a
production in 1933. In Whetstone’s tale,
she is a chaste maid; in Shakespeare’s
play, she is about to enter a nunnery.Some rise by sin, and some
by virtue fall.
Escalus
Act 2, Scene 1