Measure For Measure

“There’s not a soldier of us all, that, in

the thanksgiving before meat, do relish the petition

well that prays for peace.”

When Lucio talks to some other gentlemen who serve as soldiers in Duke Vincentio’s army, the men bring up the point that people will always act in the interest of their own survival and their own livelihood, even when it goes against morality. While it might be common to pray for peace, soldiers would rather pray for war so that they can be paid for their services. This conversation sets up a central conflict in the play—the ways in which Christian morality does not align with human instincts.

“Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as

things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow;

impiety has made a feast of thee.”

Lucio jokes that the soldiers he is speaking with are not “sound” because they are infected with venereal diseases, using a pun on the word “sound” to insult them. This establishes Lucio’s humorously hypocritical character and The Problem of Hypocrisy, as he also visits sex workers and has even impregnated one. His line suggests that vices will eventually harm the sinner, creating an equal punishment that suits the crime. While Lucio’s dialogue suggests a medical punishment through venereal disease, other characters discuss the legal and spiritual penalties for sin.

“‘Twas my fault to give the people scope,

‘Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them

For what I bid them do.”

Vincentio explains to Friar Peter why he has chosen to let Angelo take control of the city and curb the spread of vice rather than doing it himself. His language equates tolerating vice with commanding it, indicating that Vincentio sees it as a ruler’s duty to manage the morality of his subjects. Vincentio’s concern about enforcing the punishment for vices he permitted sets up his hatred of hypocrisy.

“Our doubts are traitors

And make us lose the good we oft might win

By fearing to attempt.”

Lucio encourages Isabella to help her brother Claudio by petitioning Angelo for mercy, despite her doubt that she could ever persuade a powerful person to change his mind. This quote uses personification, ascribing human-like qualities to the non-human concept of doubt. By personifying doubt as a “traitor” intent on sabotaging a cause, Lucio suggests that doubt is not reasonable or prudent in this case. Doubt will only prevent Isabella from achieving victory, and Lucio downplays any negative consequences that might arise from trying and failing.

“We must not make a scarecrow of the law,

Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,

And let it keep one shape, till custom make it

Their perch and not their terror.”

Angelo explains the importance of enforcing laws using a metaphor, comparing the law to a scarecrow. Angelo’s metaphor suggests that the law will be disregarded if it is not customarily enforced, in the same way that birds will acclimate to the presence of a scarecrow in a field unless it is regularly moved and altered. This language indicates that Angelo sees laws as a tool meant to inspire fear of punishment, controlling the moral behavior of Vienna by publicly demonstrating the negative consequences for sin. His harsh view of justice also reflects the dilemma of Earthly and Divine Justice in the play.

“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.”

Escalus reminds Angelo of the paradox that sometimes the consequences for behavior are the opposite of what they should be. Since earthly institutions are imperfect, many people are rewarded for bad behavior and penalized for good behavior. This undercuts the notion of earthly justice as an effective tool for ensuring public morality, as corruption can impact the enforcement of laws.

“It is the law, not I condemn your brother.”

When Isabella comes to Angelo to plead for her brother’s life, he abdicates personal responsibility for the decision. His dialogue uses personification, treating the law as though it is a person with an independent will, in order to distance himself from the matter. While Angelo claims to only be following the law, this argument later proves to be flawed because he does possess the power to free Claudio and offers to do so in exchange for sexual favors. The law might condemn Claudio to death, but interventions by human actors, such as Angelo and Vincentio, are ultimately what determines his fate.

“O, it is excellent

To have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous

To use it like a giant.”

During Isabella’s debate with Angelo, she evokes verbal irony to discuss the problems of earthly political power and Earthly and Divine Justice. Her dialogue employs figurative language, equating political authority to physical size through the metaphor of a giant. Through this, she suggests that while power should be admired and respected, it is unjust to use such great power against those who have less. This ironic quotation exposes a problem with earthly forms of justice—it can too easily become tyrannical and cruel.

“O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,

With saints dost bait thy hook!”

In a soliloquy that expresses his inner thoughts, Angelo laments that he is sexually tempted by Isabella because of her goodness and piety rather than any negative trait. He draws attention to the irony through a fishing metaphor, comparing Isabella to “bait” on a fishing hook used by the devil. Angelo also refers to both himself and Isabella as “saints,” drawing attention to how both of them have reputations as morally upstanding Christians. While a saint might be expected to inspire someone to behave better, Angelo ironically is tempted to sin by Isabella’s saintliness.

“Blood, thou art blood:

Let‘s write good angel on the devil‘s horn.”

When Angelo decides to give in to temptation and proposition Isabella for sex, he acknowledges that he cannot overcome the nature of his bodily appetites and The Problem of Hypocrisy. Using repetition and personification to draw attention to the agency of his own physical needs, he admits that his blood is only blood, rather than snow or ice as other characters claim. This suggests that he is only human and therefore must succumb to human needs. By declaring that he will write “good angel on the devil’s horn,” a clear opposition, Angelo also demonstrates that he is aware of how hypocritical his actions will make him.

“‘Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.”

When Angelo justifies the harsh punishments for premarital sex in Vienna, Isabella responds with this quote to remind him that earthly institutions such as the law will never be able to enact perfect justice, as God in heaven can. Since the Christian God is considered to be a perfect and all-knowing being, he can create punishments that perfect fit the crime for the souls being judged in the afterlife. Human justice, however, is fallible and therefore requires flexibility and mercy. Her argument reflects the theme of Earthly and Divine Justice.

“The miserable have no other medicine

But only hope:

I’ve hope to live, and am prepared to die.”

In prison, Claudio expresses that he still hopes to be pardoned, despite the likelihood of his impending execution. His dialogue uses a metaphor, comparing hope to a “medicine.” Shakespeare implies that hope is like a cure for bodily illness, although hope has little power to actually alter Claudio’s legal fate.

“No might nor greatness in mortality

Can censure ‘scape; back-wounding calumny

The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong

Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?”

Vincentio reflects in a soliloquy that expresses his inner thoughts that even those who possess great power and authority cannot avoid being slandered and incorrectly characterized by the public. While Vincentio is a duke and has the authority to command his subjects, he cannot prevent men like Lucio from spreading false stories about him. Vincentio also notes that the slander he receives is undeserved, and that criticism is often leveled at the best and most virtuous people. Shakespeare thus exposes another instance of disproportional and unjust punishment.

“This

news is old enough, yet it is every day’s news.”

After describing the immorality and injustice found in Vienna, Vincentio reflects that this is a timeless problem that has impacted all human societies. His dialogue employs a paradox, indicating that this “news” is both “old” and contemporary at the same time. Vincentio hints that the problem of civic governance faced by Vienna is not unique to that context, and that these same issues impact other times and places. Shakespeare therefore encourages the audience to reflect on if they encounter the same troubles in their own lives.

“Shame to him whose cruel striking

Kills for faults of his own liking!”

Vincentio ends his soliloquy, a speech delivered to the audience that reflects internal thoughts, with a rhyming couplet. The couplet creates a sense of finality and draws attention to this sentence as particularly important for the audience to understand. Vincentio concludes his speech by declaring the particularly strong distaste that he has for hypocritical governance, emphasizing that The Problem of Hypocrisy will play a significant role in resolving the conflict of the play.

“[M]usic oft hath such a charm

To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.”

When Vincentio meets with Mariana, she is using music to comfort herself. He uses a rhyming couplet to remind her that music is another force that can have ironic or paradoxical consequences upon human nature. While music can turn a bad situation into good through its power to cheer people up, it can also provoke harmful behavior by promoting excess and sensuality in otherwise good situations. This continues the idea of Earthly and Divine Justice, with earthly justice being unable to account for the inconsistencies of human nature.

“If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a

married man, he’s his wife’s head, and I can never

cut off a woman’s head.”

When he is recruited to be an executioner, Pompey the bawd quips that he can only execute unmarried men due to the bodily unity of a married couple. Pompey deliberately uses figures of speech, playing with language to absurdly suggest that the heads of a married couple should legally be considered the same head. While Pompey is a comedic character, his joke hints at the inconsistencies that language creates in the law. Since man and wife should legally be considered one entity, Pompey notes that this ought to logically make the execution of married men illegal.

“A lack, when once our grace we have forgot,

Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.”

In a soliloquy, Angelo privately muses on his struggle over Claudio’s execution. While he knows it is morally wrong to violate his bargain with Isabella, he fears retribution from Claudio once he is released. In a rhyming couplet, he expresses how his desires are all in conflict now that he has begun to sin, indicating how disorder and chaos only grows once begun. Angelo uses the term “grace,” a term referring both to salvation and commonly used when referring to a duke, allowing Shakespeare to subtly imply that Angelo has lost both his chance at salvation and his political authority as a stand-in for Vincentio.

“I should not think it strange; for ‘tis a physic

That’s bitter to sweet end.”

Isabella decides to trust Friar Lodowick’s promise that even if Angelo denies her public accusation, the duke will resolve the problem eventually. She uses the metaphor of “medicine,” suggesting that many curative substances have a bitter taste but a positive impact upon the body. This medical metaphor implies that political and moral corruption is like a disease and Vincentio is like a doctor who is trying to make his city healthy once again.

“Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak:

That Angelo’s forsworn; is it not strange?

That Angelo’s a murderer; is ‘t not strange?

That Angelo is an adulterous thief,

An hypocrite, a virgin-violator;

Is it not strange and strange?”

When Isabella finally makes her public accusation before Angelo and the duke, she uses rhetorical techniques such as an anaphora, a device where a speaker repeats the same phrase at the beginning or end of multiple sentences in order to emphasize it. By repeating the phrase “is it not strange?” at the end of each accusation, Isabella points out how outlandish her claims are given Angelo’s upstanding reputation. Nevertheless, by calling attention to the unusual nature of her accusation, she increases her credibility by demonstrating that she is aware of how different Angelo’s private behavior has been to his public behavior, invoking The Problem of Hypocrisy.

“[T]he duke

Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he

Dare rack his own: his subject am I not,

Nor here provincial.”

Vincentio, in disguise as Friar Lodowick, employs dramatic irony when he claims not to be a subject of the duke. Since he is the duke, his words are technically true; however, they sound extremely proud and potentially seditious to his listeners. Through this quote, Shakespeare reminds the audience of how truth can be obscured by appearances and reputation.

“Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;

Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure.”

Once Vincentio has revealed his identity, he proclaims that he will enact justice that is suitable and proportional to the offense. This quote contains the title of the play but is also an allusion to the bible. Matthew 7:2 includes this condemnation of hypocrisy: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” By alluding to this bible verse, Vincentio reveals his intention to judge Angelo using the harsh punishments he enacted against Claudio.

“Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well.”

After Mariana and Isabella request mercy for Angelo, Vincentio delivers a quip that suggests the irony of the situation. While Angelo has done evil deeds that impacted both Mariana and Isabella, they have just saved his life. “Quits” means “repays” in this context, showing that Angelo’s evil was strangely repaid with mercy rather than equal evil due to The Miraculous Nature of Mercy.