ANGELO
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.ESCALUS
Ay, but yet
Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,
Than fall, and bruise to death.
There's a lot of talk about the fact that everyone sins in this play and that everyone is guilty. For all the creepy church things and condemning portrayals of sketchy things within the church, there's a lot of gorgeous theology throughout that almost makes me weep. But Angelo's response to everyone being a sinner is JUSTICE not MERCY:
The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice, That justice seizes: what know the laws That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,
there's that word again... pregnant pregnant pregnant...
Escalus is not convinced though he let's Angleo take the reigns and his sentence stand, saying:
Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all! Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:
The conversation is interrupted by the clown chracters. We have Elbow enter who is a very Dogberry like character only I think he has many more malaprops and is quite possibly more ridiculous:
ELBOW
I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors. ANGELO
Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they? are they not malefactors?ELBOW
Is it? please your honour, I know not well what they are: but precise villains they are,Elbow not only has the malaprops working for his humor, but he provides this strange comic side story where his wife is likely whoring it up in Mistress Overdone's house and he is the one bringing his own cuckoldry to light without even realizing it. Plus, Elbow just has some damn funny words:
this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.
"naughty" is just FUNNY. right? how can you say that word without smiling or laughing. Go on. say it out loud. it may not work if you just read it.... i'll wait...
ok, moving on, Escalus warns Pompey that his trade as a pimp will do him no good and that they are going to crack down on all the letchery in town. Pompey's response:
POMPEY
If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten year together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more heads
This accusation is depressing and makes me wonder WHY so many men need the whores and just how broken sexuality is in this place (for that matter, here in this place and time as well....)
Escalus ends the scene bringing it back to Claudio and his own struggle with if Angelo's decision is right or not. You know, I REALLY love how many struggles to make a decision and feel good about it and how many quick turns between choices there are in this play.
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; Pardon is still the nurse of second woe: But yet,--poor Claudio! There is no remedy.
2.2
We begin the scene confirming that Claudio is sentenced to die soon and then move on to Juliet:
Provost
I crave your honour's pardon. What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet? She's very near her hour.ANGELO
Dispose of her
To some more fitter place, and that with speed.
Well, at least Angelo won't make her give birth in a cell like Leontes (We'll get there... DEAR GOD I LOVE THE WINTER'S TALE!!!) Then Isabelle enters the scene. I think it's important to remember when reading all the lines in this scene that Angelo and Isabella have 2 other people onstage with them as an audience to their actions, so just keep that in mind.
There is a vice that most I do abhor,
And most desire should meet the blow of justice;
For which I would not plead, but that I must;
For which I must not plead, but that I am
At war 'twixt will and will not.
Right off the bat we see Isabella's rehtorical prowess as well as her discomfort with being open about sexuality considering she can't even say the name of the vice she abhors so much. From there, she moves to the classic Christian apologetic of hate the sin not the sinner:
I have a brother is condemn'd to die: I do beseech you, let it be his fault, And not my brother.
Now we get into some of the really wonderful stuff about grace and mercy. Personally, I think Isabella puts Portia's speeches on the subject to shame, but i'm getting ahead of myself again...
ISABELLA
Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,
And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.ANGELO
I will not do't.ISABELLA
But can you, if you would?ANGELO
Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.
There is something histerical about Angelo completely losing this rhetorical battle and also incredibly frustrating that his only response thus far is I don't want to so I can't. LaLaLaLaLa...
And so Isabella comes back with even more beautiful words about mercy:
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
wow. There's another poster for you. Perhaps I will hone my crafting skills and together with my fellow artists we can create a Shakespearean etsy shop that will have more than the dozen or so incredibly predictable quotes I see everywhere because that one is an amazing one...
ANGELO
Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words.ISABELLA
Alas, alas!
Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once;
And He that might the vantage best have took
Found out the remedy. How would you be,
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.
But Angelo doesn't like the beautiful promise of mercy. He is much more into justice:
The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept:
Those many had not dared to do that evil,
If the first that did the edict infringe
Had answer'd for his deed:
...
ISABELLA
Yet show some pity.ANGELO
I show it most of all when I show justice;
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;
And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
But Isabella is not satisfied. and now she gets angry:
O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
Keep going!
but man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep
This play is stirring up a lot of frustration with the US political scene right now about justice and mercy and how STUPID people seem to become the moment they are given a little power and only want to yell at each other and look good for themselves instead of doing ANYTHING useful. Yeah, I'm looking at you BOTH SIDES OF CONGRESS. But back to the play- Isabella seriously hits a nerve with this next line that get's Angelo to break into an aside:
Go to your bosom;
Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault: if it confess
A natural guiltiness such as is his,
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother's life.
ANGELO
[Aside] She speaks, and 'tis Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. Fare you well.ISABELLA
Gentle my lord, turn back.ANGELO
I will bethink me: come again tomorrow.So Isabella thinks his aside is him no longer listening, then finds that he is considering what she says. Perfect moment for an actor to do a quick term based on looking at and listening to their scene partner. After that Isabella almost slips up everything due to simple miscommunication:
ISABELLA
Hark how I'll bribe you: good my lord, turn back.ANGELO
How! bribe me?ISABELLA
Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.
now THAT is a perfect moment for Angelo to have the same huge reversals in his face/intentions that Isabella just did. from WHAT IS THIS LADY GOING TO BRIBE ME WITH?! I know what she can bribe me with! to--- oh, seriously?! with prayers?! dear lord this is just making things worse and worse.... and as everyone else leaves the room we get Angelo's well known monologue:
What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine? The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?
Ah yes. Let's get into this topic- because people still use this logic right? She was asking for it. She provoked it by dressing this way. it's the "tempter's" fault not the "tempted" but Shakespeare doesn't let you shut down the problem he's posing in this play because the woman, in this case, is a freakin nun. and even angelo admits it:
Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I
I had originally commented on almost every line in this speech but you should really just check it out for yourself. It's worth the study and the time.
2.3
OK, so time to move from Angelo back to the Duke, who remember is dressed up as a priest. But is dressing like one enough for him? no... things are about to get a lot more Blasphemous....
DUKE VINCENTIO
Bound by my charity and my blest order,
I come to visit the afflicted spirits
Here in the prison. Do me the common right
To let me see them and to make me know
The nature of their crimes, that I may minister
To them accordingly.
So.... dude wants in on the sacred right of confession. This is the point where most of the rooting for or sympathy I might have done/had for the duke goes out the window. Luckily, Claudio's baby mama can step with this fake priest.
DUKE VINCENTIO
Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?JULIET
I do; and bear the shame most patiently.c
DUKE VINCENTIO
Love you the man that wrong'd you?JULIET
Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him.
So the woman condemned and slut shamed understands the basic principle of marriage and the standard of christian love. loving someone as you love yourself. This is not some stupid helpless woman. It's a beautifully complicated situation because again, the couple that seem to be closest to a healthy sexual relationship get tossed about and abused in this messed up little society... Then there's this:
JULIET
I do confess it, and repent it, father.DUKE VINCENTIO
'Tis meet so, daughter: but lest you do repent,
As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,
Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not heaven,
Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it,
But as we stand in fear,--JULIET
I do repent me, as it is an evil, And take the shame with joy.
So when the Duke accuses Juliet of being more sorry she got caught than sorry, Juliet reiterates that she is sorry she had sex before the official marriage, but takes the "shame" or her pregnancy with joy. Which is the what the church and its ministers should respond with to any child. Joy. She just out theologied mr. fake-o priest. And since the Duke knows he's been beat, all he can do is be a jerk, deliver bad news to Juliet, and run away:
There rest.
Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,
And I am going with instruction to him.
Grace go with you, Benedicite!
2.4
Now back to Angelo and Isabella:
ISABELLA
I am come to know your pleasure.ANGELO
That you might know it, would much better please me
Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live.ISABELLA
Even so. Heaven keep your honour!ANGELO
Yet may he live awhileIt's so strange to me that after she gained so much ground at their last meeting that Isabella wants to leave so promptly this time. Perhaps she intuitively knows something weird is going on. and creepy times start up right away as Angelo poses this scenario:
Which had you rather, that the most just law
Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,
Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness
As she that he hath stain'd?
"such sweet uncleanness"- there's a line that somehow manages to sound sexy and creeptastic to the point of wanting to get away as soon as possible all at once... Isabella responds as if this were a theoretical question and answers religiously:
Sir, believe this, I had rather give my body than my soul.
Isabella tries to play the theological/catechism like card again either out of discomfort or totally not getting that these were not theoreticals and then angelo calls her on it:
ISABELLA
That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
Heaven let me bear it! you granting of my suit,
If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer
To have it added to the faults of mine,
And nothing of your answer.
ANGELO
Nay, but hear me.
Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant,
Or seem so craftily; and that's not good.
the That's not good is comic gold because it can mean both not good in that she is lying about not understanding as well as not good b/c she is smart enough to play dumb, and a smart woman is always dangerous, right?
So Angelo puts it even more bluntly so Isabella can't shrug the question off:
No earthly mean to save him, but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this supposed, or else to let him suffer;
What would you do?
ISABELLA
As much for my poor brother as myself:
That is, were I under the terms of death,
The impression of keen whips I'ld wear as rubies,
And strip myself to death, as to a bed T
hat longing have been sick for, ere I'ld yield
My body up to shame.
ANGELO
Then must your brother die.First of all, that description from isabella is intense. and some like to joke that clearly she's not quite ready to be a nun with all that talks of whips and stripping and beds.... but I think the language is very common with some of the writers of medieval mysticism
Isabella continues to reject Angelo's advances and then we get some talk about how women are:
Women! Help Heaven! men their creation mar In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail; For we are soft as our complexions are, And credulous to false prints.
... Angelo resopnds with:
Be that you are,
That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;
If you be one, as you are well express'd
By all external warrants, show it now,
By putting on the destined livery.
So... a woman's place is to have sex with men and make babies, that's a defining characteristic according to angelo, but we're going to just shame and punish them for it... super... well, isabella is pretty much done with this conversation:
ISABELLA
Ha! little honour to be much believed,
And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming!
I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:
Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world aloud
What man thou art.
And Angelo answer's with the chilling and simple comeback:
ANGELO
Who will believe thee, Isabel?
Oh man. that just kills me. See: Steubenville rape case and almost every other case of rape, harassment, and misconduct you can think of where we have created a culture of not believing the victims.
Angelo repeats his ultimatum and leaves and now isabella is the one with a soliloquy where she assures herself she has made the right choice and that her brother will understand:
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour.
That, had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'ld yield them up,
...Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:
More than our brother is our chastity.
I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.
In graduate school, Prof. Cohen talked about how Isabella is clearly sexually disturbed in some way if she can't see that sleeping with someone to save someone else's life should not be that hard a choice/ implied that she is making a mistake by choosing what she does. And I wish I'd been as passionate and confident then to speak up about how much I don't think that's true. and i'd love to have that conversation at more length with any of you, though preferably in a more one on mode form of communication than just blogging.
whew, that's act 2. this play has SO MUCH GOING ON.
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