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Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs Lord Angelo, a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind: study and fast. (1.4.59–65)
With these words, Lucio draws a portrait of Angelo for Isabella, whose brother this man has just arrested and sentenced to death. According to Lucio’s account, “Lord Angelo” is a cold-blooded man who lives strictly through reason and his staunch commitment to the law. Having never felt “the wanton stings and motions of the sense,” Angelo is barely human. Indeed, he has apparently “blunt[ed] his natural edge,” denying the desires of the flesh by overemphasizing the “profits of the mind.” Though Lucio is the character in the play who most freely critiques Angelo’s cruel overreach of authority, it’s important to note that many other characters share his perspective. Even authority figures like Escalus and the Provost, both of whom believe in the righteousness of the law against fornication, consider Angelo’s prosecution of it unnecessarily merciless.
Redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will,
Or else he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To ling’ring sufferance. Answer me tomorrow,
Or by the affection that now guides me most,
I’ll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true. (2.4.177–81)
Angelo utters these words to Isabella, proposing that she should agree to have sex with him in exchange for her brother’s life. His language here is assertive, though significantly, he only arrives at this bold declaration after serving Isabella a coy series of hypothetical scenarios. These hypotheticals obscure the true nature of his desire, making it more difficult for Isabella to understand what he’s after. Thus, he finally endeavors to make his desire plain. In doing so, however, he also exposes his hypocrisy and his cruelty. Not only has he abused his authority in an effort to commit the very same crime for which he’s brutally punished others, but he’s also engaged in what we today would call sexual harassment.
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid,
And by an eminent body that enforced
The law against it. But that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no,
For my authority bears of a credent bulk
That no particular scandal once can touch
But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,
Save that his riotous youth with dangerous sense
Might in the times to come have ta’en revenge
By so receiving a dishonored life
With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived.
Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right. We would, and we would not. (4.4.22–36)
Angelo speaks this soliloquy after receiving word of the Duke’s return to Vienna. Alone onstage and wondering about the Duke’s enigmatic instructions to meet him at the city gate, Angelo reflects on the mess he’s created for himself. His reflections here echo earlier soliloquies where he’s grappled with the fact of his own hypocrisy. Here again he considers how he’s “deflowered [a] maid” despite being “an eminent body that enforced / The law against it.” Arguably, though, Angelo is less concerned about his personal offenses than he is about getting caught. He worries specifically that Isabella might “tongue” him by reporting his crimes. Yet this worry has only led him to further cruelty, emphasizing how his “authority bears of a credent bulk” that should render her too terrified to accuse him of anything. Here, too, Angelo’s words echo a previous scene where he warned Isabella that if she reports him it will result in a classic case of “he said/she said.” In the end, Angelo’s uneasy mix of worry and self-aggrandizement demonstrates that he does feel shame, but not enough to repent of his own volition.
