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Summary: Act 5, Scene 1 (First Half)
The Duke, no longer in disguise, greets Angelo and Escalus at the city gates and thanks them. Friar Peter enters with Isabella and tells her to speak to the Duke. She begs him for justice. The Duke tells her to state her complaint briefly to Angelo. Isabella says that she cannot ask Angelo for help because he is evil. She wants to speak to the Duke directly. Angelo interrupts, trying to tell the story himself, but Isabella continues, calling Angelo a murderer, hypocrite, “adulterous thief,” and “virgin-violator” (5.1.45, 56). The Duke tries to send her away, calling her insane.
Isabella asks the Duke to reconsider, arguing that even someone who seems noble, like Angelo, can actually be bad. Isabella urges him to see reason, and the Duke asks her to tell her story. She begins by recounting how her brother was sentenced to death for fornication and how Lucio urged her to ask Angelo for his pardon. Lucio verifies this, but the Duke tells him not to speak. Isabella goes on to say that Angelo asked her to have sexual intercourse with him in exchange for her brother’s life. She says that she obeyed, but that Angelo sent the warrant for Claudio’s execution anyway. The Duke says he doesn’t believe her, claiming it is illogical that Angelo should have acted in such a way. He asks Isabella to confess that she is lying, and to name the person who sent her. Upon threat of imprisonment, Isabella names Friad Lodowick.
The Duke asks if anyone knows this friar, and Lucio says that he knows him but does not like him. Lucio then accuses the friar of slander against the Duke and claims to have silenced him. Friar Peter then comes forth and declares that Isabella is lying. The Duke asks him if he knows Friar Lodowick. Peter says that he does know him, and that Lodowick is a good man who has never said anything bad against the Duke. He says that Lodowick is sick and has sent him in his place. He is meant to share Lodowick’s knowledge, beginning with the fact that Isabella is lying. Guards lead Isabella away, and Mariana enters, veiled, as a witness.
The Duke asks Mariana to show her face before testifying, but she says she will not lift her veil until her husband instructs her to. He asks if she is married, and she says no. He asks if she is a maid or a widow, and she again says no. Confused, the Duke asks Mariana to explain. She tells him that she has had intercourse with her husband, though he does not know it, and therefore is not a maid. The Duke says that her testimony is irrelevant to Angelo’s case, but she names Angelo as the husband she is speaking of. Angelo denies it and asks to see her face. Mariana lifts her veil. The Duke asks if Angelo knows her, and Angelo confesses that he was engaged to her five years before. He swears that he has not seen her since. Mariana explains that they had sexual intercourse on Tuesday night. Angelo objects again, saying that both women are crazy and being exploited by some other person.
The Duke sends for the other friar. Friar Peter tells him that the Provost knows where he is, so the Duke sends Friar Peter to find him. The Duke then leaves, telling Escalus to continue listening to testimony on his behalf.
Escalus calls for Isabella, saying that he wants to question her himself. Lucio advises him to question her in private, suggesting that she might be ashamed to speak the truth in public. Escalus attempts to coerce the truth out of Isabella by telling her that someone has denied what she said. But then the Duke enters, disguised as Friar Lodowick, and Escalus begins to question him instead. Escalus asks him if he sent Isabella and Mariana to slander Angelo. The “Friar” says no and asks to see the Duke. Escalus says that the Duke has given him free reign, and he threatens to torture the “Friar.”
At this point, Angelo asks Lucio to testify against the “Friar.” Lucio again claims that he heard the “Friar” slander the Duke. The “Friar” argues that it was in fact Lucio who insulted the Duke, whereas the “Friar” loves the Duke as much as he loves himself. Escalus tries to send the “Friar” off to prison, but the “Friar” commands the Provost not to obey. Lucio pulls the “Friar’s” hood off, revealing the Duke beneath.
Analysis: Act 5, Scene 1 (First Half)
Act 5 of Measure for Measure consists of a single, very long scene in which the Duke’s elaborate plot finally begins to play out. This performance generally seems to go quite well, with all the actors showing up in the proper places at the proper time. The first performer to take the stage is Isabella, who bravely approaches the Duke and states her case against Angelo. Significantly, Isabella doesn’t know she’s a performer in the Duke’s play. Though she was involved in the plot to trick Angelo, she really believes that her brother Claudio has been executed. The Duke led her to believe as much in the previous act, and one of the reasons for his deceptions no doubt had to do with this very moment. As long as Isabella believed that Claudio was truly dead, then she would make her public complaint against Angelo with a genuine emotional force that she otherwise wouldn’t have been able to feign. Yet whereas Isabella’s performance goes off without a hitch, Lucio’s presence in the scene constantly threatens to undermine the Duke’s plot. Lucio can’t help but interrupt the proceedings, injecting disruptive lies that irritate the Duke.
The events of act 5 offer a simulacrum of a court scene, creating something like a play within a play. The Duke’s elaborate plotting has essentially resulted in a public trial meant to identify crimes and dole out punishments. In this way, the Duke, acting as judge, brings to a head the key themes of the play related to the proper relationship between crime and punishment. To act out the standard procedures of a court of law, the Duke calls on witnesses, asks for their testimony, and cross-examines them. Yet the scene is also a comic travesty of the law, in the sense that the proceedings prove somewhat chaotic, with constant interruptions and a notable lack of cool neutrality on the part of the Duke. For instance, he’s quick to dismiss Isabella as insane, expressing an immovable belief in Angelo’s moral probity. Of course, this maneuver is itself feigned, and merely part of the Duke’s larger plan to develop tension. Just like in a real play, he wants the rising action to build to a fever pitch so that the climax will feel that much more cathartic.
The Duke builds to this climax by maneuvering toward the key moment where the “real” truth of the scene is finally unveiled. But to unveil the truth of Angelo’s hypocrisy, the Duke must first reveal the truth of his disguise as Friar Lodowick. Hence, he absents himself from the scene, vesting the judge Escalus with authority while he’s away. In a comic recapitulation of Angelo, Escalus immediately makes use of his authority to summon and interrogate Isabella. But before he can take his newfound authority too far, the Duke returns as the “Friar” and causes up a new stir. It’s at this point that Lucio’s disruptive presence suits the scene. The “Friar’s” testimony in the public trial implicates Lucio and agitates the man, such that when Escalus calls for the “Friar” to be unhooded, it is Lucio who grapples with him and tears away his cowl, finally revealing the disguised Duke. This moment marks a climactic moment in the scene, and in addition to foreshadowing Claudio’s unveiling in the scene’s second half, it also initiates the revelation of Angelo’s crimes.
