In explaining his desire to step away from his role as leader of Vienna, Duke Vincentio speaks ironically about his distaste for stages and audiences:
I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes:
Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause and Aves vehement;
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion
That does affect it.
Though he insists that he loves “the people” of Vienna, he does not like to “stage” himself “to their eyes,” or to stand before an audience to be looked upon. He acknowledges that this is an important part of his role as Duke, but nonetheless claims that he does not “relish well / Their loud applause.” Further, he states that those who do like to be the center of attention are untrustworthy.
The Duke’s speech, then, is one of Shakespeare’s many ironic references in his plays to the theater itself. Unlike the Duke, the audience is aware that he is in fact a character written for the stage, and that the disdain he feels for theatrics is being expressed on a stage. The comedy of this scene, then, stems from the fact that an actor is criticizing his own profession in the voice of a character.
Lucio uses a series of closely related metaphors to describe the unsympathetic nature of Vienna’s new leader, Angelo:
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.
Lucio insists that Angelo’s blood “[i]s very snow-broth,” frozen water rather than warm blood. Further, he metaphorically suggests that Angelo “never feels / The wanton stings and motions of the sense,” but is rather completely unresponsive to pain and discomfort. These metaphors characterize Angelo as someone who is not quite fully human, never experiencing human desires or pains, and who is therefore unable to sympathize with others, or govern fairly. Instead, Lucio imagines Angelo as a cold, robotic figure, wholly invested in “profits of the mind” without any of the vulnerabilities that are “natural” to bodies.
Though Lucio does not realize this, his criticism of Angelo is deeply ironic. Angelo will soon prove to be very much vulnerable to his own bodily desires, and he violates his own moral code out of lust for Claudio’s sister, Isabella, despite his claims to piety.
In refusing Isabella’s pleas for clemency for her brother, Claudio, Angelo condemns those who engage in sex outside of marriage. This speech is ironic given his own feelings of lust for Isabella, who is a novice nun barred from marriage.
Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
To pardon him that hath from nature stolen
A man already made, as to remit
Their saucy sweetness that do coin God’s image
In stamps that are forbid.
Angelo’s speech exemplifies dramatic irony. Though most of the citizens of Vienna consider Angelo to be a harsh and punitive moralist, the audience knows that he is consumed with desire for Isabella, as revealed in a soliloquy. He condemns the “filthy vices” of those who submit to lust, and he does so while simultaneously attempting to seduce Isabella, despite the vow of chastity that she has taken as a novice nun. This gap in knowledge between the audience and Isabella contributes to the tension of this scene, as Isabella repeatedly fails to discern what Angelo wants from her, and mistakenly believes that he desires for her to pray on his behalf. The audience, however, understands that Angelo is deeply attracted to Isabella, and registers the threat of sexual coercion that punctuates Angelo’s speech.
Though Measure for Measure is not a comedy, many of its comedic scenes are dependent upon dramatic irony. Though characters believe they are speaking to a visiting friar, the audience understands that they are speaking to the Duke in disguise. In some of the play’s funniest moments, characters speak to the Duke about the Duke himself. In one scene, for example, Isabella tells the “Friar” that she wishes she could speak directly to the Duke about Angelo’s behavior:
ISABELLA
But, O, how much is the good
duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I
can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or
discover his government.DUKE [as Friar]
That shall not be much amiss.
Here, Isabella echoes the sentiments of many of the Viennese citizens in the play in insisting that the Duke was a better leader than the strict and unsympathetic Angelo. She argues that if the Duke were present, he would immediately set right the various wrongs committed by Angelo in his absence, saving the life of her brother. The Duke, unable to expose his own false identity, merely tells her that it would be a good idea to tell the Duke about her plight. This scene, suffused with dramatic irony, highlights the Duke’s control over the events of the plot. By assuming a disguise as a friar, he is able to get a closer look at what is happening in Vienna, while also retaining the authority he wields as Duke when necessary.
In a scene punctuated with dramatic irony, Lucio falsely pretends to be close friends with the Duke in conversation with the Duke himself, who is here disguised as a friar so that he can more closely observe the citizens of his city:
DUKE, as Friar
I never heard the absent duke much
detected for women. He was not inclined that way.LUCIO
O, sir, you are deceived.DUKE, as Friar
’Tis not possible.LUCIO
Who, not the Duke? Yes, your beggar of fifty;
and his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish. The
Duke had crotchets in him. He would be drunk too,
that let me inform you.DUKE, as Friar
You do him wrong, surely.LUCIO
Sir, I was an inward of his.
The comic potential of the scene stems from Lucio’s lack of awareness that he is speaking with the Duke himself, and further, telling several lies about the Duke in the process. Both the audience and the Duke, however, understand that Lucio is attempting to elevate his own position by claiming to be an “inward,” or close companion, of the far more important man. This scene emphasizes both the deceptive nature of Lucio, but also the ease with which false gossip and rumors spread.
