In conversation with a small group composed of ordinary citizens of Vienna, Lucio alludes to the Ten Commandments in a simile that also compares the First Gentleman and Second Gentleman to pirates:
Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that
went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped
one out of the table.
Earlier, the assembled Viennese gentlemen claimed that they wish for peace, but nevertheless hope that the Duke will go to war with the King of Hungary, considered by many in the city to be a dangerous enemy. Lucio responds by suggesting that they are hypocrites for pretending to value peace while in fact clamoring for war. In a simile, he compares them to a “sanctimonious pirate,” or in other words, a criminal who nevertheless makes a show of being morally superior to others. Further, Lucio alludes to the Ten Commandments, a set of principles considered central to Christian ethics. In describing them as having “scraped” one of the Commandments away, Lucio suggests that the First and Second Gentlemen put up a pious facade but ignore any moral principles that are inconvenient. More specifically, he suggests that they have ignored the commandment not to steal, as soldiers in this time often looted a defeated city or kingdom, returning home with the spoils of war.
The Duke uses a simile that compares the leader of a nation to a father when reflecting upon his own past decisions as the head of Vienna.
Now, as fond fathers,
Having bound up the threat’ning twigs of birch
Only to stick it in their children’s sight
For terror, not to use—in time the rod
More mocked than feared—so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead,
And liberty plucks justice by the nose,
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.
The paternal simile used by the Duke implies that he had previously “spoiled” his subjects by too often failing to carry out his own threats to punish poor behavior. Much as children might “mock” rather than “fear” a father who wields some “threat’ning twigs of birch” to scare them but never actually carries out the threat, so too have his citizens come to think of the laws of Vienna as empty threats. Completing this simile, the Duke imagines a baby who “beats the nurse” because it has never had any reason to fear punishment. The Duke, then, uses the structure of the family as a model for understanding the state. He feels that he must act like a father to his subjects, encouraging positive behavior by maintaining household discipline.
After attempting to convince Angelo to spare her brother from execution, Isabella reports back to Claudio’s friend Lucio. In her speech, she uses a simile that critically compares Angelo to an “angry ape”:
But man, proud man,
Dressed 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 makes the angels weep, who with our spleens
Would all themselves laugh mortal.
After characterizing him as a “proud” and “ignorant” man who has let power go to his head, Isabella further describes him as being “like an angry ape” who plays “fantastic tricks” with his new authority. Isabella’s simile not only suggests that Angelo is operating with an unreasonable fury, but also that he “apes” or poorly imitates God in his rule over the city.
Her simile, then, implies that Angelo lacks Christian humility and that his moral zeal is in fact deeply impious. Though Angelo might think that he is operating in a Christian manner in strictly enforcing the law, Isabella disagrees, suggesting that the angels “weep” to see his abuse of power. This passage is one of many points in the play at which two different visions of Christian virtue are opposed to each other.
After Duke Vincentio reveals Angelo’s many crimes, the guilt-ridden Angelo uses a simile that compares the Duke’s seemingly impossible knowledge of the truth to “power divine":
O my dread lord,
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness
To think I can be undiscernible,
When I perceive your Grace, like power divine,
Hath looked upon my passes
Angelo is shocked to discover that his deceptions have been uncovered by the Duke, who was seemingly away from Vienna for much of the play. Distressed, he confesses his guilt immediately, and acknowledges that he was foolish for having thought that he could hide the truth. In a simile, Angelo imagines the Duke as a godlike figure imbued with “power divine” who “hath looked upon” everything that has happened in Vienna since the beginning of the play, including Angelo’s many “passes,” or in other words, his abuses of power and violations of the law.
This simile, then, echoes earlier descriptions of Angelo as a false god or demigod who cannot compete with the true Duke. So too does this description of the Duke as having “power divine” highlight the Duke’s well-planned trap. To all observers, the Duke’s scheme to rescue Claudio, punish Angelo, and claim Isabella as his wife has been so effective that it seems to surpass human capacity.
