During a bit of an aside in yesterday's post, I mentioned that it's my conviction that teachers, like governments should not go in for indoctrination. This reminded me of some of the remarkable scenes from Measure for Measure (2.2) in which Angelo and Isabella debate the nature of justice. I doubt that there's ever been a more concise and wise dictum regarding the role of authority than Isabella saying: "O it is excellent to have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant." These scenes should be required reading for anyone even considering taking on a position that involves holding power over others.

Measure for Measure, and not Hamlet, contains the most memorable and frightening description of death in Shakespeare. (This is not to say that it considers death from as many angles as Hamlet. Nothing does.) The words are Claudio's. He is a young man in prison and awaiting a death sentence for the crime of adultery - in this case, for being the father of a child out of wedlock because the marriage didn't precede conception. The law is a new one in a recently morally tyrannical Vienna, and the person in charge of upholding it, Angelo, is a novice in his position. He was put there by the Duke Vicentio for reasons that become clarified, somewhat anyway, later in the play. Claudio's sister, Isabella, is studying toward becoming a nun at the beginning of the play, but she comes to her brother's defense when she hears of his situation. He asks her to plead for his life with Angelo. She does so, very eloquently, and Angelo is greatly moved. But he doesn't relent. Neither does Isabella, and eventually Angelo becomes smitten. He finally makes an offer that is, of course, rich in irony: Her brother can go free if she'll sleep with him. Horrified, she refuses and returns to Claudio with the bad news that nothing can be done. But gradually (she's too ashamed to say it right out), he becomes aware of Angelo's proposition. And his thinking goes from something like, "Yes, of course, you're right..." to "Can we at least talk about this?" Here is the passage:

ISABELLA

What says my brother?

CLAUDIO

Death is a fearful thing.

ISABELLA

And shamed life a hateful.

CLAUDIO

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,

And blown with restless violence round about

The pendent world; or to be worse than worst

Of those that lawless and incertain thought

Imagine howling: 'tis too horrible!

The weariest and most loathed worldly life

That age, ache, penury and imprisonment

Can lay on nature is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

(3.1)

Just the phrase "to lie in cold obstruction and to rot" is enough to terrify. So what happens? Read and/or see the play, and all will be revealed.