FRIAR PETER

Duke Vincentio appoints Angelo as his deputy during his absence from Vienna, but arranges to remain in the city disguised as a friar. He explains to Friar Thomas, who helps with the disguise, that his objective is the restoration of the strict penal laws against sexual immorality which he has allowed to slip; Angelo, famous for his rectitude, will be able to effect this without risk of personal censure. But the Duke is also interested in how Angelo himself will respond to the challenges and temptations of power. Angelo does as expected, enforcing the laws which make begetting a child out of wedlock a capital crime. Claudio is arrested: he has made his fiancée Julietta pregnant, having been unable to have their marriage publicly solemnized because her family disapproves and would withhold her dowry. Claudio asks his friend Lucio to get his sister Isabella, who is about to enter a nunnery, to intercede with Angelo on his behalf. Isabella goes to see Angelo, who initially rejects her pleas, but then defers a decision and asks to see her again. At the second meeting, he offers her a bargain: Claudio’s life will be spared in exchange for sex with her. When he learns of the proposal, Claudio is torn between honour and fear, but finally urges Isabella to accept; she is chastely unwilling to do so. The Duke overhears their conversation, enjoins Claudio to prepare himself for death, and offers Isabella an option. Angelo was engaged to marry Mariana, but jilted her after her dowry was lost at sea. As the Duke suggests, Isabella consents to sex with Angelo, but briefly and in darkness; Mariana then takes her place for the act itself, preserving Isabella’s chastity. Angelo, however, sends a message to the prison reinforcing the execution order and demanding that Claudio’s head be sent by way of proof. There is another prisoner under sentence of death, Barnardine, so the Duke proposes beheading him in Claudio’s place; but Barnardine is drunk and would therefore be damned if executed now. Luckily a third prisoner has just died of a fever, and his head is sent to Angelo as Claudio’s; Claudio himself is hidden in the prison pending the Duke’s return, and Isabella told that he has been executed. The Duke sends Angelo orders concerning his return: Angelo is to meet him at the city gates to give up his commission, and any grievances against him will be dealt with there. Isabella duly sues for justice, but the Duke refuses to believe her story, citing Angelo’s reputation for…