How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line). Line numbers correspond to the Riverside edition.
Quote #1
DUKE
Hold, therefore, Angelo.
In our remove be thou at full ourself.
Mortality and mercy in Vienna
Live in thy tongue and heart. Old Escalus,
Though first in question, is thy secondary.
Take thy commission.
[…]
Your scope is as mine own,
So to enforce or qualify the laws
As to your soul seems good. (1.1.46-50; 70-72)
While the Duke is "out of town," Angelo, his deputy, has complete authority to uphold the laws of Vienna. Still, the Duke is also giving Angelo the power of flexibility – he can "enforce or qualify the laws" as he sees fit. In other words, the Duke is giving Angelo the freedom to hand down death sentences or to be merciful – it's up to Angelo, who should do what seems right in his "soul."
Quote #2
DUKE
We have strict statutes and most biting laws,
The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds,
Which for this nineteen years we have let slip,
Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave
That goes not out to prey. 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. (1.3.20-32)
The Duke admits that, for the past several years, he's allowed his unruly subjects to flout the laws of Vienna. What's interesting is that the Duke talks about his subjects as though they are horses that need to be reined in by "bits and curbs."
Then, in mid-speech, the Duke switches metaphors and compares himself to an over-indulgent father who merely threatens his children (subjects) with "the rod," but never actually punishes anyone with a spanking, so to speak.
What's even more interesting is how this passage sounds a lot like what Puritan extraordinaire Phillip Stubbes wrote in his famous pamphlet The Anatomy of Abuses (1587). Stubbes (who hated the theater and thought the government in England was too lax) complains that parents who don't punish their children are responsible for all of society's problems:
"Give a wild horse the liberty of the head never so little and he will run headlong to thine and his own destruction also. [...] So correct Children in their tender years."
Quote #3
DUKE
I do fear, too dreadful.
Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them
For what I bid them do; for we bid this be done
When evil deeds have their permissive pass
And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my
father,
I have on Angelo imposed the office,
Who may in th' ambush of my name strike home,
And yet my nature never in the fight
To do in slander. (1.3.37-47)
Hmm. The more we think about it, the more the Duke does seem to act like a wimpy parent. Here, he confesses that he's afraid of punishing his subjects who don't obey the laws of the land because it would make him a tyrant. So, he's going to let Angelo do all of his dirty work for him. Gee. We wonder how that will work out.
Quote #4
FIRST GENTLEMAN
Claudio to prison? 'Tis not so.
BAWD
Nay, but I know 'tis so. I saw him arrested, saw
him carried away; and, which is more, within these
three days his head to be chopped off. (1.2.63-66)
Angelo doesn't waste any time upholding the law, which says it's illegal for men and women to "fornicate" outside of marriage. When it becomes obvious that Claudio's fiancé is pregnant, Angelo sentences him to death. Is this a just or fair punishment? Does the crime measure up to the punishment? Should fornication even be a crime monitored by the government?
Quote #5
ISABELLA
'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in Earth. (2.4.52)
When Angelo says that fornication and murder are equally "filthy vices," Isabella notes that divine law forbids them both equally but, according to earthly law, murder is worse.
Although many sins are considered crimes in Vienna, Isabella's remark that the laws in "heaven" are at odds with the laws created by man "on earth" remind us that secular law and religious law aren't always compatible in Measure for Measure.
Quote #6
CLAUDIO
Thus can the demigod Authority
Make us pay down for our offense, by weight,
The words of heaven: on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just. (1.2.116-119)
When Claudio is being led to prison, he wonders at the way humans take it upon themselves to be administrators of God's "heaven[ly]" laws.
Quote #7
ISABELLA
How would you be
If He which is the top of judgment should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that,
And mercy then will breathe within your lips
Like man new-made. (2.2.99-103)
Here, Isabella echoes Christ's Sermon on the Mount: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with that judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure you meet, it shall be measured unto you again" (Matthew 7:1-2). In other words, don't be so quick to judge other people because nobody is perfect and everyone is subject to God's judgment.
When Angelo propositions Isabella two scenes later, we can see just how much this concept applies to the corrupt deputy.
Quote #8
ANGELO
Be you content, fair maid.
It is the law, not I, condemn your brother.
Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
It should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow. (2.2.104-107)
When Isabella pleads for Claudio's life, Angelo takes refuge behind the "law" and acts as though he has no choice in the matter when he says that "it is the law, not I" that condemns Claudio.
Still, we know this is a load of bull, because, back in the play's opening scene, Duke Vincentio gave Angelo permission to be flexible when handing down sentences. (See 1.1 above.)
Quote #9
DUKE
'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death.'
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR
MEASURE.—
Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested,
Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee
vantage.
We do condemn thee to the very block
Where Claudio stooped to death, and with like
haste.—
Away with him. (5.1.465-475)
When the Duke sentences Angelo to death for what he's done to Claudio and Isabella, he embraces a kind of "eye for an eye" system of justice that suggests Claudio's punishment should be equal to (measure with) the suffering he's caused.
Quote #10
ISABELLA
Let him not die. My brother had but justice,
In that he did the thing for which he died.
For Angelo,
His act did not o'ertake his bad intent,
And must be buried but as an intent
That perished by the way. Thoughts are no subjects,
Intents but merely thoughts. (5.1.513-519)
When Isabella kneels on the ground and begs for Angelo's life, her logic seems a bit off (she suggests that because Angelo never actually slept with her, he shouldn't be put to death). The problem with this is that Angelo has slept with Mariana, and he's not married to her, which is exactly what Claudio did with Juliet. In other words, Angelo and Claudio have committed the same crime. So why does Isabella think Angelo should be exempt from punishment and that Claudio's death sentence was "just"?
This passage also makes wonder about whether or not Angelo's pardon (by the Duke) was just. Is it fair that Angelo is made to marry his ex-fiancé but escapes with his life? Why is the Duke merciful toward Angelo?