How we cite our quotes:
Quote #1
VINDICE
Sister, y'have sentenced most direct, and true;
The law's a woman, and would she were you.(1.1.122-123)
Here Vindice is responding to Castiza's exclamation that Junior deserves to die for raping Antonio's wife. A lot of the time this play gives men the power in matters of justice, judgment, and revenge, but sometimes it says the law itself is a woman. Does that metaphor give women more power in the system than we would otherwise expect?
Quote #2
1 JUDGE
That lady's name has spread such a fair wing
Over all Italy, that if our tongues
Were sparing toward the fact, judgement itself
Would be condemned and suffer in men's thoughts.(1.2.60-63)
It's a tough job, but somebody has do it. This judge sees his responsibility in a particular case as linked to everyone's view of judgment and justice itself. It sure underlines the weight of being a judge.
Quote #3
1 JUDGE
Your Grace must pardon us.
'Tis but the justice of the law.
Duchess. The law
Is grown more subtle than a woman should be.(1.2.75-78)
There it is again—the law is described as a woman. Too bad the Duchess is more interested in getting her son off the hook than in women's rights.
Quote #4
DUCHESS
One of his single words,
Would quite have freed my youngest, dearest son
From death or durance, and have made him walk
With bold foot upon the thorny law,
Whose prickles should bow under him.(1.2.114-118)
Did she just say that? Yep, she did. The Duchess really thinks that her son should be above the law. No class equality for her.
Quote #5
PIERO
My lord, what judgement follows the offender?ANTONIO
'Faith, none, my lord: it cools and is deferred.PIERO
Delay the doom for rape?ANTONIO
O you must note who 'tis should die.
The duchess' son, she'll look to be a saver […](1.4.53-58)
It's like in a western when you realize the corrupt sheriff is running everything. Justice is seriously out of whack in the Duke's lands, and other people know it. Whether it's right or not, you can see why vigilante heroes are springing up all over…
Quote #6
HIPPOLITO
Nay then, step forth thou bribeless officer. [Draws his sword.]
I bind you all in steel to bind you surely:
Here let your oaths meet, to be kept and paid,
Which else will stick like rust, and shame the blade.
Strengthen my vow, that if at the next sitting,
Judgement speak all in gold and spare the blood
Of such a serpent, e'en before their seats,
To let his soul out, which long since was found
Guilty in heaven.(1.4.59-67)
Here, Hippolito is exhorting Antonio and Piero to join him in avenging the rape of Antonio's wife. While Hippolito usually seems less revenge-obsessed than Vindice, here he takes the lead in committing to revenge, even though the offense isn't directly against him. Maybe revenge runs in the family.
Quote #7
DUKE
Oh take me not in sleep! I have great sins, I must have days,
Nay months, dear son, with penitential heaves
To lift 'em out, and not to die unclear.
O thou wilt kill me both in heaven and here!(2.3.11-14)
The Duke thinks Lussurioso wants to kill him, and he's hoping for time to atone for his sins. In the world of the play, it's pretty widely believed that people also face God's judgment after death, so people want time to get their sins in order in hopes of avoiding a terrible eternity.
Quote #8
DUKE
It well becomes that judge to nod at crimes,
That does commit greater himself and lives.
I may forgive a disobedient error,
That expect pardon for adultery
And in my old days am a youth in lust.
Many a beauty have I turned to poison
In the denial, covetous of all.
Age hot is like a monster to be seen:
My hairs are white, and yet my sins are green.(2.3.141-149)
Usually the Duke seems to be all villain, all the time, but there may be something real to his reflections here. Is he feeling badly about the women he's killed? He certainly seems to be realizing that while he's gotten old, his sins stay fresh.
Quote #9
VINDICE
Brother, place the torch here, that his affrighted eyeballs
May start into those hollows. Duke, dost know
Yon dreadful vizard? View it well, 'tis the skull
Of Gloriana whom thou poisonedst last.DUKE
Oh, 't'as poisoned me.(3.5.151-155)
This scene really is like a horror movie, but it's also a scene of vigilante judgment. The grim irony is that Vindice uses the Duke's ongoing faults to lure him into condemning himself. Vindice rubs salt in the wounds, but it's the Duke's continued lust that causes him to kiss the skull (thinking it's a living woman) and absorb the poison.
Quote #10
ANTONIO
Lay hands upon those villains!VINDICE
How? On us?ANTONIO
Bear 'em to speedy execution.VINDICE
Heart, wast not for your good, my lord?ANTONIO
My good? Away with 'em. Such an old man as he,
You that would murder him would murder me.(5.3.131-136)
The play ends with Vindice and Hippolito, who have been acting as vigilante judges, being judged. Is it tragic irony? Their just desserts? Both? We'll let you be the judge on this one.