but to some
starvation of the nature. Chastity may proceed from a meanness in the
mind, from coldness of the emotions, or from cowardice, at least as
often as from manly and cleanly thinking. Two kinds of chastity are set
at clash here. The one springs from a fire in the personality that
causes Isabella to think death better than contamination, and gives her
that whiteness of generosity which fills nunneries with living
sacrifice; the other comes from the niggardliness that makes Angelo jilt
Mariana rather than take her without a dower. Both are obsessions; both
exalt a part of life above life itself. Like other obsessions, they
come to grief in the presence of something real.

These two characters make the action. The play is concerned with the
difficulty of doing justice in a world of animals swayed by rumour. The
subject is one that occupied Shakespeare's mind throughout his creative
life. Wisdom begins in justice. But how can man be just, without the
understanding of God? Who is so faultless that he can sit in judgment on
another? Who so wise that he can see into the heart, weigh the act with
the temptation and strike the balance?

Sexual sin is the least of the sins in Dante. It is allied to love. It
is an image of regeneration. No sin is so common, none is more glibly
blamed. It is so easy to cry "treacherous," "base," and "immoral." But
who, while the heart beats, can call himself safe from the temptation to
this sin? It is mixed up with every generosity. It is a flood in the
heart and a blinding wave over the eyes. It is the thorn in the side
under the cloak of the beauty of youth. In Shakespeare's vision it is a
natural force, incident to youth, as April is incident to the year. The
young men live as though life were oil, and youth a bonfire to be burnt.
Life is always wasteful. Youth is life's test for manhood. The clown
finds in the prison a great company of the tested and rejected, calling
through the bars for alms. In spite of all this choice, another victim
is picked by tragical chance. Lucio, a butterfly of the brothel, a
dirtier soul than Claudio, is spared. Claudio is taken and condemned.
The beautiful, vain, high-blooded youth, so quick with life and glad of
the sun, is to lie in earth, at the bidding of one less full of April.

Angelo, the man whose want of sympathy condemns Claudio, is in the state
of security that precedes so much Shakespearean tragedy. He has received
the name of being more than