ENGL 2148 Chapter : Measure For Measure
Document Summary
The growing political and moral corruption of vienna is a great worry to its kindly, temperate ruler, duke. Fearing that reforms instituted by himself might seem too harsh for his people to accept without protest, he decides to appoint a deputy governor and to leave the country for a while. Angelo, a respected and intelligent city official, seems just the man for the job. The duke turns over the affairs of vienna to angelo for a certain length of time and appoints escalus, a trustworthy old official, to be second in command. The duke then pretends to leave for poland. In reality, he disguises himself as a friar and returns to the city to watch the outcome of angelo"s reforms. Angelo"s first act is to imprison claudio, a young nobleman who got his betrothed, juliet, pregnant. Under an old statute, now revived, claudio"s offense is punishable by death.
