Airy tongues, that syllable men’s names
--Comus 206
The word “authority” occurs more often in Measure for Measure than in any other Shakespeare play,
and we cannot go far amiss if we consider the play, in its universal sense, as a study of authority -- the
dangers, limitations, possibilities and, ultimately – necessity for authority. In affirming the necessity of
authority as an ineluctable element in the human condition, Measure also warns against authority’s tendency
to become rigid and ossified through adherence to the dead letter of tradition, forgetting the reasoned
inspiration which is authority’s fountain and source of self-renewing correction. Isabella’s speech
…man, proud man,
Dress’d in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d,
(2.2.118-120)
 |