The Experiment ‘Takes’

Abstract

Drama can be just as free with time as the novel, and the transition between the first and second scenes makes clear that Angelo’s doubts and scruples are shortlived. Time is here so compressed that Angelo has hardly spoken of the uncertainty he feels, and left, than we hear of his first victim. It is the procuress Mistress Overdone who speaks of the specific arrest of Claudio for getting Juliet pregnant, and of the general proclamation about the demolition of brothels. Soon afterwards, we see Claudio being led off to prison. Part of his response is self-condemnation, as we see in his self-description as a rat which has gulped down poison. Yet, he seems reluctant to concede that what he has done is merely ‘lechery’, and he embarks on a description of Angelo’s new measures which is notable for its rational and balanced sense of injustice. What he implies is that Angelo is a new broom, with a little too much enthusiasm for sweeping clean. The reason, Claudio thinks, might be ‘the fault and glimpse of newness’ (the sheer novelty of power), or that Angelo, newly in the saddle of office, wants to let the horse ‘straight feel the spur’ (the need to show who’s boss), or possibly ‘for a name’ (to enhance his reputation). Either way, Angelo has immediately, and completely on his own initiative, revived all the mouldy laws, so long neglected, and Claudio is the one chosen as an example.