Escalus then tells us of the Duke's temperament in words which would fit Hamlet perfectly; for, curiously enough, they furnish us with the best description of Shakespeare's melancholy:
“Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at
anything which professed to make him rejoice.”
And, lastly, the curious rhymed soliloquy of Vincentio which closes this third act, must be compared with the epilogue to “The Tempest”:
“He who the sword of Heaven will bear
Should be as holy as severe;
Pattern in himself to know,
Grace to stand and virtue go;”
- - - - - - - - - -
“Shame to him whose cruel striking
Kills for faults of his own liking!
Twice treble shame on Angelo,
To weed my vice and let his grow!”
- - - - - - - - - -
In the fifth act the Duke, freed from making plots and plans, speaks without constraint and reveals his nature ingenuously. He uses words to Angelo that recall the sonnets:
“O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it,
To lock it in the wards of covered bosom,
When it deserves, with characters of brass,
A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time
And razure of oblivion."{1}
{Footnote 1: Cf. Sonnet 122 with its “full character'd” and “razed oblivion."}
Again, the Duke argues in gentle Shakespeare's fashion for Angelo and against Isabella:
“If he had so offended,
He would have weighed thy brother by himself
And not have cut him off.”
It seems impossible for Shakespeare to believe that the sinner can punish sin. It reminds one of the sacred “he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone.” The detections and forgivings of the last act follow.