Introduction:-

Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or
1604. Originally published in the First Folio of 1623, where it was listed as a comedy, the play's
first recorded performance occurred in 1604. The play's main themes include justice, "morality
and mercy in Vienna", and the dichotomy between corruption and purity: "some rise by sin, and
some by virtue fall". Mercy and virtue prevail, as the play does not end tragically, with virtues
such as compassion and forgiveness being exercised at the end of the production. While the play
focuses on justice overall, the final scene illustrates that Shakespeare intended for moral justice
to temper strict civil justice: a number of the characters receive understanding and leniency,
instead of the harsh punishment to which they, according to the law, could have been sentenced.

Who is Lucio in Measure for Measure:-

Measure for Measure Lucio is a flip, light-minded young man, more interested in tossing off a
quip than in justice, friendship, or honesty. Although he comes to Claudio's assistance by making
his difficulties known to Isabella, he seems to enjoy his role as cheerleader when she makes her
plea to Angelo.

Characters of “Measure for Measure”:-

Vincentio: As the Duke of Vienna, Vincentio is an absolute ruler. However, he decides to
pretend to leave the city for Poland but remain in the disguise of a friar. He appoints Angelo, one
of his officers, to rule in his absense. Angelo is much firmer in his views of law enforcement
than the Duke, who recognizes that humans make mistakes and that a ruler cannot be just if he
condemns the people he rules for mistakes that he himself has made. As Friar Lodowick, the
Duke watches as Angelo rules.

Angelo: Angelo believes that the laws must be rigidly obeyed and that he is the model for good
behavior. Once in power, however, he abuses his position to bargain Claudio’s death sentence
with fornication with Isabella. When he has had sex with her, he reneges on his promise and
sends a death order to the prison.

Claudio: Isabella’s brother and a gentleman, Claudio is arrested and sentenced to death by
Angelo because Claudio has had sex with Juliet. The two are engaged but not yet married.
Although there is considerable agreement that the sentence is too harsh, Angelo will not yield.
When Isabella informs him that Angelo has offered to free Claudio if she will have sex with him,
Claudio at first argues that she should not; but then, even though he recognizes his own
weakness, he asks Isabella to save him.

Isabella: A resident of a convent, she is a figure of absolute virtue and purity. Though she
condemns her brother’s sin, she asks Angelo to spare him. When Angelo offers to do so only if
she will have sex with him, she is outraged and refuses. However, when her brother begs her to
accept Angelo’s offer, Isabella agrees to the Duke/Friar’s plan to have Mariana have sex with
Angelo while disguised as Isabella.

Juliet: A young woman about to be married to Claudio, Juliet is pregnant with his child as a
result of a moment of weakness that both she and Claudio acknowledge. She wishes that he be
saved so that they can be married and be parents to their child.

Mariana: At one time the fiancée of Angelo, Mariana lost her dowry as a result of a shipwreck,
and he broke the engagement. Despite how he’s treated her, Mariana is still deeply in love with
Angelo, and so she agrees to replace Isabella in the sexual encounter with Angelo in hopes that
he will have to marry her.

Escalus: Another official of the Duke, Escalus is very loyal to him and to Angelo as his
appointed substitute. He believes that laws must be enforced but that enforcement must be fair
and just. He does not agree with the condemnation of Claudio.

Provost: A government official serving in the jail, the Provost, like Angelo, believes in the strict
rule of law. However, like Escalus, he also does not feel that Claudio should be executed.
Without being disloyal, therefore, he supports the efforts to change Claudio’s sentence.

Pompey: A clown in the sense that that term is used in drama of this time, he works in the
brothel of Mistress Overdone. Another comic relief character, he does become involved in the
planned executions of Barnardine and Claudio.

Barnardine: A prisoner whose execution is planned at the same time as Claudio’s, Barnardine
expresses no remorse for his crimes. In order to fool Angelo, Barnardine’s head is to be delivered
to Angelo as that of Claudio. He is saved after the Duke/Friar realizes that Barnardine has not yet
repented his sins.

Lucio’s Character Analysis:-

A gentleman of birth who keeps company with pimps, bawds, and whores. Lucio is a flip, light-
minded young man, more interested in tossing off a quip than in justice, friendship, or honesty.
Although he comes to Claudio's assistance by making his difficulties known to Isabella, he
seems to enjoy his role as cheerleader when she makes her plea to Angelo. He blithely gives
evidence against Pompey and even testifies against Isabella in the final scene. An almost
conscienceless joker, he provides the audience with much humor in the form of slanders against
the duke, which he unwittingly addresses to the duke himself. Lucio's familiarity with the
characters of the underworld and society alike makes him an effective link, tying the plot and
subplot together.

 Lucio as a lecher
 Lucio, the true friend of Claudio
  Elevated language
 A dedicated friend
 Lucio as betrayer
 Lucio and humour
 Gross language
 Cheekiness
 Dramatic irony
 Lucio as moral compass

 Lucio as a lecher:-
When we first meet Lucio, it is at the beginning of Act I sc too, in a scene which is in
direct juxtaposition to the mood and topic of the previous one. He is discussing with his friends
the report of the Duke's withdrawal from Vienna, and their conversation is interlaced with
sexual puns.

 They readily admit to visiting brothels and to contracting venereal diseases.

 When Mistress Overdone, the brothel-keeper, enters, Lucio says that he has ‘purchased
many diseases under her roof'.
 Later we learn (Act III sc ii) that he has impregnated a prostitute, Kate Keep-down.
 When talking to the disguised Duke in Act III sc ii, Lucio describes lechery as ‘sport'.
 He does not see fornication as wrong, but refers to lust as if it were beyond the control of
the human will – he says it is ‘the rebellion of a cod-piece' – adding that Claudio has been
condemned ‘for untrusting'.
 He also (slanderously) praises the absent Duke for being sexually licentious:

“Ere (the Duke) would have hanged a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have
paid for the nursing a thousand. He had some feeling for the sport; he knew the service”.

 Lucio, the true friend of Claudio:-

Shakespeare also depicts Lucio as the friend of Claudio – a young man whose only sexual
encounter, as far as we know, is with Juliet, whom he regards as ‘fast my wife'. In doing this,
Shakespeare is able to introduce another side of Lucio's character, quite different from that we
see when he is with his ‘low-life' friends:

 Lucio is immediately keen to help Claudio; when Claudio asks for ‘a word with you',
Lucio's response is, ‘A hundred - if they'll do you any good'.
 He readily agrees to find Isabella and to enlist her help.
  Elevated language:-
Once in the presence of Isabella (Act I sc iv) Lucio behaves with respect (and the change of his
speech to underlines this for the audience; see. He acknowledges that he is often flippant, but
insists that he is now serious:
“ I would not, though ‘tis my familiar sin,
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest
Tongue far from heart, play with all virgins so.
I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit,
And to be talk'd with in sincerity
As with a saint”.
Given the extravagance of this language, Isabella feels he is mocking her, but he insists that he is
not. Shakespeare then gives him a passage of poetic language, vastly different form his gross
puns in (Act I sc ii), in which he describes the sexual encounter of Claudio and Juliet, and Juliet's
consequent pregnancy:
“Your brother and his lover have embrac'd;
As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry”.

It could be argued that these words are euphemistic, and are Lucio's way of introducing to
Isabella a topic which he feels may shock her; he does, after all, want to persuade her to plead for
Claudio. Nevertheless, the fact that Shakespeare gives Lucio the capacity for such thoughts,
words and imagery shows that he is not merely a jester and a ‘lapwing'.

 A dedicated friend:-
We also see another side to Lucio when he goes with Isabella to the court when she first pleads
for her brother's life:
 Isabella's own abhorrence of fornication leads to her being easily put off; at first she
rapidly accepts Angelo's judgement, saying ‘O just but severe law! I had a brother, then,'
before turning to go
 It is Lucio who urges her to stay (again speaking in blank verse):
“Give't not o'er so. – To him again, entreat him,
Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown;
You are too cold. If you should need a pin,
You could not with more tame a tongue desire it.
To him, I say”.
  He has to urge her on twice more before he can be sure she is using her eloquence to full
effect, when he can at last remark, ‘Ay, well said,' and later praises her efforts further,
with ‘That's well said.'
 Nevertheless, he still feels she needs to be encouraged to continue, telling her, ‘O to him,
to him, wench! He will relent; / He's coming, I perceive't.'
 He then continues encouraging her with asides throughout the rest of the scene.
The audience is given the impression that, without Lucio to urge her on, Isabella would have
easily given up her efforts to save her brother.

 Lucio as betrayer:-
Although Lucio seems a good friend to Claudio, he is not always so loyal. His behaviour to
Pompey, Mistress Overdone and Kate Keep-down (a character we hear of but do not see) shows
the audience a much less pleasant aspect of Lucio.

It might be argued that Lucio acknowledges Claudio is a better person than these pimps and
prostitutes, and that he therefore behaves differently to him. However Lucio's deliberate betrayal
of the ‘low-life' characters, when they expect his help, reveals an unsavoury side to his nature:
 When Pompey, on his way to prison, in Act III sc ii, encounters Lucio, he immediately
asks for bail, expecting that Lucio will help him:
‘Here's a gentleman, and a friend of mine.'
Not only does Lucio refuse, but he mocks Pompey – and makes it clear that Pompey is a bawd:
”What, is there none of Pygmalion's images newly made woman to be had now, for
putting the hand in the pocket and extracting clutched? … How doth my dear morsel thy
mistress? Procures she still, ha? Bawd is he doubtless, and of antiquity too”.

 Mistress Overdone is consequently taken to gaol; she knows that Lucio has given
evidence against her, and she tells Escalus that Lucio has deserted a woman he promised
to marry, and has disowned his child by her:
“O my lord, this is one Lucio's information against me, Mistress Kate Keep-down was
with child by him in the Duke's time, he promised her marriage. Her child is a year and a
quarter old. I have kept it myself; and see how he goes about to abuse me. (Act III sc ii)”.

 Lucio and Humour:-

Gross language
As well as his betrayal of Pompey and Mistress Overdone, and his treatment of Kate Keep-down,
Lucio also grossly slanders the Duke. Since it is obvious from his behaviour in the final scene,
if not before, that Lucio does not know the Duke, Lucio's claims in Act III sc ii that he is a friend
of the Duke, and knows him to be a lecher, are clearly lies.
This scene usually arouses laughter when played on stage:
 The audience is aware that, unbeknownst to Lucio, he is speaking to the Duke himself:
o As often in comedy, amusement arises from the position of privileged knowledge
which the audience has.
 Another reason the audience may find this encounter funny is due to the Duke's
embarrassment:
o The Duke has to put up with Lucio's slanders as he cannot yet reveal his identity.
o The grossness of Lucio's accusations and the language in which he expresses them
add to the Duke's discomfiture.
o Lucio's remarks that the Duke was so lecherous that he would copulate with ‘a beggar
of fifty' and would ‘mouth with a beggar though she smelt brown bread and garlic',
cannot be refuted by the ‘friar', nor can the Duke in his present disguise deny Lucio's
claim to be ‘an inward of his.

 Cheekiness:-
Lucio also causes amusement in Act V sc i; his cheekiness in constantly interrupting, and
insisting on talking when asked to be silent, induces laughter even in the most serious moments.

 Dramatic irony:-
There is also humour for the audience in yet again being in a privileged position: since Lucio
does not know that the friar and the Duke are one and the same person, he fails to realise his
mistake in now claiming that the friar slandered the Duke:
“My lord, I know him. ‘This a meddling friar;
I do not like the man; had he been lay, my lord,
For certain words he spoke against your Grace
In your retirement, I had swing'd him soundly, a saucy friar,
A very scurvy fellow”.
The audience could be amused, not only by Lucio's failure to realize that the Duke and the friar
are one and the same, but also, once again, by the discomfiture of the Duke. Whilst the Duke
can, and does, later punish Lucio for his slanders, at the time, until he reveals his double identity
as Friar Lodowick, he has to put up with Lucio's glib hypocrisy.
Lucio is clearly a rogue, a liar and a deceiver, but nevertheless, in the theatre, the humour that
arises from the outrageousness of his behavior usually attracts at least some sympathy from the
audience.
  Lucio as moral compass:-
 It is Lucio's discomfiture of the Duke, through his slanders, which highlights the
dubious nature of the Duke's decision to adopt a disguise, especially the disguise of a
friar
 The fact that Lucio's only punishment (to marry Kate Keep-down) is imposed, not
because he has outraged morality, but because ‘slandering a prince deserves it', may
make the audience wonder whether the Duke has actually done anything to reform the
corruption loose in the state of Vienna.

Measure for Measure:-

Measure for Measure is possibly Shakespeare’s darkest play. It deals with moral corruption and
its terrible effects and consequences. Lucio is a secondary, but important, character in the play.

Vienna, in the eyes of its rulers, has become a den of depravity and sexual license. Nevertheless,
the Duke, Vincentio, has decided to take a break (although this turns out to be a deception as he
wanders around Vienna disguised as a friar). He appoints a substitute, the well-regarded, Angelo,
to run things in his absence.

Angelo’s first act is to announce that he is going to take a zero tolerance attitude to the epidemic
of immorality that has infected Vienna. One of the first victims of his policy is a young man,
Claudio, who has got his fiance, Juliet, pregnant, and is sentenced to death for fornication.

His sister, Isabella, who is about to take her vows as a nun, goes to Angelo to beg for mercy on
his behalf. Angelo, overwhelmed by lust for her, tells her that he will pardon her brother if she
will have sex with him. The story takes off from there and, after many twists and turns, Angelo is
exposed and punished.

Shakespeare populates the play with prostitutes, bawds, pimps, criminals, and other sundry
common folk. One of them is Claudio’s friend, Lucio, who tries to help him in his desperate
plight. Dark as it is, the play has quite a strong comedic element, driven by a large collection of
minor characters, the denizens of Vienna. Lucio, a flamboyant bachelor, contributes substantially
to that.

Lucio has a wicked sense of humor and is very mouthy and loud. He is the town gossip and
thinks nothing of exaggerating, or even lying. When he is onstage it is pure comedy and his
colorful language is a delight. He spreads rumours that Angelo was spawned by a mermaid and
that he urinates ice. He is very sociable and friendly, always seeking the spotlight, but slanders
everyone he meets behind their back. He is also an informer and is responsible for several of his
victims being arrested. He gets into big trouble when he tells the itinerant friar (Duke Vincentio
in disguise) that the Duke habituates the town’s brothels. Unlike the audience, Vincentio is not
amused by that! Lucio’s only redeeming qualities are his loyalty to his friend Claudio and his
efforts to help him.

At the end of the play he is punished by the Duke by being made to marry a prostitute, Kate
Keepdown, whom he has made pregnant and abandoned. Most notable about Lucio among
Shakespearean characters is his view that marriage is in itself a form of torture – a fate worse
than death. “Marrying a punk, my lord,” he tells the Duke, “is pressing to death, whipping and
hanging.” He is expressing a central theme of the play – that matrimony is a form of
punishment.

Conclusion:-
In the end, nobody dies and people get married! Measure for Measure is technically a comedy.
At the end of the play, the Duke asks Isabella to marry him. One of the first things that
Shakespeare tells us about Isabella is that she is about to become a nun.