Wormwood

Reflections on a Shattered Nation

The Angry Ape that Makes the Angels Weep

ISABELLA 
O, it is excellent
To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant. . .
Could great men thunder
As Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet,
For every pelting, petty officer
Would use his heaven for thunder,
Nothing but thunder. Merciful heaven,
Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
Splits the unwedgeable and gnarlèd oak,
Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man,
Dressed in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep.

These words are spoken by Isabella, a novice nun in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, in response to Duke Angelo. Newly appointed to his position, Angelo’s rush of power conspires with his rush of desire for the young virgin. He tells Isabella she must have sex with him, or her brother will be executed the next morning.

Shakespeare’s profound understanding of humanity is one of the reasons his work lives today.

Clearly this passage reveals jarring themes that confound us today: proud men infatuated with their power; proud men who do not believe laws apply to them, who can do whatever they want, deploying “thunder / Nothing but thunder;” proud men who believe their authority gives them license to sexually abuse women; proud men who delude themselves into believing they are smarter than they are; proud men who do not believe their power is brief; proud men whose “fantastic tricks” play badly before high heaven and “make the angels weep” — as codes of morality, order and decency are violated, recalling the words that are assuredly prophetic:

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

(Matthew 7:2, King James Bible)

_________________________

ANGRY APE

PELTING PETTY OFFICERS