We do not feel the same confidence in the virtue that is
sublimely good' at another's expense, as if it had been out to some
less disinterested trial. As to the Duke, who makes a very imposing
and mysterious stage-character, he is more absorbed in his own plots
and gravity than anxious for the welfare of the state; more
tenacious of his own character than attentive to the feelings and
apprehensions of others. Claudio is the only person who feels
naturally; and yet he is placed in circumstances of distress which
almost preclude the wish for his deliverance. Mariana is also in
love with Angelo, whom we hate. In this respect, there may be said
to be a general system of cross-purposes between the feelings of the
different characters and the sympathy of the reader or the audience.
This principle of repugnance seems to have reached its height in the
character of Master Barnardine, who not only sets at defiance the
opinions of others, but has even thrown off all self-regard,--'one
that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a drunken sleep;
careless, reckless, and fearless of what's past, present, and to
come.' He is a fine antithesis to the morality and the hypocrisy of
the other characters of the play. Barnardine is Caliban transported
from Prospero's wizard island to the forests of Bohemia or the
prisons of Vienna.
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