Is Lucio seen as just a comedian in 'Measure for Measure'?

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                                                                              Danielle Hall        

        Is Lucio seen as just a comedian in ‘Measure for Measure’?

        Lucio’s character is a mixture of many different traits. He is a go-between, a good friend, a heartless lecher, a comic, a liar, and a rebel to the end.

 

        He is a bridge between the world of the bawds and the world of the main characters like the duke, Angelo and Claudio. He is a true and loyal friend to Claudio and a loose friend to the bawds. He has a strong sexual interest in women. He is a comedian, and many of his jokes have sexual undertones. He lies and slanders the duke to his hidden disguise as a Friar; and then slandered the ‘Friar’ to the duke.

        

Claudio, sentenced to death for fornication, is late to meet Lucio. Lucio jokes with two gentlemen about soldiers, prostitutes and venereal diseases: “Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes. I have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to/judge.” Once he hears Claudio had been arrested and condemned to death, Lucio stops joking and rushes off to “learn the truth of it”. He isn’t as devoted to his friend Pompey, who asks him for bail. Lucio refuses: “Well then, imprison him: if imprisonment be the due of a bawd”. Lucio shows his loyalty to Claudio by getting Isabella to plead for mercy to Angelo: “Go to Lord Angelo and let him learn to know, when maidens sue men give like Gods”. Lucio respectfully sees Isabella as a higher being: “I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted”.

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        Lucio encourages us to like Isabella with gentle taunts-“Hail, Virgin”, “Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown”, “You are too cold”.

        Lucio, unaware that the duke is dressed as a Friar, slanders the duke and accuses him of sleeping with prostitutes, among other things he hadn’t done. He says the duke was “a very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.” He ingratiates himself with the ‘Friar’:

LUCIO: Sir, I know him, and I love him.
DUKE: Love talks of better knowledge and knowledge with dearer love.

There is a lot of dramatic irony in the ...

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