A Well-Tempered Absolutism: Political Theology in Measure for Measure

Abstract

This essay analyses the figure of the Duke Vincentio in W.Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, by drawing on Carl Schmitt’s concept of the ‘political’ as secularized theology, as well as Walter Benjamin’s and José Antonio Maravall’s works on Baroque literature and culture. I contend that Measure for Measure represents the eclipse of the idea of sacred sovereignty. The Duke’s absolutism, his decision on the exception, are the symbol of a completely secular political theology. The protagonist tries to accomplish his project by fraudulently making use of highly refined religious instruments of consent, such as the Counter-reformed practice of confession. His aim is to manipulate and control his subjects’ consciences, in order to consolidate and reinforce his power, as it was prescribed by the new, baroque arts of goverment. The dark finale of the play, however, calls into question the success of his effort to establish, as a last stage of his political theology, a messianic Reign in the city of Vienna. His final decisions and the puzzled reactions of Angelo and Isabella rather highlight the limits and the contradictions of his political project.