Measure for Measure VII

The political problem of the philosophic ruler

Returning to the question of Shakespeare’s view of tyranny, one of the lessons that we draw from the play is that tyranny is not wielding absolute power, it is not enforcing laws, it is not changing the laws to suit one’s tastes, but rather, it is inconsistency in the rules, things being right one day and wrong the next. Tyranny is being able to set the rules as one wishes but still departing from them whenever one wishes – thus we can say tyrannical rule is capricious rule.