ABSTRACT
How do we assimilate information? When we listen to speech (as in a theatre) we are helped by the degree o f stress, intonation, gesture. Even so, the important statements need to stand out, and this may be partly achieved by rhetorical parallelism. The opening o f Act III o f Measure fo r Measure is the challenge to the imprisoned Claudio by the disguised Duke: “Be absolute for death . . . ” After the opening half-line, all the arguments are in fact concentrated in the second half-lines: “Reason thus with life . . . a breath thou art . . . thou art death’s fool . . . Thou art not noble . . . Thou’rt by no means valiant . . . The best o f rest is sleep . . . Thou art not thyself . . . Happy thou art not . . . Thou art not certain . . . I f thou art rich, thou’rt poor . . . Friend hast thou none . . . Thou hast nor youth nor age.” The majority o f these clauses begin Thou art or Thou hast, but there is just sufficient variation o f word-order (“Happy thou art not”, “Friend hast thou none”) to avoid monotony. The concluding remark, “What’s yet in this . . . ?” also occupies a second half-line. The justification for the Duke’s arguments (all the clauses beginning with for) and the illustrative imagery come in the intervening lines.
