Claudio's Speech on the Fear of Death

Claudio's speech is on his fear of death in the middle of measure for measure, give him momentarily a tragic status reminiscent of hamlets. It's interesting that the effort of being so tragic seems to exhaust Claudio and he never again speaks in the play. Here the play's tussle with generic conventions has a kind of fulcrum around the fate of Claudio in Act 3. The weariest and most loathed worldly life that age, ache, penury and imprisonment can lay on nature is a paradise to what we fear of death. And then Claudio has an amazingly powerful speech actually about death. I, but to die and go we know not where,