"I am ashamed the law is such an ass"
About this Quote
A public blush aimed at an institution that refuses to blush back. Chapman's line, "I am ashamed the law is such an ass", lands because it couples personal honor with civic disgust: the speaker isn't merely angry at an unjust outcome, he's embarrassed to be associated with the machinery that produced it. That shame is strategic. It implies a world where law is supposed to carry moral authority, and where its failure contaminates everyone forced to live under it.
Calling the law "an ass" does two things at once. It’s comic - a blunt animal insult in place of lofty legal rhetoric - and it’s surgical. An ass is stubborn, dull, load-bearing: useful, but incapable of judgment. Chapman isn't arguing that law is evil; he's arguing that law can be stupid, a plodding creature that follows procedure while trampling sense. The joke stings because it reframes legal power as mere brute inertia, not wisdom.
As a poet writing in an England where courts, patronage, and authority shaped daily survival, Chapman’s jab reads like a coded protest. Open defiance could be dangerous; ridicule slips past the guards. The line’s force comes from its asymmetry: the speaker feels shame, the law feels nothing. That imbalance is the subtext - institutions can be wrong without consequence, while individuals absorb the moral cost. It’s less a complaint than a warning about what happens when legality detaches from justice and still expects reverence.
Calling the law "an ass" does two things at once. It’s comic - a blunt animal insult in place of lofty legal rhetoric - and it’s surgical. An ass is stubborn, dull, load-bearing: useful, but incapable of judgment. Chapman isn't arguing that law is evil; he's arguing that law can be stupid, a plodding creature that follows procedure while trampling sense. The joke stings because it reframes legal power as mere brute inertia, not wisdom.
As a poet writing in an England where courts, patronage, and authority shaped daily survival, Chapman’s jab reads like a coded protest. Open defiance could be dangerous; ridicule slips past the guards. The line’s force comes from its asymmetry: the speaker feels shame, the law feels nothing. That imbalance is the subtext - institutions can be wrong without consequence, while individuals absorb the moral cost. It’s less a complaint than a warning about what happens when legality detaches from justice and still expects reverence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sarcastic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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