Revenge-play audiences knew what injustice looked like: kangaroo courts, perjury, conviction without right to testify, summary executions. Revengers turn vigilante when tyrants deny them justice, or higher-status figures block access to the courts. And they knew what Justice should look like. In emblem books, poems, and plays, majestic Justitia held scales (a “balance”) in one hand, a sword in the other. Ripa's Iconologia explained, “The scale, used to measure quantities of material things, is a metaphor for justice, which sees that each man receives that which is due him” (120). Henry V charges the Chief Justice to “bear the balance and the sword” (2H4 5.2.102). Daniel's Vision of the Twelve Goddesses stages Justice “with her balance, and her sword” (118). Even the hired killer Bosola invokes her: “When thou kill'd'st thy sister, / Thou took'st from Justice her most equal balance, / And left her naught but her sword”; the murder merits “a most just revenge. / The weakest arm is strong enough, that strikes / With the sword of Justice” (Duchess of Malfi 5.5.38–40, 5.3.338–40). Othello identifies with Justitia: “O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade / Justice to break her sword!” (5.2.16–17).