Judge Meagre is the devil. Only a truly evil, crazed maniac could speak his words. It’s funny, then, that Warren parallels his thoughts with those of the British Empire. In her play The Group, Judge Meagre represents colonial Britain’s mission to oppress and subjugate the world.

Meagre, like the British Empire, is a predator in search of prey. His name alone hints at his character; a meagre is a carnivorous fish which pursues and feeds on shoals of smaller fishes. While the British feed off and maintain rule of the American colonies, they must continually quell any opposition.

Meagre openly avows his resentment towards opposition of authority. He hates “Brutus for his noble stand/ Against the oppressors of his injured country, … leaders of these restless factions,… [and] the people, who, no longer gulled,/ See through the schemes of [his] aspiring clan.” Thus, he does not find it dignified, but rather disgraceful, that one would stand up to injustices. Knowing it necessary to control a people, he repeatedly asserts this tyrannical British idea.

In order to accomplish this task and remain above others, the judge and England must deny their selves of all morals. Meager criticizes Sylla because “his soul is with compassioned moved/ For suffering virtue, wounded and betrayed;/ For freedom hunted down in this fair field.” Instead, he wishes that man might lose all love of equal liberty, utopian dreams, and patriotic virtue and suggests that “We’d smoothly glide on midst of a race of slaves.” Of course this notion makes sense – it is the only way to perpetuate the state of colonies. The people must enjoy or at least accept their repression without protest so that the might Britain to remain in control.

Luckily, history shuts Meagre up. The American little fish end up biting the British sharks. When the colonists as a whole reject tyranny they do exactly what Meagre didn’t want. They are no longer prey.