Shakespeare and the Law

Abstract

Shakespeare and the Law argues that Shakespeare was not primarily concerned with the technical accuracy of law, but with its capacity to generate drama through dispute and playing with rules. Shakespeare employs the rhetorical magic of legal language and performances to conjure playgoers to be a critical jury to events transacted on stage. His poetic sound effects prompt audiences to confer fair hearing. The book’s emphasis on rhetoric as performance is reflected in chapters that structure the book according to elements of performance. These include ‘Stages: Shakespeare’s Legal Time and Place’; ‘Roles: Shakespeare’s Legal Personalities’; ‘Script: Shakespeare’s Legal Language’; ‘Properties: Shakespeare’s Legal Materials’; and ‘Playgoers: Shakespeare’s Judicious Audience’ (addressing the association between sight, hearing, and sound judgment). The concluding chapter scrutinizes ‘Shakespeare’s Justice and Legal Legacy’, observing that Shakespeare’s works have the enduring stability and adaptability we associate with laws, and that judges are fond of quoting him, but that the justice of his works exists principally in their playful challenge to legal categories and rules.