Shakespeare and Law

<p>Readers of Shakespeare's language from the playhouse to the classroom have long been aware of his peculiar interest in legal words and concepts - Richard II's two bodies Hamlet's quiddities and quillets Pandarus' <i>peine forte et dure</i>. In this new study Andrew Zurcher takes a fresh historically sensitive look at Shakespeare's meticulous resort to legal language texts concepts and arguments in a range of plays and poems. Following a preface that situates Shakespeare's life within the various legal communities of his Stratford and London periods Zurcher reconsiders the ways in which Shakespeare adapts legal language and concepts to figure problems about being knowing reading interpretation and action.</p><br/><p>In challenging new readings of plays from <i>King John</i> and <i>Henry IV</i> to <i>As You Like It</i> and <i>Hamlet</i> <i>Shakespeare and Law</i> reveals the importance of early modern common legal thinking to Shakespeare's representations of inheritance possession gift-giving oath-swearing contract sovereignty judgment and conscience - and finally to our own reception and interpretation of his works. </p>