Shakespeare and the Law

Gary Watt is Professor of Law, The University of Warwick. He co-founded the journal Law and Humanities and is general editor of Bloomsbury's Cultural History of Law. He has held a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship on rhetorical performance and as a National Teaching Fellow and national 'Law Teacher of the Year' (2009) for many years delivered rhetoric workshops for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His books include Shakespeare's Acts of Will (Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare), Dress, Law, and Naked Truth (Bloomsbury), Trusts and Equity (Oxford), The Making Sense of Politics, Media, and Law (Cambridge) and Equity Stirring (Hart).

• 1: Why Shakespeare and the Law? 2: Stages: Shakespeare's Legal Time and Place 3: Roles: Shakespeare's Legal Personalities 4: Script: Shakespeare's Legal Language 5: Properties: Shakespeare's Legal Materials 6: Playgoers: Shakespeare's Judicious Audience 7: Shakespeare's Justice and Legal Legacy

Large sections of the book offer an outstanding introduction to the field. Crisp accounts are provided of topics as diffuse as: John Shakespeare's legal troubles, sumptuary laws, speech acts, the position of Lord Chief Justice, mooting, the Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery, consistory courts, the neck-verse, Shakespeare's will, and much more besides.