Shakespeare's Strangers and English Law

Paul Raffield is Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, UK.

• Introduction 1. Measure for Measure: Actors, Fornicators, and Other Transgressors of Law I. Introduction: ‘comon Players of Enterludes’ II. School of Abuse: Elizabethan Theatre and the Outlawed Actor III. Plague and Prejudice IV. Frauds, Counterfeits, ‘and measure still for measure’ V. The Imprint of Law VI. Legitimacy and the Image 2. The Comedy of Errors: Refugees, Immigrants, and the Revitalisation of London I. Immigration and the Imminence of Death II. Shakespeare and the French III. Shakespeare, Racial Tension, and the London Apprentices IV. Xenophobia, Riots, and The Book of Sir Thomas More V. Classical Friendship and Christian Community in The Comedy of Errors VI. Witchcraft, Sorcery, and the ScotsVII. Classicism (Plautus), Christianity (St Paul), and The Comedy of Errors 3. Troilus and Cressida: Greeks, Trojans, Honour, and the Market I. Law, Literature, and the Hellenic Tradition II. Revels and Renaissance at the Elizabethan Inns of Court III. The Earl of Essex, The Iliad, and Fin-de-Siècle English Law IV. Troilus and Cressida and the Lawyers 4. The Merchant of Venice and the Strangeness of Law I. Venice, Shakespeare, and the Shifting Sands of Contract Law II. Societas, Consensio, and the Meaning of Mercy III. The Jew and the Law IV. Excursus: ‘Dark and Obscure’ Allegory and the Xenophobic Dream of Common Law V. Act Five, Harmony, and the Discord of Law 5. King Lear, Monarchy, and the Injustice of Tragedy I. Justice, Jurisdictions, and the Politics of PowerII. Nature and Natural Law III. Custom, Kings, and Lex Regia IV. The English Monarchical Republic V. Image, Costume, and Kingship Afterword

Raffield’s newest book on Shakespeare and law offers fascinating insights into the overlapping legal, political, and cultural forces of community. ... The interdisciplinary range of each chapter is truly impressive and offers something of interest to scholars of early modern literature, law, and society.