Did Shakespeare study Law?

[Farhana Helal Mehtab]

When law can do no right,
Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong:
Law cannot give my child his kingdom here,
For he that holds his kingdom holds the law.
(King John, 3.1.189), Constance to Cardinal Pandulph

Did Shakespeare study Law?

Researches till date proved that Shakespeare did not formally study law. But he acquired a significant general knowledge of legal terminology. We can see this in his different plays. The legal jargon in Hamlet’s speech in Act 5 is especially impressive. And Measure for Measure is an ideal play for lawyers. It raises fundamental questions of law and morality. Shakespeare's legal knowledge is acutely precise which indicates a mind well-trained and practiced in the idioms and conceptual habits, characteristic of lawyers and judges.

For the interested readers, here I’ve given the links of resources ‘Shakespeare and the Law’

Resources on Shakespeare and the Law

•  Shakespeare's Knowledge of the Law: A Journey through the History of the Argument. Serious study of Shakespeare and the Law should  begin with Mark Alexander's in-depth study, orginally published in the 2001 edition of The Oxfordian.

•  Shakespeare's "Bad Law". A shorter survey focusing on Shakespeare's supposed misuse of legal terms.

•  The Legally Annotated Hamlet. A complete annotation of the 1604 (Quarto 2) edition of Hamlet.

•  "An Unrecognized Theme in Hamlet". Tony Burton's important article first appeared in the Fall 2000 edition of The Shakespeare Newsletter: “[In Hamlet ] there is a consistent and coherent pattern of legal allusions to defeated expectations of inheritance, which applies to every major character.” (71)

•  "Laertes's Rebellion as a Defense of His Inheritance: Further Aspects of Inheritance Law in Hamlet" Tony Burton's follow up article provides further corroborating detail.

•  "Could Shakespeare Think Like a Lawyer? How Inheritance Law Issues in Hamlet May Shed Light on the Authorship Question." Thomas Regnier's outstanding 2003 University of Miami Law Review article.

•  The Shakespeare Law Library. Numerous original early source texts on Shakespeare's knowledge of law, by George Greenwood and others.

•  Shakespeare's Legal Knowledge. The orthodox response, presented by David Kathman.
 
Some Other Source Texts

 Shakespeare a Lawyer
William Rushton (1858 - Complete)

 Shakespeare's Legal Acquirements
Lord Campbell (1859 - Complete)

 "William Shakespeare,
Attorney at Law and Solicitor in Chancery"
Atlantic Monthly
Richard Grant White (1859)

 excerpt from "Memoirs of the Life of Shakespeare"
from Richard Grant White's
Life and Genius of Shakespeare (1865)

 "Introduction"
from Cushman K. Davis's
The Law in Shakespeare (1883)

 Ecclesiastical Law in Hamlet:
The Burial of Ophelia
R. S. Guernsey (1885)

 In Re Shakespeare's "Legal Acquirements"
William C. Devecmon (1899 - Complete)

 "Shakespeare's Alleged Blunders in
Legal Terminology"
Yale Law Journal
Homer B. Sprague (1902)

 "Shakespeare's Legal Knowledge"
from J.M. Robertson's
Did Shakespeare Write "Titus Andronicus"? (1905)

 "Shakespeare as a Lawyer"
from George Greenwood's
The Shakespeare Problem Restated (1908)
    Chapter III
"The Argument from Legal Allusions in Shakespeare:
Lord Campbell's Case"
 Chapter IV
"The Argument from Legal Phraseology:
Mr Grant White's Case"
Chapter V
"The Argument from Legal Phraseology:
Mr Rushton, Senator Davis, Mr Castle"
Chapter VI
Litigation and Legalism in Elizabethan England

from J.M. Robertson's
The Baconian Heresy (1913)

 "Shakespeare's Legal Knowledge"
from George Greenwood's
Is There A Shakespeare Problem? (1916)
 
 "Law"
Arthur Underhill's essay in
Shakespeare's England (1916)

 "Mr Robertson as Exponent of Law"
from George Greenwood's
Shakespeare's Law and Latin (1916)

 Shakespeare's Law
George Greenwood (1920)

Farhana Helal Mehtab
Associate Professor & Head
Dept of Law

[shyful]

Dear Ma'am,


Thanks for the excellent post. Ma’am, it must be helpful for me to understand and write something with further reading from those references. These references will draw our concentration on Shakespeare and his thought on law. Ma'am, is there any  internet  link available on these references?


Sincerely

[Farhana Helal Mehtab]

Thank you dear for your spontaneous reply. You can use the above sources name for internet link also. Just copy any text title then set it for Google search. You will find good number of information on Shakespeare & Law. University of Warwick, England did an excellent work on it. They organized an international conference on Shakespeare and the Law in 2007 in association with Warwick Law School and the Capital Center partnership between University of Warwick and the Royal Shakespeare Company. If you go through those works you will be amazed!

Best of Luck. Welcome to the world of 'Law & Literature'.

Farhana Helal  Mehtab
Associate Professor & Head
Dept of Law

[Shah Alam]

At first take my respective salam.. Shakespeare  did not formally study Law..But, Shakespeare was a great poet, dramatist, & philosopher. Not only this, he always was awareness about legal activites. So, I think although he did not study Law, but, his all of writes were in Law related..

[Asfia Orin]

Take my salam, How are You? The topic is....Did Shakespeare study Law?? I think, he never study Law in formally. But, he was always in legal way.

[Farhana Helal Mehtab]

Dear Shah Alam & Orin,

Hope you are fine. I'm happy that you sometimes visit the forum.
Keep on trying.......

Love you,

Ma'am

[Ferdousi Begum]

Quite often I read Shakespeare, but never think in this way.

[Farhana Helal Mehtab]

Yes, without reading Shakespeare, knowing English literature will be incomplete. This statement came to me as a fact when I started doing my Masters in English Literature. And Ferdousi, as a law teacher, you know well the law & order system & situation of the then English countries. In some writings of Shakespeare those were reflected so wonderfully. In fact writers are the ambassadors of the time & era.

Thanks for thinking about law & Shakespeare.

ma'am

[shahida sultana shimu]

Dear ma`am,
                     
                    It is that famous line, “the first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.” No self-respecting lawyer would be seen dead without at least a mug or fridge magnet bearing that slogan around the office. But this is not a dagger I see before me. The quote appears in the mouth of Dick the Butcher, the rabble-rouser and follower of the rebel Jack Cade in Henry VI Part II. If Shakespeare had really wanted to attack the legal profession he would have given the words to a more attractive character. In the event, it is the “monstrous rebel” Cade who is killed, and Shakespeare pays lawyers the tacit compliment of listing “lawyers” alongside “scholars”, “courtiers” and “gentlemen” as Cade’s sworn enemies.
                                           when i read this column then i am clear that  Shakespeare likes the lawyers .i think that it is a great evidence for proving this fact.

[Farhana Helal Mehtab]

In one way, you are right dear.  Some people are unfamiliar with the phrase The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyer. It often expresses the ordinary person's frustration with the complexity of law. Though the saying comes from one of Shakespeare's plays, but usually there's little awareness beyond that. This gap in knowledge has inspired a myth of ‘correction’, where it is ‘explained’ that this is line really intended as a praise of the lawyer's role. I’m just quoting one legal firm’s statement as for example,

"The first thing we do," said the character in Shakespeare's Henry VI, is "kill all the lawyers." Contrary to popular belief, the proposal was not designed to restore sanity to commercial life. Rather, it was intended to eliminate those who might stand in the way of a contemplated revolution -- thus underscoring the important role that lawyers can play in society.

I came to know that legal firm’s statement through the writing of Mr Finkelstein who is a software developer and Internet activist. He wrote, “As long as there are lawyer, there will be lawyer jokes. And lawyers will show how those jokes ring true by trying to explain how such lampooning really constitutes praise for their profession, thus by example justifying the jokes more than ever.”

[farzanamili]

A creative question. I just remembered the comedy story 'Merchant of Venice' of Shakespeare where  he created  'Portia' character, my favourite character. By 'portia' character, he intelligently explained law to save antonio's life which is the reasonable interpretation of law. It is well-established that whatever the law is, it must be analyzed in a way so that it can produce a reasonable result. So though Shakespeare did not study law,but he is greatly influenced by law!

[Farhana Helal Mehtab]

Great selection, Portia,. Its one of my fav' characters too. It is Portia who delivers one of the most famous speeches in The Merchant of Venice:
   
    The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
    It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
    Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
    It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.