An interesting interpretation of the arcane world of the early modern legal community.

Examining aspects of law, history, art, drama and literature, this study represents an original interpretation of a hidden culture: the arcane world of the early modern legal community, and its attempts to restrict governmental power during the period 1558 to 1660. Based at the Inns of Court in London, the legal profession regulated every aspect of its members' lives--dress, consumption, education, worship, entertainment, and even their dwellings--to represent the order of an ideal commonwealth, which it offered as a model for the government of the English State.

Through an examination of five plays by Shakespeare, the author analyzes the contiguous development of common law and poetic drama during the first decade of Jacobean rule. The broad premise of the book is that the 'artificial reason' of law was a complex art form which shared the same rhetorical strategy as the plays of Shakespeare. Common law and Shakespearean drama of this period employed various aesthetic devices to capture the imagination and the emotional attachment of their respective audiences. The common law of the Jacobean era, as spoken in the law courts, learned at the Inns of...