Through analysis of 5 plays by Shakespeare, Paul Raffield examines what it meant to be a ‘stranger’ to English law in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean period. The numbers of strangers increased dramatically in the late sixteenth century, as refugees fled religious persecution in continental Europe and sought sanctuary in Protestant England.
In the context of this book, strangers are not only persons ethnically or racially different from their English counterparts, be they immigrants, refugees, or visitors. The term also includes those who transgress or are simply excluded by their status from established legal norms by virtue of their faith, sexuality, or mode of employment.
Each chapter investigates a particular category of ‘stranger’. Topics include the treatment of actors in late Elizabethan England and the punishment of ‘counterfeits’ (Measure for Measure); the standing of refugees under English law and the reception of these people by the indigenous population (The Comedy of Errors); the establishment of ‘Troynovant’ as an international trading centre on the banks of the Thames (Troilus and Cressida); the role of law and the state in determining the rights of citizens and aliens (The Merchant of Venice); and the disenfranchised, estranged position of the citizen in a dysfunctional society and an acephalous realm (King Lear).
This is the third sole-authored book by Paul Raffield on the subject of Shakespeare and the Law. The others are Shakespeare’s Imaginary Constitution: Late Elizabethan Politics and the Theatre of Law (2010) and The Art of Law in Shakespeare (2017), both published by Hart/Bloomsbury.
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 Scots VII. 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 Power II. Nature and Natural Law III. Custom, Kings, and Lex Regia IV. The English Monarchical Republic V. Image, Costume, and Kingship Afterword
Paul Raffield is Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, UK.
Reviews for Shakespeare's Strangers and English Law
"""[A] remarkable feat of scholarship ... and a unique contribution to both legal and Shakespearian studies."" --The Law Society Gazette"
