Introductory description

The one-term (15 CATS) half module will be taught by one 3-hour seminar-workshop per week in one of the studio spaces managed by the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning. It will employ rehearsal techniques, and students will be expected to explore ideas by putting texts on their feet.

This module has been designed to complement, rather than replicate, any of the themes addressed in ‘Law and Literature’ (LA357) and ‘Origins of English Law’ (LA242). Students who wish to take Shakespeare and the Law in Term 1 may also wish to take (as an external option) the half-module “Othello” (EN3E1) offered by the Department of English.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1. Richard II. Imperium, Treason, and Rebellion: The Treason Trial in Jacobethan England and the Enforcement of Political Conformity.
Week 2. Richard II. The King’s Two Bodies and the Judges: Political Theology and the Courts of Common Law.
Week 3. Richard II. The Iconic Image of Kingship and the Birth of Constitutional Law.
Week 4. The Merchant of Venice. English Law and the Rise of Contract in Fin-de-Siècle, Elizabethan England.
Week 5. The Merchant of Venice. Rex is Lex? The Separation of Powers in Early Modern England.
Week 6. Reading week.
Week 7. The Merchant of Venice. Commerce, London, and Xenophobia: Jews and the Law.
Week 8. Measure for Measure. Criminal Law and the Enforcement of Morals in Jacobean England.
Week 9. Measure for Measure. Justitia, Res Publica, and the City-State.
Week 10. Measure for Measure. The Drama of the Courtroom: Forensic Rhetoric and the Theatre of Law.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Critical comprehension of the relationship between Shakespeare’s plays and the law, and the performative function of the trial in his dramaturgy.
• Detailed historical perspective of developments in English law during the early modern period.
• Understanding the relationship between history, culture and theatrical performance.
• Development of forensic skills of advocacy.
• Development of key skills of communication, negotiation, presentation, and performance.
• Ability to make productive links between theoretical ideas and practical applications.
• Ability to identify issues relevant to the lawyer, to formulate questions and engage in problem-solving.
• Ability to use research tools and resources, including specialist archives, and reference material correctly.
• Development of collaborative skills of listening, feedback, and resolution.

Indicative reading list

Arlidge, Anthony, Shakespeare and the Prince of Love: The Feast of Misrule in the Middle Temple (London: Giles de la Mare, 2000);

Baker, J.H., An Introduction to English Legal History (London: Butterworth, 2005);

Baker, J.H., The Third University of England: the Inns of Court and the Common Law Tradition (London: Selden Society, 1990);

Brand, Paul, The Origins of the English Legal Profession (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992);

Collinson, Patrick, Elizabethans (London: Hambledon and London, 2003);

Collinson, Patrick, The Birthpangs of Protestant England: Religious and Cultural Change in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988);

Gless, Darryl J., Measure for Measure, The Law and the Convent (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979);

Hindle, Steve, The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, c. 1550-1640 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000);

Jordan, Constance and Cunningham, Karen (eds.), The Law and Shakespeare (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006);

Pocock, J.G.A., The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law: A Study of English Historical Thought in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987);

Raffield, Paul, Images and Cultures of Law in Early Modern England: Justice and Political Power, 1558-1660 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004);

Raffield, Paul, Shakespeare’s Imaginary Constitution: Late-Elizabethan Politics and the Theatre of Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2010);

Raffield, Paul, The Art of Law in Shakespeare (Oxford: Hart/Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017);

Raffield, Paul and Watt, Gary (eds.), Shakespeare and the Law (Oxford: Hart, 2008);

Skinner, Quentin, Forensic Shakespeare (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014);

Ward, Ian, Shakespeare and the Legal Imagination (London: Butterworth, 1999).

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Interdisciplinary

This module explores the plays of William Shakespeare which enact jurisdical procedures. Interested equally in early modern English law and theatrical performance, it considers the Tudor laws that underpin Shakespeare’s sensational dramatization of juridical themes

Subject specific skills

No subject specific skills defined for this module.

Transferable skills

The module is intended to enhance and consolidate students’ academic and research skills, while simultaneously stimulating team-work and collaboration; thus creating a pool of transferable skills that students can use both academically and vocationally.