Eternal Bonds, True Contracts

A. G. Harmon

Description

In Eternal Bonds, True Contracts, A. G. Harmon closely analyzes Shakespeare's concentrated use of the law and its instruments in what have often been referred to as the problem plays: Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, The Merchant of Venice, and All's Well That Ends Well. Contracts, bonds, sureties, wills—all ensure a changed relationship between parties, and in Shakespeare the terms are nearly always reserved for use in the contexts of marriage and fellowship. Harmon explores the theory and practice of contractual obligations in Renaissance England, especially those involving marriage and property, in order to identify contractual elements and their formation, execution, and breach in the plays. Using both legal and literary resources, Harmon reveals the larger significance of these contractual concepts by illustrating how Shakespeare develops them both dramatically and thematically. Harmon's study ultimately enables the reader to perceive not only these plays but also all of Shakespeare's writing—including his poetry—as integral with, and implicated in, the proliferating legalism that was helping to define early modern English culture.

Acknowledgments

1. The Semblance of Virtue: Law, Nature, and Shakespeare

2. Things Seen and Unseen: The Contracts in Measure for Measure

3. Perfection in Reversion: The Mock Contract in Troilus and Cressida

4. Matching Meanings: Contracts, Bonds, and Sureties in The Merchant of Venice

5. Lawful Title: Contractual Performance in All's Well That Ends Well

6. Nature's Double Name: Beyond the Problem Plays

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Sujets

• Shakespeare
• Legal history
• William Shakespeare

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791484920
• Langue: English

Extrait

Eternal Bonds, TrueContracts

Law and Nature in Shakespeare’s Problem Plays

A. G. Harmon

ETERNAL BONDS, TRUE CONTRACTS

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ETERNAL BONDS, TRUE CONTRACTS

Law and Nature in Shakespeare’s Problem Plays

A. G. H ARMON

S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S

Published by State Universit y of New York Press, Albany

© 2004 State Universit y of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

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For information, address State Universit y of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harmon, A. G., 1962– Eternal bonds, true contracts : law and nat ure in Shakespeare’s problem plays / A. G. Harmon. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6117-3 (acid-free paper)paper): acid-free — ISBN 0-7914-6118-1 (pbk. 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Tragicomedies. 2. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Knowledge—Nat ural histor y. 3. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Knowledge—Law. 4. Nat ure in literat ure. 5. Law in literat ure. 6. Tragicomedy. I. Title.

PR2981.5.H37 2004 822.3'3—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2003061720

Acknowledgments

C o n t e n t s

Chapter 1. The Semblance of Virt ue: Law, Nat ure, and Shakespeare

Chapter 2. Things Seen and Unseen: The Contracts in Measure for Measure

Chapter 3. Perfection in Reversion: The Mock Contract inTroilus and Cressida

Chapter 4. Matching Meanings: Contracts, Bonds, and Sureties inThe Merchant of Venice

Chapter 5. Lawful Title: Contract ual Performance in All’s Well That Ends Well

Chapter 6. Nat ure’s Double Name: Beyond the Problem Plays

Notes

Works Cited

Index

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A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

Portions of chapter 4 were published in an article entitled “Lawful Deeds”: The Entitlements of Marriage in Shakespeare’sAll’s Well That Ends Well.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture4.3 (summer 2001): 115–42.

A version of this book was submitted as a doctoral dissertation to The Catholic Universit y of America, Washington, DC, in May 2000 in partial re- quirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

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C H A P T E R

I

T h e S e m b l a n c e o f V i r t u e

Law, Nature, and Shakespeare

It is a fair generalization of our times to say that the law figures into literature as some t ype of ordeal the characters must battle through. If it takes the form of a trial, their plight is often unjust; heroes persevere against judicial badgering until they are exonerated. If the law takes the form of rules or imperatives, it often be- comes a prohibition the characters labor under, an institutional hindrance they must get past to achieve freedom and happiness. In drama, the law has always provided a certain theatrical tension, but is in itself rather deadly. Few would watch a staged trial for the trial’s sake alone. Rather, the dramatic payoff comes in seeing whether the characters will endure. We have come to think that, in art, freedom lies outside the law; indeed, that nature itself lies outside the law. It is a dramatic gauntlet to be run, or a psychological mechanism to be shed. That this should be so is not without justification in human experience. As Frank Kermode has explained, the discord bet ween what is just and what is real harkens back to one of the first things we learn about the world as chil- 1 dren, when we cry that something “isn’t fair.” When we grow up and experi- ence the law in its more instit utional sense, it plagues us with its seeming obtuseness, its capriciousness, its inabilit y to redress the very evils it is sup- posed to guard against. No wonder then, Kermode continues, the law and the legal profession should be so frequently excoriated in drama:

The animus against the legal profession arose partly . . . because of its habit of obscuring its operations in jargon unintelligible to nonlawyers, but more because of a natural fear of men who, though visibly merely men and theologically sinners, could, by wearing furred gowns and

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