Shakespeare's legal language : a dictionary

510 Pages·2004·23.565 MB·English

by  Shakespeare, William, Sokol, Mary, Sokol, B. J., Shakespeare, William

Shakespeare's Legal Language
STUDENT SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY
Series Editor
Sandra Clark (Birkbeck College, University of London)
Shakespeare's Legal Language B.J. Sokol & Mary Sokol
Military Language in Shakespeare Charles Edelman
Shakespeare's Theatre Hugh Richmond
Literature in Shakespeare Stuart Gillespie
STUDENT SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY
Shakespeare's Legal Language
A Dictionary
B. J. SOKOL & MARY SOKOL
ontinuum
L O N D O N NEW YORK
Continuum
The Tower Building 15 East 26th Street
11 York Road Suite 1703
London SE1 7NX New York 10010
First published in 2000 by
THE ATHLONE PRESS
This edition 2004
© B. J. Sokol and Mary Sokol 2000
B. J. Sokol and Mary Sokol have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1998, to be identified as the authors of this work
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Sokol, B. J.
Shakespeare's legal language / B J. Sokol & Mary Sokol.
p. cm. — (Athlone Shakespeare dictionary series)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0 8264 7778 X (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564—1616—Knowledge—Law—Dictionaries. 2. English
language—Early modern, 1500-1700—Dictionaries. 3. Law—England—History—16th
century—Dictionaries. 4. Law—England—History—17th century—Dictionaries. 5. Law in
literature—Dictionaries. I. Sokol, Mary, 1945- II. Title, III. Series.
PR3028 .S65 2000
822.3'3—dc21
99-043014
Distributed in The United States, Canada and South America by
Transaction Publishers
390 Campus Drive
Somerset, New Jersey 08873
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without prior
permission in writing from the publisher.
Previously published in hardback in the
Athlone Shakespeare Dictionary series
for Mark, Kate and Anna
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Contents
Series Editor's Preface ix
Acknowledgements x
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
A-Z 9
Bibliography of Sources as Cited 429
Index of Shakespeare Passages, Scenes, Works 459
Index of Legal Terms and Concepts 489
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Series Editor's Preface
The Athlone Shakespeare Dictionaries aim to provide the student of
Shakespeare with a series of authoritative guides to the principal
subject-areas covered by the plays and poems. They are produced by
scholars who are experts both on Shakespeare and on the topic of the
individual dictionary, based on the most recent scholarship, succinctly
written and accessibly presented. They offer readers a self-contained
body of information on the topic under discussion, its occurrence and
significance in Shakepeare's works, and its contemporary meanings.
The topics are all vital ones for understanding the plays and poems;
they have been selected for their importance in illuminating aspects of
Shakespeare's writings where an informed understanding of the range
of Shakespeare's usage, and of the contemporary literary, historical
and cultural issues involved, will add to the reader's appreciation of his
work. Because of the diversity of the topics covered in the series, indi-
vidual dictionaries may vary in emphasis and approach, but the aim and
basic format of the entries remain the same from volume to volume.
Sandra Clark
Birkbeck College
University of London