
Contents
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Introduction: The Priest’s Bastard and the Prince’s Grace: Entertaining the Polish Ambassadors in the “Greatest Theatre Ever” (1573) Introduction: The Priest’s Bastard and the Prince’s Grace: Entertaining the Polish Ambassadors in the “Greatest Theatre Ever” (1573)
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The Rhetorical Tradition and the Figure of Theatre The Rhetorical Tradition and the Figure of Theatre
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Delivery Handbooks for Lawyers and the Study of “Mute Eloquence” Delivery Handbooks for Lawyers and the Study of “Mute Eloquence”
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Learning from Roscius Learning from Roscius
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Theatre and Lawyers in the Anti-Rhetorical Tradition Theatre and Lawyers in the Anti-Rhetorical Tradition
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Humanist Legal Antitheatricality Humanist Legal Antitheatricality
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The Forum, the Stage, and the Sewer The Forum, the Stage, and the Sewer
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The Modern Courtroom as “Theatre” The Modern Courtroom as “Theatre”
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The Politics of a Trope The Politics of a Trope
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The Courtroom as Encyclopedic Anatomy Theatre: Dissecting the Legal Body The Courtroom as Encyclopedic Anatomy Theatre: Dissecting the Legal Body
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Pasquier’s Hands Pasquier’s Hands
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The Legal Entertainment Industry The Legal Entertainment Industry
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Learning from Marino’s Evil Cousin Learning from Marino’s Evil Cousin
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Critical Court-Watchers and the Feverish Crowd Critical Court-Watchers and the Feverish Crowd
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Pasquier Defends “the Slaughterer”: The Trial of Jean d’Arconville (1571) Pasquier Defends “the Slaughterer”: The Trial of Jean d’Arconville (1571)
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5 Performing Law in the Age of Theatre (c.1500–1650)
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Published:April 2022
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Abstract
This chapter explores the renewed early modern identification of law with theatre and the legal cultures that helped give rise to it. In the sixteenth century, as trial venues expanded, a new breed of lawyers seemed to take their inspiration from the theatres springing up throughout Europe. Many humanists, drawing on intensified antitheatrical discourses, denounced the lawyer’s use of “Histrionical-Rhetorical Gesticulation.” But others celebrated the courtroom as a “great & magnificent theatre,” investing the trope of courtroom as theatre with a multitude of meanings. The first manuals dedicated specifically to delivery appeared, along with a newly encyclopedic-anatomical science of nonverbal communication. Applied to courtroom performance critique, these offered new tools for the analysis of visible, audible, embodied meaning, inspiring the scrutiny of legal actors’ gestures, expressions, and intonations. Together, these phenomena contributed to practices of critical court-watching, the rise of the celebrity lawyer, and a full-blown culture of the trial as mass entertainment.
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