
Contents
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Rhetoric Rhetoric
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Argumentum in utramque partem Argumentum in utramque partem
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The drama of disputation The drama of disputation
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Law plays Law plays
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Shakespeare’s show of ‘trials’ Shakespeare’s show of ‘trials’
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Closing on openings Closing on openings
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Cite
Abstract
Shakespeare and the Law can be appreciated as cultural phenomena having a similar enduring status and capacity for flexible adaptation to changing social conditions. It can be argued that that they achieve their persuasive power and flexibility through shared recourse to rhetorical performance practices. These practices, which inform the performative elements of legal and playhouse drama, derive from classical sources that were rediscovered and reimagined in the early modern education and culture that lawyers and dramatists had in common. Exemplary of this early modern renaissance in rhetorical education are the practical exercises in trial and disputation conducted by students in the grammar schools, Shakespeare included, and by law students in London’s Inns of Court. Rhetorical practice in controversial dispute and the negotiation of rules and forms is pervasive in Shakespeare’s poetic and dramatic output and demands that we look beyond the obvious ‘law plays’ for a mature appreciation of the legal relevance of Shakespeare’s work.
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