Shakespeare, Law, and Marriage

Combines legal, historical and literary approaches to marriage in Shakespeare's time and in his plays.

B. J. Sokol (Author), Mary Sokol (Author)

9780521822633, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 December 2003

276 pages
23.7 x 16 x 2.6 cm, 0.581 kg

'… their careful amassing and mastery of evidence makes Shakespeare, Law, and Marriage a fine study of context. … has great value as a work of reference. Its careful organization, structure, and direct specificity make it a most useful volume.' MLR

This interdisciplinary study combines legal, historical and literary approaches to the practice and theory of marriage in Shakespeare's time. It uses the history of English law and the history of the contexts of law to study a wide range of Shakespeare's plays and poems. The authors approach the legal history of marriage as part of cultural history. The household was viewed as the basic unit of Elizabethan society, but many aspects of marriage were controversial, and the law relating to marriage was uncertain and confusing, leading to bitter disagreements over the proper modes for marriage choice and conduct. The authors point out numerous instances within Shakespeare's plays of the conflict over status, gender relations, property, religious belief and individual autonomy versus community control. By achieving a better understanding of these issues, the book illuminates both Shakespeare's work and his age.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Making a valid marriage: the consensual model
2. Arranging marriages
3. Wardship and marriages enforced by law
4. Financing a marriage: provision of dowries or marriage portions
5. The solemnisation of marriage
6. Clandestine marriage, elopement, abduction and rape: irregular marriage formation
7. The effects of marriage on legal status
8. Marriage breakdown: separation, divorce, illegitimacy
9. 'Til death us do part
An afterword on method
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social law [LNT], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1], Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Theatre studies [AN]