This study into the relationship between law and drama in Renaissance England establishes the diversity of this dialogue, encompassing critique and complicity, comment and analogy. While resisting the idea that the theatre is invariably critical of legal procedures, it does claim that the way in which drama addresses legal problems and dilemmas is distinctive. As the resemblance between law and theatre concerns their formal and representational structures rather than their methods and aims, an interdisciplinary approach must be alive to the distinctions as to the affinities. Primarily focusing on early modern implications of the connection between legal and dramatic evidence, this study expands to address a wider range of issues which stretch the representational capacities of both courtroom and theatre. The book is distinct in its combination of a carefully contextualized study of legally preoccupied plays with a reconstruction of legal perceptions by using drama as historical evidence where appropriate.
