Lawyers at Play
Literature, Law, and Politics at the Early Modern Inns of Court, 1558-1581
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:29th Sep '22
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Many early modern poets and playwrights were also members of the legal societies the Inns of Court, and these authors shaped the development of key genres of the English Renaissance, especially lyric poetry, dramatic tragedy, satire, and masque. But how did the Inns come to be literary centres in the first place, and why were they especially vibrant at particular times? Early modernists have long understood that urban setting and institutional environment were central to this phenomenon: in the vibrant world of London, educated men with time on their hands turned to literary pastimes for something to do. Lawyers at Play proposes an additional, more essential dynamic: the literary culture of the Inns intensified in decades of profound transformation in the legal profession. Focusing on the first decade of Elizabeth's reign, the period when a large literary network first developed around the societies, this study demonstrates that the literary surge at this time developed out of and responded to a period of rapid expansion in the legal profession and in the career prospects of members. Poetry, translation, and performance were recreational pastimes; however, these activities also defined and elevated the status of inns-of-court men as qualified, learned, and ethical participants in England's 'legal magistracy': those lawyers, judges, justices of the peace, civic office holders, town recorders, and gentleman landholders who managed and administered local and national governance of England. Lawyers at Play maps the literary terrain of a formative but understudied period in the English Renaissance, but it also provides the foundation for an argument that goes beyond the 1560s to provide a framework for understanding the connections between the literary and legal cultures of the Inns over the whole of the early modern period.
Winston is to be congratulated on a learned study which illuminates the cultural predilections of the early modern Inns, and the hitherto understudied social and political imperatives which informed them. * Philip Major, Modern Language Review *
Each chapter is full of telling details, compelling argument, and, as a whole, the book succeeds in both its project of recovery and revaluation and in demonstrating how the culture of the Inns responds to profound changes in the Elizabethan polity. Lawyers at Play is an excellent book, a major contribution to the field of law and literature and early modern studies generally. * Edward Gieskes, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England *
Lawyers at Play: Literature, Law, and Politics at the Early Modern Inns of Court, 15581581 brings together over a decade's worth of articles, book chapters and new research in illustrating both how and why the Inns of Court grew into one of Englands most vibrant and major literary communities during the middle part of the sixteenth century. * Emily Buffey (University of Birmingham), Journal of the Northern Renaissance *
Winston skilfully and successfully addresses the subject of the interface between law, lawyers and poetry during the Elizabethan period. In nine tautly written chapters, she provides a lucid account of the peculiar contribution of lawyer-poets at the Inns to the juridical and political culture of the Elizabethan state. * Paul Raffield, Law and Humanities *
Overall it is impossible to do justice to this rich and densely packed volume, with its extensive bibliography. It certainly reinforces the idea that that culture is intimately connected with political outlook. * Anna Brunton (University of Oxford), British Society for Literature and Science *
A long overdue examination of the literary network that coalesced around the legal societies of the Inns of Court in the 1560s. * Studies in English Literature: 1500-1900 *
Winston's analyses are ... patient, careful and illuminating, such that this book offers more than a few valuable correctives to commonplace notions of the Inns and verdicts on the literature produced there. It encourages one to look forward to future studies, whether by Winston or by those whom this book will inspire, on the clusters of early modern Inns writers that came subsequently: in the 1590s; in the 1610s; in the 1630s-40s. * J. Christopher Warner, English Historical Review *
ISBN: 9780192872326
Dimensions: 234mm x 153mm x 19mm
Weight: 442g
288 pages