Download or read book Shakespeare's Legal Maxims written by William Lowes Rushton and published by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Rushton, a barrister of Gray's Inn, was one of the first to argue that Shakespeare was trained as a lawyer, a claim he advanced in Shakespeare a Lawyer (1858), Shakespeare's Testamentary Language (1869) and Shakespeare's Legal Maxims (1859). Maxims demonstrates "the poet's correct use of law terms, and intimate acquaintance with legal customs and tenures, and the lex scripta, than by his extensive and profound knowledge of the maxims of the English law" (13-14). Rushton reviews these maxims, by which he means fundamental points, and illustrates each with a quotation from Shakespeare. Each example is paired with a statement by Coke, Littleton, or other eminent jurist that was either a direct source or proof that Shakespeare was expressing a contemporary legal principal. Whether or not you accept Rushton's thesis, his book offers an excellent selection of quotations on the primary topics of the common law."