Forensic Shakespeare.

Cover -- FORENSIC SHAKESPEARE -- Copyright -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Conventions -- Introduction -- 1: Classical Rhetoric in Shakespeare's England -- The Roman rhetorical tradition -- The teaching of rhetoric in Tudor England -- The Tudor rhetoricians -- 2: Shakespeare's Forensic Plays -- Towards the forensic plays -- The early Jacobean plays -- 3: The Open Beginning -- Prohoemium -- Two ways to begin -- Introducing an honest cause -- 4: The Insinuative Beginning -- The need for insinuation -- Facing a hostile judge -- Introducing a foul cause -- 5: The Failed Beginning -- Defying the rules -- Mishandling the rules -- The limits of rhetoric -- 6: The Judicial Narrative -- Constructing a judicial narrative -- Narratives of accusation -- Narratives of justification -- Failed narratives -- 7: Confirmation: Juridical and Legal Issues -- Two methods of confirmation -- The juridical issue -- The legal issue -- 8: Confirmation: The Conjectural Issue -- Failed confirmation -- Ambiguous confirmation -- Successful confirmation -- Fabricated confirmation -- 9: Refutation and Non-Artificial Proofs -- Refutation by documentary evidence -- Refutation by an unimpeachable witness -- Double refutation: documents and witnesses -- 10: The Peroration and Appeal to Commonplaces -- The theory of loci communes -- Shakespearean commonplaces -- From commonplaces to the commonplace -- Appendix: The Date of All's Well That Ends Well -- Bibliography -- PRIMARY SOURCES -- SECONDARY SOURCES -- Index.

Quentin Skinner highlights the use of judicial rhetoric in some of Shakespeare's most famous works, shedding new light on Shakespeare's reading and the intellectual base of his work.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.