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Gesta Grayorum Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s by Virginia Lee Strain A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of English University of Toronto © Copyright by Virginia Lee Strain (2011) Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s Virginia Lee Strain Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Toronto 2011 Abstract This dissertation examines early modern literary engagements with the rhetorical and ethical dimensions of law reform. One of the most important mechanisms of social regulation in late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean England, law reform was a matter of, first, the “perfection” of the organization and expression of existing laws, legal instruments, and legal processes. However counter-intuitively, these officially-sponsored reforms were calculated to prevent more radical innovations that would generate “inconveniences,” systemic contradictions and uncertainties that threatened the law’s ability to produce just results. Second, law reformers generated a discourse on “execution” that targeted the character of legal representatives. This tradition of character criticism, delivered directly from the Lord Keeper’s mouth or circulated through other legal-political, literary, theatrical, didactic, and religious works, encouraged officers’ conscientious execution of their duties and alerted the English public to the signs of the abuse of authority. Law reform created a distinct critical orientation toward legal and governing activities that was reproduced throughout a system of justice in which an extraordinary number of subjects participated. It was a critical orientation, moreover, that ii was refracted in literature sensitive to the implications of the socio-political dominance of legal language, traditions, and officers. The principles and practices of law reform— along with the conflicts and anxieties that inspired and sprang from them—were appropriated by amateur and professional writers alike. Close readings reveal that Inns- of-Court revellers, Francis Bacon, John Donne and Shakespeare all engaged deeply with the potential, as well as the ethical and practical limitations, of law reform’s central role in local and national governance. In the Gesta Grayorum and Donne’s “Satyre V,” the reveller and the satiric speaker improvise on legal forms to compensate for the law’s imperfections that threaten the security and prosperity of the English subject. In Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and The Winter’s Tale, the character of the legal- political officer and reformer is tested as he attempts to put policies and principles into practice. iii Acknowledgments Everything started with my dad’s grade nine English teacher. Without Grant Huffman’s guidance, dad would not have read the right books and certainly would never have waited for the right woman. My older brother and I would never have been born, a catastrophe (much like birth) that few recover from. In 15 Stories, one of the anthologies Grant edited in the ’60s and ’70s for secondary school students, the introduction starts with a baseball analogy: Baseball is a spectator sport, but no self-respecting spectator would go into the stadium without knowing at least (a) the language of the game and (b) some of its basic rules. Story-writing is a spectator sport, too, and, as a spectator reader, you owe it to yourself, and to the writer, to know some of the language of his game and a few of its basic rules…. You may never turn professional, but you should come to respect yourself as a reliable amateur critic.1 Grant was the best friend that the Strain family ever had, and his memory inspires my own desire to speak with the dead. I wish I could tell Grant that I’ve mastered more than a few of the “basic rules” of the reading and writing game by now; that I’ve turned pro, so to speak; and that I have a number of remarkable coaches to thank for that. Foremost among those coaches are my committee members, of course. I am most grateful for my supervisor, Lynne Magnusson, who taught me (however unwilling a student I was) not to lose hope every time I lost heart, not to despair every time I lost direction. Only my admiration for Lynne can keep pace with my debt to her: both defy reckoning. The “Inerrant Oracle” of early modern studies, Elizabeth Harvey, ushered me into the world of historical scholarship (again, however unwilling a student I was) and 1 Grant Huffman, 15 Stories: An Anthology for Secondary Schools (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1960) 1. iv first encouraged me in the direction of the law. Here, as in everything, her instincts were infallible. With impossibly buoyant good humour, Holger Schott Syme coached me through one tough inning after another and supported me through numerous mid-season injuries, proving time and again that he is in a league of his own. The encouragement and conversation of David Galbraith, Kim Yates, Scott Schofield, and many others helped make the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria College a second home. I benefited not only from the special collections at Victoria College, but also from graduate fellowships, scholarships, and travel grants. Many other members of the University of Toronto’s expansive community of early modern scholars deserve mention. In particular, I’d like to thank Paul Stevens, for his generous and exuberant encouragement, and Jill Levenson, who first inspired my love of Shakespeareans. I owe debts much farther afield than the U of T. The dissertation began to take shape over the course of Lorna Hutson’s Folger Institute seminar on “Plotting and Probability.” I am extremely grateful for her conversations and ongoing support. Drafts of papers and chapters have also been read by Bradin Cormack, Karen Cunningham, Simon Stern, and the participants of Shakespeare Association of America seminars— scholars who have all been incredibly generous with their time and advice. My dissertation was completed with the support of fellowships from the Huntington Library and the University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities. I am grateful for the conviviality of the early modern scholars within the University of Manitoba’s English, Film, and Theatre Department, especially Judith Owens and Glenn Clark. Of course, I owe my greatest thanks to my parents: to Ross Strain, whose irrepressible non-conformism forced me to think differently, and to Sharon Lee Strain, who still vigilantly defends my freedom to think however I choose. In form and execution, my mom is practically perfect. (Anchises supplied the sacred burden, and Venus the destiny-rescuing interventions.) Thanks to Sidney Strain, with whom life is a pastoral romance, and without whom it is an Arcadian desert. Thanks also to the Struffins and the Eviches, for the comic relief and, just as important, the presents. v Thanks to my friends: “fellowship is heaven, and lack of fellowship is hell: fellowship is life, and lack of fellowship is death.” Thanks to Alejandra Ribera, patron saint of comedians and other dispossessed identities. Thanks to Rory McKeown, who took me in and fed me. Thanks to Anne Seiwerath, to the 42nd Street branch of the NYPL, and to Brooklyn. Thanks to Erin Ellerbeck, for her epistolary sympathy. And finally, thanks to the “Women of 3rd Macklem House” who, since 1997, have kept a conversation afloat that has by now travelled the globe—like the Olympic torch, only much, much, much more interesting. vi Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction: Perfection and Execution ..............................................................1 Part One: Perfection Chapter 2 Pardon and Exception in the Gesta Grayorum .................................................32 Chapter 3 “To know and weed out”: John Donne’s “Satyre V”........................................65 Part Two: Execution Chapter 4 The Court of Assize, Local Justice, and Measure for Measure ......................101 Chapter 5 The Winter’s Tale and the Oracle of the Law .................................................142 Conclusion The Lines and Veins of Unperfect History...................................................175 Works Consulted..............................................................................................................179 vii List of Figures Figure 1 “Ragione di stato,” from Henry Peacham, Minerva Britanna; or, 94 A Garden of Heroical Deuises, Furnished, and Adorned with Emblemes and Impresa’s of Sundry Natures (London: 1612) 22. Reproduced with permission from the Huntington Library. viii Chapter 1 Introduction: Perfection and Execution This dissertation recovers a history of law reform from early modern legal, literary, and political writings. The study of law reform reveals a concern for form and character that was common to legal-political authorities and writers alike. The broad participatory structure of early modern justice helped produce writers (not to mention readers and audiences) who were especially sensitive to the contribution of legal language, institutions, practices, and officers to the regulation of the commonwealth. The dominance of the law in everyday life made it a popular focus of criticism, and the law’s reform was of widespread concern. The principles and practices of law reform, together with the conflicts and anxieties that inspired and sprang from them, were appropriated by both amateur and professional writers. Close readings reveal that the Gray’s Inn Christmas revels of 1594-5, Donne’s
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