The Invention of Suspicion: Law and Mimesis in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama

393 Pages·2008·3.08 MB·English

by  Lorna Hutson

The Invention of Suspicion
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The Invention
of Suspicion
Law and Mimesis in Shakespeare
and Renaissance Drama
Lorna Hutson
1
1
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ForCathySprent andEllie YongAn Hutson
Acknowledgements
I am pleased to be able to acknowledge the generous support of the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which enabled me to
spend the year 2004–5 working on this book. I am also grateful to the
University of St Andrews for granting me sabbatical leave in the spring
of 2006, and to the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great
Britain for funding leave for the autumn of 2006 in which to write up
my research. I am grateful to the Masters of the Bench of the Inner
Temple for permission to reproducethe illumination of the Court of the
King’sBench,c.1450(Fig.3),andtotheHonourableSocietyoftheMiddle
Temple for permission to reproduce their painting of the Judgment of
Solomon (c.1570, Fig. 4). The Reverend Jim Hill of Charlton Mackrell
church, Somerset, kindly allowed me to visit the church to photograph
a carved bench end depicting a writing devil (Fig.1), the reproduction
of which here I gratefully acknowledge. Thanks to the British Library
for permission to reproduce a woodcut from Der Ritter vom Turn (Fig.
2) and William Lambarde’s 1592 table of ‘what things be materiall to
induceSuspicion’(Fig.5).Portionsofthisbookhaveappeared,inslightly
different versions, in the journal Representations. Chapter 2 appeared in
a slightly different form as ‘Rethinking the ‘‘Spectacle of the Scaffold’’:
JuridicalEpistemologiesandEnglishRevengeTragedy’,Representations,89
(Winter2005),30–58,andpartsofChapter3appearedinRepresentations,
94 (Spring 2006), 80–109, as ‘Forensic Aspects of Renaissance Mimesis’.
I am grateful to the editorial board of Representations for permission to
reproducethismaterialinalteredformhere.
This book’s genesis owes a great deal to colleagues at the University of
CaliforniaatBerkeley.IowemostofalltoVictoriaKahn,whobelievedin
theargumentofthisstudywhenithardlyexistedatall,andwithoutwhose
interest,enthusiasm,andgeneroussupportitwouldcertainlyneverhave
become a book. I am also grateful, for discussion and friendship at early
stages in the work’s genesis, to Berkeley colleagues Janet Adelman, Joel
vi
Acknowledgements
Altman,AlbertAscoli,DavidBates,CarolClover,CathyGallagher,Jeffrey
Knapp, and Steve Justice, and to the editorial board of Representations
whose discussion of a version of Chapter 2 helped shaped the book in
my mind at a formative time. I would like to acknowledge here also
the friendship of the late Nick Howe, whose advice about writing and
reviewing was invaluable, and delivered with a warmth, sharpness, and
energy now sadly missed. My intellectual debts to one other Berkeley
colleague—BarbaraShapiro—areapparentthroughout thebook.Ithank
Daniel Javitch for his most generous support, Bernadette Meyler for
sharing her unpublished work with me, and Peter Goodrich for inviting
metospeakattheLaw,CultureandHumanitiesConferenceinNewYork,
2003, and for kindness in correspondence on many issues. Hilary Schor,
Nomi Stolzenberg, and Rebecca Lemon invited me to present work from
thebookattheUniversityofSouthernCaliforniaCenterforLaw,Culture
andHumanities,forwhichIamgrateful.
SinceIreturnedtoBritain,Ihaveaccumulatedmoredebtsofgratitude:
IwouldliketothankDavidNorbrookforsupportonmanyoccasions,and
forinvitingmetopresentsomeofthisworkatOxfordin2005.Thanksto
RosBallaster,asever,forfriendshipandforaskingareallysmartquestion
which got me thinking. I would like to thank Andrew Hadfield as a
generous reader, and for inviting me to Sussex. Thanks to the organizers
oftheconferenceontheInnsofCourtinSeptember2006—JayneArcher,
ElizabethGoldring,andSarahKnight—forauniqueopportunitytolearn
from many experts on so many aspects of early modern legal culture.
My colleagues in the School of History at St Andrews, Paul Hammer,
John Hudson, and Andrew Pettegree, have listened to some of these
ideas and offered very helpful suggestions, and my colleagues in the
SchoolofEnglisharethemostsupportive,sane,andfriendlycommunity
of scholars imaginable. Especial thanks to Neil Rhodes, who read the
Introduction. Julian Luxford in the School of Art History has patiently
respondedtosomeveryignorantquestionsaboutmedievaliconography.
With wonderful scholarly generosity, Peter Holland, William Sherman,
andMarkJennersharedtheirknowledgeinresponsetomyqueriesabout
plaguebillsandJonson’sAlchemist.
IamgratefultotheCentralExecutiveCommitteeoftheFolgerInstitute
for offering me the opportunity to teach a late spring seminar in June
2006,at which I was able to try out some of the ideas presented here on
unsuspectingseminarparticipants.Ithanktheparticipantsforstimulating
and enthusiastic discussions, and am especially grateful to those with
whom I am still occasionally in correspondence about these legal and
vii
Acknowledgements
literary matters: Edward Gieskes, Lisa Klotz, Virginia Strain, and Owen
Williams.DuringmytimeattheFolgerIenjoyedmany discussionswith
HeatherJames,forwhichIthankher.HolgerSchott-Symehasbeenamost
energetic and engaged correspondent on many legal and literary topics
of shared interest, and I have learned a great deal from our electronic
discussions.IhavelikewiselearnedfromdiscussionswithBradinCormack
andSubhaMukherji,bothofwhoseworkonthistopicIhavebeenlucky
enough to encounter in unpublished form. Bradin Cormack also kindly
read and made characteristically subtle and stimulating comments on a
versionofChapter4.
I am grateful to Margaret Grundy of the Interlibrary Loans section
of St Andrews’ University Library for going to great lengths to acquire
numerousitemsforme,andIwouldliketoacknowledge,too,theespecial
helpfulness of librarians at Duke Humphrey’s Library at the Bodleian.
Andrew McNeillie has been the most delightful and reassuring commis-
sioning editor, and Jacqueline Baker has been patient and sympathetic
about my difficulties with making a deadline imposed by the Research
Assessment Exercise. I am very grateful, too, for the legal knowledge
and critical astuteness of an anonymous reader of my manuscript for
OxfordUniversityPress:fewauthors,Ithink,canhavehadsuchhelpfully
pertinentcriticisms.
Mygreatestdebts,asusual,aretomyfamily:CathySprent,withagen-
erositynomentiononanacknowledgementspagecanrepay,allowedme
to spend weeks thinking about almost nothing but the book, neglecting
allsortsofotherchoresandcommitments,andElliehasputuppatiently
withaparentutterlydistractedformonthsandmonthsbyapileofbooks
andacomputer,fornoapparentreason.
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Contents
ListofFigures x
Introduction 1
1. FromPenitencetoEvidence:DramaandtheLegalReformation 12
2. RethinkingFoucault:TheJuridicalEpistemologyofEnglish
RenaissanceDrama 64
3. JudicialNarrativeandDramaticMimesis 104
4. FromIntriguetoDetection:TransformationsofClassical
Comedy,1566–1594 146
5. ForensicRhetoriconthePopularStage:Shakespeare’sHistories 217
6. ForensicRhetoricinEarlyRevengeTragedyandEarlyRomantic
Comedy:Kyd,Lyly,andShakespeare 259
7. Jonson’sJusticesandShakespeare’sConstables:SexualSuspicion
intheEvidentialPlot 303
Bibliography 347
Index 377
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