"Sometimes like a lawyer."
Timon of Athens

"And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew."
Goldsmith

The works of William Shakespeare contain a remarkable quantity of law terms, whose significances are naturally unknown to the generality of readers. Some of the admirers of our great dramatist may assert that the universality of his genius, the strength, vigour, and magnitude of his intellectual faculties and powers of investigation, enabled him to acquire a more profound knowledge of a greater variety of subjects than ever yet seems to have been possessed by the same individual, and that the legal knowledge he has displayed in the correct use of law terms is not more remarkable than his intimate acquaintance with human nature, and accurate observation of the habits and customs of mankind, or than the knowledge of seamanship, and the correct use of nautical terms he has displayed in the Tempest. To attempt to account for the frequent occurrence and correct use of law terms in [4] Shakespeare's Works, by attributing to him knowledge of a great variety of subjects, is not satisfactory; for, Shakespeare's knowledge, it is generally admitted, was more intuitive than acquired, consisting more in an extensive and profound intimacy with human nature, with the animal and inanimate world—which he has displayed with a truthfulness and inanimate power, and sublimity unapproached, if not unapproachable, rather than in a familiarity with the writings of authors and science in general—and if that master mind could possibly have possessed double the unequalled genius which exalted him far above the generality of his fellow creatures, he would not have been able to use and apply law terms of a purely technical character in the manner appearing in his compositions, without considerable knowledge of that abstruse and mighty science, the law of England. Nor will it be satisfactory to state that the legal knowledge he has displayed in the correct use of law terms affords no more evidence of his having been a lawyer than the correct use of nautical terms and the knowledge of seamanship are peculiar to the Tempest—those phrases are not of frequent occurrence, and that knowledge is not displayed in any other portion of his works. Moreover, if it can be proved, as there seems reason to believe, that the principles and practice of the law of real property were more generally understood by unprofessional people in Shakespeare's time than at the present day, that circumstance will not satisfactorily account for all Shakespeare's legal knowledge, because his works contain passages displaying [5] not merely a knowledge of the principles and practice of the law of real property, but also of the common law, and of the criminal law, and a thorough intimacy with the exact letter of the Statute Law.

SUFFOLK. Lord cardinal, the King's further pleasure is,
Because all those things you have done of late
By your power legatine within this kingdom,
Fall into the compass of a præminure,
That, therefore, such a writ be sued against you,
To forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements,
Chattels, and whatsoever, and to be
Out of the King's protection. This is my charge.
Henry VIII, Act 3, Scene 2.

A Præmunire (so called from the words of the write Præmunire facis, or Præmoneri facias, signifying the writ of the offence on which the writ is grounded) is an offence whereby one shall incur the same punishment which is inflicted upon those who transgress the 16th Richard II, chap. 5, commonly called the Statute of Præmunire, which enacts that "If any purchase or pursue, or cause to be purchased or pursued in the Court of Rome, or elsewhere, any translation, process, sentence of excommunication, bulls, instruments, &c., which touch the King; or if any do bring them within the realm, or receive them, they shall be put out of the King's protection, and their lands, tenements, goods and chattels, forfeited to the King." (See exposition of this statute, 3rd Inst., 126, and see 28th Henry VIII, chap. 16, which is a general law, and strictly penned against pleading any bull, dispensation, &c., from Rome, which is not warranted by the act. Wood's Institute, 2nd ed., p. 408.) This offence originated from the power claimed and exercised by the Pope, which [6] even in the days of blind zeal was too exorbitant for our ancestors to endure.

DUKE. Whoe'er he be, that in this foul proceeding,
Hath thus beguiled your daughter or herself,
And you of her, the bloody book of law
You shall read in the bitter letter,
After your own sense; yes, though our proper son
Stood in your action.
OTHELLO. I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration, and what mighty magic,
(For such proceeding I am charged withal,)
I won his daughter with.

The 8th cap. 33rd Henry VIII, against conjuration, witchcraft, sorceries, and enchantments, enacts "It shall be felony to practice, or cause to be practised, conjuration, witchcraft, enchantment, or sorcery, to get money; or to consume any person in his body, members, or goods; or to provoke any person to unlawful love; or for despight of Christ, or lucre of money, to pull down any cross; or to declare where goods stolen be." (See also 5th Eliz., cap. 5.) These passages sufficiently prove that Shakespeare's knowledge of the English law was not confined to the lex non scripta, for he uses almost the exact language of the statutes. It may, however, be asserted that probably chance made Shakespeare familiar with law terms; but chance would not have enabled him to apply them with such correctness. Moreover, why should Shakespeare make use of law terms in preference to the technical terms of the medical, clerical, or any other profession? It will also be perceived, in the passages about to be selected, that the great dramatist, in addition to a frequent use of law terms and law phraseology, makes constant reference [7] to lawyers in his allusions to mankind, in apparent preference to members of any other profession. Why should Hamlet, in his reflections on a skull, suppose that it belonged to a lawyer, in preference to a doctor or a divine? But let the reader notice how many law terms are made us of in this passage:

HAMLET. Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddets now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave, now, to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Humph! This fellow might be in's time a buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones, too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyance of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more?

Quiddets and quillets, cases and tenures, are terms with which many persons, who are not familiar with the laws of England, are perfectly well acquainted. But statutes and recognizances, fines, double vouchers, and recoveries are somewhat more technical and abstruse. Recognizance, (recognitio), though in special signification it only acknowledges a certain debt, and is executed upon all the goods and half of the lands of the recogniser, yet by extension it is drawn also to bonds, commonly called statute merchant and statute of the staple. A statute merchant (so called from the 13th Edward I., De mercatoribus), was a bond acknowledged before one of the clerks of the statutes merchant, and mayor, or chief warden of the city of London, or two merchants of the said city, for that purpose assigned; or before the mayor, [8] chief warden, or master of other cities or good towns, or other sufficient men for that purpose appointed, sealed with the seal of the depter and of the King, which was of two pieces, the greater was kept by the said mayor, chief warden, &c., and the lesser piece thereof by the said clerks. Statute staple was either properly so called, or improperly. A statute staple, properly so called, was a bond of record, acknowledged before the mayor of the staple, in the presence of the two constables of the same staple, in the presence of the two constables of the same staple, founded upon the statute anno 27th Edward III., cap. 9. A statute staple improper, was a bond of record, founded upon the statute anno 23rd Henry VIII., cap. 6, of the nature of a proper statute staple, as touching the forces and execution thereof, and acknowledged before the mayor of the staple and the recorder of London. The statutes referred to by Hamlet are doubtless statutes merchant and statutes staple, and not acts of parliament; because between these statutes and recognizances there exists a reciprocal relation. Statutes staple, statutes merchant, and recognizances, in the nature of a statute staple, are now obsolete. The term fine, as used by Shakespeare in this passage, signified an amicable agreement or composition of a suit, whether real or fictitious, between the demandant and tenant, with the consent of the judges, and enrolled among the records of the court where the suit was commenced, by which lands and tenements were transferred from one person to another, or any other settlement was made respecting them. This assurance was called finis, or finalis concordia, from the words with which it began, and also from its effect, which was to put [9] an end to all suits and contentions. Thus, Glanville says: "Et nota quod dicitur talis concordia finalis, eo quod finem imponit negotio, adeo ut neuter ligitantium ab eâ de cetera poterit recedere;" and Bracton says: "Finis est extremitas unius cujusque rei, et ideo dicitur finalis concordia, quia imponit finem litibus." A recovery, in its most extensive sense, was a restoration of a former right, by the solemn judgment of a court of justice; and judgment, whether obtained after a real defence made by the tenant, or upon his default, or feint plea, had the same force and efficacy to bind the right of the land so recovered, and to vest a free and absolute estate in fee-simple in the recoverer. A common recovery was a judgment obtained in a fictitious suit, brought against the tenant of the freehold in consequence of a default made by the person who was last vouched to warranty in such suit. The end and effect of this recovery was to discontinue and destroy estates tail, remainders, and reversions, and to bat the former owners thereof, and in this formality three parties were required, namely the defendant, he that brought the writ of entry, and might be termed the recoverer; the tenant, he against whom the write was brought, and might termed the recoveree; and the vouchee, he whom the tenant vouched, or called to warranty for the land in demand.

PASANIO. Here's a voucher
Stronger than ever law could make.
Cymbeline, Act 2, Scene 2.

CORIOLANUS. Why in this wolfish gown should I stand here,
To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear,
Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to 't.
Corialanus, Act 2, Scene 3.

[10] A recovery might be, and was, frequently suffered with double, treble, or further voucher, as the exigency of the case required, in which case there were several judgments against the several vouchees.

The reader will from this explanation perceive that Shakespeare has used the terms recovery and double voucher not indiscriminately, but in a relative sense, as the mention of one term suggest the idea of the other, with which it is inseparably connected. Fines and recoveries were abolished by the 3rd and 4th William IV., c. 74, which contains provisions enabling tenants in tail to dispose of their estate so as to create a fee-simple absolute, or any less estate. This act received the royal assent on the 28th August, 1833, and came into operation on the 1st January, 1834.

Shakespeare displays his acquaintance with the custom of conveyancing lawyers in this passage:

"The very conveyance of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more?"

Why should Hamlet compare the grave to a box? Not because there is any resemblance between a box and a grave, but because conveyancers and attorneys keep their deeds in wood or tin boxes. If the reader, recollecting the explanations that have been made, will take the trouble to dwell a short time on these reflections of Hamlet, he will perceive that the word fine there made us of is intended to signify, not a penalty, but an end. The fine of his fines means the end or termination of his fines. That his fine pate is filled, not with fine dirt, but with the last dirt that will ever occupy it, leaving a satirical inference to be drawn, that even in his lifetime his head was filled with [11] dirt. From the following passages it appears that Shakespeare uses the term fine in that sense:

HELENA. All's well that ends well; still the fine's the crown;
Whate'er the course, the end is the renown.
All's Well That Ends Well, Act 4, Scene 4.

BENEDICT. And the fine is (for the which I may go the finer) I will live a bachelor.
Much Ado About Nothing, Act 1, Scene 1.

Time's office is the fine the hate of foes;
To eat up errors by opinion bred,
Not spend the dowry of a lawful bed."
The Rape of Lucrece.

IAGO. Poor and content, is rich and rich enough;
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that fears he shall be poor.
Othello, Act 3, Scene 3.

MRS. PAGE. The spirit of wantonness is sure scared out of him; if the devil have him not in fee-simple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt us again.
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 4, Scene 2.

Tenant in fee-simple, in the language of Littleton, is he which hath lands or tenements to hold to him and to his heirs for ever. And it is called, in Latin, feodum simplex, for feodum is the same that inheritance is, and simplex is as much to say lawful or pure; and so feodum simplex signifies a lawful or pure inheritance; and fine and recovery was formerly the strongest assurance known to the English law.

"Non in regno Angliae providetur vel est aliqua securitas major seu solennior per quam aliquia statum certiorem habere posit, vel ad statum suam verificandum aliquod solennius testimonium producere, quam finem in curia domini Regis levatum; qui quidem finis sic vocatur, eo finis at consummatio omnium placitorum esse debet; et quod hoc de causâ providebatur.—2 Roll Ab. 13, 18th Edward I.

[12] Mrs. Page means to say that the devil had as absolute power over Falstaff as a man has over an inheritance of which he is seized in fee-simple in possession.