How Long to Read Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s

How Long Does it Take to Read Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s?

It takes the average reader 7 hours and 16 minutes to read Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s by Virginia Lee Strain

Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more

Description

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 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.

How long is Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s?

Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s by Virginia Lee Strain is 426 pages long, and a total of 109,056 words.

This makes it 144% the length of the average book. It also has 133% more words than the average book.

How Long Does it Take to Read Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s Aloud?

The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 9 hours and 55 minutes to read Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s aloud.

What Reading Level is Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s?

Perfecting the Law: Legal Reform and Literary Forms in the 1590s and 1600s is suitable for students ages 12 and up.

Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.

When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.

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