Much ado about lawyers

As the globe theatre hosts 'Shakespeare and the lawyers', Dan Hayes discovers a paradox in the bard's work.

While his plays are suffused with legal language, he was scathing about lawyers.

Still, all's well that ends well...

If you took a casual search through the works of William Shakespeare for the word 'lawyer', you would be forgiven for thinking the great man was not a fan of one of the world's older professions.A notorious example is found in 'Henry VI part II', act four, scene two, which contains the manifesto pledge (still silently voiced by many lay people): 'First thing.

We'll kill all the lawyers.'The bard's position sounds well entrenched, but first appearances can be deceptive, as visitors to London's Globe Theatre may well find out for themselves in the next few months.'Shakespeare and the Lawyers', a programme of lectures and play readings that begins at the Globe this week, will explore issues to do with the law and lawyers in the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.The season has been timed to follow on from the successful staging of 'Twelfth Night' at the Middle Temple Hall, and the opening speaker is Anthony Arlidge QC, one of the driving forces behind that production.Mr Arlidge says the play was first performed at the hall, on 2 February 1602, with Shakespeare himself present in the audience.

He has done wide-ranging research to back up his theory and the Inns of Court of the day would have been a perfectly plausible venue.'Many students at the Inns of Court were not really intent on a legal career,' he says, 'They were from the top social strata and were essentially attending a finishing school, networking, trying to secure a place at the royal court.'These wealthy men enjoyed all the pleasures of the day.

Mr Arlidge says: 'Many legal students used to write poetry, describing their lives and incidents such as going to Southwark to see bear-baiting, or to visit a brothel, or to watch a play.'Mr Arlidge says that 'Twelfth Night' was commissioned to be performed at the Candlemas celebrations - a major event in the calendar of the Elizabethan Inns of Court.

'The theme of the play matches the occasion.

The students used to elect a Prince of Misrule who ruled from Christmas to Candlemas.

In the Middle Temple, this individual was called the Prince of Love, so a play about love fitted the occasion as well,' he says.He also reckons Shakespeare had good contacts within the Middle Temple.

'Among the final-year students was Thomas Greene - his coat of arms is still in the hall - who called Shakespeare his "cousen".

Greene might well have been involved in organising the revels and was a distant relative of the playwright.

He went on to become town clerk of Stratford-upon-Avon and lived with Shakespeare's family in New Place.'Whether or not Mr Arlidge's theory is correct, it is certain that Shakespeare had an informed grasp of legal language and was not afraid to use it.

David Crystal, another of the Globe's forthcoming speakers and honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, discovered this as soon as he began to research the subject.'I looked up the words "lawyer" and "law" in all the plays and found just 11 instances of the former, but hundreds of the latter,' he says.

And the contexts of their appearances are different, he adds.

'Shakespeare is very rude about lawyers, but very respectful about the law.

He is always saying that lawyers should be killed, or they cheat, or that they fall asleep in court.'These comments are always tongue-in-cheek and said by characters who cannot be taken too seriously, such as fools, but nonetheless if a Martian came to earth and looked through the works of Shakespeare he'd think lawyers were a poor lot indeed.'But if its practitioners suffer the sharp end of the quill, then the object of their practice is held in high esteem.

'There are over 200 uses of the word "law" in the works of Shakespeare and lots of attitudes are expressed towards it,' says Mr Crystal.

'There are even some plays - such as the 'Merchant of Venice' - where the workings of the law are crucial to the whole play.'Look through the works of Shakespeare and you immediately encounter this amazing vocabulary.

There must be at least 1,000 words he uses that have a legal nuance.'Mr Crystal uses the example of one of the bard's lesser-known plays, 'Coriolanus', to emphasise the point.

'The work opens with a riot and one of the rioters begins: "Before we proceed any further, hear me speak." These are street rioters but they use the language of the law.

The whole plot has legal overtones and that resonates to all the characters.

They are all given a legal slant.'Then there is the case of the famous gravedigger scene in 'Hamlet', Mr Crystal adds.

'The prince picks up a skull and asks Horatio whom he thinks it might belong to.

He then answers his own question - quite gratuitously talking about the law when he doesn't need to.

Hamlet then has a little speech that plays on the language of the law.

The scene shows Shakespeare knew what the terminology was and also how to experiment with it.'And, as many in the audience were lawyers, they would have got the joke.

Others, no doubt, would have smirked at references to the profession that mirrored their own, less than enthusiastic, opinions.

'What is represented in the plays is a class opinion of a class,' says Mr Crystal.

'It is an accurate portrayal of contemporary opinions about lawyers.

But then other professions, such as doctors and priests, also take some abuse.'Perhaps he was more informed, and often more scathing, than most, but it was not just Shakespeare who drew inspiration from the law, as the Globe's season will demonstrate.The readings will include: 'The Devil's Law Case', by John Webster (himself a member of the Middle Temple); 'The Little French Lawyer', by John Fletcher; and 'The Honest Lawyer', by the mysterious 'Mr SS'.Patrick Spottiswoode, the director of Globe Education, was instrumental in selecting both the works and the overall themes.

'We looked at ways we could complement the 'Twelfth Night' season,' he says, 'We are also trying to support the non-Shakespeares of the period.'And he says the selection of staged readings should prove fascinating for lawyers and non-lawyers alike.

'Everyone knows 'Romeo and Juliet', whether they've studied it or not, so it is difficult to imagine how its first audience would have appreciated it.

But we're effectively putting on plays for the first time, with the actors testing them.

It's a revelation.

'The Devil's Law Case', for example, is rarely played.

It will be interesting to see how it will work.'Mr Spottiswoode hopes the season will help reforge the links between members of the legal profession and Bankside's theatre.

'I hope we get some lawyers over to see and listen to performances about their profession,' he says.Let's just hope there are not too many references to killing.Dan Hayes is a freelance journalist

Shakespeare's LawShakespeare and the Lawyers, a programme of staged readings and lectures, is at Shakespeare's Globe, Bankside, London, until7 April.

For details, contact the Globe gift shop, tel: 020 7902 1400.

Anthony Arlidge's book, Shakespeare and the Prince of Love, is available from the Globe shop, price 18.

It can also be obtained from Giles de la Mare Publishers, 53 Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1JD.

Tel: 020 7485 2533, e-mail: gilesdelamare@dial.pipex.com