A Crisis of Truth : Literature and Law in Ricardian England

List of Abbreviations xi Preface xiii From Troth to Truth 1(40) Ricardian Truth: A Semantic History 8(23) An Ethnography of Ricardian Truth 31(10) Trothplight 41(37) Trothplight as a Legal Institution 44(6) The Machinery of Trothplight 50(20) Judicial Trothplight 70(8) The Folklaw 78(43) Aspects of Folklaw Jurisprudence 82(10) The Judicial Oath 92(8) Forms of Folklaw Proof 100(12) Equivocal Oaths 112(9) The King's Law 121(44) Criminal Law 128(11) Private Law 139(9) Legal Instruments 148(6) The Shift to Written Contract 154(11) Folvilles' Law 165(41) Rival Modes of Dispute Settlement 169(17) Outsiders' Law 186(12) The Peasants' Revolt 198(8) Truth and Treason 206(42) Concepts of Treason 208(13) Treason in 1397 221(9) The Nature of Kingship 230(7) The Sources of Law 237(11) Charter and Wed 248(45) Writing as Talisman 251(6) The Authority of Writing 257(7) Writings and Tokens 264(18) Lollardy and Literacy 282(11) Rash Promises 293(43) The Role of Intention 299(6) The Intention to Be Bound 305(11) Unintended Consequence 316(10) Illicit Consequence 326(10) Bargains with God 336(41) Covenantal Theology: Vernacular and Academic Traditions 338(20) Covenantal Theology in Langland and the Cotton-Nero Poet 358(19) Epilogue 377(4) Appendix: Law in the Nigerian Novel: Some Ricardian Connections 381(12) Notes 393(40) Bibliography 433(42) Acknowledgments 475(2) Index 477