A Power to Do Justice - Jurisdiction, English Literature and the Rise of Common Law 1509-1625

List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Note on Citations xv Prologue: A Power to Do Justice 1 Introduction: Literature and Jurisdiction 11 PART I CENTRALIZATION 1 "Shewe Us Your Mynde Then": Bureaucracy and Royal Privilege in Skelton's Magnyfycence 47 2 "No More to Medle of the Matter": Thomas More, Equity, and the Claims of Jurisdiction 85 PART II RATIONALIZATION 3 Inconveniencing the Irish: Custom, Allegory, and the Common Law in Spenser's Ireland 133 4 "If We Be Conquered": Legal Nationalism and the France of Shakespeare's English Histories 177 PART III FORMALIZATION 5 "To Stride a Limit": Imperium, Crisis, and Accommodation in Shakespeare's Cymbeline and Pericles 227 6 "To Law for Our Children": Norm and jurisdiction in Webster, Rowley, and Heywood's Cure for a Cuckold 291 Notes 331 Index 387