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+ padding: 0.5em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker img { + max-width: 100%; + width: auto; + height: auto; +} + +.x-ebookmaker .poetry { + display: block; + margin-left: 1.5em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker blockquote { + margin: 1.5em 5%; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77514 ***</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p> + +<h1>SHAKESPEARE’S LEGAL<br> +MAXIMS.</h1> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span></p> + +<p class="titlepage larger">SHAKESPEARE’S LEGAL<br> +MAXIMS.</p> + +<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br> +WILLIAM LOWES RUSHTON,<br> +<span class="smaller">OF GRAY’S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.</span></p> + +<p class="center smaller">Corresponding Member of the Berlin Society for the Study of Modern Languages;<br> +Corresponding Member of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, U.S.A.;<br> +Corresponding Member of the Manchester Shakespeare Society;<br> +Author of ‘Shakespeare a Lawyer,’ ‘Shakespeare Illustrated by Old Authors,’<br> +‘Shakespeare Illustrated by the Lex Scripta,’ ‘Shakespeare’s Testamentary<br> +Language,’ ‘Shakespeare’s Euphuism,’ ‘Shakespeare an Archer,’ &c.</p> + +<div class="tp"> + +<p><i>Juvat integros accedere fontes atque haurire.</i></p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Lucretius.</span></p> + +<p><i>It is pleasant to handle an untouched subject.</i></p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Henry Fielding.</span></p> + +</div> + +<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">LIVERPOOL:</span><br> +HENRY YOUNG & SONS,<br> +<span class="smaller">1907.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="NOTICE">NOTICE.</h2> + +</div> + +<p>The first edition of this attempt to illustrate +obscure passages in the works of William +Shakespeare by legal maxims was published +when I was a student-at-law. It was sent +to the press for review, and some of the +London papers referred to it as a second +edition of ‘Shakespeare a Lawyer.’ The +only notice I saw of it appeared in the +<i>Liverpool Albion</i> as follows:—</p> + +<p>‘Not very long since, Mr. Rushton published +a pamphlet, “Shakespeare a Lawyer,” +which attracted considerable attention in the +literary and theatrical world. It is well +known that Lord Campbell, some time afterwards, +published a similar work, availing +himself, without acknowledgment, of Mr. +Rushton’s labours, as the <i>Examiner</i> conclusively +pointed out. Like its predecessor, this +brochure shows the author is deeply read in +law.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></p> + +<p>On page 100 of ‘William Shakespeare’ +by Karl Elze, published in Germany in 1876, +the following may be seen:—</p> + +<p>‘Lord Campbell, “Shakespeare’s Legal Acquirements,” +London, 1859—Vergl. ausserdem +W. L. Rushton, “Shakespeare a Lawyer,” +London, 1858. Rushton ist schon vor Lord +Campbell zu dem gleichen Ergebnisse gekommen +wie dieser, wenngleich sich seine Schrift +im Uebrigen nicht mit der des letztern messen +kann. Beachtung verdienen jedoch Rushton’s +Erklärungen der einschlagenden Stellen bei +Shakespeare.’</p> + +<p>German students of Shakespeare, who are +induced by this note to refer to Lord Campbell’s +‘Shakespeare’s Legal Acquirements +Considered’ for accurate explanations of +the law and law terms they meet with in +Shakespeare’s works, will often be misinformed, +because that book contains many +mistakes in law.</p> + +<p>Bacon, in his ‘Legal Maxims,’ says, ‘It +might have been more flourish and ostentation +of reading to have vouched the authorities +and sometimes to have enforced or +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>noted them; yet I have abstained from that +also, and the reason is, because I judged it +a matter undue and preposterous to prove +rules and maxims.’ I should have saved +myself some trouble if I had ‘abstained from +the flourish and ostentation’ of vouching my +authorities.</p> + +<p>In the plays of Ben Jonson, George Chapman, +and other dramatists of their time, legal +maxims are to be seen in Latin. Shakespeare +never quotes legal maxims in Latin, but he +gives correct translations of them which are +so embodied in his verse and prose that they +have not the appearance of quotations. This +may be one of the reasons why they have not +been noticed by the commentators. Another +reason may be that the commentators who +were not members of the legal profession did +not recognise them because they were ignorant +of law, and the commentators who were +lawyers did not recognise them because they +were ignorant of Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s +correct translations of legal maxims are, I +think, the only satisfactory evidence we have +of his knowledge of Latin.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span></p> + +<p>I now give one example of Shakespeare’s +correct translations of the Latin maxims, and +of the good verse he makes of it.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Dormiunt aliquando leges moriuntur nunquam.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">where the verbs dormio and morior in Latin +are represented correctly by the verbs sleep +and die in English. Although Bacon’s legal +maxims are twenty-five in number I have +not found any of them in Shakespeare’s +plays, but a portion of one of them⁠<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—Sententia +definitiva, revocari non potest, as I +venture to put it—expresses the law to which +Shakespeare refers in the <i>Comedy of Errors</i>.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Duke.</i> But, though thou art adjudged to the death,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And <i>passed sentence cannot be recall’d</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0">But to our honour’s great disparagement,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet will I favour thee in what I can.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Comedy of Errors</i>, Act i. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Those who believe that Francis Bacon wrote +the plays attributed to William Shakespeare +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>may think that this statement is worthy of +consideration.</p> + +<p>Some commentators have concluded that +Shakespeare was not a lawyer because, as +they say, he has made mistakes in law. +In answer to this conclusion, I ask three +questions.</p> + +<p>1. Is there a barrister or a solicitor in +large practice, or a judge on the bench, who +can say with truth, ‘I never made a mistake +in law’?</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Seldom sits the judge that may not err.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Partheniades.</i></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>2. Why have we a Court of Appeal?</p> + +<p>3. Was it established to confirm or reverse +the judgments and decisions of men who were +<i>not</i> lawyers?</p> + +<p>But it is not necessary to cite the Court +of Appeal to prove that even learned lawyers +make mistakes in law. It is sufficient to +mention Lord Campbell, who in his ‘Shakespeare’s +Legal Acquirements Considered,’ has +made several mistakes in law, a few of which +I have noticed in Archiv. f. n. Sprachen and +in ‘Shakespeare’s Testamentary Language,’ +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>published in the year 1869. The Appendix +B. of that book concludes with these words: +‘We all know that Lord Campbell was a +lawyer of great experience, yet in his “Shakespeare’s +Legal Acquirements Considered” he +has made several mistakes in law. How, then, +could any errors in law which I might find +in Shakespeare’s works afford conclusive evidence +that Shakespeare was not a lawyer?’</p> + +<p class="hanging mt2"><span class="smcap">4 Ullet Road, Dingle, Liverpool</span>,<br> +<i>Long Vacation, 1907</i>.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="SHAKESPEARES_LEGAL_MAXIMS">SHAKESPEARE’S LEGAL MAXIMS.</h2> + +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit, et omnis</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Restinxit, stellas exortus uti aerius sol.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Lucretius.</i></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The lawyer, when he reads attentively the +works of William Shakespeare, may not be +more surprised by the poet’s correct use of +law terms, and intimate acquaintance with +legal customs and tenures, and the lex +scripta, than by his extensive and profound +knowledge of the maxims of the English +law.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Portia.</i> To offend and judge are distinct offices,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And of opposed natures.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Merchant of Venice</i>, Act iii. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Queen Katherine.</i> <span class="hemi6">I do believe,</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">Induc’d by potent circumstances, that</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You are mine enemy; and make my challenge</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You shall not be my judge: for it is you</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me,—Which</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> <div class="verse indent0">God’s dew quench!—Therefore I say again,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Refuse you for my judge; whom yet once more</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I hold my malicious foe, and think not</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At all a friend to truth.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Henry VIII.</i>, Act ii. Scene 4.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Nemo debet esse judex in suâ propriâ causâ +(12 Rep. 113). No one ought to be a judge +in his own cause. It is a fundamental rule +in the administration of justice that a man +cannot be judge in a cause in which he is +interested (per cur. 2 Stra. 1173). Nemo +sibi esse judex vel suis jus dicere debet +(C. 3, 5, 1).</p> + +<p>If a man will prescribe, that if any cattle +were upon the demeanes of the manor, there +doing damage, that the lord of the manor +for the time being hath used to distrain +them, and the distress to retain till fine were +made to him for the damages at his will, +this prescription is void; because <i>it is against +reason, that if wrong be done any man, that +he thereof should be his own judge</i>; for by +such way, if he had damages but to the +value of a halfpenny, he might assess and +have therefor one hundred pounds, which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>would be against reason. And so such prescription, +or any other prescription used, if +it be against reason, this ought not nor will +not be allowed before judges; Quia malus +usus abolendus est. An evil or invalid +custom ought to be abolished (Co. Litt. s. +212). It is also a maxim of the law of +England, that Aliquis non debet esse judex +in propriâ suâ causâ quia non potest esse +judex et pars (Co. Litt. 141a).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Olivia.</i> This practice hath most shrewdly pass’d upon thee;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But, when we know the grounds and authors of it,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of thine own cause.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Twelfth Night</i>, Act v. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Portia and Queen Katherine both seem to +refer to this maxim; and Olivia promises, +when the persons are discovered who have +made Malvolio—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent16">The most notorious geek and gull</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That e’er invention play’d on,—</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">that she will then allow him to be both +plaintiff and judge of his own cause, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>notwithstanding that Nemo debet esse judex in +propriâ suâ causâ.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Shy.</i> My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The penalty and forfeit of my bond.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Por.</i> Is he not able to discharge the money?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Bass.</i> Yes, here I tender it for him in the court;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yea, twice the sum: if that will not suffice,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I will be bound to pay it ten times o’er,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">If this will not suffice, it must appear</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That malice bears down truth. And, I beseech you,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wrest once the law to your authority:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To do a great right, do a little wrong;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And curb this cruel devil of his will.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Por.</i> It must not be; there is no power in Venice</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Can alter a decree established:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Twill be recorded for a precedent;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And many an error, by the same example,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Will rush into the state: it cannot be.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Merchant of Venice</i>, Act iv. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Portia may expound the law of Venice, +but in the English law it is an established +rule to abide by former precedents, stare +decisis, where the same points come again +in litigation. An English judge is sworn to +determine, not according to his own private +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>judgment (see per Lord Camden, 19 Howell’s +State Trials, 1071; per Williams, L. 4, Cl. and +Fin. 729), but according to the known laws +and customs of the land; not appointed to +pronounce a new law, but to maintain and +expound the old, Jus dicere et non jus dare: +(I. Bla. Com. per Lord Kenyon, C. J., 5 T. R. +682, 6 Id. 605, and 8 Id. 239; per Grose, J., +13 East, 321; per Lord Hardwick, C. Ellis +v. Smith. 1 ves Jun. 16 T. R. 696, I. B. & B. +563). Stare decisis et non quieta movere—to +stand by things as decided, and not to +disturb those things which are tranquil, for +Omnis innovatio plus novitate perturbat quam +utilitate prodest (2 Bulstr. 388);—every +innovation occasions more harm and derangement +of order by its novelty, than benefit by +its abstract utility. The ancient judges of +the law have ever (as appeareth in our books) +suppressed innovations and novelties in the +beginning, as soon as they have offered to +creep up, lest the quiet of the common law +might be disturbed, and so have Acts of +Parliament done the like (Co. Litt. 379b). +The judges say in one book, ‘We will not +change the law which always hath been +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>used’; and another saith, ‘It is better that +it be turned into a default than the law +should be changed, or any innovation made’ +(Co. Litt. 282b).</p> + +<p>The rule—stare decisis—does, however, +admit of exceptions, where the former determination +is most evidently contrary to +reason or divine law.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cranmer.</i> Ah, my good lord of Winchester, I thank you;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You are always my good friend: if you will pass,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I shall both find your lordship judge and juror.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Henry VIII.</i>, Act v. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Ad quæstionem facti non respondent judices +ad quæstionem legis non respondent juratores +(8 Rep. 308).</p> + +<p>It is the office of the judge to instruct the +jury in points of law—of the jury to decide +on matters of fact. It is the office of the +judges to instruct the grand assize or jury +in points of law; for as the grand assize or +other jurors are triers of the matters of fact, +ad quæstionem facti non respondent judices, +so, ad quæstionem juris non respondent juratores. +It is of the greatest consequence to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>the law of England and to the subject that +these powers of the judge and jury be kept +distinct, that the judge determine the law, and +the jury the fact; and if ever they come to +be confounded, it will prove the confusion +and destruction of the law of England (Rex +v. Poole, Cas. temp. Hardw. 28).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Eli.</i> What now, my son! have I not ever said,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How that ambitious Constance would not cease,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till she had kindled France, and all the world,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon the right and party of her son?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This might have been prevented, and made whole,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With very easy arguments of love;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which now the manage of two kingdoms must</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>K. John.</i> Our strong possession, and our right for us.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Eli.</i> Your strong possession, much more than your right,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or else it might go wrong with you and me:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So much my conscience whispers in your ear,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which none but heaven, and you, and I, shall hear.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>King John</i>, Act i. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In æquali jure melior est conditio possidentis +(Plowd. 296). Where the right is +equal, the claim of the party in possession +shall prevail. The lowest and most imperfect +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>degree of title consists in the mere naked +possession, or actual occupation of the estate, +without any apparent right, or any shadow +or pretence of right, to hold and continue +such possession. This may happen when +one man invades the possession of another, +and by force or surprise turns him out of +the occupation of his lands; which is termed +a desseisin, being a deprivation of that +actual seisin, or corporal freehold of the +lands, which the tenant before enjoyed (2 Bla. +Com. 195; 1 Institute, 345). Or it may +happen that after the death of the ancestor +and before the entry of the heir, or after the +death of the particular tenant and before the +entry of him in remainder or reversion, a +stranger may contrive to get possession of +the vacant land, and hold out him that had +a right to enter. In such cases the wrong-doer +has only a mere naked possession, which +the rightful owner may put an end to by a +variety of legal remedies. But until some +act be done by the rightful owner to divest +this possession and assert his title, such +actual possession is prima facie evidence of +a legal title in the possessor; and it may +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>by length of time, and negligence of him +who hath the right, by degrees ripen into +a perfect and indefeasible title (Bla. Com. +196).</p> + +<p>King John seems to refer to this maxim +when he says—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Our strong possession and our right for us.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">but Elinor says—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Your strong possession much more than your right,</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">because John was not in æquali jure with +Arthur, but he was a wrong-doer, having +merely a naked possession; for after the +death of Richard I., John occupied the throne +in defiance of the right of his nephew Arthur, +who was the son of John’s elder brother +Geoffry.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hamlet.</i> <span class="hemi6">Farewell, dear mother.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>King.</i> Thy loving father, Hamlet.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hamlet.</i> My mother: father and mother is man and wife;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Hamlet</i>, Act iv. Scene 3.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Vir et uxor sunt quasi unica persona, quia +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>caro una, et sanguis unus. (Bracton, lib. 5, +Tract. 5, cap. 25).</p> + +<p>Man and wife are as one person, because +they are one flesh and blood. A man may +not grant nor give his tenements to his wife, +during the coverture, for that his wife and +he be but one person in law (Litt. S. 168).</p> + +<p>If a joint estate be made of land to a +husband and wife and to a third person, in +this case the husband and wife have in law +in their right but the moiety, and the third +person shall have as much as the husband +and the wife, viz. the other moiety. And +the cause is, for that the husband and wife +are but one person in law, and are in like +case as if an estate be made to two joint +tenants, where the one hath by force of the +jointure the one moiety in law, and the other +the other moiety (Litt. S. 221): for the +husband and wife are accounted to be one +person in law, Duæ animæ in carne una +(Lex divina, and see 4 Rep. 118).</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p><i>Fal.</i> Of what quality was your love, then?</p> + +<p><i>Ford.</i> Like a fair house, built upon another +man’s ground; so that I have lost my edifice, +by mistaking the place where I erected it.</p> + +<p class="right"><i>Merry Wives of Windsor</i>, Act ii. Scene 2.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p><i>Quick.</i> Marry, sir, I come to your worship from +Mistress Ford.</p> + +<p><i>Fal.</i> Mistress Ford! I have had ford enough; +I was thrown into the ford; I have my belly +full of ford.</p> + +<p><i>Quick.</i> Alas the day! good heart, that was not +her fault: she does so take on with her men; +they mistook their erection.</p> + +<p><i>Fal.</i> So did I mine, to build upon a foolish +woman’s promise.</p> + +<p class="right"><i>Merry Wives of Windsor</i>, Act iii. Scene 5.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Quicquid plantatur solo solo cedit (Went. +Off. Ex. 14 ed. 145). Whatever is affixed +to the soil belongs to the soil. It is a general +and a very ancient rule of law that whatever +is affixed to the soil becomes, in contemplation +of law, a part of the soil, and is consequently +subject to the same rights of property +as the soil itself. The ancient common law, +regarding land as of far more consequence +than any chattel which could be fixed to it, +always considered everything attached to the +land as part of the land (4 Rep. 64a; Lord +Raymond, 738; Mackintosh v. Trotter, +3 Mee & Wel. 184, 186). Hence it follows +that houses themselves, which consist of an +aggregate of chattels personal (namely, timber, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>bricks, &c.) fixed to the land, were regarded +as land and passed by a conveyance of the +land without express mention; and this is +the law at the present time. So if a man +eject another from land and afterwards build +upon it, the building belongs to the owner +of the ground on which it is built, according +to the principle Ædificatum solo solo cedit. +But where a man, supposing that he has a +good title to an estate, builds upon the land +with the knowledge of the real owner, who +allows the erections to be made, without +giving any notice of his claim, the Court of +Chancery will compel him, in a suit brought +for the recovery of the land, to make due +allowance and compensation for such improvements. +Ford evidently refers to this maxim, +and Falstaff probably intends this much to +be understood, that he committed as great +a mistake, by building upon a foolish woman’s +promise, as they make who build upon +another man’s ground. Shakespeare does not +in either of these passages, as Lord Campbell +supposed, refer to Cujus est solum ejus est +usque ad cœlum, which expresses the extent +of the rights of the owner of land, but he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>refers to the maxim Ædificatum solo solo +cedit, which expresses the action of building +on another man’s land and the legal consequence +of doing so.</p> + +<p>When Shakespeare quotes a legal maxim +he generally gives the words of the maxim +and the law which it describes. So Ford +makes use of the verb ‘build’ and the noun +‘edifice’ which words are exact translations +of ædifico and ædificium.</p> + +<p>George Chapman, in ‘May Day,’ makes a +humorous application of Ædificium cedit +solo. Ædificatum solo solo cedit, and Quicquid +plantatur solo solo cedit, have their +origin in Justinian’s Institutes.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Angelo.</i> The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Measure for Measure</i>, Act ii. Scene 3.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Dormiunt aliquando leges, moriuntur nunquam. +The laws sometimes sleep, they never +die. Although it was a maxim of the civil +law that as laws might be established by +custom, they could likewise become obsolete +by disuse or be abrogated by contrary usage, +Ea vero quæ ipsa sibi quæque civitas constituit +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>sæpe mutari solent vel tacito consensu +populi vel aliâ posteâ, lege latâ (I. L. 2, 11, +Irving, Civil Law, 4th ed., 123): and by the +law of Scotland a statute is said to lose its +force by disuse (Stair, Macdonal, Wallace), +if it has not been in execution for sixty years, +and, according to some Scotch lawyers for +a hundred years, and a distinction is made +between statutes which are as it were half +obsolete and those in viridi observantiâ, yet +by the law of England every statute continues +in force until it is repealed by a +subsequent Act of Parliament. Lex Angliæ +sine parliamento mutari non potest (2 Institute, +619), for nothing is so agreeable +to natural equity as that everything should +be dissolved by the same means which +made it binding. Nihil tam conveniens +est naturali æquitati quam unumquodque +dissolvi eo ligamine quo ligatum est (2 Institute, +360).</p> + +<p>The statutes can only be altered or repealed +by the same authority by which they were +made—jura eodem modo distituuntur quo +constituuntur (Dwarr. Stats. 672), eodem +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>ligamine quo ligatum est dissolvitur (Co. Litt. +212b).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Wolsey.</i> <span class="hemi14">That seal</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">You ask with such a violence, the king</div> + <div class="verse indent0">(Mine and your master) with <i>his own hand gave me</i>;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bad me enjoy it, with the place and honours,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">During my life; and to confirm his goodness,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tied it by letters-patents:—now, who’ll take it?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sur.</i> The king, that gave it.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Wol.</i> <span class="hemi10">It must be himself, then.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Henry VIII.</i>, Act iii. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The Lord Chancellor (a cancellando, from +his power to cancel letters patent, being +the highest point of his jurisdiction) or Lord +Keeper, is the chief judge in the extraordinary +Court of Equity, as well as in the ordinary +Court of Common Law (4 Inst. 79, 82, 88, +Wood’s Inst. 2nd ed. pp. 459, 460). He +is not made by letters patent, but by the +delivery of the Great or Broad Seal to him, +and by taking an oath to serve the king +and his people faithfully in the office of Lord +Chancellor (4 Inst. 87). He is made Lord +Chancellor of England or Lord Keeper of the +Great Seal, per traditionem magni sigilli sibi +per dominum regem, and by taking his oath +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>forma cancellarium constituendi regnante +Henrico Secundo fuit appendendo magnum +Angliæ sigillum ad collum cancellarii electi +(Camden, p. 131). Thus the delivery of the +king’s seal or the taking it away, alluded to +by Shakespeare in this passage, is the ceremony +used in making or unmaking a Lord +Chancellor. Some have gotten it by letters +patent at will (35 Hen. VI. 3 b. of Winch., +I Hen. VI. sec. 16) and one for term of +his life (Cardinal Wolsey); but it was holden +void, because an ancient office must be granted +as it hath been accustomed (4 Inst. 87).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ant. E.</i> What, will you murder me? Thou gaoler, thou,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I am thy prisoner: wilt thou suffer them</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To make a rescue?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Off.</i> <span class="hemi6">Masters, let him go:</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">He is my prisoner, and you shall not have him.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Pinch.</i> Go bind this man, for he is frantic too.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Adr.</i> What wilt thou do, thou peevish officer?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hast thou delight to see a wretched man</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Do outrage and displeasure to himself?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Off.</i> He is my prisoner: if I let him go,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The debt he owes will be requir’d of me.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Comedy of Errors</i>, Act iv. Scene 4.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>If a sheriff or a gaoler suffers a prisoner, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>who is taken upon mesne process (that is, +during the pendency of a suit) to escape, +he is liable to an action on the case (Cro. +Eliz., 625). But if after judgment a gaoler +or a sheriff permit a debtor to escape, who +is charged in execution for a certain sum, +the debt immediately becomes his own, and +he is compellable by an action of debt, being +for a liquated sum and ascertained, to satisfy +the creditor his whole demand; which doctrine +is grounded on the Equity of the Statute of +Westminster second (13 Edw. I. c. 11, and +I. Rich. II. c. 12. Bro. Alr. t. parliament, +192; Inst. 382; 3 Bla. Com. 165), ubi jus ibi +remedium (I. T. R. 512). There is no wrong +without a remedy. Jus, in the sense in which +it is used in this maxim, signifies ‘the legal +authority to do or to demand something’ +(Mackfield, Civ. Law, 6). Remedium may be +defined to be the right of action, or the means +given by law for the recovery of a right, and, +according to this maxim, whenever the law +gives anything, it gives a remedy for the +same; Lex semper dabit remedium (Jacob, +Law Dic. title Remedy, Bac. Alr., actions +in general). Every injury to a legal right +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>necessarily imports damage in the nature of +it, though there be no pecuniary loss (per +Holt, C. J., Ashly v. White, 2 Lord Raymond). +Thus where a prisoner is in execution or final +process, the creditor has a right to the body +of his debtor every hour till the debt is paid; +and an escape of the debtor, for ever so short +a time, is necessarily a damage to him, and +an action for an escape lies (Williams v. +Mostyn, 4 M. & W. 153; Wylie v. Birch, +4 Qu. B. 566, 567; Clifton v. Hooper, 6 Qu. +B. 468).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>York.</i> I took an oath that he should quietly reign.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Edw.</i> But, for a kingdom, any oath may be broken:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I would break a thousand oaths to reign one year.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Rich.</i> No; God forbid, your grace should be forsworn.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>York.</i> I shall be, if I claim by open war.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Rich.</i> I’ll prove the contrary, if you’ll hear me speak.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>York.</i> Thou canst not, son; it is impossible.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Rich.</i> An oath is of no moment, being not took</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Before a true and lawful magistrate,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> <div class="verse indent0">That hath authority over him that swears:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Henry had none, but did usurp the place;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then, seeing ’twas he that made you to depose,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your oath, my lord, is vain and frivolous.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Therefore, to arms.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse">3 <i>Henry VI.</i>, Act i. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>An oath is an affirmation or denial of +anything <i>before one that hath authority to +administer the same</i>, calling God to witness +that his testimony is true (3 Inst. 165, C. 74). +Sacramentum, habet in se tres comites, veritatem, +justiciam et judicium; veritas habenda +est in juratore; justicia et judicium in judice +(Bracton, I. 4, f. 186). Four sorts of oaths +have been enumerated, viz., Juramentum +promissionis, where an oath is taken to do +or not to do such a thing (it appears that +York had taken an oath of this description); +Juramentum purgationis, which is where a +person is charged with any matter by bill +in Equity; Juramentum probationis, where +one is produced as a witness to prove or +disprove a thing; and Juramentum triationis, +where one is sworn to try the issue, such as +a juror. The oath must be lawful, allowed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>by the common law or some Act of Parliament; +so Salisbury says—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sal.</i> It is a great sin to swear unto a sin;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But greater sin to keep a sinful oath.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who can be bound by any solemn vow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To do a murd’rous deed, to rob a man,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To force a spotless virgin’s chastity,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To reave the orphan of his patrimony,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To wring the widow from her custom’d right;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And have no other reason for this wrong,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But that he was bound by a solemn oath?</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse">2 <i>Henry VI.</i>, Act v. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">and it must be taken before one that hath +authority, not before a person acting in a +private capacity, or pretending to have +authority where he hath none; nor by one +that goes beyond the authority which was +granted. For such false oaths cannot amount +to perjury in law, because they are of no +validity, being coram non judice (3 Institute, +165; 4 Institute, 278, 279; 2 Roll. Alr. 257; +Wood’s Institute, 2nd ed., pp. 411, 412).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Car.</i> The commons hast thou rack’d; the clergy’s bags</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are lank and lean with thy extortions.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Som.</i> Thy sumptuous buildings, and thy wife’s attire,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Have cost a mass of public treasury.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Buck.</i> Thy cruelty in execution</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon offenders, hath exceeded law,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And left thee to the mercy of the law.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse">2 <i>Henry VI.</i>, Act i. Scene 3.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Executio est executio juris secundum judicium +(3 Institute, 212). It is a maxim of the +law of England that the execution must be +according to the judgment, Et quæ in curia +nostra rite acta sunt, debit’ executioni demandari +debent; and for express authority, +Non licet felonem pro felonia decollare. In +the case of high treason, beheading is part +of the judgment, and therefore the king may +pardon all the rest saving beheading, as is +usually done in case of nobility. But if a +man being attainted of felony be beheaded, +it is no execution of the judgment, because +the judgment is, that he be hanged till he +be dead: in this case the judgment doth +belong to the judge, and he cannot alter it; +the execution belongs to the sheriff, &c., and +he cannot alter it. And if the execution +might be altered in this case from hanging +to beheading, by the same reason it might +be altered to burning, stoning to death, &c. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>(3 Institute, 211). It is worthy of notice that +Shakespeare seems to have been well aware +of the distinct offices of judge and executioner, +for he makes Guiderius, in speaking of Cloten, +say—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">Why should we be tender,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Play judge and executioner, all himself?</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Cymbeline</i>, Act iv. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>If an officer beheads one who is adjudged +to be hanged, or vice versâ, it is murder +(I. Hale P. C. 494; I. Hawk. P. C. c. xxviii. +ss. 11, 12, 17, 18), for he is merely ministerial, +and therefore only justified when he acts +under the authority and compulsion of the +law; but if the sheriff substitutes one kind +of death for another, he then acts by his +own authority, which does not extend to the +commission of homicide (4 Bla. Com. 179). +If the sheriff, or other proper officer, alters +the execution or any other doth execute the +offender, or if he is slain without authority +of law, it is felony, and the law implies +malice (Wood’s Inst., 2nd ed., p. 662). So +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>Clarence says to the murderers hired by +Gloster—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Clar.</i> Are you drawn forth among a world of men</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To slay the innocent? What is my offence?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where is the evidence that doth accuse me?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What lawful quest have given their verdict up</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounc’d</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The bitter sentence of poor Clarence’ death?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Before I be convict by course of law,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To threaten me with death is most unlawful.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Richard III.</i>, Act i. Scene 4.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>To conclude this point: Judicium est +legibus, non exemplis (4 Rep. 33), and +Judicium est jurisdictum and Executio est +executio juris secundum judicium (3 Inst. 211). +Buckingham may also refer to Gloster’s cruelty +in making the law an instrument of oppression +or extortion and the liability thereby +incurred, for Executio juris non habet injuriam +(2 Inst. 481; 1 Inst. 289a). The +law in its executive capacity will not work +a wrong. If an individual, under colour of +law, does an illegal act, or if he abuses the +process of the Court to make it an instrument +of oppression or extortion, this is a fraud +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>upon the law, by the commission of which +liability will be incurred.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Claud.</i> Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bear me to prison, where I am committed.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Prov.</i> I do it not <i>in evil disposition</i>,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But from Lord Angelo by special charge.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Measure for Measure</i>, Act i. Scene 3.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Qui jussu judicis aliquod fecerit non videtur +dolo malo fecisse quia parere necesse est +(10 Rep. 70, 76).</p> + +<p>Where a man does anything by command +of a judge, the law will not consider that he +acted from any wrongful motive, because it +was necessary for him to comply with the +orders of the judge. In 26 Ed. III. vii. 70, +it is taken for a maxim, that the thing which +an officer doth by warrant or command of a +Court, cannot be said to be against the peace, +and (Doct. and Stud. 150) the king’s officers +are bound to execute the king’s writs at their +peril (10 Rep. 70). When a Court has jurisdiction +of a cause, and proceeds inverso ordine +or erroneously, no action lies against the +party who sues, or the officer or minister of +the Court who executes the precept or process +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>of the Court. But when the Court has no +jurisdiction of the cause, then the whole +proceeding is coram non judice, and actions +will lie against them without any regard of +the precept or process, for it is not necessary +to obey him who is not a judge of the cause, +no more than it is to obey a mere stranger, +for the rule is, Judicium a non suo judice +datum nullius est momenti (10 Rep. 76).</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p><i>Lady Macbeth.</i> What need we fear who knows +it, when none can call our power to account?</p> + +<p class="right"><i>Macbeth</i>, Act v. Scene 1.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<blockquote> + +<p><i>Lear.</i> No, they cannot touch me for coining; +I am the king himself.</p> + +<div class="poetry-in-blockquote"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Goneril.</i> Say if I do; the laws are mine, not thine;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who shall arraign me for it?</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="right"><i>Lear</i>, Act v. Scene 2.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Lady Macbeth, Lear, and Goneril seem to +refer to the ancient and fundamental principle +of the English constitution, that the king +can do no wrong. Rex non potest peccare +(2 Roll. R. 304; Jenk. Cent. 9, 308).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Duke.</i> He dies for Claudio’s death.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Isab.</i> [<i>kneeling.</i>] <span class="hemi6">Most bounteous sir,</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">Look, if it please you, on this man condemn’d,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> <div class="verse indent0">As if my brother liv’d. I partly think,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A due sincerity govern’d his deeds,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Till he did look on me: since it is so,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Let him not die. My brother had but justice,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In that he did the thing for which he died:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For Angelo,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His act did not o’ertake his bad intent;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And must be buried but as an intent</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That perish’d by the way: thoughts are no subjects;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Intents but merely thoughts.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Measure for Measure</i>, Act v. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>An evil intention is not punishable equally +with the fact; Crimen non contrahitur nisi +nocendi voluntas intercedit (Bracton, lib. cap. +4; Wood’s Inst., 2nd ed., p. 340), except in +treason, when the maxim Voluntas reputatur +pro facto (3 Inst. 5, 69), the will is taken +for the deed, is said to apply to its full +extent. It is a rule laid down by Lord +Mansfield, said to comprise all the principles +of previous decisions in similar cases (per +Lawrence, J., Rex <i>v.</i> Higgins, 2 East, 21), +that so long as an act rests in bare intention, +it is not punishable by the law of England—so +Ulpian says: ‘Cogitationis pœnam nemo +patitur’ (D. 48, 19, 18), and Montesquieu: +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>‘Les lois ne se chargent de punir que les +actions exterieurs’—but when an act is done, +the law judges not only of the act itself, but +of the intent with which it is done.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Angelo.</i> What’s open made to justice,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That justice seizes.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Measure for Measure</i>, Act ii. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">And if the act be accompanied with an unlawful +and malicious intent, though in itself the +act would otherwise be innocent, yet, the +intent being criminal, the act likewise becomes +criminal and punishable (Rex <i>v.</i> Scofield, 2 +East, D. C. 1028). Non officit conatus, nisi +sequitur effectus (6 Rep. 42; Wood’s Inst., +2nd ed., p. 340), for it is a principle of +natural justice and of our law that the intent +and the act must both concur to constitute +the crime (Lord Kenyon, 7, T. R. 514). But +where one has the use of his reason, and is at +liberty, his endeavour to commit a felony, as +to rob, &c., is punishable, though not to that +degree as if the felony and robbery, &c., had +actually been committed. For in such cases +Voluntas non reputabitur pro facto, the will +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>shall not be taken for the deed (3 Inst. +69; 11 Rep. 98).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ham.</i> Give me your pardon, sir: I’ve done you wrong;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But pardon’t, as you are a gentleman.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This presence knows, and you must needs have heard,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How I am punish’d with a sore distraction.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What I have done,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That might your nature, honour, and exception,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was’t Hamlet wrong’d Laertes? Never Hamlet:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, when he’s not himself, does wrong Laertes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then Hamlet does it not; Hamlet denies it.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Hamlet</i>, Act v. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In all crimes there must be an evil disposition; +a mere mistake is not punishable; and +those that are to be esteemed guilty of any +offences must have the use of their reason, and +be at their own disposal or liberty (Wood’s +Inst., 2nd ed., p. 340, 339), for, Actus non +facit reum nisi mens sit rea (3 Inst. 107), the +act does not make a man guilty unless his intention +were guilty. Moreover Hamlet says—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Who does it then? His madness: if’t be so,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong’d;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span></p> + +<p class="noindent">And in criminal cases idiots and lunatics are +not chargeable for their own acts, if committed +at a time when they are non compos mentis, +for it is a maxim of the law of England that +Furiosus solo furore puniatur, a madman +is only punished by his madness (Co. Litt. +247b; Bal. Com., 24, 25). So Hamlet says +he is of the faction that is wronged, and +he seems to refer, not only to the maxim that +the act does not make a man guilty unless his +intentions were guilty, but afterwards, in the +same passage, to the kind of homicide to +which it is applicable—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sir, in this audience,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Let my disclaiming from a purpos’d evil</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And hurt my brother.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">viz., homicide per infortunium, or by misadventure,⁠<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +which is, where a man doing a +lawful act, without any intention of hurt, by +accident kills another; as, for instance, where +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>a man is working with a hatchet, and the +head flies off and kills a bystander. So +Bracton says, ‘De amputatore arborum, qui +cum ramum projiceret, inscius occidit transeuntem, +aut cum quis pilam percusserit, &c., +ex cujus ictu occisus est, tales de homicidio +non tenentur’ (lib. 3, fo. 136b). If a man +shooting at butts or a target, by accident kills +a bystander, it is misadventure (I. Hale, 472, +475, 380), but this must be understood of +cases where a proper precaution to prevent +accidents has been taken, for if the target be +placed near a highway or path, where persons +are in the habit of passing, the killing would +probably be deemed manslaughter.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Camillo.</i> <span class="hemi6">Have you thought on</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">A place whereto you’ll go?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Florizel.</i> <span class="hemi8">Not any yet:</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">But as th’ <i>unthought-on accident is guilty</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>To what we wildly do</i>, so we profess</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of every wind that blows.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Winter’s Tale</i>, Act iv. Scene 4.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>If the act be unlawful it is murder. As if +A, meaning to steal a deer in the park of B, +shooteth at the deer, and by a glance of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>arrow, killeth a boy that is hidden in a bush, +this is murder; for that the act was unlawful, +although A had not intent to hurt the boy, +nor knew not of him. Thus if B, the owner +of the park, had shot at his own deer, and +without any ill intent had killed the boy by +the glance of his arrow, this had been homicide +by misadventure, and no felony. So if +one shoot at any wild fowl upon a tree, and +the arrow killeth any reasonable creature afar +off, without any evil intent in him, this is +per infortunium, for it was not unlawful to +shoot at the wild fowl; but if he had shot at +a cock or a hen, or any tame fowl of another +man’s, and the arrow by mischance had killed +a man, this had been murder, for the act was +unlawful. If a man, knowing that many +people came in the street from a sermon, +threw a stone over a wall, intending only to +fear them or to give them a light hurt, and +thereupon one is killed, this is murder; for he +had an ill intent, though that intent extended +not to death, and though he knew not the +party slain (Marlbr. c. 25; 3 Inst. 56, 57). +All crimes have their conception in a corrupt +intent, have their consummation and issuing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>in some particular fact, which, though it be +not the fact at which the intention of the +malefactor levelled, yet the law giveth him no +advantage of the error, if another particular +ensue of as high a nature. As if A, having +malice to B, strikes at him and misseth him +and kills C, this is murder in A (9 Rep. 81; +H. P. C. 50). So Bracton says, ‘Si quis +unum percusserit, cum aliam percutere vellet, +in felonia tenetur’ (lib. 3, fol. 155). And if +one lays poison to kill B, and C takes it and +dies in consequence, this is murder in him +that laid the poison: for, In criminalibus +sufficit generalis malitia intentionis cum facto +paris gradus (Bacon, Max., 65). The malice +intended to one makes the accidental death of +another to be murder (Wood’s Inst., 2nd ed., +353).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hub.</i> Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back I say:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By heaven, I think my sword’s as sharp as yours:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I would not have you, lord, forget yourself,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor tempt the danger of my true defence;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your worth, your greatness, and nobility.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Big.</i> Out, dunghill! dar’st thou brave a nobleman?</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hub.</i> Not for my life: but yet I dare defend</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My innocent life against an emperor.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>King John</i>, Act iv. Scene 3.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Excusable homicide is se defendendo, or +where one has no other possible means of +preserving his own life than by killing the +person who reduces him to such a necessity, +for, Vim vi repellere licet, modo fiat moderamine +inculpatæ tutelæ, non ad sumendam +vindictam, sed ad propulsandam injuriam +(I. Inst. 162a; Wood’s Inst., 2nd ed., 359).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Alcibiades.</i> Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To kill, I grant, is sin’s extremest gust;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But, in defence, by mercy ’tis most just.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Timon of Athens</i>, Act iii. Scene 5.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>It is said that it must be a killing upon +an inevitable necessity; but necessity implies +that the act was inevitable, or that it could +not have been otherwise. The party assaulted +is not to be excused, unless he gives back to +the wall, hedge, river, &c., beyond which he +cannot go, before he kills the other. But if +A assault B so fiercely and violently, and in +such a place, and in such a manner as, if B +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>should give back, he should be in danger of +his life, he may in this case defend himself, +and if in that defence he killeth A, it is se +defendendo, because it is not done felleo +animo: for the rule is, when he doth it in his +own defence, upon any inevitable cause, Quod +quis ob tutelam corporis sui fecerit, jure id +fecisse videtur (H. P. C. 41, 42; 3 Inst. 55, +56). What any one may have done for the +protection of his person, is considered to have +been done by law.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center"><i>Enter two</i> Clowns, <i>with Spades, &c.</i></p> + +<p><i>1 Clo.</i> Is she to be buried in Christian burial, +that wilfully seeks her own salvation?</p> + +<p><i>2 Clo.</i> I tell thee, she is; and therefore make +her grave straight: the crowner hath sat on her, +and finds it Christian burial.</p> + +<p><i>1 Clo.</i> How can that be, unless she drowned +herself in her own defence?</p> + +<p><i>2 Clo.</i> Why, ’tis found so.</p> + +<p><i>1 Clo.</i> It must be se offendendo; it cannot be +else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself +wittingly, it argues an act: and an act has three +branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: argal, +she drowned herself wittingly.</p> + +<p><i>2 Clo.</i> Nay, but hear you, goodman delver.</p> + +<p><i>1 Clo.</i> Give me leave. Here lies the water; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>good: here stands the man; good: if the man go +to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill +he, he goes; mark you that? but if the water +come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself; +argal, he that is not guilty of his own death, +shortens not his own life.</p> + +<p><i>2 Clo.</i> But is this law?</p> + +<p><i>1 Clo.</i> Ay, marry, is’t; crowner’s-quest law.</p> + +<p class="right"><i>Hamlet</i>, Act v. Scene 1.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>It seems that Shakespeare has made the +first clown confound a felo de se, or one who +is guilty of self murder, with a person who +commits homicide se defendendo, in his own +defence, or, as he miscalls it, se offendendo; +for, in answer to the second clown’s assurance +that ‘the crowner hath sate on her and finds it +Christian burial,’ he says, ‘How can that be, +unless she drowned herself in <i>her own +defence</i>?’ This is also apparent from his +reasoning, which, although it may appear +absurd, is good law; for he evidently means, +that if the water comes to a man and drowns +him, not wittingly, but against his inclination, +he is as innocent of suicide as that man is +innocent of murder, who, se defendendo, in +his own defence, kills another who, felleo +animo, presses upon him. And so the crowner +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>found it ‘Christian burial;’ for although the +‘churlish priest’ tells Laertes that ‘her death +was doubtful,’ yet the queen says—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When down her weedy trophies, and herself,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fell in the weeping brook.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">And although, according to this account, the +water cannot be said to come to Ophelia, it +appears that she was drowned, not ‘wittingly,’ +but against her inclination. Suicides were +not entitled to what is called ‘Christian burial,’ +for it was formerly the custom to drive a +stake through the body of one who had been +guilty of self-murder, and to bury it in the +highway; but this brutal law and ignominious +burial has been altered by the 4 Geo. IV. +c. 52, which directs that a person felo de se +shall be buried without any stake driven +through the body, privately in a churchyard, +within twenty-four hours from the finding of +the inquisition, and between the hours of nine +and twelve at night; but this statute does +not authorise the performance of the rites +of burial.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ch. Just.</i> I then did use the person of your father,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The image of his power lay then in me:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, in the administration of his law,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your highness pleased to forget my place,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The majesty and power of law and justice,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The image of the king whom I presented,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And struck me <i>in my very seat of judgment</i>;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whereon, as an offender to your father,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I gave bold way to my authority,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And did commit you.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>2 Henry IV.</i>, Act v. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Injuria illata judici, seu locum tenenti regis, +videtur ipsi regi illata, maxime si fiat in exercentem +officium (3 Inst. 1).</p> + +<p>Shakespeare in this passage probably refers +to this maxim, or to the law which it describes. +The Chief Justice says, ‘When I did +use the person of your father, &c., you struck +me in my very judgment seat, whereon as an +offender to your father I did commit you,’ and +according to this maxim, an injury offered to +a judge, or one holding the place of the king, +is considered to be offered to the king himself, +especially if done in exercise of the office of a +judge.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span></p> + +<p>In the first part of ‘Shakespeare Illustrated +by Old Authors,’ published in the year +1867, I quoted this maxim in illustration of +this passage, beginning my comment with +these words: ‘Shakespeare in this passage +probably <i>refers to this maxim or the law +which it describes</i>.’ The author of a book +entitled ‘Shakespeare as a Lawyer’ quotes +this passage and this maxim after saying, +‘Shakespeare, in the following passage from +the second part of <i>Henry IV.</i>, <i>refers to this +maxim or to the law which it describes</i>,’ using +the initial words of my comment. Without +this explanation those who have read ‘Shakespeare +as a Lawyer,’ and have not seen +‘Shakespeare Illustrated by Old Authors,’ +may suppose that I, instead of originating +this illustration, had adopted it without +acknowledgment.</p> + +<p>This method of appropriation and concealment +extends to other books of mine. I give +one more example of many. In ‘Shakespeare’s +Euphuism,’ published in 1871, I showed that +the advice of Euphues to Philatus was probably +the origin of the advice of Polonius to Laertes, +but a few years ago a ‘Life of Shakespeare’ +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>was published by Smith, Elder and Co., +in which are these words—‘In later life, +Shakespeare in <i>Hamlet</i> borrows from Lyly’s +“Euphues” Polonius’s advice to Laertes,’ and +this statement is made without mentioning +my name or my book, from which the information +was obtained. This and much more +inclines me to say with Falstaff—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>I would to God my name were not so terrible +to the enemy as it is.</p> + +<p class="right"><i>2 Henry IV.</i>, Act i. Scene 2.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Puttenham in his ‘Second Book of Proportion +Poetical,’ speaking of device or emblem, +says—</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>‘The Greeks call it Emblema, the Italians +Impresa, and we, a Device, such as a man may +put into letters of gold and send to his mistresses +for a token, or cause to be embroidered in +Scutchions of arms on any bordure of a rich +garment, to give by his novelty marvel to the +beholder.’</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>To this impresa Shakespeare refers in +<i>Richard II.</i>, when Bolingbroke, addressing +Bushby and Green, says—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">You have fed upon my signories,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dispark’d my parks and fell’d my forest woods,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From my own windows torn my household coat,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Razed out my <i>imprese</i>, leaving me no sign,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Save men’s opinions and my living blood,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To show the world I am a gentleman.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Richard II.</i>, Act iii. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The tearing of Bolingbroke’s household +coat was actionable, according to the old +maxim quoted by Coke, ‘Actio datur si quis +arma, in aliquo loco posita, delevit seu abrasit’ +(3 Institute, 202). In <i>Pericles</i>, ii. 2, Thaisa +describes the devices on the shields of the +six knights.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hor.</i> <span class="hemi8">How was this seal’d?</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Ham.</i> Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I had my father’s signet in my purse,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which was the model of that Danish seal;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Folded the writ up in form of the other,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Subscribed it, gave’t the impression, placed it safely,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The changeling never known.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Hamlet</i>, Act v. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Sigillum est cera impressa, quia cera sine +impressione non est sigillum (Co. 3 Institute, +169).</p> + +<p>The wax without an impression would +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>not be a seal. Hamlet subscribed the writ +and also impressed the wax with his father’s +signet. Crimen falsi dicitur, cum quis +illicitus, cui non fuerit ad hæc data auctoritas, +de sigillo regis rapto vel invento, brevia, +cartasve consignaverit (Fleta).</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p><i>Lear.</i> No, they cannot touch me for coining; +I am the king himself.</p> + +<p class="right"><i>Lear</i>, Act iv. Scene 6.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Monetandi jus comprehenditur in regalibus +quæ nunquam a regio sceptro abdicantur +(Dav. 18).</p> + +<p>Shakespeare may here refer to this maxim, +that the right of coining is comprehended +in those regal rights which are never removed +from the regal sceptre.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Scici.</i> What is the city but the people?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Cit.</i> True, the people are the city.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Coriolanus</i>, Act iii. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In this passage Shakespeare probably refers +to the maxim, Civitas et urbs in hoc differunt +quod incolæ dicuntur civitas, urbs +vero complectitur ædificia (Mirror, cap. 2, +sect. 18, Brit. fol. 87, Co. Litt. 109b). A +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>city and a town differ in this, that the inhabitants +are called the city, but the town +comprises the buildings.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Duke.</i> We have strict statutes, and most biting laws,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">(The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds,)</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which for these fourteen years we have let slip;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Even like an o’ergrown lion in a cave,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Only to stick it in their children’s sight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For terror, not to use; in time the rod</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Becomes more mock’d than fear’d; so our decrees,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And liberty plucks justice by the nose;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Goes of decorum.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Measure for Measure</i>, Act i. Scene 3.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The wisdom of the law abhors that great +offences should go unpunished, which was +grounded without question upon these ancient +maxims of law and state: Maleficia non +debent remanere impunita, et impunitas continuum +affectum tribuit delinquendi, et minatur +innocentes qui parcit nocentibus (Co. Rep. +iv. 45).</p> + +<p>Crimes ought not to remain unpunished, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>and impunity offers a continual temptation +to the delinquent.</p> + +<p>Spes impunitatis continuum affectum tribuit +delinquendi (3 Institute, 236).</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Macb.</i> <span class="hemi6">There’s blood upon thy face.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Mur.</i> ’Tis Banquo’s, then.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Macb.</i> ’Tis better thee without than he within.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is he despatch’d?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Mur.</i> My lord his throat is cut; that I did for him.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Macb.</i> Thou art the best o’ the cut-throats:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet he’s good</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou art the nonpareil.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Mur.</i> <span class="hemi8">Most royal sir,</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fleance is ’scaped.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Macb.</i> Then comes my fit again: I had else been <i>perfect</i>,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As broad and general as the casing air.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Macbeth</i>, Act iii. Scene 3.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Id perfectum est quod ex omnibus suis +partibus constat; et nihil perfectum est dum +aliquid restat agendum (9 Co. 9).</p> + +<p>Fleance had escaped, therefore Macbeth +was not perfect, because something remained +to be done to make him—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Whole as the marble, founded as the rock.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>King.</i> <span class="hemi10">Things done well,</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">And with a care, exempt themselves from fear;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Things done without example, in their issue</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are to be fear’d. Have you a precedent</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of this commission? I believe, not any.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We must not rend our subjects from our <i>laws</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0">And stick them in our <i>will</i>.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Henry VIII.</i>, Act i. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>‘Neither have judges,’ says Coke, ‘power +to judge according to that which they think +fit, but that which out of the laws they know +to be right and consonant to law.’ Judex +bonus nihil ex arbitrio suo faciat, nec proposito +domesticæ voluntatis sed juxta leges +et jura pronunciet (7 Co. Rep.).</p> + +<p>According to this maxim a good judge +may do nothing from his free choice or +private <i>will</i>, but he must decide according +to the <i>laws</i>, and King Henry says—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">We must not rend our subjects from our <i>laws</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0">And stick them in our <i>will</i>.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Angelo says—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent20">Be you content, fair maid;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It is the law, not I, condemns your brother.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Were he my kinsman, brother or my son,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It should be thus with him; he must die to-morrow.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Measure for Measure</i>, Act ii. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span></p> + +<p class="noindent">And according to another maxim of the law +of England, Justitia non novit patrem nec +matrem, solam veritatem spectat justitia (I. +Bulstrode, 199). Justice knows not father +nor mother, justice looks at the truth alone.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Hector.</i> Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The holding.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Troilus.</i> What is aught, but as ’tis valued?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Coke in his Third Institute, 105, considering +how the value of a thing shall be construed, +quotes the maxim, Tantum bona +valent quantum vendi possunt; things are +worth as much as they will sell for.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Richard.</i> God save the King! Will no man say amen?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Am I both <i>priest</i> and <i>clerk</i>? Well then, amen.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>King Richard II.</i>, Act iv. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Shakespeare may here refer to two legal +maxims, for one says, Rex est persona sacra +et mixta cum sacerdote (5 Co. Eccl. L), +and the other says, Reges dicuntur clerici +(Dav. 4).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Lady Macbeth.</i> Alack, I am afraid they have awaked</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And ’tis not done. The attempt and not the deed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Confounds us.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Macbeth</i>, Act ii. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Non officit <i>conatus</i> nisi sequatur <i>effectus</i> +(11 Co. 98). <i>Attempt</i> is the English of conatus, +and <i>deed</i> may represent effectus.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Scici.</i> He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With rigorous hands; he hath resisted law,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And therefore law shall scorn him any further trial</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than the severity of the public power,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which he so sets at nought.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Coriolanus</i>, Act iii. Scene 1.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Merito beneficium legis amittit, qui legem +ipsam subvertere intendit (2 Inst. 53). +According to Scicinius, Coriolanus had resisted +law and therefore lost the benefit of +the law.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Sal.</i> May this be possible? may this be true?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Mel.</i> Have I not hideous death within my view,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Retaining but a quantity of life,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Resolveth from his figure ’gainst the fire?</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> <div class="verse indent0">What in the world should make me now deceive,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Since I must lose the use of all deceit?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Why should I, then, be false, since it is true</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That I must die here, and live hence by truth?</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>King John</i>, Act v. Scene 4.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Nemo præsumitur esse immemor suæ +æternæ salutis, et maxime in articulo mortis +(6 Co. 76).</p> + +<p>Melun was in articulo mortis, and according +to this maxim no one is presumed to be +unmindful of his eternal welfare, and especially +at the point of death.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Diana.</i> ’Tis not the many oaths that make the truth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But the plain single vow, that is vow’d true.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">What is not holy, that we swear not by,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But <i>take the Highest to witness</i>.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>All’s Well That Ends Well</i>, Act iv. Scene 2.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Jurare est Deum in testem vocare, et est +actus divini cultus (3 Inst. 165). Shakespeare +evidently refers to this maxim, for to take +the Highest to witness, est Deum in testem +vocare.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>Antony.</i> <span class="hemi8">Hear me, queen:</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">The strong <i>necessity of time</i> commands</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Our services awhile; but my full heart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Remains in use with you.</div> + </div> + <div class="attribution"> + <div class="verse"><i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>, Act i. Scene 3.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span></p> + +<p>‘If the Bishop makes a certificate, and +dies before it is received, it is nothing worth, +but his successor ought to certify it (F. N. +B. 65, 8 E. 2, Excom. 26, 14 E. 3; ibid. 8). +But note, reader, that in some cases the Vicar-general +may certify an excommengement, +that is when the Bishop is in remotis agendis, +which is as much as to say, extra regnum, +in the king’s service; but the Court will +be apprized of it by matter of record, scil. +by writ out of the Chancery directed to them, +and not by the surmise of the party, and +then for necessity (which is always the law +of time, for necessitas est lex temporis) the +certificate of the Vicar-general shall be +allowed, because no other can make it’ +(Co. Rep. viii. 69). In excuse for his going +away Antony mentions the necessity of time, +and it was the necessity of time which required +and rendered valid the certificate of +the Vicar-general.</p> + +<p class="mt2">In the books mentioned on the title-page +of this small volume, in my contributions +to the Berlin Society for the Study of Modern +Languages, published in Archiv. f. n. Sprachen, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>and in <i>Notes and Queries</i>, I have called attention +to Shakespeare’s knowledge of old +law books, of the Real Property Law, the +Common Law and the Lex Scripta, but I +think the knowledge and correct application +of legal maxims displayed in his works afford +the strongest evidence I have yet produced +that the great poet must have been, for some +time, a student-at-law.</p> + +<p class="titlepage">THE END</p> + +<p class="center smaller">Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne, +Hanson & Co.</span><br> +Edinburgh & London</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</h2> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Sententia interlocutoria revocare potest, definitiva non +potest.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Homicide (from the Latin homicidium; homo, a man, +and cido, to strike, kill) signifies the killing of a human +creature, and it is of three kinds, justifiable, excusable, and +felonious.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="ERRATA"><i>ERRATA.</i></h2> + +</div> + +<div class="transnote">Transcriber’s Note: The errata have been corrected.</div> + +<table> + <tr> + <td>Page</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_10">10</a>,</td> + <td>Line</td> + <td class="tdr">13,</td> + <td><i>for</i></td> + <td>Revocare</td> + <td><i>read</i></td> + <td>Revocari</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_18">18</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">14,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Leges</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Legis.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">10,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Ædificio</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Ædifico.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">13,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Jurator</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Juratore.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_33">33</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">9,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Debit</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Debit’</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">9,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Jussa</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Jussu.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">26,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Cogitationes</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Cogitationis.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">14,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Hood’s</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Wood’s.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">4,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Rarmun</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Ramum.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_44">44</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">9,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Eum aliam</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Cum alium.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">24,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Quid</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Quia.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_53">53</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">21,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Civitus</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Civitas.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">23,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Debet</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Debent.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">24,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Continum</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Continuum.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">13,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Et</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Ex.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a>,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td class="tdr">14,</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Justa</td> + <td class="tdc">”</td> + <td>Juxta.</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77514 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77514-h/images/cover.jpg b/77514-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad65218 --- /dev/null +++ b/77514-h/images/cover.jpg |
