Theaters of Intention: Drama and the Law in Early Modern England Book

"Theaters of Intention is . . . an original and provocative study. It manages to range across a considerable amount of often dense legalistic and literary material, but does so in a way that maintains a reasonable degree of accessibility for the non-specialist. The lawyer will learn much about early modern literature, whilst the literary scholar will find much of interest regarding the exercise of law. Above all, it adds further weight to the thesis that it is impossible to study either law or literature in early modern England without due consideration of both."—English Studies
"Rather than surveying the representation of law in plays, or even theater legislation, Wilson tracks the way legal changes—critically in the area of contracts and contract law—both express and create new understandings of the nature of intention and action, fundamental categories of the legal, political, and psychological subject. . . . Throughout Theaters of Intention, Wilson juxtaposes the law and the stage in provocative and productive ways, and captures the culture's anxious efforts to come to grips with its own emerging, slippery identities."—Studies in English Literature