ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Shakespeare as an individual in history: the law this person encountered in his life and career. It illuminates the historical background and the regulations by which early modern theatre operated. The chapter is concerned with the historical reality of Shakespeare’s time, with situating Shakespeare in the legal structures that had an impact on his life and career, and presumably on his writing. An important ability often noted that Shakespeare took from law or more likely from the rhetorical emphasis of his general education was the ability to argue both sides of a question. Shakespeare was the eldest male child and legitimate, in a society for which primogeniture, maleness, and legitimacy were all vital factors in one’s status. The English history that most interested Shakespeare as a playwright was that of the 15th century, a time of civil war and the overthrow of kings.
